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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=Uh_gsDAEIpw

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Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. I'm a girl. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Down.

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Down. We'll commence at 6:15 p.m. Tonight on our agenda, we have one item. Order number 26-109744. Communication from the mayor. Reappoint of Tiona Brown to the conservate

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appointment of Tiona Brown to the conservation commission for a three-year term to expire on April 30th, 2029, replacing retiring commissioner member Elizabeth R. Austin. I'll read the

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mayor's letter. City honorable president Oing and councilors, I am pleased to submit for your approval appointment of Tiona Brown to the conservation commission for a three-year term to expire April 30th, 2029 pursuant

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to Mass General Laws 40, section 8C, pending city council approval. Tiona, as you may know, her as a count as councelor Brown served on the council for four years. Thank you, Tiona. She will continue her dedication to the city

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by focusing her interest on joining the conservation commission. It is always great when people continue to serve in other capacities. Tiona always had a strong connection with the conservation office. I wonder Elizabeth Austin who valued her time on the commission but

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chose to step away back from serving the city and is grateful for the opportunity she had. Thank you Miss Austin for your time on the commission. Thank you in adv in advance for your consideration. Sincerely Jay Christian Dumis mayor and

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we have the committee but right now councel Naven and I are the two councilors present. So, with that said, Council Naven, do you have any comments? Oh, Tiona, yes, you would need to go up there. See, you're here and you got me all confused. There you go. Yeah. How are we

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going to ask you with you sitting behind us? Thank you, Tiona, for being here. >> Okay. >> Well, Councelor Brown, thank you for being here. >> Thank you, Councelor Naven. >> Thank you for your service. I'm not sure I think I think we all know you pretty well. I'm not sure why uh why we've hauled you out, but um that is the

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process for new appointees and I appreciate you being here. >> Um I have no questions for you, but I do want I have one question for you. Is your mother very happy that you are um coming to the conservation commission for to extend your service?

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>> Um I believe that my honorary aunt Priscilla is the most excited. Maybe my mom's just avoiding and dodging me telling her to become a member of the zoning board of appeals. >> Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, I want

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to thank you for continuing your service. Um, we appreciated your time on the council. Um, we hope that it is not the only time we will see you in these chambers. Um, but with that, a motion to approve. >> Okay. Motion has been placed on the floor to approve Tiona Brown for the

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Conserv Conservation Commission through April 30th, 2029. And I'll second that motion. Any further discussion? >> Council Ducet. >> Thank you very much. My apologies for being late. Tiona, >> thank you for continuing your service.

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>> You know, the the city is better for you being here. >> So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Wow. I have to ask the tough question. Did you talk to your counterparts on what you're expected to be doing, such

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as maybe one of our very long-term members who you might have served with too, uh, Council Ed Clancy? Um, I have attended the last couple of conservation commission meetings and um kind of got

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to hear the the lay of the land a little bit, talked to some of the current members and >> and Aunt Priscilla, you said I'm sure you've >> Aunt Priscilla. Excellent. >> Excellent. >> No, I I have no real major questions. We're thankful that you're willing to step back in and get involved.

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said I would call for a sorry counselors any other counselors who might be here that have any questions. >> Anybody? >> Looks like I can call for the vote then. All in favor >> opposed. Thank you. Thank you Tiona.

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Councelor T. All in favor I'll second that motion. All in favor we are adjourned at 620. Thank you Tiona. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N.

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Tell me. Heat. Heat. Come on. Heat. Heat. at 6:30 p.m. Uh we have one item on the agenda this evening. Uh it is order number 26-1009740. Uh, communication from the mayor.

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Proposed fiscal year 2027 operating budget in the amount of 222,882,585, which represents a 4.2 4.24% increase over fiscal year 2026 appropriations. Um, I'll begin um by

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reading the uh letter from the mayor and then after I'm finished reading the letter from the mayor, I'll have the uh the mayor uh do a budget overview with your team and then we can start going through the budget. Um, so I will begin with the letter submitted by the mayor. Uh, dear honorable President Oing and

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city councilors, in accordance with Massachusetts General Laws, chapter 44, section 32 and the city charter, I respectfully submit for your review and consideration of the proposed operating budget for the city of Marbor for fiscal year 2027.

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The proposed FY2027 budget totals 222,882,585, which represents a 4.24 24 increase or 9 $9 9,60,744 over the fiscal year 2026 adopted budget. Uh this increase is attributed

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to rising cost in key areas including education, healthcare, debt service, utilities and waste removal, collective bargaining agreements and the continued investment in technology, software and city infrastructure. uh most other department departmental uh budgets

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remain level funded or are presented res reserved deductions to re various line items. It is important to note that there was a reduction in the retirement contribution for both the city and the school uh for fiscal year 2027. We

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anticipate 2 million in new growth and maintain 2,77,340 or 25% increase for Marro public schools. uh1,600,653 or 12% increase for school health insurance. A1,45,312

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or a 12% increase for city health and life insurance service. A 50% increase based on a negative increase from fiscal year 26 uh in reserve for salaries for adjustments and retirements. Uh 225,000

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for interest on bond anticipation notes. uh $520,000 or 16% 16.9% increase 1,494,934 or 17.5% increase for Asimid Valley Regional Technical High School.

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We work closely with all departments to identify areas where we could make uh the modest yet impactful uh budget cuts, budgetary cuts. Uh given ongoing state fiscal uncertainty, uh minimal increases to the city budget in years past and other financial pressures, we approached

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this uh uh prepared to make reductions that would not compromise the city's core operations. Um at the same time we aim to be diligent uh deliberate in our decisions mindful of each department distinctive needs and responsibilities

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to our taxpayers. We were met with understanding during this process and worked collaboratively collaboratively uh to get increased below 5%. As you may know, many of our dedicated city employees are Malbor residents. Having

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that same homegrown perspective during the budget process works together with the departments and is something I'm grateful for on a deep level. We all share a love for the city of Malro and do our best for all our taxpayers. I want to extend my deepest appreciation

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to our dedicated finance team, Auditor Diane Smith and Controller Brian Dohaney for their work in preparing this budget. I also thank all department heads including the retirement board for their cooperation regarding budgetary adjustments and the city council for their commitment to the thoughtfulness

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and responsible budget review process. I look forward to working together with you in the coming weeks as we review the FY2027 budget to best serve the residents of Malro and our growing city. Sincerely, Jay Christian Dumism. >> Good evening, Mr. Mayor and your team.

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>> Good evening. I will I will let you uh give your overview and summary of your proposed budget. >> Thank you very much. So I just want to thank you all for for this uh wonderful process that we're going to go through tonight. Um so I believe the letter sums up from where we are and conversation

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and all our mayor meetings and uh the topic is nothing but overrides across the board. Um we we are not we're also impacted by that as well. So that's why you see the the uh increase with the budget that you have before you. Um so not only do other cities and municipalities have to plan for the

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override, but they actually have to come up with a game plan on how extreme luxury when it comes to that. Um we are um pretty envious of every other community every time I go to the mayor's meeting. So I do not take that lightly. Um our growth is extremely important in

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how to navigate that continued growth. Um it's all of our jobs together to collectively work on that because obviously the tax implications with the budget increasing year. Um I just want to thank all of the department heads. We looked really closely at every line item to see where we can pull money from and

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cut and reorganize certain departments to see where we can move money to better impact not only each department but also keep the um services that the residents are accustomed to moving forward. um we have to stay competitive with those services but also salaries to keep the

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employees that we have um happy and stay here. We have an incredible amount of talent that works for the city and I would be um hardressed not to say if we do not have the talented that we have here in this city this budget would look a lot different than what it has been in

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the years past. Um I'm very thankful for the team that we have. I think in now the third year that we have you can see an definitely an increase um in the staff and support um with my administration because um we are getting the right people to do the job and and

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done well. Um having said that I will pass this over to Brian so he can give an overview um of where we are and the tax implications for the residents with this. Thank you. >> Thank you Brian. So thank you. Um, so basically the tax impact, uh, the

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proposed tax levy you have in front of you is 126,54,340. So we're a split rate community. If you keep the shift at 1.47 when we set the tax rate, uh, hopefully November this year, um, the effect on the increase on

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the average tax home would be $41,943. So just keep in mind that even the tax rate even if the tax rate goes up or down based on the value the average taxpayer based on the budget dollars um again that excess levy not dipping into

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it helps with we do this rating with standard and pores. We are very pleased that we have a AAA rating. Um we just had a meeting with them a couple weeks ago. They'll have their report out um by the end of the month. Um, so therefore,

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>> you're all set. All right, then I will open it to the council for opening comments. Uh, the city council have any questions? >> Council Ducet, >> thank you very much. Uh, quick question. Uh, Brian, um, with the analysis, do are

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we comfortable with them maintain giving us maintaining >> retirement being paid off still in FY29? That's a big key to us. Um, I'll have some policies in front of you down the road on what we do with those funds once that's paid off and that will help um,

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continue our AAA rating. >> Thank you for that. Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Council Det, >> Mr. President. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> So, as I do customarily before each budget hearing, I want to give a kind of an overview of where we've been, how we

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did last year, and what to look forward to this year. I think because it's important to learn how we did, any mistakes we made, and then looking forward. So for fiscal year 26, that's the budget we're in right now. The the budget was submitted at 215 million or

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an increase of 19 million, almost 10%. The council reduced it by 1.4 million. And just to put in perspective, the 25 budget was reduced by $717,000 and we ended the year with a $2.3 million surplus. Fiscal year 24 was

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reduced by 940,000 and we ended the year with a $4.4 million surplus. So what I'm setting you up for is that any adjustments to the budget does not mean the world's coming to an end. And I'll get into that in a little more detail. The council ended approving a $213

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million budget or a $17 million increase or 9.1%. So for this budget, the mayor submitted a $222 million increase of budget. So it's an increase of $9 million or 4.24. Mayor, well done. That that's that's

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beats 9.9% by at least half. All right. But the tax impact on the average single h family house is still projected to be $420. So if the council reduces this budget by half a million, the tax impact would be

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$392. If we impact if we reduce it by a million, the tax impact would be $365 to the average house. And then councelor vitals see that happening personally. There's four primary drivers as a mayor

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discussed. So of that $9 million, 6.1 million of that is made up of schools by 2 million, school health insurance 1.6 million, Asipet Valley 1.5 million, and city health 1 million. So those four alone

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updated it in red to tell you how we did. And I'll tell you, the $1.4 $4 million that was reduced by the city council for this year's budget has had zero impact on the performance of services and how the city is done. So good job. I mean I know it's hard to

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reduce the budget but there haven't been any issues and I'm happy to city services were being carried out this year on the fisc year 26 budget status. So through April, right now we're running

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$1.1 million under in salary line items. $814,000 was used in underruns back in January. So we we're about $1.9 million under in salary. So not no one wants to cut

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budgets. I mean cut salaries, which I get and I encourage the department heads to hire if they can, but that that's something you got to be aware of. So, when we say we're going to take money out of electricity, sorry, Ted, or other accounts, there's money there. All

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right? We're not going to hire everybody on July 1st. There is money. And it and I've gone through this speech year after year after year, and you guys have not proved me wrong yet. All right? I'm hoping the department heads can hire everybody July 1st and prove me wrong. But it it it just doesn't happen. It

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it's a tough market out there. All right. Fisky year 25, the salary underruns at this point were 1.1 million. In 24 there were 1.1. In 23 800,000 so the the underruns are there. So now

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go to internal transfers. So kudos to the council. Way back a couple years ago we approved the or the order that allows the department heads to manage their budget. They can move money around. All right. So they've moved one little over a million dollars around and pages

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seven and eight show you what they've done month by month of no impact. and and good for the departments love it because nothing don't take this wrong Mr. chairman. They don't necessarily like to come before us every time they want to move money around, but it's worked fine. I I think the auditors hasn't had any issues with it and and

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and it's consistent year after year at this time. That's about the amount of money that's transferred. Now, there's going to be another year-end transfer. So, let's talk about hiring. So, through April, so just this fiscal year, the city's hired 112 individuals and 79 have

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left the city. And I just take this from the month-by-month accounting that the retirement board does. Who's in? Who's out? Of those 112 individuals, the school added 86 and 50. And the school has 48 open positions. So assuming those positions remain unfilled, the

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conservative estimate is schools will have an underrun of $1.9 million and the city will underrun salary by 1.3 million. Now, you all know, as I just said, they transfer money around, but there's money there that's that's just not being used.

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You know, state aid plus local revenue plus the property tax equal the budget. So, the budget, that's what we're going to talk about tonight. All right, it's a $9 million increase. All right, projected impact on taxes, $420. So, to pay for that, you got to get

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state aid. State aid is only expected to be $62.6 6 million an increase of only $182,000. Now I know the Senate's done theirs and it's got to go to House Ways of Mean and then the governor's got to sign it and then the House gets to veto and the House and Senate get to challenge it.

