Quincy City Council Finance Committee: June 10, 2026

Thank you.

Throughout its history, inclusivity has been one of the society's guiding principles. In 1893, inclusivity meant welcoming new members without entitlement requirements and by elevating women and children of immigrants into leadership roles. By the early 20th century, it meant broadening our focus beyond the lives of famous figures to include the experiences of the ordinary working men and women who helped build the modern Quincy. Today, that commitment is reflected in our efforts to keep membership affordable and to provide as many public programs as possible free of charge. Another core responsibility of the Historical Society has been the stewardship of the Adams Academy building. It is not an exaggeration to state that the Historical Society saved the Adams Academy from demolition and redevelopment into a fast food restaurant A real proposal for the site that was put forth in the 60s.

In 1972, the society formally assumed stewardship and invested substantial resources into its restoration and preservation. In 1994 the Adams Academy was designated a National Historic Landmark, finally recognizing its significance in American architectural history and its contribution to Quincy Center's cityscape. Although the Adams Academy is now a city-owned building, the Historical Society remains its steward. We view that role as both a privilege and a responsibility. Historic buildings require active, knowledgeable occupants who can ensure their continued preservation and relevance. We believe the Society is uniquely qualified to fulfill that responsibility, and a significant portion of the Executive Director's duties pertain to the care of that public building. Stewardship of the Adams Academy has also enabled the society to expand the services that we offer to this community. With professional staff, museum space, a research library and meeting facilities,

The Society increased both the scope and quality of its public offerings. During the 1980s, The Society established a professionally taught local history program for Quincy Elementary School students. For more than 40 years now, that program has educated generations of students about their hometown's remarkable history. Today, Quincy Historical Society remains the only historical organization in the city open year round. Our museum welcomes visitors for approximately 1,000 hours annually which favorably compares to the average operational hours of Adams National Historical Park. More significantly, Quincy Historical Society provides the only comprehensive presentation of Quincy's entire history, from the pre-colonial settlement through the modern era. The story of all Quincy residents in all chapters of the city's development fully illustrating why Quincy's story is the American story.

In addition to maintaining permanent exhibits, the Society regularly presents special exhibitions, public lectures, and educational programs, maintaining a 120-year tradition. Over the last decade, it has published three books on Quincy history, we have more in the pipeline, and continues to produce the Quincy history newsletter three times each year. Staff members also field frequent research requests from residents, organizations, academic scholars, and students. The Society has also served as a trusted consultant on numerous city projects related to historic preservation and public history. among those include the restoration of the Abigail Adams Cairn, the restoration of this very chamber, the John Adams and John Hancock statues and settings, historical elements of the Hancock-Adams Common for which this society was recognized with a Frederick Law Olmstead Award, the Abigail Adams statue in settings, the president's trail signage, the John Quincy Adams statue in settings,

and the Society has curated three exhibits for the Old City Hall Museum, one a floor below us. In these cases and many others, the society provided professional level services that otherwise would have required the city to hire outside for-profit contractors. The Society continues to regularly assist with City projects and it will always hold itself ready to assist in the future. As I noted at the outset, the history of Quincy Historical Society is the story of adaptation guided by enduring principles of community service and inclusion. The challenges that the society faces today are the same that are faced by many urban historical societies, especially those committed to telling their communities whole story, not just the most fashionable parts. Profound national changes in economics, corporate structures, and communications have disrupted many traditional sources and patterns of charitable giving.

We believe that the vitality of the historical society contributes directly to the vitality of Quincy. We believe public funding to the Executive Director position is a necessary evolution consistent with the core principles of community and inclusion. Thank you again for this opportunity and I am happy to answer whatever questions you may have.

Thank you very much. I'll open it up to my fellow Councillors for questions. Anyone? Maggie?

McGee. You mentioned other staff. What is the staffing there?

So in addition to myself, we currently have two part-time staffers. That is our secretary. And of course, I'm blanking on it at the moment. and the teacher for our student program. We usually have a staff of about four, but we lost a few of our staff members this current year and we're looking to hire two more in the coming months as well.

And are they also paid out of the same funding, the tourism funding?

No. They are paid directly by the Historical Society.

By the Historical Society. OK. And then for the building, I don't know if you deal with any of those costs or if that's in a different budget.

So since it is now a public building, those costs are, I believe, carried by the city.

Okay. In the public buildings department, presumably.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay. That's it. Thank you.

Ryan.

Thank you. Thank you. There you go. Thank you. Can you hear me?

Okay.

So with regards to, I don't know if you have a budget available, but there is a line item there. 570307 and it has tourism expense. Can you explain what materials you may request that would be part of this expense?

So if that's part of the city's budget, that is not under my purpose.

So that's something I think we can clarify, Mr. Walker. None of the other items in here are related to her specific position. It would all fall under the tourism policy. Correct.

Through you, Madam Chairwoman, correct.

Okay. Okay.

So the only line item here is for the historical site is that one line item there, 510018. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else?

Okay.

Jacobs. Hi, thank you. Thank you for being here tonight and presenting that. I just had a question. It was really more for Mr. Walker. But at the last meeting, we spoke about the breakdown of retirement and the benefits, and you were going to tease those out had you followed through with that.

I have not the final numbers, but I would suggest that that would be in the $4,000 to $5,000 range, if that's the council's wish. we can add that as part of the appropriation.

Yeah, I mean, I think that was kind of where we were headed the last time. You had said that we could pull that out of, like, the general fund and the hotel-motel tax. We could. So we need to see those numbers in order to... make any recommendation on that?

So could we have an action item before we vote on the final budget that we would have that number in there? Anything else?

Council UN. Thank you Madam Chairwoman. This question is more for Mr. Walker. So the tourist department, does it generate more revenue than it costs?

through you Madam Chairwoman, I would have to take a look into the numbers, but generally speaking, the hotel motel tax that funds the department and funds a number of other things far exceeds the cost of is what's funded in the tourism department and this position.