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But last year we saw $3.8 million increase in state aid 3.8 million versus 182,000. So your state aid piece of the puzzle isn't helping us. Local revenue projections right now it says a $ 1.5

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million increase this year for fiscal year 27. Last year we saw a $4.5 million increase in local aid. So again not big. So what does that mean? So that means when you take the budget and you subtract local aid which is minimal and local revenues which is minimal means

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you get taxes and taxes are going to be high. All right. But there's opportunity for taxes. All right. We can hope that state aid increases. I'm not a big fan on hoping. That doesn't work so good. Increase local revenue. This is where we

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come in. City council needs to approve projects. I'm not getting a bite from Council Haven. All right. So, projects need to be approved for two reasons. One, the long-term impact of the added to the tax base, but the building permits. And most

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recently, the state crime lab just wrote us a check for $1 million for building permits for their fees. All right, that's that doesn't they haven't even built the thing and we got a million bucks. All right, so I I can't stress that enough.

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You can say you don't like building, which I get, but then when the people ask how are taxes going up, I will let you answer it. The tax history prior to last year was all less than $200. So you take this year's protect protect project pro

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projected tax increase of 420 plus last year's 590 that's just over $1,000 increases to the residential single family tax. It took us eight years to do that prior to that has always been steady predictable tax adjustments less

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than 5% which came out to less than 200 bucks. All right we're not going to do it this year. I'm I'm telling you right now, it's just not going to happen. So, finally, this is the second largest budget increase in the city's history.

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Last year's was the biggest. And as I the fear of I can't touch this particular line item because how how they're going to survive the departments will survive. We've done it every year since then. All right. Again we reduce in 23 86,000

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24 940,000 f this year 25 717,000 and then last year this current budget we uh reduced it by 1.4 at no impact on how services are being delivered. All right. So reducing the budget starts

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next year budget at a lower level because what's the thing we say? Well, as long as it's level funded it's okay. But if we keep increasing the budget that le that that level of funding continues to increase. So lowering it now helps for next year. Underruns in the budget will continue and can be used

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in the transfer process to fund any deficits. The department heads are smart people. They know how to do it. They'll tell us. We haven't shot them down yet. Everything that comes before us, we've approved, which isn't a bad thing. Means we set we've done okay setting the the budget up.

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The revenue projections, which is what I'm nervous about. We're projecting $1.9 million in building permits. I council, if we're not going to approve anything, we're not going to hit that. And that's going to lower even more the revenue piece of the pie. So, I don't do

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it because I like to build. I do it because we need revenue to to support the budget. So, set a budget to support the needed services and a tax that residents can afford. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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>> Thank you, Mr. President Osing, any further comments from the council? Seeing none, um, thank you, Mr. President. And it it's good to have that knowledge going forward working on the budget. Uh, because I know a lot of the subject came up during the

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classification hearing. Um, and this is the time to be doing that diligent work on working on the budget going forward. >> Mr. Chair, >> oh, thank you. I was waiting. One thing I really appreciate was the listing of employees within the organiza

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organizational flowcharts provides insight on the tremendous amount of employees who contribute to our city residents on a daily basis. I've been on that side. So, I really appreciate you respecting and stating who they are. Um,

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and it benefits our city residents because the more educated our employees are, the better off we all are because they can make more educated decisions. And again, a great opportunity. Uh, we've done it. My father was a police officer. They've been doing that for

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years. I'm glad to see it getting spread out the entire some correspondence. And obviously, you know, you like I work for John Celikas. He was our public health agent and he always would say if you're going to water the tree you water the whole area not just a certain part

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of the tree will fall. It's a good example and John was a great guy. He worked on the public health department as well as a board member. How are we doing with that and if it's going to interfere with contractual I'll talk to you off record. >> No we uh start that process next year.

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So all our contracts are up next year. So >> Okay. And again you don't have to go too deep into that. But I know it's also negotiations. >> It's all pending negotiations and I would rather not discuss that. >> That's fine. And I offered that to you. >> Y and I appreciate that. >> And I going through the budget, I went

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through everyone. I had questions for some other departments, but I get it. >> Uh you I came hopefully prepared to answer those questions. If not, then >> you already answered one on the solicitor, so I appreciate that. >> And um I had some questions with others, but I really truly believe you've done a

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good job with realistic budgeting. What I find in this budget is a lot of the outofcontrol situations, waste disposal, recycling thankfully is a little bit cheaper and I think people will continue to recycle. Uh electricity, gas, we see

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this at home, too. We're very, you know, this city is very fortunate to be able to put out your recycling bin and your trash bin every week. I worked in a town where you pay pay as you throw, right? >> So, we're very fortunate in Marro to have that, but the costs go up. Those companies have to increase cost. We know

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about gas and electric. It happens in my home budget as well. We all feel that impact. That's a horrendous impact. But again, it's happening and there's not much we >> their fees are and how much per bag and I'm just kind of slinging down because thankfully we don't have that problem here, you know. So, it's it's a

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different perspective when you see other communities and towns and municipalities who have to actually have this conversation. And we're pretty fortunate that we don't have to make those tough calls. You know, we have other tough calls to make. Obviously, just like just like >> in my neighborhood, we had two houses

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for sale. Sold just like that. Once the spring season came out, you go to any other city or town near us, they're not paying the taxes we're paying. And that's the work of this entire body, including the mayor's office, the comproller, Diane Smith, the auditor. You know, we work as a team. And I think

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that's what but my last realized we were lucky to have 495 going right through the backside of Marro. We have got in my view talking about growth and projects we have got to continue and including with MEDC to attract commercial

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industrial properties. That's the growth I want to see. I want to see good growth. Other growth such as residential draws on all these services and all the people behind me. schools, DPW, police, fire, you go on, municipal employees, it

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draws on it. So, it's not as good growth as what I see when we attract and we have the opportunity to attract with water and sewer and highway good commercial industrial growth and I'm glad the state police crime lab worked out. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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>> Thank you, council. With that said, no further discussion. What we can begin is going through the page flipping and we will start with the uh non- highlighted items on our sheet and now we'll begin with page 13 which is the uh city

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council. >> Yep. Page and and and if there's no questions or discussion I will entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chair, >> Council Villo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh move to approve the city council budget as presented to

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us. >> Motion motion has been made and I will second that uh to uh to approve the budget for the city council as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Moving on to page 15,

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which is the mayor's department. >> Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to to accept the the budget as presented. >> Motion's been made. I will second that uh to approve the uh mayor's budget as submitted. Council council.

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>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one very quick question, Mr. Mayor. Appreciate uh your opening. >> So close. So close. >> Right. So close. So close. I apologize. Um as you know, long ago I was a summer intern. Just a quick question about the summer employe and we actually just I didn't feel comfortable asking all these

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departments to cut their budget and I did not. So um we trimmed that down. So, we'll have 11 interns, which I think is still a pretty decent amount. >> Absolutely. No, I appreciate that. And a quick plug for the program itself. So, I >> We're interviewing all next week. So, uh yeah, it's always a good good program. So, um it was

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>> agree. I I was an intern here at the health department for three summers. Um made me go where I went. So, it was tremendous. But I agree with Council Fello that, you know, I was concerned about that, too. Um, the other note I just wanted to make and the mayor and I

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had a discussion on this was his salary. But again, >> wait, you brought that up. I did not >> I brought it up. If a town manager is going to run a town, his comproller knows. >> You have to have a wide variety, most likely a masters in public administration. >> So, that's where I think that that's a

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great combo because I could be a I could be a an artist coming in to be mayor and I wouldn't have all that background that a comp patroller would have. So I think it's a great marriage and an important one, but also supports why the salaries are based the way they are. >> I thank you, Mr.

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>> I am very thankful to the controller. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> So motion's been made and seconded to approve the mayor's budget. All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Moving on to budget line item uh page 17, the comproller.

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>> Mr. Chair, >> Council Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh no questions. Move to approve the comproller budget as presented. >> Motion has been made. I will second that to approve the comprollers budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5.

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That carries. Moving on to uh page 19, which is the city auditor. Further discussion, I will entertain a motion. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. move to approve the auditor's budget as presented.

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>> Motion has been made. I will second that to approve the city auditor's budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? It carries. 520. Next up is the assessor's budget on page

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21. >> Mr. Chair, >> council vital. I make a motion to reduce line item 53114 from $20,000 increase to a $10,000 increase. >> I'm sorry. What What number was that, Council Vital?

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>> 53114. >> 53114 by 10,000. >> That's the motion. Motion motion has been made to reduce uh line item 53114 from the assess the accessories here as well. Um I also

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noted that line item that councelor Vital is is proposing a reduction to um I noticed that right 100% increase up to $40,000 and it seemed the reasoning from the letter was um that we would be having a number of full hearings coming before us which is I just wanted some clarification. Is that unusual to what

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we've had before? Um, some clarification there would be. >> Sure. So, there's been uh some cases that have lingered on for a couple years that are nearing the end of their time. If we need an appraisal, it's $20,000

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for the appraisal and legal fees. So, that's why the additional 20,000. I mean, that's only two cases already before he before it got in front of you. And that's why we asked that. We believe there's at least going to be two cases that we're going to have to deal with um and probably two more behind it.

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But again, as councelor um Austin had mentioned, you know, we'll try to transfer from those within or from free cash when that gets certified. >> Thank Thank you. I appreciate it. And just last comment regard So just one more quick question. So 23,000 has been expended year to date this year. So I'd assume we have one one appraisal, one

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case this year that was closed. >> It's not closed, but it's still >> undergo. Okay. Yes. Thank youelcome council for >> just a point of sorry Mr. Chair just a point if the original ask was 90 because we thought 30 3030 for the three so we significantly cut it beforehand but um

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if you feel that's needed is more then obviously what we can make it work but we thought justifiable the amount that was submitted was pretty accurate thank you Mr. >> Mr. Chair council. Thank you. And the money and it's in the second paragraph of the

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letter. It's obviously to go after funding that to defend cases before the appellet tax board. I presume the money well it will be well spent because we're going to be gaining funds from the appellet tax reviews. Correct.

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>> So it helps defend our values. >> Correct. um you know they they get their appraiser and they come in and if we don't have money for our appraiser they're all timelining court. So you have to have the funds there in order to fight them and if we have to wait for free cash we could be in trouble. That's

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why you know we think the 40,000 will get us at least through the year until we need to transfer other funds. >> And if I could ask do we have a general idea how much money is in the rears because of the fact >> wonderful job since he's recently come on. Um, you know, he he's definitely

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moving the cases. Um, Aldo Cypriano is doing a wonderful job with us also to to move the cases forward. You know, we we hate to get to a point where this late in the year where if we don't have funding, we say I'll hold off, delay it until we get to the new fiscal year and use that much.

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>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, motion has been made to reduce line item 53114. Is there a second? >> Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. Mr. Chair, >> Council Fill. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to approve the assessor's budget as presented.

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>> Motion has been made and I will second that to approve the assessor's budget. Moving on to page 23, uh, which is the city collector's budget. Councilor Fill.

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>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, no questions on this one. Move to approve the city collector's budget. >> Motion's been made. I will second that to approve the city collector's budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. It

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carries. Moving on to legal which is on page 27. >> Mr. Chair, >> Council Byron, >> I move to accept the uh the line item as the budget as approved or budget as presented. >> Okay. Uh motion's been made and I will

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second that to approve the the uh legal department's budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Thank you. Moving on to human resources on page 29.

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No discussion. I will entertain a motion. Council Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to approve the human resources budget as presented. Motion has been made and I will second that to approve the human resources budget as presented. Any further discussion? Council or

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>> Mr. Chair, it was well defined and that's why I appreciate the summaries of each each budget for each department. >> That's a good point, council. Yes. >> Uh I did have a question I can ask the mayor. I know we're doing our own world workplace safety. Do we still have any involvement with the Meyer uh insurance

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programs to reduce the cost of insurance? >> Yes. And is that part of what this discuss discussion and description was in the HR budget or is it a separate >> that's kind of a separate but sometimes we can use those to piggyback on the rewards if you don't mind.

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>> You know we can if if they qualify for the meer um we pass it through and we get credit for them. >> Okay. So we're still seeking that training >> has been made and seconded to approve the uh human resources budget. All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5 that carries.

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Moving on to information systems which is page 31 as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Next up is the city clerk's budget on

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page 34. >> Mr. Chair Council Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to approve workers. It was a little confusing the way it was described, but I presume they're being reduced because we're not having a city election and it'll go back into the budget next year. Is that what

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we're going to see on this? >> Correct. >> Yeah, that's the next line. I know, but yeah, if you want to jump ahead. Yes. >> Yes, Mr. >> It was just, you know, you showed reduction, but you didn't just want to see what we're expecting next year. >> Um, yeah. >> Return. It it will return maybe return

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that amount because it's not a presidential budget. >> Minor question. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, council. Motion's made and seconded to approve the city clerk's budget. All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Moving on to elections, which is page

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36. Mr. >> Council Fill. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a uh quick plug here. I know uh um I had the opportunity to go into the elections department here in Malbor at the clerk's office to hand in some nomination sheets for certification um for a candidate

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running for federal office. They took care of me so quick. Did a fantastic job. Um and I got great feedback from the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office uh up at Ashbertton Street in Boston. So they do a great job. No questions. With that move to approve the elections department budget.