A follow-up question. How does a city measure the performance of the tourist department, like visitor count, or the revenue generated, or the increased occupants of Motel Hotel. How does the city measure the performance?

Through you, Madam Chairwoman, I believe Director at Ashley had some commentary on the last meeting that she keeps track of hotel occupancy, visitation, and those sorts of things as part of her regular operation.

that the city has a number of the tourist revenue, a new revenue from tourism in the visitor account.

Again, I would go back to look at the revenue which the Council discussed. at its last meeting, that goes into the hotel motel text. That is a black and white, clear as day, that is the number of people and the fees that they pay. Those are people visiting our city. That is the clearest indication. The National Park Service certainly has visitation numbers through the federal government. We don't hold those. and I believe Director Ashley mentioned their tracking system as well, but I think the clearest indication has been, always will be, our hotel occupancy. The number of hotels, we've grown the number of hotels that we've had in the city over the last 10 to 12 years. with more potentially in the works.

I think the market for hotels is probably your best indication of tourism.

Madam Auditor might have some numbers for us.

Hang on, go.

Yes, Councilor. To date, the City has collected $1,886,694 in revenues generated from the hotel-motel tax. there will still be one quarter left that we will receive that will come to us prior to the maybe the end of June and that will bring us I mean, last year we received $2.3 million. I'm anticipating this year we will receive more than that. of that two point or as of that 1.886, 15% of that goes into a separate account for tourism in historical costs.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Yuen. My follow-up question is the motel, hotel occupants, it's not all from the visitors come for Tourism, because people can come here for business or for celebration. and the city already have a separate budget land for celebrations, 300,000. So I'm wondering like those hotel, motel revenue, more from the people come to the celebration or events or just for general tour rhythm.

Generally, the money that goes into the account for tourism is for tourism costs. It would not be for the parades or things like that. It's money that's generated from the room occupancy tax. So I believe it was in 2011, it increased from 4% to 6%. So the room occupancy tax is 6%. So that's what the revenue is generating from. It's basically from room occupancy taxes.

If I could maybe suggest that we just stick to this line item because we do have Director Dagny coming. Ashley, Ashley. Somebody's not conversing. She'll be coming back before us and maybe what we could do is is send some questions to Mr. Walker about trying to quantify where that the the increase in revenue might be coming from or be measurable, but really we're just here to talk about the historical society. Do you have any numbers on, you know foot traffic or or you know increases whether you've seen obviously since COVID everything we've seen everything sort of recover do you I don't want to put you on the spot but do you have any numbers like that

So we're in a unique position where we do not actually charge admission to our museum. So we don't really keep track of ticket stubs or anything like that, like the Park Service does. So I would put our estimate at around $10,000 to $15,000 per year on average. and that has, you know, obviously been lower since COVID, but it's recovering quickly.

And that includes the school children and all of that as well?

That does not include the school. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay.

Any further questions?

Ryan. Through you, Madam Chair. So it's Alex, or Elec, is it Alex?

My friends can call me Alex. Alex, okay.

So when you, you're at that beautiful historical building, okay, so I visited it once and it is absolutely beautiful. on, say, like a weekly basis, how much outreach is made to you with regards to programs for historical, reviews of Quincy or if they're looking for some history with regards to the city of Quincy.

So just for clarification, the number of inquiries that we receive, I would say that we receive anywhere from five to 15 in a given week. It does fluctuate. Sometimes we will go a week or two without receiving any. But in the last week, I know that we've gotten eight in particular. So we are doing that regularly. That is one of our most constant sources of what we're working on in the background is working on responding to these inquiries.

Okay, and this is like eight per day or for a week? In a week. In a week. and can you provide just a few examples of what you might have for a question or an outreach?

Absolutely. So some of the ones that we've gotten recently, we got a gentlemen from Quincy asking for photographs of his grandfather and great-grandfather, both of whom were Quincy police officers. It was Patrick Duffy. I think they were both junior and senior. and so we have been able to find a number of different images of this person and so actually he'll be coming in on Friday to meet with us and look and review some of these pictures that we can't scan because they're too big and delicate. Another one we received this week, which was very interesting, was a Harvard student who's currently a PhD student in comparative literature asking about a very curious incident about a young couple who very sadly committed suicide in Quincy but they were not from here and this became a national scandal because they had been followers of the spiritualist movement in the 19th century, which drew a lot of backlash onto them.

So it was lots of press reporting about that. So those are two examples. We get regular house inquiries. So somebody moves into a house in Quincy and wants to know, what is the history of my home? Who lived here? What can you tell me about it? or they're looking to do renovations, do you have any photographs of the interior so that I can maybe restore it to its previous glory? I'm trying to think of other examples, but I think you get a decent idea.

Okay, so on an average, how long does it usually take you to complete the research?

That can vary. Sometimes it takes us as quickly as a half an hour if it's something that we have lots about or if it's something that we can easily find in the Patriot Ledger archives. Or we've had ones that have taken us several weeks, depending on the complexity, Some of the research ones we get, especially from academics, they can be quite complex, so we really have to dig in and find some very technical information and be able to then take it, distill it, and present it to the researcher.

and your part-time assistants help you on that?

Part-time assistants and volunteers.

Okay, volunteers. Now, how many volunteers do you have for the site?

A handful, less than five.

Less than five, okay.

It fluctuates, yeah.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Thank you.

Are you open to volunteers?

We are open to volunteers, yes.

Call out for volunteers for the Historical Society. Any further questions? Okay, so we won't vote on this until we get the other part, but we knew you were available, and we just figured we'd get you in here. So thank you for coming here tonight. Appreciate it.

Once again, thank you all very much. Thank you.

Okay. Next up we have Patricia McGowan with the Human Resources budget. That is on page 41 of the budget book.

Good evening, Councilors. I'm happy to be here and thank you for the opportunity for short people. Okay, better? Okay. Thank you for the opportunity to present to you the fiscal year 27 human resources Oh, and health insurance budgets. Is that better? Since many of you are new to the council, we wanted to give you an idea of some of the things that we do in human resource. and more importantly how our work supports the employees who deliver services to our residents every day. I have a staff of four amazing women and Assistant Director, a Benefits Coordinator, Assistant Benefits Coordinator and HR Generalist, all of whom are non-union employees. Also here with me today, I have Sushil Liu, who is the Managing Director of the HILB Group, who is our benefits consultant, all things benefits that we rely on.

Our HR team may be small in size, but they manage an extraordinary workload and continue to deliver exceptional services to more than our 4,500 city employees. one of our largest responsibilities is benefits administration. We manage health, dental, vision, life insurance, flexible spending, disability, and other benefit programs for more than 2,700 eligible employees. that includes employees who work for the city, Quincy Public Schools, Quincy College, and MassHire. We continue that support for about 2,300 retirees who earn those benefits through decades of service to the city. In terms of enrollments, we have 4,800 active employees and retirees on our health plans, 4,200 enrollees on our dental plans, over 3,200 on life insurance, 1,000 on vision, 723 on flex spending, and 138 on a disability plan. That means year-round work.

answering questions, processing enrollments, processing information regarding life event changes, qualifying events, coordinating with insurance carriers, ensuring eligibility for benefits, and helping employees and retirees navigate the complex choices during open enrollment and throughout the year. Human Resources is responsible for transitioning active employees into retirement. Once we receive notification of an impending retirement, we meet with them and walk them through the process and handle all their benefits paperwork for them. If Medicare eligible, we're able to transition them to one of our Medicare supplemental plans. So far this year, we've met with and processed 17 retirements and transferred 22 retirees to Medicare. Last year, we processed a total of 87 retirements and 67 transfers to Medicare. We also support hiring across city departments.

Our team helps department heads move from a vacancy to a filled position by coordinating postings, advising on job requirements, supporting fair and consistent selection processes and keeping searches moving so departments can maintain their service levels. Police and Fire hiring vetting process requires many steps. That includes an application process, a personal interview, evaluation process, background investigation, pre-employment physical, drug testing, physical ability tests, and a psychological evaluation, and finally securing a seat at a police or fire academy. Because our police and fire employees are civil service employees, we work closely with the Massachusetts Human Resources Department and civil service to ensure compliance with the state rules. Payroll is another critical function we manage. Every pay period we work with city departments and the finance office to ensure employees are paid accurately

and OnTime with correct deductions for taxes, retirements, benefits, direct deposits and other withholdings. Creating and adding contractual pay codes is a critical component as well. We have to ensure that negotiated compensation is implemented accurately and consistently. Contractual pay codes in the forms of wages, stipends, night and weekend differentials, Overtime and other compensation are required under the union's collective bargaining agreements. HR is responsible for manually adding all new employees into the MUNIS payroll system. We also make changes and updates to current employees be that pay codes associated with promotions, accruals, and salary tables. Payroll work involves careful coordination and adherence to contract requirements and state and federal laws. When payroll is done well, it's invisible. When it's not done, it affects families immediately. So we treat accuracy and timeliness as a non-negotiable.

HR plays a central role as the city's representative during union collective bargaining agreement negotiations. HR works to balance the operational needs of the city with the interests and concerns of employees represented by the unions. So far, we have held 67 meetings with union representatives from various unions to settle eight city contracts. We're working diligently to settle the four remaining city contracts. Once an agreement is reached, we implement the new terms of the contract that includes updating policies, creating new pay codes, training supervisors, and working with payroll and department heads to ensure compliance with the new contract. That also involves integrating the contracts and make sure that information is spread throughout. HR is responsible for all aspects of employee relations. We play a key role in setting expectations, addressing concerns, and fostering a workplace culture where employees are heard and treated fairly.

When employee disputes arise, HR works to ensure that concerns are addressed objectively and in accordance with city policies and relevant state and federal laws. Some of the miscellaneous but time-consuming tasks we deal with in human resources include receiving and processing employment applications, FOIA requests, verification of employment requests, wage garnishments, mass health requests, Direct Deposits, and Deferred Compensation Transaction. This time of year, we're working on our seasonal summer program where kids are hired for the Recreation Department, DPW, Parks, and other departments throughout the city. In short, Human Resources helps make can recruit talented people, welcome them effectively, support them throughout their careers, and pay and benefit them correctly so that they can focus on delivering the services our residents count on. With that background, now I'll move on to the Human Resources budget.

Yes. They're broken out on the budget, so if you don't mind, we'll take questions, or did you want to go through the whole thing? Whatever you prefer.

I think it would be easier to... Go ahead. I'll do my first one and then stop for questions. I'll do the human resources and then questions.

I think that would be a little bit easier to just focus first on the human resources. So this is... This would be the human resources. Yeah, 152. Any questions from the human resources side? Just the budget for human resources, and then we'll move on to the health insurance.

Madam Chair, I think this portion was her overview, I think, and now you're hoping to start your first.

Correct, now I'm going into budget.

Which would be the human resources budget. So I think up until now, it's been largely an overview. Unless I'm...

Oh. Yes. Oh, I see.

So now we'll go into the human resources budget. My apologies. OK. Go ahead.

OK. In terms of the fiscal year 2027, human resources budget, the budget for personal service, contractual and expenses, is $674,668, which is an increase of $23,276. What accounts for that increase? My staff are receiving a 3% wage increase for fiscal year 27. Three of my four staff are paid out of the human resources personal service budget. One employee, the assistant benefits coordinator, is paid out of the help Health Insurance, Personal Service Budget. Our longevity budget has increased from $1,550 to $2,150, an increase of $600. This is due to a change in the longevity tables. the budget for enhanced longevity will increase from 45,000 to 60,000 for fiscal year 27 due to contractual obligations of the QPEA and supervisory unions. they need to be budgeted whether we use it or not.