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>> Thank you, Council Fill. Motion's made and I will second that to approve the elections uh budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Next is the license commission on page

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38. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion's made and I will second that to approve the license commission's uh budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1

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2 3 4 5 carries. Next up on uh page 62 is inspections. >> 62. >> Mr. Chair, >> and I'm sorry, council by what number was that? >> 513 0.

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Additional gross overtime. >> I don't see 51. >> Okay. On 41 >> on page uh inspection. >> My fault. Apologize, Mr. Chair. >> Are you all >> Yeah. >> Are you all set?

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>> On page 40 something. So we we are on uh the inspectional uh services budget that began on page 62. Motion to approve. >> Motion's been made. I will second that to approve. >> Okay. Um I would just like to add I

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mentioned earlier the tremendous amount of employees that add to our community and this department is a very busy department and I appreciate all the information provided in the summary and that's why a motion to approve. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah. So motion has been

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made and seconded to approve the budget that budget line item as submitted. All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Now moving on to page 77 which is Asabet Valley Regional.

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As we do not have any real input on making a a reduction in this, I will entertain a motion. >> Motion to approve. Motion's been made and seconded to approve the Asabet Valley uh budget as submitted. Any further discussion,

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>> Mr. Chair? >> Council, >> it was noted they're definitely getting increases in Malbero students. There's been reductions in Burlin. I even think Hudson, but they I think it's 58 if I'm not mistaken new student enrollments in that school. So,

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>> I think that also answers to some of the increases. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, councilor. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the asp budget as submitted. All in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Thank you. Moving on

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on the next page is the recreation department on page 97. >> Mr. Chair, >> councelor Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, no questions on this line item. And, uh, move to approve the recreation department budget as presented. Motion has been made and I

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will second that to approve the recreation department budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Council or >> just I hope if they haven't yet found people to fill in those two vacancies because it's just Mr. Tibido out there right now on on his own it appears from

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the budget that was submitted in the summary. But I would support the budget as good good he could use the help it looks like. >> Councelor Preier. >> Thank you so much. Um, so I see an increase in the in item 53610, which is

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equipment and supplies for youth activities. Is that because we're getting more people interested in in um the outdoor activities during the summer and and throughout the year, the summer programs that that are run through the rec department or or is that a separate item somewhere? >> So, since we remodeled the pools,

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there's new chemicals and new equipment that's needs to be maintained. So, that's the cost for the 5,000. Yeah, I understand that. Um, it's fine. Thank you. >> No, I was that the question. I'm sorry. >> See next year whether we keep that. >> Okay. Okay.

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>> Thank you. >> There's a lot of work that Munus needs to to be updated on especially um positions and salary titles. It's can be very very confusing. >> My apologies for not understanding the question. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for that clarification. Uh motion has been

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made and seconded to approve the uh Well, I forgot to know where I am. Uh, recreation department. Thank you, Councilman Joe. Recreation Department. All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. Thank you, sir. Carries. Okay. Next up is the health and

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licensing on page 99. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion has been made and seconded to approve the health and licensing um budget as submitted. Any further discussion? All in favor? Carries. One, two, three,

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four, five. Next up on page 101 is human services. No discussion. I will entertain a motion. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion has been made and I will second that to approve the human services uh budget as submitted. Any further

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discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5 carries. Next up is on page 103, uh, Council on Aging. >> Mr. Chair,

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>> council or >> motion to approve for discussion. >> Motion has been made and seconded to approve the council on aging budget as submitted. Any further discussion? >> Mr. Chair, if I may, >> council back a little bit already and cherry sheets and so forth. Do we have

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any word on what's going to happen with this department? >> I have not heard anything as of yet. Um, we're still have the anticipation of $16 per senior for the formula grant funding. I haven't heard anything about it increasing or decreasing. So, we're maintaining at the $16 rate.

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>> If just so you know, they they handle 35% of the senior residents in this city. I was looking at just the numbers and they do a lot and I'm familiar with that department because I entertain some of their programs >> as do I. Hopefully we don't have to come down that road where we >> Yeah, I hope not. But again, it's a

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shaky way to run a department on grants. But again, I just had that question. >> All in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Next up on page 105, >> Mr. Chair.

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>> Oh, council vital. Um I I received a number of phone calls over the last week about the reduction in veteran benefits and President O was a was awesome as he always is and he kind of it shared with me that that line item continuously

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comes in below what we budget year after year after at least over the last three years. So it's even though it looks like we're reducing veteran benefits when we are making that line item re more realistic. >> Thank you. >> And should we ever need additional

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veteran benefits um I'll be the first to bring to this body the a transfer. So with that I'd like to make a motion to approve. >> Thank and thank you for that that update. Council uh motion has been made. I will second that to approve the veteran services budget as submitted.

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Any further discussion? Council Orum, >> I had the same question because in our veteran agent, Michael Hennessy indicated he's satisfied with the budget as presented. But yeah, when you look through the numbers on veterans benefits, 140 for FY25,

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125, and went down to 105. I agree with Council of Vital. I would be more than happy to support, especially now that not just our veterans, but our military is busy. And with that said, if they come back and they need more benefits, I

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would be with council vital and stand up for that because as we know, one of our own counselors has been called back. So, but that's all I have to say. Thank you. >> Thank Thank for motion's been made and seconded to approve the budget as submitted. All in favor? One, two,

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three, four, five. It carries. Next up on page 107 is the library. Question. Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries.

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Next up on page 110 is celebrations. Mr. Chair, >> Council Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to approve these celebrations uh as presented. Five carries.

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Next up on page 112 is Fort Meadows. >> Mr. Chair, >> Council Vital. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, couple of quick updates. I got a chance to talk to some of the members as well as Priscilla Ryder, our conservation officer, um, who

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does some fantastic work around is largely the bulk of this of this budget. Um, and so just some things to to emphasize. The first year went extremely well with the new contractor from what I've been told. Um, currently they're doing some pre-ervey work to identify what weed control is needed in

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this upcoming year. Um, and far wart has been spotted on the lake which could be more costly to get rid of. So councilors may see that they're a little underbudget this year which is a good thing because we may need to tap into that coming up uh into this upcoming year. Um, another thing kind of underscoring the importance of this

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budget, right? um Priscilla Ryder and the entire team down there, they remain committed to water quality and depth and the recent droughts that we've been experiencing are putting those in jeopardy. Um it's, you know, hurting the water quality and the depth of the lake and leads to more algae bloom. So, um I am in full support of the Fort Meadows

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budget and appreciate all that they do in W 6, right, and in W 7 um to help keep the uh the lake nice and healthy. And with that move to approve the Fort Meadow budget. >> Thank you, Council Patel. Motion's made. I will second that to approve the Fort Meadows budget as submitted. Any further

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discussion, >> Mr. Chair? >> Councilor, >> I appreciate my ward counselor's support on this. Thank you. >> Thank you, council. Motion made and seconded. All in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries.

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>> Okay. So, if my numbers are correct, that ends all the nonh highlighted items. Um, and at this point, um, if it's okay with the committee, I'd like to bring the school the the school superintendent up and go over their budget if that is okay at this time.

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>> Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Good evening. >> Good evening, superintendent. >> Evening. And I and again I know uh uh President Osing highlighted a lot of the increase on the the school side. Um so that was uh it was good to see when we

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were reviewing the budget and realized that they be here uh and to be part of this process. Um so the FY27 budget for the Malbor public schools uh has been driven by three guiding principles. Uh, and I do think

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these are really important to mention because they will most likely anchor all of the answers to your questions that you may have. The first in terms of how we actually did that. Uh, the second uh feeds right into the first which is a realignment of staff.

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Uh, we spent a significant amount of time realigning our faculty uh to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our students. in FY27 uh we made the determination that and reconfigured those in order to meet uh

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the goals of what will be laid out in our new strategic plan uh in the coming weeks. The third guiding principle for FY27 for us was really anchored around this idea of strengthening and streamlining our operations. Uh you may or may not be aware uh we did eliminate

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eight and a half administrative positions. Uh we did reconfigure some of those positions into um uh studentf facing positions, but we also um frankly eliminated some of them uh in terms of trying to find some efficiencies and

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help develop a budget that not only meets the needs of our students, but can be supported by uh this body and this city. Um the process itself uh this year uh I'm sure like in many years was very thorough. Uh we started our development

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of FY27 in the fall. Um and uh we did a very deep review of historical spending. So uh we met with what we call cost center managers. Those are our directors and principles. Anyone who's in charge of a budget and we did a very thorough

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analysis of uh three or four the past three to four years of what was budgeted and what was expended to see exactly how much was spent in each line under that cost center manager's uh supervision. We then had some very difficult decisions and conversations around some of the

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resources that had had been budgeted year-over-year, how they were spent, and where we may need to uh shift that allocation for FY27 or eliminate it altogether. Um that was a lengthy process as you can imagine. Uh we did

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that in the midst of uh a transition to a new business manager which we're very happy to have Muhammad Sadiki here this evening with me um presenting. Um but we set the scenario so that when Muhammad began uh we had done a lot of that

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framing of the structure for our budget. Uh we then held uh many many workshops with our leadership team to talk about the goals or at least the anticipation is the strategic plan of the school district and our new portrait of a learner. The portrait of a learner is

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our promise to the city of Malber of what we guarantee every graduate from Malber public schools will have. that does not start in high school. That actually starts in preschool. So, we need to ensure that we are aligning our work pre-K through 12 to fulfill that promise. Did lots of very good work with

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our mayor, with our school committee to help realign those dollars. And Muhammad will talk a little bit about some of the specifics around the budget impact. >> Yeah. So originally we proposed a budget for um for a level service budget representing a 2.94%

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increase um over FI26 numbers. We are um able to reconfigure positions. We're adding six intervention coordinators, six interventionist, fiveCL interventionist, one music teacher, one world language teacher, and

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two preschool teachers and one assistant principles. And along with this, we have some newly identified needs within our schools um you know for for the new science materials um uh after after school music

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enrichmental programs and and we have some increases to our transportation um to increase writership. We're adding four buses to our FY27 budget. Um so with the new

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so with the new um budget cut we are at uh for the total uh for FY27 we are at $84,839,324 um happy.5 >> happy to answer any questions you might have Mr. Superintendent. I'll open that

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up to any questions. Council Vital. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Superintendent, when when you and I met, um I c I honest I came in there um expecting you to give me an awful lot of excuses about budgetary increases. And

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boy, was I wrong. Um what what I found what I uh my final conclusions about you are you're you are in my opinion someone who spent uh close to 40 years in education. Uh you're a business leader. Um you're a visionist.

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>> And I will second that to approve the school budget as submitted. Uh any further discussion? >> Council. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um thank you for all your budget preparation. Love the art that you've been putting in it for years and but thank you for all

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your efforts this year. As council vital said, he couldn't have said it better. Your want to be part of the community. I just had a couple notes I want to make. There is a reduction of 368 students. I talked to the mayor about that and that's just through variety of things.

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Maybe some are going to ask it. I don't know. But you know that's that's life. But that helps a little bit with cutting the budget obviously if you have that. But I think the reorganization that up in their budget as well. So if you could just explain a little bit of how important that is. I mean you do it on

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page 14 but the needs of it and so forth. I noticed it goes over in the other page that you show Hilddrth going to be working for social emotional learning. If if you may. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. I I think for us it's about minimizing non-academic barriers that can hinder student

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academic progress. Right. At the end of the day, we're a school. So, we're about getting strong academic outcomes, but we know there are a lot of non-academic pieces that can get in the way of a students learning to their maximum abilities. Uh so one of the things that we have looked at is really streamlining

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our student support um processes. So for instance we have adjustment counselors we have uh an attendance uh very small attendance team re-engagement coach is what we call the position um and we have uh a new position that we are bringing on board through our redesign work of

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our social emotional learning uh interventionist. And so we think about it from the perspective of here's what all kids need, here's what some kids need, and here's what few kids need. And then we set up a system that actually addresses those three different tiers.