Each union allows for six members to participate in the enhanced longevity program. The remaining line items are remaining level funded for the upcoming fiscal year, including overtime, premium pay, contractual, office supplies, dues and conferences. Our overtime budget is level funded at $5,425. Our overtime budget is used primarily for the execution and the implementation of special projects throughout the year. Given that we're a very small department, We have projects that come up through the course of the year that are very labor intensive that require some of us to work late or on weekends in order to complete those. In fiscal year 26, for example, overtime has been used primarily to implement the various aspects of the recently negotiated and collective bargaining agreements, which resulted in having to create new salary tables and pay codes.

Given the ongoing special projects for the remainder of the year, I would expect that we deplete the remainder of the funds that are in this budget by the end of June. The budget for contractual services is level funded at $175,000. Contractual pays for a number of legal, consultative, investigatory, Arbitration and Mediation Services. I acknowledge that when looking at the five year historical data, there has been money left in the account in past years but this year we spent a significant amount of those funds due to the contract negotiations we've been going through this year. We've had several assessment centers for police promotions as well as a number of arbitrations. to give you an idea of what comes out of the contractual budget. We do use that for legal services. We have an outside employment and labor specialist who help us negotiate our contracts.

they also provide a wide range of legal services including impact bargaining, investigations, employee relations disputes, employee discipline issues, accommodation requests, and they also help in assisting in developing personnel policies and procedures. So about half of our contractual budget goes from outside labor and employment services. We also have the American Arbitration Association and funds for our arbitrators. We use AAA arbitrations for dispute resolutions between the unions and the cities. and the union and the city. Arbitration is a legally binding process where we can't seem to come to a solution. So they help us to resolve these disputes and guide the parties to come to a mutually agreeable resolution. We also pay out of contractual public safety consultants.

They are a consulting group that manages our police and fire assessment centers. Assessment centers are an option through civil service. whereas in the past we've relied for promotions just primarily on written tests. But public safety consultants comes in and they have a group of assessors and they will, bring in hypothetical situations or scenarios and do role playing as a way of assessing people's abilities and skills for promotion versus just a written test. So even though it's done through a civil service process, we have to bring in a consultant to run that program for us. Another thing that comes out of our contractual budget is UTMC, Unemployment Tax Management Corporation. The city contracted with UTMC during COVID, whereas you may remember during COVID that

unemployment claims were running rampant and the fraud cases were really unmanageable. So we brought them in. to help us determine what fraud was existing so we have a better handle on how that works now. They help to identify what's been received. They give us the opportunity to determine if they're fraudulent cases, the majority of which were during COVID. UTMC continues to help us identify possible fraudulent claims. They assist us in challenging some of the claims that are coming in through us, and they help us to monitor our charges to try to prevent some overcharging. they also provide guidance on some unemployment laws and policies to make sure that we're always complying with the unemployment laws. So I think that, for the most part, the bigger things that come out of our contractual budget. Our office supply budget remains at $5,500 for fiscal year 27.

that budget pays for our office supplies, our water, our envelopes, our equipment, and our employment posters. There is money left in that account which we've encumbered to pay for some equipment. which we think that we'll be using for some special projects that we'll be doing this summer and trying to scan and organize some of our police and fire applications that we have piling up in our office that we need to do a better job of streamlining. The dues budget will remain at $330. We pay for our Massachusetts Municipal Association dues from that, which is $325 per year. Our conference budget is remaining at 2,000 for the year. With the ever-changing world of human resources, we're always looking to keep up to date on what's happening in the world and the practices and HR laws that are out there. For fiscal year 26, we used funds for workshops presented by the Labor Arbitration Institute, as well as an HR boot camp that was sponsored by the MMA and Suffolk University.

so that will be staying level funded. So any questions on the human resources, personal service, contractual and current expenses budget?

Councilor Hubley.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Excuse me. So thank you very much for that really good presentation. I've often said a good presenter tries to anticipate questions that the listeners have, and a good presentation contains the answers to those anticipated questions. I came in with two questions tonight and your presentation answered both of them. The first one was about the fluctuation and the longevity and the second one was what is entailed in contractual services. My only remaining, let's say we'll put an asterisk on it, is I can see why you're keeping a level amount for the contractual services. Could you maybe add just a little bit more detailed to the sort of higher than average 2026 number, the sort of background behind that.

Yes, that's due to this year being the fact that we were negotiating all of our union contracts. So we have been really working this past year. I said the 67 meetings have been because of the contract negotiations. and all that comes with that as well. That's primarily the reason for that.

And would you anticipate either next year or, sorry, the fiscal 2027 or 28 having a similar pattern or?

It may go down a little bit, but just sort of the changing world that we live in, in terms of working with our unions very closely and having good relationships with our unions, it does bring up some issues of trying to resolve disputes or differences between those that we always feel that it's important to have the budget there for that.

Okay, great. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Nice job.

I saw Councilor McKee first, I'm sorry. Councilor McKee.

Thank you so much. That was a great presentation. You answered some of my questions, too. And I appreciate the stuff that you've sent me that I've asked for. Some of my questions are actually on that and just around processes within the department. So thank you for sending the demographic data. Looking through that, it looks like the city workforce that doesn't work for the school system is 74% male and 94% white. and I've also noticed that some last names appear multiple times in employee lists suggesting that multiple members of certain families work for the city, which raises questions for me about hiring practices.

So I'm just going to sort of go through a few things to see whether any of these are used in the department. So I believe that open positions are posted at least 10 days before filling them. And then in addition to that, does the department redact applicants' identifying information from resumes before screening them?