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That social emotional interventionists. That's really a tier 2 piece. It's a student who has some behavioral or some dysregulation that needs to be reset, but may not need a deep level of clinical intervention. Um, and so it's really kind of that in between spot that

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can do some work in the classroom, but they can also work with a small group of students uh in a different setting to help reset uh kind of uh re-eregulate the student and get the student back to class. >> I appreciate the education for all is the way I see that. And the only other

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part having children in the music program, they're all older now, so they're not children anymore. Fantastic that you're implementing it. And I think you had it on page 11. You were talking about um grades 3 through five and that's a small amount of money to launch

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music programs, but continue with that effort in my view. Great to see you guys. Just a couple things I wanted to highlight. Obviously, um uh first budget working together and uh appreciated the opportunity to sit down with you, Mr. Superintendent, um way back when in the fall when you said, you know, we were just starting to think about this um and

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now to see this all come to fruition. And just a couple of programs that really wanted to emphasize, right, the new Hilddrrith K through8 program, right, establishing therapeutic, you highlighted the fact that we are at risk of these folks leaving the district and you are you are finding, you know, new ways, innovative ways to make sure that

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the school district's working for all of our students and all of our families. So, I really appreciate that. Other things that I'm hearing from folks, right, having an accelerated learning pathway, that is an incredibly exciting program, right? That's feedback that I hear from the parents I talk to. Lastly, I hear all the time from our teachers. the need for reasonable class sizes and

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it seems like that's an emphasis in this budget and a driving factor um behind a lot of right the fiscal investments that you guys are making. So really pleased with a lot of the things that I'm seeing and on top of that a lot of the capital work that's going into this. Um I know I've gotten to work directly with DPW about some stuff happening at Wickcom

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and some of the needs that I'm hearing from residents who live around Wickham and are witnessing right infrastructure improvements that they would like to see as neighbors of the school. So the fact that there's all this collaboration going on, I'm very grateful for and very happy to support this budget. Thank you guys. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Council Fel President Os.

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>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh Jason Muhammad, it's refreshing is about the the best word I can come up with. You you the work you two have done. I I go back to last year at this meeting. The world was coming to an end. We were getting not so nice emails from residents about any

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reductions to a 9.9% increase over $8.4 million to the school budget. Right. Budget was reduced by 1.5 million. Nothing happened. The world went on.

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Never heard a peep afterwards. I attribute that to your two leadership in making the funding you get work for the school system. The budget increase today, lowest in 10 years. I'd say stand up and take a bow. I mean, it's it's

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it's really that refreshing. You guys have done a tremendous job. When we met earlier, you told me you were going to come in under three. Congratulations, man. Your word. the the the the the positive work you've done and the

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feedback I get is outstanding. So, I want to acknowledge both of you publicly for the work you're doing. I hope it continues. Um I'd love to get you over to Asibet. We got a little issues over there, but that's a different topic. Um but no, thank you uh both Jason

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Muhammad. Well done. I appreciate it. >> Thank you, President Osie. Well said. >> Within this budget, >> we will be adding together. >> That's very nice. I I I know a lot of people were very very very upset about that last year and last year's budget and that was one of the reasons why the

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budget was so high. Um but that's amazing that you guys were able to add those bus routes because you know our our students need safe routes and and and to be adding more to that. >> Mr. Chair, um absolutely thank you guys for the work you've done with this. Um

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it is clear and eloquent on on what your priorities are. I do have a couple of clarifications. Um the one thing I do have to compliment you is the one-page budget summary really is a great what is that in particular?

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>> We are uh very excited about being able to bring this program forward. So uh where um the program at Hilddrth is a K through8 therapeutic day program. This program at MHS is actually something a little bit different. Um sometimes when

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we think about alternative education at the high school um level we think about you know like students who don't behave in class and some of those right types of students. Um this is actually not that uh this is an opportunity for any

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student who doesn't necessarily learn well in just kind of a typical traditional school environment. Uh so what we have done is developed for next year uh first a we're going to start with grades eight through 10. So we're actually going to have eighth graders at MHS all day. I know at one point they

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were all there um and for two different programs next year. They will be the accelerated learner pathway which is for students who uh want to take at the middle school uh level high school classes for credit. Um so that's one group but the other group is this alternative um alternative program uh

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path. And so these are for students who are actually going to be learning uh in a very um kind of uh contentrich project-based learning model um that we want to start in 8th grade. These are kids who again who are kind of disengaged from school, not necessarily

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your traditional student. Uh it could be for any number of reasons. They don't have to be a student with special needs or anything of the sort. It could be, but it doesn't have to be. Um, and so our goal is to keep those students engaged in their learning through a different uh type of instruction. So in this case, it's project-based learning.

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The reason that I mentioned uh that we're starting early is because as eighth graders, they too will be taking freshman courses so that when they are uh juniors um they actually can work. So we can create a work study program where they can leave MHS after a certain time

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of day and go to a uh approved certified work study uh site heard was two things uh that I think are important to mention. The first is they need to work to help their families. Right? So we have all kinds of reasons why we think kids don't come to school and a lot of

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that's not true. Uh what we learned is it's because they need to help their families. Um and uh the other piece is they see their families, their do care. And so what we felt it was incumbent upon us was to create a structure for

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those students because those students matter too. And we can't just throw them away. And so that's where the development in the design of that program came from. >> Okay. And they got a high school diploma, not a GQ. >> They get a high school diploma at the end. Yes, sir. Yep. >> Okay. Great. Thank you for the

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>> If I didn't add, I went on a tangent. My children benefited from the music program. I might have gone on a tangent. I wanted to offer that. I want to thank your entire staff and the school committee. And last but not least, by any means, the team effort of our city

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to keep our sidewalk safe during those tough winter storms. So, I want to thank the DPW as well, but it's good to hear you're getting additional buses. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Council. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. um that last program you're talking about with counselor Det sounds like an amazing

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amazing program and thank you so much for reaching out to students because they're the ones that are going to be taking these programs. So that's that's great insight there. Um what I wanted to get back to was the um the kind of intense shift in demographics that we're

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seeing in the school district um and what that means in terms of budgeting now and budgeting for the future. Um, is is there like new programs that you guys have in in the works for for this larger population? I see it's 58% um Hispanic

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uh Latino students versus 30 um and 20 years ago was 17%. So that's it's a giant shift. Um can you expand on what kind of programs kind of um uh you know educational um um you know guidance you guys will

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have for the for those students? >> Yeah. So I think there's a couple of things. uh one of the kind of the hallmarks to the leadership team that's doing all of this work is really about um that all means all mindset and looking to see how do we create the

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right programs and supports for all students. So, um I think one of the most important demographics uh are uh benefit and so um I think we will be moving forward looking at things like potential

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dual language programs and really doing some analysis and studying of what that could mean for us here in Malboro. I think that's an important piece. Um, the other thing that we're spending a lot of time talking to our older students about as we think about the college and career to become partners with the other

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schools across our city and thinking about how we can really leverage the strengths of one another to help better meet the needs of all of our Malboro students. Uh and so one of those is a partnership grant that we are going to be pursuing with the department of education uh through developing almost

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like a dual enrollment MH shop or a program for a certification at Asabet through state funding and federal funding. So nothing as far as local um but so looking at how we can be more innovative and creative with the resources that we have um and really

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leveraging our colleagues as partners. So those are just a couple of things that we're thinking about as we're looking ahead. Awesome. I appreciate that answer. Um, you know, as someone who fits this demographic and someone that comes from um, an ESL class and coursework, um, it it really means a lot

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that you are focusing on these students and and kind of directing them in different ways that that isn't traditional education as well. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you, councelor Preciato. Motion's been made and seconded to approve the school budget as submitted. >> So, if I can just add something. So,

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obviously last year was very difficult during the budget process. Um, but I just want to give a shout out to the school committee members. Um, not only were we going through the budget process, but we had two finalists that came before us for the superintendent and we actually did not move them

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forward and then we started the process all over again, which was an incredible risk with a very small window of time to hire someone to come on board. So, I just want to recognize how important that was and the deadline and obviously the risk was a huge reward because we're

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able to get the superintendent Falco and obviously that proof is in the pudding with this budget cycle and everything that he's done. So, I just wanted to thank the school committee members for that because again it was a huge risk and and thankfully we we hit hit a home run with that one. So, um thank you.

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>> Thank you, Mr. Thank you for highlighting that highlighting that because I think uh the sentiment of the full council is absolutely what you just said. So thank you >> and I don't know where we would be at with the two other two candidates, you know, so it wouldn't be here. I can guarantee you that. So I'm just forever

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thankful that we made that decision and it was not an easy decision to to do that. But obviously I'm very thankful to to the to the team here because um the the amount of work and the the incredible kudos committee and it we judgingly do so. But I'm excited to see

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school committee and chair that because of the transformation that we're seeing and the work that we're doing or they're doing each and every day. So um I'm very proud of that. So thank you the school committee for what they do and and thank you for all of you for recognizing that as well because again I know councilors

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is our schools are wonderful leadership team throughout. It's It's just refreshing to Mr. President's comment. So, thank you. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. Motion's made and seconded to approve the school department. All in favor? One, two, three, four, five. It

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carries. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank Thank you, Mr. Super. Thank you. Green. And we will bring up the police chief for the police 2027 budget. And that is on page 55.

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>> Good evening, Chief Georgie. >> Good evening, sir. How are you? >> Good. >> I don't know. Let me >> I don't know if you wish to do any highlights on your budget or we can just go in for any questions, but I'll leave that up to you. >> Uh, no. Oh, I just um the majority of

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our any increases we have as you can see in my analysis report is that it's uh contractual just with the three different unions that we have the the patrol the command and the MMEA. Um we do have some slight reductions in some accounts which we were able to work

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with the uh comprollers office and the mayor's office to to bring those about but um again we we are fully staffed at this point so we're in good shape there. Um, Deputy Chief Campbell is doing well. He unfortunately couldn't be here tonight. He had a family commitment that

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he >> Hard to believe that was last year that we put that in and thank you very much. >> Right. So, that's that's worked well. So, we don't have any big ass this year. So, >> was and a full commitment by the city council last year in the budget. So, thank you to the mayor as well and you presenting to the uh council like having

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that um and we certainly appreciate that. Um, I will open that to any council. Motion to approve the budget for discussion. I have a couple questions by a motion to approve the budget. >> Motion has been made um to approve the police department budget as submitted.

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Do I have a second on that? >> 7. Any further discussion? Council Vital. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh there's a few items here that I think that we we should have a some understanding about. Uh the first

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one is line five uh 51320 which is the court over. >> Now the motion has been made to >> to approve it in general. Yep. >> Mr. President, the motion has been made to sec and second it to approve it as submitted. >> So now he's got to make a motion to

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amend the >> Thank you. So council vital, you would have to make a motion to amend. Thank you, President Os. >> Thank you. I'd like to make an a motion to amend the six by $5,000. >> Okay. So So mo motion has been made.

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>> So >> the court overtime as of right now, just so folks know, as of the end of April, they were at 50% >> um use. So, I I make the recommendation to

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reduce that line item by $20,000. And then in five66, which is on the on page 57, um that line item again was also at 50 the parking enforcement officer was at 50%.

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>> So, I I want 50% at the end of April. So, I wanted to reduce that line item by $5,000 as well. >> Okay. So and that was line item 50566 and item 51320. Motion was m made by council vital for

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the reduction on 51320 and line item 50566. Do is there a second? Got it. >> Council patel. >> Um Mr. Chair discussion. Am I allowed to do disc sorry point of information? Can

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I discussion before there's a second? >> Okay. I will second it for the >> council. Motion's made and seconded. >> Thank you, Council Fella. >> Council, >> thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple of questions here, a couple points. Chief, thank you for being here. Um I uh

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councelor Vital overtime, right? Court time was one that I had looked at. I know we did last year. Um made a reduction to that. Um I think trying to see it was uh 146 reduced down to 126. So $20,000 reduction. seems like things are going well like councelor Vital

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mentioned right under 50% utilized so yeah just wanted to touch base >> no I mean I think that's I think that's fair that's a fair adjustment I mean I think as president Austin had mentioned earlier the internal transfers that we do occasionally use will allow us to move money if we had to if something came up in that account so

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>> sure and then just one quick question right parking enforcement we are 50% utilized year to date is there a reason why it's just a >> it's just a it's a part-time position and it's very hard to fill I mean the person we've had doing it now is only able to be here 2 to three days a week.

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So um it's hard >> right and if if there was something to change >> by oh sorry President Aussie >> thank you Mr. chair. So just to follow on what Chief Georgie said, so you know it's court cases and when they send the

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officers to court and we just haven't done it a lot and I don't know if it's a function of the courts or or or what but you know just to put it in perspective last year fiscal year 20 out 18 as the chief mentioned they you know there's underrun so they use it to fill other

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things. We spent 54 and 54,000 still remain. So, we're just not spending it at that level. And so, I would say the adjustment seems to be adequate. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> And if I may ask, Mr. President, I know uh

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>> but if if he doesn't believe me, >> if the chief needs more money, he's going to move money around to fill it. I mean, that's >> No, it's not a it's not a money thing with that position. It's it's just filling. >> Oh, thank you, Chief. Thank you, Mr. So, council vital again, uh, you wanted to

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reduce the park enforcement officer job by 5,000. >> Yes, Mr. Chair, >> and the overtime court by 10,000. >> By 20,000. >> Oh, but I'm sorry, I apologize. By 20,000. >> So, motion has been made and seconded to >> amend >> amend

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uh amend the uh >> first you got to approve the amendment. >> Excuse me. Can I get a clarification on what we're amending? >> They approve the budget >> as submitted. >> As submitted. >> Who approve No one approved it yet. I motion to approve for discussion.

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>> I haven't had my chance to discuss yet. >> I It was a motion. >> Motion to approve the police budget and I even noted doing it for discussion >> and it was seconded and that was seconded. So we need discussion before I >> hasn't been voted. >> I'm sorry. So it had Thank you. Thank

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you. Thank So motion has been made and seconded. It hasn't been voted on. >> That's great. And then uh council vital made an a amendment to have us do a reduction that was seconded. I will take a vote on the amendment.

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>> So motion by council vital was to amend um and have the reduction in light on 51320. >> So can you just make it be he made a motion to >> he made a motion. It's not a >> line item. He's not amending anything at this point. >> Council vital made a motion to make a

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reduction. Correct. >> In the Thank you. Thank you, Vonro. In the line item 5132. I I motion's been made and seconded on the uh on the reduction. >> Any further discussion

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>> on the amendment? on the amend. >> After a full year of dealing with businesses on this main street, I would hope we get in the chief lose the opportunity for our businesses to be treated with appropriate parking

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enforcement. >> No, that's correct, sir. I mean, I think our additional traffic unit has also help with that. We have two other officers now and and one of them starts at 6:00 a.m., so they're there early and the other one comes in the afternoon. So they've helped out with that situation. >> Thank you, M chief. Mr. Chair,

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>> thank you councelor for that. So motion has been made and seconded for a reduction on the line on 51320 by 20,000 and line item 50566 by 5,000. All in favor? One, two, three,

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four, five. That carries. Now I will entertain a motion. Uh, council >> motion if I may. I was hoping to discuss but I didn't want to interfere with the >> uh just have a couple questions chief. >> Yes, sir. >> Have the contracts

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here. Microphone. >> Guess my voice carries more than I thought. Thank you. Uh, Chief, I have a couple questions and thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, the contracts for the animal control officer and the laundry, have those been determined yet? No, the uh we're working with procurement right now

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to finish those up, but um so the bids have gone out or or the bids have come in actually, I should say. And so that time has elapsed. We're just working with um Christa to work through the uh developing the contracts for each. >> We expecting any alarming increases on

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those? No. Thank you. No. >> And the only other question I have, I was confused by your yellow highlight on dispatches. It says contractual percent raise younger dispatches at lower salary steps, but I see a 17% increase. So, I was just trying to balance those two out

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to see why we see a 17% increase, but we have younger employees. I'll let you explain. >> Yeah, the hourly rate was increased during the last bargaining agreement. >> So, even with the younger employees, we still need that increase. Yes. >> Okay. That that satisfies my question.

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Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, councilor. If no further, Council Fell. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I would like to move to approve the police department budget uh with the reductions in the amount of 10,297,659.

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>> Thank you, Council Jill. Motion's been made and seconded to approve the police department budget. Favor 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. >> Thank you, Chief Georgie. >> Thank you, sir. Thank you, Chief. >> Thank you, Chief.

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>> Thank you, Chief. >> Next up is the fire department budget on page for us, >> Mr. Chair. What page? >> Good evening. >> Good evening. Good evening, Chief. Uh,

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if you want to do a little summary on your budget. >> Yeah. Um, just get my notes out here real quick. Um, so this past year, I mean, we've had our our busiest year that we've ever had. We responded that, you know, with that being said, um, we

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we did the best we could with our budget, uh, being conservative. Um, although it does show an 11.9% increase, um, we only asked for an increase in four non-contractual line items. Yeah. >> Uh, everything else is is related to the

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collective bargain bargaining agreement. And um >> you know >> and and and we support it for the increase for the assistant chiefs. >> I'm sorry. >> And we support it for the increase in your budget because we uh approved the assistant chief positions for those

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>> and those positions will be going forward on July 1st. >> I mean I'll open it to the finance team. Um I'm do have a question. Everything's well with the new equipment that's going forward with the department. >> Well, yeah, you'll see increases in uh that was some of the things we we did ask for an increase. repair and

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maintenance of uh >> yes, >> our aging equipment, our SCBAs are getting to be 10 years old. >> Um our our our apparatus, we do have some new ones, but uh we've had a rough couple years and and council or talked about it earlier how uh there's

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increases in um we see the increase in bills and and we see it too. So that's why we we asked for those 10% increases and um you know we do have some some aging equipment and uh you know you know the thank god the route 20 construction project is over because that that beat

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our trucks up and we're up and down that road every day and uh and it adds up. So um you know those uh those those are the increases you see. So um but yeah, we do have some you know the prospect of a new station coming. Um, we're going to need

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new apparatus. Um, and those are discussions yet to be had, but um, you know, we will be asking for more equipment coming up and it's, uh, >> thank you, Chief. Go ahead. >> Council Orm. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. A very important

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note I notice second to last paragraph. Without a corresponding increase to the department's overtime budget, it's not sustainable. And we all know, we've been talking about it for a long time. the uh response times in the in the west part

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of the city. Um anytime um you know we've done everything we can internally to improve our response times um but we can't change a station location. We can't change to limit to

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reduce our overtime and um it's we we have the capability to respond to an incident but it's our it's our capacity. 80% of the time we're engaged in more than one call and when you're engaged in more than one call on the west side of the town now you're you're

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pulling your resources from the response times and that's what the goal is. you know, uh, we're not meeting standards 495 and west, and that's where the growth of the city is. And, um, you know, as as the city grows, so does our call volume, and, you know, our department, uh, has struggled to keep up

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with that. So, um, >> well, understandable. You know, 42% increase in emergency incidents in 11 years. 42% increase. >> That's amazing. That's >> And it, you know, I say 80% of the time we're engaged in more than two calls. I

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think 50% of the time we're engaged in three or more. So, it's it's hard. You know, it's it's uh you know, we're being asked to do more with less and and we're doing what we can. >> And I just have a couple other questions if I may, Mr. Chair. >> Just have a couple more. It's on the

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increases under hazmat pay. It went up 83%. Uh what brought that up so much? The hazmat pay it. So those were all contractual and again those were three years worth of cost of living raises right after last year's budget was set

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uh the CBA was >> so we're actually seeing three years worth right so there was there were incentives that were increased uh and that's where that so you had the increases plus you had the retro >> that's it just explains it better I just

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when you see those large numbers the fire department re first responder was 63% % that's a little bit above it. 51226. >> Yep. Again, contractual increase from >> Thank you. No, understandable. And I mentioned earlier about education

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incentives, too. The definitely benefits everyone >> and and our our problem that we're running into now, it's not I wouldn't call it a problem, a benefit is that it's free. Our goal is to have that filled July 1st and there'll be a slew of promotions hopefully right behind that. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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>> Thank you, Councilwoman. Any further discussion? >> Motion to Oh, sorry. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to make a motion to accept um the fire budget with the following reductions. >> 25,000 mo motion has been made

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>> and I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. >> Uh 51980 um is as of the end of April was at 43%. I'd like to reduce that by $2,000. And that was what was line item council vital

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>> 51980. >> Uh to reduce line item 51328 by 25,000 and to reduce line item 51980 by 7,000 >> 2,000 >> by by 2,000. Jeez.

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>> Do I have a second on that? Motion's seconded. Motion to made and seconded. Any further discussion? Council Fill. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um seconded for the sake of discussion. I I do want to talk a little bit more about the call

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overtime. Um and then happy to talk a little bit about that $2,000 reduction, but but most importantly looking at um item 51328, right? Call fire overtime. I appreciated the explanation, Chief, and appreciate you being down here um regarding right the formal establishment

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of a training officer. I guess my my concern with this is just in fiscal year 2025 we only expended 56% of that account of qualifier overtime and I know you'd said you know right you're trying to be you know reserved and how you're spending that but we're only 70%

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expended year to date right now. So could you just walk me through a little bit about why there's a need for an increase for this training position? And it seems like we're okay right now and it seems like there's money to move around to to continue this kind of >> the call fire overtime account is used for when we have large incidents.

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>> Okay. >> Whether it's recalls or we're going to you know we may have an incident in town a fire we'll recall the department or if we're going uh out of town mutual aid and we do a lot of that. So that account is is hard to predict. you know, we

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could have a an incident tomorrow and and we could spend it all or could, you know, a couple years ago, we had a brush fire that went on for a long period of time. So, that's where that's from. The increase in that was to support the position of the training officer. In 2014, when they did the MRI report, one

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of the critical areas of deficiency was the lack of consistent training across the department. That's what that increase is for. It's for the training officer position, not for the call fire. That was where um consistent training

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across all four battalions. Most departments our size have full-time training divisions. Um and and again allowing us, you know, the busier we get, the harder it is to train on duty. When I first started, we had plenty of

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time to to do training during the day. move on the recommendations that 2014 uh deficiency. >> Thank you, Chief. And so, was there ever a training somebody just dedicated to training within the the department budget at any time in in the city's history before this? Is No.

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>> No. Okay. >> That that would usually fall on an assistant chief. >> Okay. >> And again, um >> it just keeps to be honest, I'm not thrilled about it living in the overtime account, right? I would much rather I'm not sure how we could get creative about doing this outside of it. Has there been

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discussion about that or I'm >> I I I don't know if you create a line item for it. I'm >> okay. I appreciate >> how you do that. But uh 25,000 was it was based on the on the year um um 12 hours per month.

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>> Mhm. >> Um by the training officer. So again, it's a position where we're we're busy enough. Departments our size have full-time divisions. Uh we're just asking for a uh an addition to that account to fund that position.

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>> Thank you, Chief. And thank you, M. Mr. President. President, >> thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Chief, I'd counter that. So, the funds haven't been spent this year. They weren't spent last year by $45,000. The year before that, they weren't spent

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by $35,000. And the year before that, in fiscal year 23, they weren't spent by $34,000. So to ask for $36,000 additionally when you're not spending what you have, I don't think is fair. My theory is try it this year without that. Take the you'll

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get a $6,000 increase. You're still not spending the money and you can do exactly what you said within the current budget. Just you you can't it's it's either call fire overtime or training. It's just just to say I'm going to use some of it

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for training. it. It's qualifier overtime as the account and you're not spending it and that's where you want to use it. So my recommendation is spend what you got. You can do it currently. You could do with what your spend rate right now. You could do whatever whoever is going to do that training. You could

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do it right now with the funds you got and not impact the budget because you're not spending the money. It's not you but the department's not spending the money. So I have a hard time going to look in the do it right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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>> Thank you, Mr. President. Awesome. Councelor Roby. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I I think we had this discussion last year when we reduced this and I think it was specifically reducing the position. So, I'm kind of in agreement with going to

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the budget. We're not really adding money because we would take it from this line, I would assume, and then reduce that line by more if that's somebody's decision. So,

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can we can we codify the position in the budget? >> Say we're out of money and I'm coming back and asking for more money because I spent the money on something that wasn't funded. >> We would give you the more money because we've cut it and you haven't spent it. If you're telling me to spend the

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>> the money on training, I can do that tomorrow. >> So So no, we're not telling you to do that. >> No. No. I mean, so we've never never not given you the money the fire department. So So I'm I'm It's really clear you're not spending what you have now. So, I

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can't give you I at least from my perspective giving you addition asking for a $36,000 increase when you've underrun it by at least $36,000 for the last four consecutive years. Doesn't make sense. You could do that training with what you

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have right now. My recommendation, try it this year and see if it works with a $25,000 reduction, which is still a $6,000 increase in the line item. And if it doesn't work, >> come on down. as as long as what councelor Roby just said that that you're you're

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>> we understand >> you're supporting the position >> the position and if you >> I am not I'll speak for I'm not supporting a position that's not in the budget this budget is only eliminates one position to me it's not a position it's an activity that you want to have

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someone do in the fire department fine that's great >> so the answer is a yes as long as the position >> it's a So if you can do it and you still need to come back to us for more money, I think we would agree in the end that

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you would get more money and then we can see next year whether it needs to be codified as a real position. But I I guess I'm disagreeing with councelor Rosing. I want to see that position

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kept. Just because we're reducing the line item doesn't mean that you shouldn't still do what you want to do as the chief and the department head and >> well it's technically not a position. >> Madam chair um Mr. Chair so so we don't can all look nice in the pretty folder

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that says I'm going to spend it this way but doesn't mean it's going to happen. Let me remind you we are $2 million under in salary when we start fiscal year 27. There is plenty of money to move around. The fire department will not fall apart. He's got the money in the budget to do that position if he

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wants to. All right. The money's there. We're not >> Mr. Chair. >> I'm going to go to councelor Ducet. >> Sorry. >> Thank Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Um I I just want some clarification. What's going on uh with this? Do you need to

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hire someone to do this type or is it someone from internal doing the training? >> We have qualified candidates in the department that would >> So it's just putting time. >> It's not hiring somebody else. one of our members >> overtime activity >> which this department always does a lot

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of. So yeah. Okay. Thank you for the clarification. I do appreciate that. So thank you. >> I think as what was said you can run with it what they got. >> Thank thank you councel. So motion has been made and seconded to reduce line item 51328 by $25,000

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and line item 51980 by $2,000. All in favor? One, two, three, four. All opposed. One. It carries. I will entertain a motion.