So let me answer the first question in terms of posting. We follow the union rules, so depending on which position that is, whether it be QPA, 1139, we have specific rules that we follow in terms of the number of days that it's posted for internal candidates to post for those jobs. So they get the first opportunity for promotion or for whatever opening is available to them. So we always follow that. And then if we don't have internal candidates, then we would go to outside candidates, whoever is available based on skills, based on abilities, based on whatever the needs are, based on licenses that may be required. If we need a mason, we have to have those types of skills. We can't just hire anybody because they want to be a mason. If we need a CDL driver, we have to have proof of a CDL license.

I guess, do you ever do kind of blind looking at resumes at all to just make sure that you can try to make everything as fair as possible?

Yeah, absolutely. When we have positions, and we do quite often have positions where somebody internal doesn't take the position or somebody internal may post for the position and they don't have the qualifications for that. when resumes, applications come in, we look through them and we say, you know, this might be a good fit if we don't have somebody to put in an administrative or clerical type of position, or this person may be great for starting off as a laborer type of position, somebody that's new and doesn't necessarily have all the skills but looks like they might possess those skills in the future that we can work with in order to get them into a position.

Okay. Yeah, I guess I'm just thinking like if you could literally just like black out the names or something like that when you're looking at the resumes, it might help. That's one idea. and then do you have a standard set of criteria to evaluate all resumes for a particular job?

I wouldn't say we have a standard set sort of the process like we go through in terms of look at their background, look at their skills, look at their experience to see what might match up closest to the vacancy that we have.

I'm just going to go through maybe these quickly and you can tell me afterwards if any of them are done. I guess these are my suggestions for possible things that could help. with Equity. So interview candidates with a panel of at least three people. Ask the same questions of every candidate applying for the same position. Score candidates using a predetermined process and save this documentation and or write a justification for chosen hires so that you know there's kind of reasons for hiring certain people. So I don't know if any of those are things that you do.

We do do some of that. Usually, depending on the position, depending on the department head's comfort level with interviewing people, I know with DPW there is a panel of people that meet with them. For all of our interviews we always ensure that all the same questions are asked. All the information is kept, it's kept in the file so that we can fairly assess a person's skill. Also, for another reason, if it comes up if somebody files a grievance, we want to be able to say that everybody was treated fairly during that interview process.

Thank you. And then kind of moving over to the union positions, some of the union positions we've seen in this budget. have had several back-to-back pay boosts in a short period of time. And I understand employees are allowed to make the case for these hikes. But is there a process to make sure that pay raises are distributed fairly so that the same people maybe aren't kind of receiving more than someone else who might be applying? Yeah, understood.

that we do have an upgrade process for that. That's something that we're constantly looking at and evaluating and knowing that we're trying to be equitable with people within the union and also be mindful that not everybody is applying for an upgrade. So we try to sort of spread that out throughout that. and that whole mix of the upgrade process.

and then a question looking at the year-to-date budget report just regular longevity looks like the original appropriation is $1,550 and then there was a transfer in of $9,664, but only the original appropriation has been expended. So I guess I'm wondering why was that transfer put into longevity when it hasn't been used?

I did not transfer that amount in. Perhaps Mr. Walker would address that?

through you, Madam Chairwoman, that I believe would have been where the raises that were negotiated would have been pumped into each individual department at some point, although in this particular case, that appears to be an error because there were no adjustments in the current fiscal year.

Okay. All right. So we can fix that presumably. Yeah. OK. So we talked about contract. I kind of missed a little bit of the enhanced longevity. I know you said that you have to budget for the full amount even if you don't use it, but I don't know what enhanced longevity means.

So enhanced longevity is a program for our members in our supervisory in our QPEA union. it allows them to, there's six in QPEA and six in supervisory that are eligible for it. So it allows them, employees who have been employees for 15 years of continuous service. They're eligible to receive an additional longevity period of $5,000 for three consecutive years. So participation is based on seniority. and it's all sort of depending on when people are ready to retire. So some years it may be completely depleted and some years it may not depending on whether people are planning in terms of their retirement.

And that's $5,000 per year for three years? Correct. After the 15 years? OK. OK, I think that's it for now. Thank you.

Ash, you were next, if you're ready. Yes.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Thank you for the presentation, Ms. McGowan. I appreciate the backgrounds and, like Councilor Hubley said, anticipating some of the questions. Similarly to that last question from Councilor McKee, what does the, I know you said the change in longevity tables, I could act like I know what that means, but if we're discussing that increase, if you could give us a background on what exactly the longevity tables are and how they're used in your practice.

So employees with QPA and supervisory receive a longevity payment depending on their years of service with the city. So during this recent contract negotiations, we increased some of those. They go five, 10, 15, 20, 25 years. So they receive a payment once a year depending on the years of service that they have with the city. So as part of our contract negotiations, we bumped up those tables.

Understood. I know you mentioned there's eight union contracts settled and you have four remaining, is that right? Yes. are out of those 12 union contracts, are they all in the same cycle?

Yes.

Are they all three-year contracts? Yes.

Okay.

What four contracts are remaining, if you're at liberty to disclose that? If you're not, I understand.

Sure. Fire mechanics, we've started. Traffic supervisors, we've started. And I believe we're very close with them. Fire Alarm, we're meeting with tomorrow, and Library is still to be settled. We're in mediation with the Library Union.

Does that go to mediation or to arbitration?

Mediation.

Okay.

we've had a couple of mediation sessions.

And then if not, then the contracted services, I believe you said legal, UTMC, and then American Arbitration Association?

Yes, those all come out of the contractual budget.

With respect to UTMC, I know you mentioned during the pandemic how helpful that contract was. have you noticed those claims go down since that time?

They've gone down significantly because they were out of control during COVID. Essentially DUI was approving every claim that was coming through during COVID and sort of worrying about it afterwards. And it was, you know, every municipality was dealing with a problem with that. So, but we still, UTMC on a regular basis, still will contact both the city side as well as the school side to check on an employee. And we will call that employee to find out if they have filed an unemployment claim. And if they haven't, talk them through the process of filing a fraudulent claim with DUI.

Thank you. And then with respect to the conferences line item, what is that usually used for?

arbitration sessions, seminars, things that we would like to go to in order to try to learn more about the work that we do in human resources.

Great, thank you.

You're welcome.

Yuan. Councilor Yuan. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. So the question is about the contract Could you provide a detailed breakdown of all contracted services? I mean dollar amount. How much is spent on legal services? how much you spend on consulting, how much you spend on labor relations report, like do you have like a,

In terms of the legal and what I did just some math and my contractual of what we've spent this year in terms of legal services, I have it being about 55% of our contractual budget has gone to legal services. Again, the majority of that is a result of our contract negotiations that we have done this year. Could you provide the dollar amount? from what I did from the math, I have 97,192 for legal services.

So if you can provide a detailed breakdown of each services, how much money that will be helpful.

and a printout that shows everything that was paid out of that budget. So I can email that to you tomorrow.

Thank you. My second question is, so the item number 510088, it's a human resources journalist. That position seems created, just created from 2025. She started in 24, so fiscal year 25.

We added a new position in the department.

Okay, so my question is what workload is currently not being handled by existing staff? Why you have to create a new position?

Basically just because, again, the numbers of people that we service. the number of phone calls that come into the department. We're overrun with the number of applications that we get on a daily basis. We're trying to streamline a lot of the work that we do. Relying on my Assistant Director to handle a lot of the day-to-day operations is difficult, so we brought in a new person so that we could have a person designated for handling strictly direct deposits, a person that handles all the accruals for the city, all of the applications that come in. handling all the postings, the job notifications that come in. So there's a lot of work to be done in human resources and just not enough staff to handle it.

Okay, so was a workload analysis completed before creating this position? I'm sorry? was a workload analysis completed before creating this position, the formal analysis? Yes.

Yuan, could I just ask one question, though? Ms. McGowan, it looks like you actually eliminated a human resource generalist, though, and then created, so were those positions swapped? we have a five year look back. So it looked like there was a human resources generalist, I'm sorry, the assistant benefits coordinator. There was an assistant benefits coordinator position in 21, 22, 23 and 24. those have since been zeroed out and the 25 and 26 is the human resource generalist.

So the reason for that is because the assistant benefits coordinator was switched over to be paid out of the health insurance line. Okay. So you'll see that on the next budget. Okay. So those two are not related. Thank you. Yes.

I'm sorry. I didn't know if those two were related, but it turns out they're not.

Did you have more questions?

No, I'm finished.

You're all set? Yeah. Okay. Anyone else? Councilor DiBona.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Patty, good to see you tonight. Thank you for your presentation. Very thorough. Very detailed. I appreciate you're a valuable asset to the city of Quincy, your experience with both administrations, which has been huge. I know I've worked with you for over 10 plus years. I think basically I'm looking at the packet. and then thinking the background investigation, the candidate evaluation, working with the state has been a huge asset, especially with firefighters and police coming on and going through those backgrounds. You just put everything in a nutshell. You do it every year. Every year you come up here and you're on point. And you have all the material here that's in front of us. So with that, I'd like to make a motion to approve.

Thank you.

Okay, so we do have a motion to approve as is, but Councilor Jacobs.

So I'm going to also make a motion. This is the same. series of events we had last time. I'll make a motion to cut from the overtime budget by $1,000. So the overtime as proposed is $5,425. make a motion to cut $1,000 and make it $4,425?

Okay, we have a motion to cut line item 510130 by $1,000. We'll take a roll call vote unless there's any discussion on the motion.

I have the motion first. I'm going to keep that on the table. Let's go with that one first.

OK. Motion to accept this budget as is. Any discussion on that motion?

Ash, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, Mahoney, McKee, Ryan, Yuan, Chairman Riley? Yes.

Okay. So moving on to the health insurance. Okay.

the fiscal year budget for the overall health insurance budget is $66,905,601. This is an increase of $2,316,621 over fiscal year 26. I'll talk a little bit more about health insurance in a second. The budget for tuition reimbursement remains at $14,000. These are contractual obligations of the QPA and Supervisory Union. The budget for Medicare refunds is increasing by $203,760 to $2.9 million, which is a 7.4% increase. This increase is due to a 10% increase in the Medicare poppy premium to $202.90 from $185. The city reimburses approximately 2,400 Medicare retirees and spouses.

55% of their Medicare pot be premium on an annual basis. The budget for medical insurance is just over $61 million, which is increase of $2,035,406 from last fiscal year, representing a 3.4% increase. This number would actually be higher, but Quincy College and the city have agreed that the city will no longer be covering the employer portion, which is about $2 million. the premiums for the city's active plans are increasing by 6.5%. As a point of comparison, the Group Insurance Commission, which is the division of the state that manages the health insurance for all state employees and retirees is seeing an average increase of 8% across the board for all of their non-Medicare active plans. just to give you a little bit of background in terms of healthcare. The rising cost of healthcare impacts all of us. No one is immune to the impact of the cost of healthcare.

The healthcare market is facing increased demand driven by different factors, including the rising demand for services driven by chronic diseases, aging populations, and advancements in technology. We're seeing increased costs that are due to inflation, labor shortages, and contract renegotiations between providers and carriers, among other things. providers are feeling the pinch as well. Cost pressures they're feeling are due to low reimbursements under Medicare and Medicaid, as well as rising expenses of providers, all of which are passed on to us, the consumers. We're also seeing the runoff effect of COVID with increased severity in claims and diseases due to inaccessibility of services during COVID. Prescription costs are escalating due to the increase in chronic diseases and the need for advanced treatments, the influx of specialty drugs into the marketplace, GLP-1 medications for weight loss and the high cost of developing new drugs.