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>> I think it's >> Mr. Chair. Sure. >> I think it's ask the city auditor 10,94,931. >> 931. That's what I have. Mr. President, >> Mr. Chair, >> council for chill. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. uh move to approve the fire department budget in the total

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of10,94,931 as reduced by council vital. >> Thank you, council. Motion's been made and seconded to uh uh approve the fire department budget as amended with the reductions with a total of 10,94,931. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all

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in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Thank you, Chief Go. >> Thank you so much, sir. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Chief. >> Okay. Now, moving on. Uh we will now

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begin with the DPW. And we'll start on um page number 4. >> 4 Z. Mr. Chairman, we don't take an intermission at all just for five minutes.

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>> Well, what we could do, I think, uh, Commissioner Scott. >> Thank you, Council. >> Good evening, Commissioner Scott. Thank you. And I know you wish to give a summary on your department. >> Sure. Um, just a quick uh like if you've seen in

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the uh supplemental budget, uh the salaries uh salary items are contractual. There's some the um the trash and recycling. Uh just to hone in on this, this is large this year because

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the contract started last July 1st. When by the time the budget came down, we did not have the negotiation with them finalized. So, we put some money in there. It wasn't enough. That was our adjustment. Um it got adjusted. Um, and

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if you saw in midyear transfer, I had to transfer $300,000 to it to and that is tracking now that that's going to that's going to work for the end of we just got our April um bill. So that's going to work. Uh so this adjusts it for last

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year and gets it on track for next fiscal year. After that the increase will be so MSW will increase um a little more like 6% recyc because you have the the curbside cost went up plus the tipping fee

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>> on recycling side the tipping for recycling or the cost of recycling uh is stayed at $95 a ton. That hasn't changed. Uh several years ago it went from zero and then kept creeping up over the year to 95 a ton. That stayed steady

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now. The only thing that's happened in recycling is the collection rate has gone up. So going forward the the recycling will be going up roughly 4% say and and trash like may you know 6%

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once this is adjustments done this year. So it's together it's about a 5 and a half% going forward. So and we have that for five years now. Um so there was a little pain to get that adjusted. We were we were riding high in a low

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tipping fee. Now our tipping fee is up towards the top where other communities are, but we've got that for at a nice predictable rate for five years now. So we can I can certainly rest easy, but uh

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so to give that clarification um diesel has gone up 60%, gas has gone up 50%. So, if that was to remain in the budget with those rates, that would be a $200,000 increase to those line items to

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that line item uh next year. Just to keep that in mind. As far as the open positions go, um we critical those are like hour and a half, two hour interviews. We're really we're really uh trying to get the right candidates internal and external interviews on

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that. Um we put out a lot of offers some which is interesting at the even the equipment operator they're leveraging our offer. So it looks like towns are now been making an exhaustive effort to try to fill these positions. I would say by the

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beginning of the um fiscal year we project that we'll be in maybe five openings by then and we're going to keep at it. Uh we do we've had a lot of um um positions being left by retirement and other means. Uh nine since the January

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1st. Uh so it's kind of an attrition thing. We have one more retirement we know of. Uh uh Joe Letham at the drop off center. He will be sorely missed down there. Um he's one of the factors him and Gary Akre to make that drop off

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center what it is today. He'll be retiring in uh June. So, he's pretty much the only one we know is will be leaving in the near future. So, uh just to give you a little update on that and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,

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Commissioner. Um I will open it up to the finance team. We we are on um as a reminder, we're on page 40, uh property and building maintenance. Any discussion? Council Villo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Scott, thank you for uh the the presentation. Appreciate the overview of

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the department. And I know we've had uh plenty of opportunities to work together over the year. >> I've been very grateful for the work that you guys have done. Um >> it's a team. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. I know uh um just talking with the conservation officer, some other folks in the city, right? Making a concerted effort to, you

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know, electricity savings, natural gas savings. I know we made some upgrades to the high school. Um you know, we're doing additional upgrades in the next year to the heat pumps at police and fire. Is that correct? >> Mhm. >> Okay. So, I know uh you know, the goal is to decrease usage. We can't predict rates. But with that being said, right

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at the beginning of the budget hearing, we had this conversation about where can we find, you know, some measurable reductions. And so again, right, electricity, natural gas, these are projections. We can move money around. Um, and with that, I I would support reducing the electricity account 52120

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by $100,000 and natural gas 5220. I will second that to reduce uh line item 52120 by $100,000 and to reduce line item 522000 by $10,000. Any further discussion?

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>> Seeing none, all in favor? >> Oh, councelor. >> Sorry, you don't give me a chance. Um, yeah, I've been done. Um, I just don't see that going down, but if you have to come back to us, you do. I can't support

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it knowing the cost of fuel. We see it at our own homes. I mentioned that already. If you haven't seen an increase in your electric or gas bill, then you don't have the gas and electric I'm getting and and diesel fuel. You just brought up. I heard that too. >> Council Ducet. >> Oh, councelor Ducet. Thank you.

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>> Thank you much, Mr. Chair. Uh just a couple of things. Um, you know, there's always there's been constant work trying to get solar panels onto the schools and public buildings. Considering the issues we have, you know, with the cost of electricity, the more panels we get

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deployed, you know, what about, you know, putting solar panels on landfills, you know, or something like that? Is you guys looking into that at all? uh as uh you know the more energy we can generate the less energy we need to buy you know at the end of the day.

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>> Yeah. >> So um is there any plans or anything looking forward to that? >> Not um and we're always looking at at buildings. So like the new richest school will will have that >> the good now had it. We put them on the existing schools whenever it's

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practical. We'll keep looking at it. The deals aren't as good as they were before. We uh we have um direct meeting on several of the schools. We also have um um solar agreements for for uh solar

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down in Texas. Uh so we're always looking at that. Yes. Um and we're making sure that certainly the new buildings that go in leverage as much energy savings as they can. >> As far as landfills, you got the Hudson Street that that's a that's a open space

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area there. the side that um is open is north facing going down. So >> the other landfill at the um east plant >> we could look at but we we'd have to investigate uh I would say more things with the

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landfill before we go down that >> route but >> okay thank you >> y >> thank you council just presidenti >> thank you Mr. here. Yeah, the my math is right. 15 open positions if I counted all the ones that

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are on your on the sheet. So, I just did the simple math. I encou I have this discussion every year. I want you to fill them as soon as you can. And I recognize the hard time you have filling them. >> But again, I to council or we move money

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around and it's through the underutilization of salary. So to tell people we're going to go, you know, no one wants to cut a position and look at how we did this year. We covered it all and the world's still turning and we're still $1.1 million

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under in salary. It's going to be this. I'm going to have the same conversation with you a year from now. All right. So, so to sit there and say I can't because it's getting expensive. We're going entering a new contract for electricity. Correct. >> Nope. And don't we I'm trying to appease

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my counselor over here that the world will not come to an end. >> So >> that's the supply side. So >> yeah, >> who knows what's going to happen on that. >> These reductions are minimal, Mr. Chair, and more in line what we've done in the

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last three years and super the commissioner moves money around from underspent accounts to cover any overage and it's okay. the world is okay. So I support these two reductions as well. >> Thank you. President motion.

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>> Mr. Chair, >> councelor, >> the 15 positions and I agree with councelor Austin. We don't want to be cutting positions. What's the um effect on your department and when do you expect to have those 15 positions filled?

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>> The most the the ones with the highest salaries, the general foreman will be filled def definitely. We're just at the end of the final general foreman. Uh there'll be offer letter that is going out soon on those. Those will be filled by the by the beginning of the fiscal

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year. We have some foreman um openings. A lot of them will be filled. We're actively trying to fill these. Uh so I project there'll be five openings by then and we'll keep going at it, but we'll we'll see how it goes. The general form will definitely be filled. What's

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the effect of the What's the effect of the taxpayers not having these 15 positions filled >> as a taxpayer? >> As I'm not >> as a resident, what's the effect? Is DPW having to backlog some work? That's what I'm curious about. >> Yeah, we just like we do every we we we

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put more overtime. Sometimes we contract things. Sometimes we rep prioritize projects. And again, if if you look at DPW, it's a very dynamic. So, you know, we just lost the pump at the Maple Street pumps. >> Now we're up in the $3.2 million range.

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We adjust. So, if that was in our budget, we'd adjust and and and rep prioritize something else. So, >> and and again, the question I have is what I mentioned. We know maybe electricity may go down a little bit, but not that's the supply side. How

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about here? You know, it's not all about me, councelor Rossing. It's about being realistic. And I know sometimes it looks good to say, "Hey, I lowered this," but I would say to the DPW and all the departments. Key factor here, we may see you in the

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middle of the year if we're trying to cut your budget now and then you need that money. How we budget snow and ice. It's ridiculous. 4 million and we only budgeted a million. We're not the only city that does that as town, but it's a ridiculous formula. It's just so you can

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pay me later. Well, let's be realistic about what we're doing now to our residents, to our taxpayers. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Chair. >> I'm going to go to Council Presiato. >> Good afternoon. Uh, I just had a quick question about um employee retention.

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So, you have 14 vacancies right now. Are those new vacancies like throughout the last year or have they been ongoing? >> So, there's been nine since January 1st. >> Okay. And is there >> for various reasons? >> Okay. Not um I'm hoping not salary um based or

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>> well >> potentially >> I don't think council n wants to hear but couple MW went couple went to MW so >> Mr. Chairman >> uh some have moved for opportunities. >> Okay. >> Uh we've had a good amount of

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retirements and there's other reasons too. >> All right. I was just curious about, you know, if if we as a city are competitive with our pay and and to to have such a big hole in our DPWs. >> We had a point where we're trying to align that general form and that was an important thing. And then we had the we had the negotiations lagging. So our

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rates weren't as high. So we're trying to attract >> on those key salaries that are two years you have 6% less than you're you're competing on others. So now we're up there. Now we're hitting it hard. We're advertising. We're spending the money to

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advertise on MMA and stuff and we're really hitting it hard now. So, >> okay. >> Add so the Mr. >> and I want to add this. So, thank you, Mr. Chair, through you. Um, we worked really hard with the commissioner worked really hard on the language with the collective bargaining um to ensure um

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the foreman and that role is so critical regarding seniority. Um so now that we have that language in there now it's um it will be a waterfall effect because now that language is in there and now is in the contract. >> Understood. Thank you so much for the answer. >> Thank thank you Mr. Mayor. Councelor

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Ducet. >> Thank you very much Mr. Chair. Um I was just looking through the u the list. How many buildings have used heating oil still? Do you know like you know this is I just looking at it it's still out there.

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Yeah. Are we identified the ones? You can look at the the budget. It's not um that's a lot of that's for generators and stuff. It's not I don't >> Well, it's heating oil, not diesel blank. >> Okay. Okay. I would The ones with the heating oil be the ones most likely to

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go for um heat pumps and stuff like that. So that uh I was just thinking as a way to save money. So thank you. >> Thank you, Council Set. No further discussion. Motion has been made and seconded to reduce line item 52120 by

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100,000 and line item 522000 by $10,000. All in favor? One 23 4. All opposed. One. It carries. Mr. Chair. Council Chillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to approve

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the property and building maintenance budget by uh with the reductions in the amount of $4,49,000 $385. Thank you, Council. Motion's been made and seconded to approve the property and building maintenance budget uh with the reductions with a total

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amount uh for the budget of $4,49,385. All in favor 1 2 3 4 5. It carries. Moving on to page 67, uh which is the is the maintenance of schools.

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page 67. >> Mr. Chair, >> council vital to approve with the following reductions. I'd like to um ask let me give some background. First of all, 52120

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and 52200 um is about 50% for for the year up and through through April. Um just to let people know that's that's $1 million under budget that we are in that lineup. So with that being said, I'd like to

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make um between whether it's 75 or $75,000, but $150,000 reduction um 075,000 for gas 52200. >> Okay. Motion has been made to reduce

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line on 52120 by 7 to 75,000 and to reduce line item 522000 by what number? >> 75,000 as well. >> Does not carry.