Blue Cross Blue Shield has dropped GLP-1 medications for weight loss from their formulary. So effective July 1st, we will no longer be offering GLP-1 benefit for weight loss. GLP-1 medications prescribed for weight loss have become a significant driver of cost for all enrollees. In fact, in 2025, GLP-1 utilization for weight loss cost the City of Quincy $3.3 million and is tracking to cost $5 million in 2026. that ends up being about 8% of the city's total annual claims. In terms of the Quincy's claims utilization, we've seen a 10% increase in inpatient claims a 10% increase in outpatient claims and a 55% increase in pharmacy claims. We're also seeing a significant number of large claims.

Yet-to-date fiscal year 26, we have 44 members who have claims over $125,000, which totals $9.8 million with three months remaining of incurred claims. You might be asking yourself why there is $52,658,360 in the medical insurance line item. We have a separate internal service fund which pays for our self-insured plans and programs. that includes our PPO plan, our HMO plan, our MedEx plan, our dental plans, and our vision plan. It also pays for our stop loss payments and the abacus diabetes management programs, which I'll touch on in a moment. The general fund for medical insurance pays for our other expenses. That includes our other Medicare supplemental plan, the manageable for seniors plan, our Medicare prescription drug plans, which is called PDP, and our consulting services with the Hill Group.

So that accounts for the $6,306,897 that you see on your sheets. At the end of the fiscal year, the Municipal Finance Office will do a year in journal and transfer the funds from the medical insurance line item into the internal service fund to cover those expenses. In terms of dental insurance, the budget for dental insurance is increasing to $2,035,314, which is an increase of about 86,000 or 4.4%. The budget increase is due to increased enrollment in the plans. High utilization in the plans and an increased cost. Blue Cross Blue Shield bundles, because we have dental plans through Blue Cross Blue Shield now, they bundle their bills. So the dental bills come in bundled with our health insurance bills. So just as I stated with the medical insurance, the dental bills have been paid out of the Internal Service Fund.

So as you can see, there's a balance of 1.948195 in the dental line item. I projected that 1.9 million will need to be transferred from the dental insurance line item into the internal service fund to pay for those expenses. The 1,108 that you see that's been expended this year represents some runoff claims from Delta Dental. for Life Insurance. That budget is decreasing about $10,000 to $676,565, which is a decrease of 1.54%. Miscellaneous Employee Screenings, it's level funded at $108,429. This budget is used to cover the various personnel related screening expenses for our employees and our and potential employees.

These costs include pre-employment physicals, drug and alcohol testing, random Department of Transportation testing for CDL drivers, psychological evaluations and our EAP program. Our flex spending is level funded for the year. We have May and June bills still to pay this fiscal year, so I anticipate using the remainder of those funds. One of the programs that I wanted to talk about was our abacus diabetes management program. We've embraced this partnership with them. this program helps employees and their dependents take a more active role in managing their diabetes by encouraging regular engagement with their doctors, completing important preventative care, and working with diabetic educators on lifestyle improvements. Through these efforts, participants are better managing their condition, which is leading to fewer complications and a reduced need for hospital care.

Members who participate in the program benefit from lower out-of-pocket costs in the form of waived co-payments for medications and supplies, but more importantly, they're healthier, they're more supported and they're equipped to manage their condition. The goal of the program is to improve the health of our employees with a diabetes diagnosis and reduce medical cost trends for diabetes and related comorbidities. Some of the specific results that we're seeing for the City of Quincy for fiscal year 25 indicate that prevention and avoidance of 51 hospital admissions for our diabetes population. Blood glucose management has seen significant improvements. resulting in lower A1C levels and fewer complications associated with diabetes. For the four years in which we've had the program, hospital admissions have been lower than pre-programmed baseline in all four years.

This translates to the prevention and avoidance of 98 hospital admissions during those four years with over 3.3 million in avoided inpatient hospital claim costs. Any questions?

McGee.

So looking at the tuition reimbursement line, I know this is a union contract, but it doesn't look like this has been used at all this year. And the maximum used in the last five years was in 2024 for $4,194. I guess it's $14,000 budgeted, but I would like to make a motion to cut that to $5,000.

it's a contractual obligation with those unions though.

But it's not used?

it's available for them. So if members are taking a class, for example, if somebody's taking a class, somebody's taking a master's program, say somebody in the health department is getting a master's in public health, Those funds are there available for us. It just happens to be that the last several years, people haven't fully used those, but it's available for them to use.

Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome.

leaving money on the table.

What about, oh, sorry, can I?

No, I have a follow-up question to that. So is it just used for like higher ed or can it be used for? Seminars or certificates? It's for educational funds.

Higher ed. It has to be a degree program or something. Career advancement, yes.

Do you have another question?

Yes. So for the life insurance as well, It looks like the maximum used is $600,000. I know that's also uncertain what you'll need. do you think we could cut this to $630,000?

The reason that we We did decrease it, but the reason that I would like to keep it at this is we're expecting to do a special open enrollment in the fall. Life Insurance isn't like all our other benefits where they're up for renewal every year during our annual spring open enrollment. Boston Mutual does not open Life Insurance up for new transactions every year. It's usually every three or four years that they do it. So we're planning one in September. and we're always advocating for people to obviously to sign up for life insurance. Especially we have a younger demographic who doesn't think that they need life insurance so we're always trying to market it as a, as a good plan that people should be enrolling in. So again, it's hard to estimate, but in the past years when we have had a special open enrollment, we've had some pretty good increases in the enrollment that we see.

Okay, all right, thank you. Anyone else?

Nope. Ryan. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I just have a question on the Medicare refunds. I understand that the City reimburses 55% of the Medicare Part B refunds. Is that a contractual agreement?

It is through our PEC, so under Massachusetts Chapter 32B, where municipalities are allowed to require retirees who reach the age of 65 to enroll in Medicare Part B. So because they're incurring an extra cost through our PEC agreement with the unions, we've agreed to do that 55% reimbursement.