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I will councelor Fillo. >> Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um councelor Vital, I I I'm with you. You know, I do think we need to make reductions to electricity and natural gas. Um, I would propose that we alter it just slightly, right? As you can see,

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um, um, uh, Commissioner, I appreciate just for the fact that, right, the natural gas account is looking for about a $54,000 increase from the last fiscal year. So, $75,000 reduction in that account. I fear is taking us back a little bit um, compared to to where we are. So, so in that case, I would move

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to reduce um the electricity account. So 52120 by 100,000 introduce natural gas 522000 by 10,000 um for a grand total of 110,000. >> Thank you council patrol. Motion's been made and I will second that to reduce

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line item 52120 uh by $100,000 and to reduce line item 522000 by $10,000. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three,

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three. All opposed. One, two. It carries. >> No further discussion. I will entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chair, >> Council Fill. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I could type a little bit faster. >> 3808. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to

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approve um the maintenance of schools budget as reduced to the total amount of $3,88,644. >> Thank you. Thank you. Go. Motion made and seconded to Oh, Diane. >> I have my total is 3,8,264.

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>> Correct. That's correct. >> Oh, I'm sorry, Trey. I thought that's what he said. >> I thought that's what he said, too. >> Sorry. Yeah. 3 o. >> Yeah. 264. >> Yes. >> Differently. I thought you twisted the numbers.

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>> If I twisted them as moved by the city, >> welcome to >> I I think I heard what I wanted to hear. >> Oh, thank you. Motion's been made and seconded to approve the building maintenance school as amended with the amount of for the budget of 3,88,000.

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Moving on to DPW administration on page 79. This is administration. I have no questions on that. Mr. >> Chair, council chill. >> DPW administration budget as proposed to us. >> Motion has been made and seconded to approve the DPW administration budget as

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submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Moving on to DPW engineering on page >> budget with the following reductions.

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51310. As of 51310 overtime regular, it's at 47% in April. I'd like to reduce that by $2,000. And then I also on the following page,

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environmental compliance, uh that's at 28% as of April. I like to also reduce that by $2,000 for a total reduction of DPW engineering of $4,000. >> And what line item was that? 47 51310

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2000 and 578 >> 30 >> 30 >> I got the I got the 51310 overtime. >> Yep. And 57830 and it's on the next page. Environmental compliance >> by >> that's another 2,000 for

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>> by 2,000 >> for a total of $4,000 reduction. >> Thank you. Council of Vital. Motion has been made to reduce line item 51310 to $2,000. Reduced by $2,000 and line item 57830 to

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reduce that by $2,000. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion's been made and seconded to reduce uh line item 51310 and to reduce 57830. Any further discussion? Council Fillo. >> Quick, bear with me. I apologize. Um,

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right. Seeing that we have underspent the temporary part-time help, um, I I feel that the $2,000 will will not make a significant impact on services, but just want to check with you, Commissioner. Um, also, you know, right again, >> right now, we don't it's not filled.

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>> Okay. Okay. Um, so we've only spent about 40,000 year to date. So, um, should there be a need, right, happy to come back and have this conversation, but I think those are are two two good small catches by council. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Council Fel. Thank you, Council V. Very good catch. Motion has

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been made and seconded to reduce line item 51310 by $2,000 >> compliance NPDEES. >> Mhm. >> Why did you choose 35,000 if you're only at 14? And second, are we mandated by the federal government to have that

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program completed? And will it cost 35,000? >> So the more Yeah. Nipies. Uh that's that that fluctuates. So sometimes we do. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, council. So motion has been made and seconded with the reductions uh

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are totaling 4,000 from the line items 57830 for $2,000 and line item 51310 for $2,000. All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries.

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I will entertain a motion 168 64 >> 694. >> A motion then a mo. >> Okay. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the engineering budget with the reductions for a total budget of 1,168,694.

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Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five. Thank you, council or moving on to page 84. Uh, snow and ice. >> My say snow and ice.

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I know uh, council was vocal on this. >> Yeah, I've already had my say on it. >> That's it. >> I don't want to waste any more time with that, >> Mr. Chair. Council Fel. >> Thank you. We move to approve the snow and ice budget. >> Motion has been been made and seconded

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to approve the snow and ice bud budget as submitted. Any further discussion? >> Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Okay,

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moving on to DPW streets on page 86. My constituents would probably uh want to know as well is on line item 55400 sidewalk maintenance. >> Yep.

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>> We're at 48% at the end of April. >> Right. So what happens? So these percentages are difficult percentage the electricity and all that especially the supply those things lag quite a bit. And

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um in this one you have the winter so you're not doing anything there. So you have a ramp then it goes nothing then a ramp up again right now. So that that percentage is already increased and that will increase. >> Motion to approve. >> Council council

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02:13:59.199 --> 02:14:14.320
>> oh I made the motion to approve but >> council or >> yes I made a motion to approve this budget but we can have further discussion. That was >> motion has been made. Is there a second to approve the streets budget? Second. >> Motion's been made and seconded to

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approve the street budget as submitted. Any further discussion? >> Seeing none. >> All in favor? One, two, three, four. All opposed. One. That carries.

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Moving on to page 89, which is the fleet. >> Mr. Chair, >> Council Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a quick question, Commissioner. Um, just looking at um, uh, going down here to fleet

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maintenance. Um, superintendent of automotive maintenance. um looking that's one of those positions we're looking to hire hopefully getting somebody on board. Okay. Um aside from that, no questions um on this and we'll move to approve as presented. >> Thank you. >> Motion's been made and seconded to

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approve the DPW fleet maintenance as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Moving on to page 91.

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Uh that is forestry forestry parks and cemetery. No further discussion. I will entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chair, >> councelor Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. No comments or questions here. Move to approve the DPW forestry budget as presented.

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>> Motion's been made and seconded to approve the DPW forestry uh budget as presented. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor and recycling. >> Mr. Chair, >> council vital. >> Another com another question for the commissioner. Commissioner is hazmat

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collection day. Is that yet to happen? >> So, the second one just happened. We're just starting to get the invoices now. >> So, okay. So, that it's at 50% at the end of April, but that's going to be >> that was the fall one, and now we Mr. Chair, >> Council Pillo, >> move to approve as presented. Motion has

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been made and second to approve the solid waste and recycling uh budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries.

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Now moving on to sewer service. >> Mr. Chair. >> Council Fel. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a quick question, Commissioner. Just regarding um legal services. So I noticed that right they were not spent all that much in fiscal year 25. I I don't believe we've expended anything up to this point

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um this fiscal year. Is this more of a safety net in case something happens or what's >> Well, you'll be seeing at the end of the year transfer that will be paying for the pump street uh sewer pump station. >> I'm sorry I asked. No, I appreciate >> it's actually 48 that happens to match. 48,000 I think is the quote.

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>> Not too bad. Well, no. Other than that, no questions. No questions. Any further discussion? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion has been made and seconded to approve the sewer service fund as

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submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. It carries. Moving on to the sewer east on page 135. Mr. Chair, >> Councelor Fill. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, no questions

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on this one. And with that, move to approve the East Wastewater Treatment Plant budget as submitted. >> Motion's been made and I will second that to approve the Eastwater wastewater treatment plant as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in

445
02:18:14.479 --> 02:18:37.519
favor? One, two, three, four, five. carries. Next up is the sewer west on page 138. >> Mr. Chair, >> councelor Fillo. >> No questions here either. Move to approve uh the Westwater treatment plant as presented.

446
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>> Motion's been made and sec I will second that to approve the West Wastewater treatment plant as submitted. Any further discussion? Down to water enterprise fund on page 15.

447
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>> Oh yeah, I I'll thank you Heather. Uh so the solid waste sludge fund is not funded as of now anymore. That was a couple years ago I think that started. So yeah, I I should have mentioned that to you. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Um you're welcome. So next up >> Oh, I'm sorry,

448
02:19:09.200 --> 02:19:30.399
>> Council Naven. >> Thank you, >> Mayor. Um brief comment for you. I find it curious that in a budget that's $222,882,585 that a key driver um in I believe um but quite the bargain um for the for the

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world's best drinking what you rounded up to 196 well spent. >> Yeah, very interesting. Money well spent indeed. Um as we often hear about why our key uh the key to our economic success is based on our wonderful drinking water. Um So, just want to

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bring that up. Um, from the millions that are listed here, that seems like a small number um to blame on somebody else. >> Um, further um I made this comment last year. I'm just wondering if we can um make this adjustment in future years rate the line item. I just think it's a

451
02:20:02.960 --> 02:20:18.720
little confusing. Um this is a very small difference, but um the Mbury water line item includes also Ted, I wonder if you could speak to it a little bit. includes chemicals that the city's required to add at the plant. So, it's not consistent with the documents that

452
02:20:18.720 --> 02:20:34.080
are produced that say what the cost of the water is. And so, for consistency, maybe in a future budget, we could actually break that out into two separate line items. >> But, Commissioner, would you mind just kind of just explain what that is? >> Sure. So, that comes from the old days when we had Milham and the MWA water at

453
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the same time. Uh, when Milham was closed, it just became MWA. So, anything that was associated with MWA like the the phosphate that we add anti-corrosion, there's also um some DP certification that's in there, stuff that's related to that MWA water. Uh and

454
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then the Cedar Hill pump station, there's some preventive maintenance that goes on there that's taken out of that. So, there's there's some other uh cost items in there. >> Thank you. >> As I mentioned earlier, it's not updated to reflect things accurately. So,

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thank uh thank you, Council Naven. >> Motion to approve, Mr. Chair. >> What's that? >> I I made a motion to approve this budget line. >> Motion has been made uh to approve the water service fund is >> I I would approve um as presented with

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the following reductions, if I may. >> What's the What's the We'll take the reduction first, Council. >> Uh 51310 overtime regular. I'd like to reduce that by the 19,000 since it was so it was underutilized last year. >> Thank you, Council Vital.

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>> I'd also It's a $20,000 budgeted, but I would like to reduce it by $5,000. And then um on 54810 and this might need mean needs need uh clarifying but the repair maintenance

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supplies vehicles came in at 24.9%. >> How much >> uh you as of the end of April was 20 25% utilized. >> Yep. So, um, that's that's an item. We did get some new equipment there. So,

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the repair for that might be mean less now. That's fair. Okay. >> So, for a combination between the three line items, it would be a reduction of $34,000. >> Total of 34, okay. The motion has been made and I will second that to reduce

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line item 51310 uh by $19,000 and to reduce line item 51380 by $5,000 and to reduce line item 54810

461
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by how much? >> 10,000. >> What? >> 10,000. >> By $10,000. >> Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries with Mr.

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>> Chair, that's for a total of 10,87,15 if I'm correct. >> Do my >> that reduction 34,000 minus. >> Yeah. >> 10,87,15. I'm correct. >> Because we're minusing 100. We're >> minusing 34

463
02:23:25.760 --> 02:23:45.040
>> minusing 34,000. >> 34,000. >> Mhm. Just so we >> that is I think that is correct. >> Thank you C. So motion has been made and I will second that uh to approve the water service fund with the uh with

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those reductions. Uh that would be a budget of 10,87,15. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5 >> Okay. >> Thank you, councils. >> Thank you, Commissioner.

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>> Thank you, Comm. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. It went blank. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Okay. So we will motion's been made and seconded to approve the tax title and foreclosure budget line item as

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submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four. Councilor >> motion to approve the tax, title, and foreclosure. >> Sure. >> Which is other insurance.

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>> Mr. Mr. Chair, >> Council Fillo, >> move to approve as presented. >> Motion's been made and I will second that to approve other insurance line item um as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five.

468
02:25:07.760 --> 02:25:27.760
That carries. Uh going on to page 45, which is retirement. Retirement. >> Mr. Chair. >> Councelor Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to approve as presented. >> Motion has been made and I will second that to approve uh the retirement

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02:25:27.760 --> 02:25:45.240
pension benefits as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Going on to page 47, uh, workers comp.

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No discussion. I will entertain a motion. >> Motion to approve. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the workers compensation insurance budget line item as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two,

471
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three, four, five. That carries. Uh, next up is on page 49, uh, which is un unemployment compensation. >> Mr. Chair, >> councelor Fill. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to move to approve unemployment as presented.

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>> Motion's made and seconded. I will second that to approve the unemployment uh budget item uh as submitted discussion. >> Yes, council. >> Just that we saw 57,316 and FY24 actual. >> Um what do we where are we going with

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this? You've brought it back to 50 after seeing the increase. >> Sure. I'll I'll be done with the transfer. Um >> uh all in favor 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Uh going on to page 51 uh

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health and life insurance. >> Mr. Chair, >> council vital. >> I'd like to make approve with the following reductions on line item 57406 life insurance 7406. Life insurance >> 57406 by $2,000.

475
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>> Yes, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you. Motion has been made uh to reduce line item 57406 by $2,000. Do I have a second on that? Does not carry. I will entertain a motion to approve uh the health and life

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insurance budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Going on to page 53. other

477
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general government. >> Mr. Chair, >> just get my page 53. >> 54. Page 54. >> I'm so uh starts on page 53. Yes. >> Yeah. I just have a motion for approval with for point of discussion. So motion to approve, but I

478
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>> motion has been made to approve other general government uh budget item uh as submitted. Do I have a second on that? does not carry. I will have further discussion. Councelor Fill. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, as we

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discussed kind of at the beginning and we talked throughout this budget process, right? I I think reserve for salaries is another one of those line items that we can take a look at and we're looking to make some significant reductions to the budget, right? Um, you know, in my opinion, um, right, we can do that transfer. We can have these

480
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conversations if it comes to it. Um, you know, reducing the budget now, right, lowers taxes to be paid on the residents. I think this is a critical line item for us to take a look at. So, um, with that, we move to reduce reserve for salaries, uh, account number 57820 by $200,000.

481
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>> Motion has been made and I will second that, uh, to reduce line item 57820 by $200,000. Any further discussion? Councilor, >> if we could hear from the comproller or the mayor on that request to reduce the

482
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what we spent uh so far, we're talking about 57820 line item. >> 57820. >> Yeah, they already reduced it by 342 from the FY26. I'd like to hear that. What's going on here? Why? If we're going to reduce it another 200,000,

483
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where do we stand and what do you expect? It >> it will be and we may have to come back for a transfer. I think the controller can speak to it. >> So, we also have a Sorry. >> So, we also have the salary survey that's in finance. So, some of that funding is coming through this um

484
02:29:37.120 --> 02:29:53.280
because again, uh there is no free cash, you know, until free cash gets certified. So, if we're looking to do anything and the line items aren't funded, two retirements of fire, two retirements for police, uh there's a city hall retirey, um unfortunately from

485
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my perspective, but it is what it is. Um, and then the salary survey is what's been put into that line item. >> Based on that answer, I cannot support that reduction. Thank you, >> President Os,000

486
02:30:08.319 --> 02:30:25.600
and it worked out just fine. Why? There's underruns and salary items. There just is, folks. I mean, the to to to sit here and say we're going to approve all this money knowing we're not spending all this money is a disservice to the taxpayer. We're just we're sitting say we're going to tax you

487
02:30:25.600 --> 02:30:42.000
anyway. I hear what the compl saying. Free cash isn't certified till September. Guess what? We're not going to spend that money before September. All right. And if we needed to spend money, we've got $28 million sitting in stabilization account. So free cash needs six votes.

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02:30:42.000 --> 02:30:58.319
Stabilization makes eight. So to say, and I respect you, Brian, but to say we don't have free cash to move, I can move stabilization just as quick as free cash. It's just a matter of six or eight votes. So reducing this now is not an

489
02:30:58.319 --> 02:31:14.640
issue. Will the comproll and mayor and sort it out a little bit? Okay, let we're paying them well. Let them earn their money. I'm okay with that. That works. We'll we'll find ways. We have not shot down a transfer on this council with me as president that I can

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02:31:14.640 --> 02:31:30.720
remember. Everything they've asked for, they've gotten. Lower the budget to lower the taxes. If they want more money, they'll come back and ask for it. Don't just cod blanch give it to them cuz they say they need it. You haven't heard a department head up here say they don't need the

491
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money. Of course they do. No one says, "Well, who's looking out for the taxpayer?" That's our job. And our job should be to say we can take $200,000 out of that and the city will be just fine. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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>> Thank you, President Austin. motion is but >> if I can >> um I would not be looking to take from stabilization for this type of item. You know, stabilization is a one-time revenue shortfall is how I look at stabilization. This is not a revenue

493
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shortfall. This is an expense shortfall. So again, I look at stabilization from a revenue shortfall perspective. If we're not getting our license permit fees, then I probably be concerned about taking anything out of stabilization at this point in time. Also, >> so I'll count. So, we would not be

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taking it out of stabilization. I was off another. We are $2 million under in salary. >> No one wants to cut a position. I get it. You heard Ted say he's going to hire. Let's have this discussion on July 1 and see how many of those positions are filled. As of right now, under

495
02:32:33.359 --> 02:32:49.520
salary in the fisc year 26 and that's on top of $800,000 we moved in mid-year transfers. So almost $2 million we're not spending and everybody's okay with saying taxpayers go make up for it. We can pay for it.

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The comproller and the mayor know they're not going to put up a fight because they know they can find the money for it. >> So don't politicize it. Do what's right for the taxpayer. Make the adjustment. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I could add to that like I think we'll we'll obviously

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make do but my fear and concern is that if this reserve for salary is getting cut to this level I would just hope that you would all keep an open mind for the salary study that we worked very hard on on submitting to all of you. So my

498
02:33:21.120 --> 02:33:38.160
concern is that if this is cut then that means that finance will not take up that salary study and for the future of the city and to as you heard from the commissioner um people are accepting jobs and utilizing that to their advantage to get more money. Um my

499
02:33:38.160 --> 02:33:52.960
concern is with as people retire over the next few years we are not competitive with our salaries. That's why we worked very hard on that salary study. Um, so if you do cut it to this, which I respect, I just hope that you keep an open mind for that salary study

500
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to ensure that the people that are working here get a competitive salary. That's that's my two cents. >> Mr. Chair, >> council, >> I just want to reiterate what m uh what the uh president said and put a number to it. Right. So last year, but right

501
02:34:09.920 --> 02:34:25.359
now with the cuts we made tonight and with the tax increase we had last year and the tax increase we'll have this year, the average house in Marorrow will pay $1,000 more in property tax.

502
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1,000 increase over two years in property tax. The average household. So I Mr. Mr. Mayor, I appreciate what you're saying about the salary for food and then they get a another $400 increase, not sure property tax and an

503
02:34:41.840 --> 02:34:58.399
increase. >> And and if I may, Mr. Chair through you, I would counter that by saying that if we don't have the correct people in the position because we're not paying adequately. We spent $4 million in free cash because we didn't have the right control candidates. So in the long run,

504
02:34:58.399 --> 02:35:14.000
it hurts us more than what we can do now. And that's my job is to advocate to make sure the city is running the best it possibly can efficiently and effectively with the correct people. So if you don't pay them correctly, then we will get the candidates that will not

505
02:35:14.000 --> 02:35:31.120
have the knowledge and then we are open mind for that salary study if this goes through. That's all I'm asking for is just keep an open mind. We can talk about it in depth conversation. I'm happy to have that conversation, but there was a lot of work with the controller with human resource with that

506
02:35:31.120 --> 02:35:47.760
study that was that was paid for through a grant. Why aren't we utilizing it to its full potential? That's all. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council, >> I just want to thank the mayor and the professionalism of our controller. This is their job. This is what they do.

507
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They're telling us the facts. I want to see a staff that is educated and paid properly. Without that, mistakes will happen. You want to see insurance costs go up. That could happen. Again, I agree with council vital. We need to look at

508
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ways to raise money or have funds to help our seniors. I don't disagree with him, but I don't think that's applicable to what we're talking about right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Counc. Motion's been made and seconded um to reduce line item 57820

509
02:36:22.240 --> 02:36:40.760
uh by $200,000. All in favor? One, two, three, four. All opposed? One. That carries. I will entertain a motion. I think it should be 1 million250,000.

510
02:36:40.800 --> 02:36:56.240
Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Mr. Chair. Council Fel. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um move to approve with the reduction to get to $1,250,000. >> Thank you, Council. Motion has been made and I will second that to approve other general government uh with the reduction

511
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with a total budget of $1,250,000. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Now moving on to school support on page 69.

512
02:37:23.040 --> 02:37:40.479
Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Moving on to city school support on page 71. >> Mr. Chair, >> Council Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair move to approve

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city and school support as uh >> 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Going on to page 73. Retirement of debt. >> Mr. Chair. >> Councelor Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to approve

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retirement of debt as presented. >> Motion's been made and I will second that to approve the retirement of debt. Um as uh on page 75 long-term debt interest, >> Mr. Chair, >> council vital

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>> move to approve. >> Motion has been made and I will second that to approve the debt interest uh on the school as submitted. Any further discussion? Council, >> in general, we need to build a new school. So I'm sure we can expect this

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not to be in a decrease mode in the future. >> Am I correct in that, Mr. Comproller? >> Decrease somewhat. Your short-term debt will increase as I bring on some of the bonds. Correct on this one until the new

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schools for this particular department. You're correct. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Motion's made and seconded to approve. All in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Now moving on to retirement of debt on

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page 114. >> Mr. Chair, >> Council Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to approve retirement of debt as presented. >> Motion's been made and sec I will second that to approve the retirement of debt budget as submitted. Any further discussion?

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Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Moving on to long-term debt interest on page 116. Mr. >> Chair, >> council vital. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion's been made and I will second

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that to approve the uh long-term debt and interest um budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Uh we won't go to the capital project on

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page 118 because that is not funded. Uh we will go to retirement and pensions on uh sewer on page 120. Mr. Chair, council, any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two,

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three, four, five. That carries. Going on to uh workers comp uh sewer on page 122. >> Mr. Chair, >> council of idol. >> Motion to approve.

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>> Motion 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Uh going on to page 124, health, life insurance, and then on the sewer enterprise fund. >> Mr. Chair, >> Council Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to approve

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health and life for sewer. >> Motion has been made and I will second. >> Going on to page 126. Uh sewer and other government general government. >> Mr. Chair, >> Councelor Fillo, >> one super quick question. Um I think in

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looking at this US budget um uh 58891 it was 58890. It was bond issue expense. Now it's loan origination fee. Is that just some is there a change there? What is the change there? >> It's just that in this department that's what I think what it is. You know the

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other one it's an old you know it's >> sure depending how old when they were established originally what they carried forward. >> All good. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Would that move to approve the um sewer other government? >> Thank you. A motion's made. I will second that to approve other general government and the sewer department um

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in the budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Going on to page 128. Retirement of debt.

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>> Motion to approve. >> On page 12. Motion has been made and seconded to approve the retirement of debt uh budget line item as submitted. Any further discussion? All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries.

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Uh going on to long-term debt interest on on the sewer uh page 130. >> Motion to approve. Motion has been made and I will second that uh to approve the long-term debt interest on the sewer um

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budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One. Two. I'm sorry. Uh we do what? Uh retirement pensions and water 144

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>> page 144. >> Mr. Chair, Council Fill. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. Going on to page 146, workers

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compensation for the water. And that is on page 146. Mr. Chair, >> any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries.

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Uh, next up is on page 148, health life insurance for the water. >> Mr. Chair, >> Council Fillo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Move to approve the health life insurance for water as presented. >> Motion has been made. I will second that to approve the health life insurance for

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the water uh budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. That carries. Uh moving on to water, other government on page

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150. Motion has been made and I will second that to approve um the other general government in the water water fund um as submitted. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two,

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three, four, five. That carries. Going on to page uh retirement of debt and water. Uh page 152. >> Mr. Chair, >> 152. Council vital.

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>> I make a motion to approve as presented. Motion's been made and I will second that to approve uh retirement of debt on the water um budget as submitted. Any further discussion? Councelor Ducet. Thank >> Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I missed

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some of the other conversations about this. Um how long are these bonds? Are they typically 20 year, 30-year? I mean, are they different in these categories? Are they different durations or? >> Sure. >> Most of them are 20-year bonds when you're dealing with water. Some are 10

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year. Uh most are 20-year. I think we have a some of the short ones um we get through MWR zero interest. I believe those are 10 year five. >> The lens are >> the lead safe. >> Yeah. But that that's all taken care of, right? >> Thank you, Con. So motion has been made

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and seconded to approve. All in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That carries. And going on to the last item is long interest water um as submitted. Any further discussion?

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Seeing none, all in favor? One, two, three, four, five. That concludes the review of the FY2027 budget uh proposed budget submitted by the mayor. At this point, I will take

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Good evening. We convened the finance committee on May 11, 2026. Now, at this point, we have the >> micro micro, >> we have completely reviewed the 2027 uh budget uh submitted by the mayor. Um and

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we will include the reductions in the total amount and at this amount of >> of $222,372,585 >> which represents a reduction uh total reduction of $510,000. Motion's m been made and I will second that. Uh motion's been made and seconded

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to approve the proposed fiscal year 202010,000. Any further discussion? Mr. What's the increase? The final increase >> the the the total budget the total budget >> percent. I'm sorry. What's the percentage increase? >> Four

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02:51:22.880 --> 02:51:38.720
about 4%. >> 4%. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> 399999. >> We were getting that 999. Yes9. >> I like 399 more. Thank you. >> So motion has been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? One, two,

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three, four, five. Motion carries. 5 to zero and we are completed and I will entertain a motion. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion has been made and seconded to adjurnn. All in favor? 1 2 3 4 5. We are

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adjourned at 9:30 p.m. Thank you. >> Thank you everyone.