Okay, and this is across most municipalities? Yes. Okay, okay. Also, with regards to claims, do you have a third party vendor that audits the claims? That's why we have our Hill group here. Oh, cool. Cool. Thank you, guys. Thank you. And what has been the results of your past audits? Have you seen clean claims? I mean, do you audit a percentage of the population?

Could you come up to the podium please? Thank you.

Hi. Thank you for that question. And I'm just getting over laryngitis, so I apologize for my voice. We are not doing an actual audit of the claims, but when you have a member who has significant claims and they hit your stop-loss limit, which is the insurance product that you purchase, to protect the city's costs from these large claims, then those claims are, we have gone through those claims just to make sure that they all fall within the contract period, et cetera, et cetera. I think it used to be in years past before claims were paid electronically, I'm going back a long time, because I've been doing this a very long time.

There definitely were a lot more errors and the need for auditing, but because claims are paid electronically, there are processes within Blue Cross looking for auto accidents, workers' comp claims, claims that have been paid by the city's health insurance plan that really are the responsibility of another party.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. And then I have one last question with regards to the abacus. Diabetes Management Program. How long has that been in existence? Four years. Four years. And you've seen a definite improvement with regards to, I don't know if you would see it, but there must be an improvement in the management of diabetes.

There is, yeah, just some of the, you know, information that I just gave, but Quincy is doing quite well. When we meet with them regularly, our enrollment, our engagement in it is quite high. So we're very, very pleased with the results that we're getting from it. And then just the fact that if we can avoid, which is our goal, to avoid hospitalization and having these high claims, then that's a win-win for everybody. and the city pays for this program? Yes. So do you want to explain the payment of it?

Yeah. So there is There is a fee for the program, but you're also the fee is offset multiple times by the return on the investment because you are saving claims dollars so you're investing in the administrative fees, but you're reducing your claims costs by the elimination of hospitalizations. that you're preventing. So it's a net savings. Okay.

Just out of curiosity, do you know what the fee is per employee?

Yes.

Okay, yeah, that would be greatly appreciated. I've had some exposure to family members who have had diabetes, so I understand perfectly the need for a program such as this, so thank you.

Yes, yep, it's a great program.

Yeah, thank you.

That's it.

Councilor DiBona.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Patty, good to see you again here for this budget. You know, I consider this as a top five. The big threes being education, police, fire, and then it's pensions and health insurance is the top five components that I see every year. that are tough budgets. The rising health care costs throughout the nation affects us here in our municipality. Just looking back on time, you've been with us for quite a while. When did we make that transition from the GIC remember we could do Harvard Pilgrim, Tufts, and then we switched over to Blue Cross Blue Shield. Was that? 2018. 2018. Because prior to that, we restructured a lot in the city. and talk about cuts. We were able to cut actually $250,000 back then for appropriation of funding that was in there that we could do.

So just looking back on time, I guess I could say, the restructure in my personal opinion has been a huge asset to the city going over to Blue Cross Blue Shield. I think you've saved the city quite a bit of of millions of dollars over these course of the years by making that switch. I saw it every year where we are today. do you foresee the trajectory of this with the rising healthcare costs across the nation? Is it something that we can't get away from here in our municipality?

It's hard to say. Sue probably has a better idea of the marketplace that's out there. I think I kind of say every year I wish I had a crystal ball to say what's going to happen, but we continue to see the rising costs of when is it going to stop. But, you know, again, technology, prescription drugs, as we become more advanced, that's going to impact all of us. You know, we're living longer. We're living healthier lives. It's hard to say the balance between the two, but it's hard to project what's going to happen in the future. So do you have anything you want to add to that?

I think really the only thing I want to drive home is that I've been doing this for 39 years. I provide health insurance consulting services just to Massachusetts municipalities. We're currently working with over 60 cities and towns in Massachusetts. Some are in the GIC. Some are self-insured, such as the city of Quincy. They're in other joint purchasing groups. In my career, I would say that this has been the hardest year I have ever experienced, which means it's the hardest year that you're all experiencing. Koss are through the roof. I know Patty touched on a bunch of the reasons why, which I don't need to get into that again, but... Bless you. I would say in the last five. Starting five years ago when we met our friend COVID.

Things became very, very unpredictable. I would say that they're still unpredictable, not only because of COVID, but we are still seeing the runoff effects of people not having services. starting in the spring of 2020. We're still seeing those effects. And then costs are just going through the roof. We will continually evaluate to make sure that the City of Quincy is purchasing their health insurance in the best manner for your employees, your retirees, and your taxpayers. But as Patty's saying, everything is very unpredictable right now, but that is something that we will continue to monitor, explore other options, different programs that can be implemented to try and

give the city the opportunity to continue to provide great health insurance to your employees, but at the same time be responsible to your taxpayers.

Thank you for all your hard work. I appreciate your expertise in this field. And with that, I'd like to make a motion to approve this budget.

Okay, we have a motion to approve the budget as presented.

Yan. I have a question about the last item, 570A11, so flexible spending. Yes. From the past five years, the highest spending is $48,547. I would like to make a motion to cut $4,000 on this item. So that's still more than your highest spending within the last five years.

Can I just ask a clarifying question? Is that for the administration of the plan? Flexible spending, at least in my experience, is employee-funded.

It is employee funded, but the city pays an administrative fee. So that's just to administer it? Yes, and we pay a per person fee for the debit cards that we have that are sent out to the employees.

Okay.

and I believe, yeah, it's a $50 admin fee and yes, there's a couple different fees with it, but it's all admin fees.

So we do have a motion to approve this budget as amended, unless you want to withdraw it, Councilor DiBona? Okay, we'll take a roll call vote then.

This is local on which one?

To pass.

To pass it. There's already a motion on the floor.

Ash, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Ryan, Yuan.

Yes.

I honestly.

Okay, so now we have a motion from Council UN to cut line item five 70811 by $1,000. What was the number?

Cut $4,000.

So it would be reduced to $49,250?

And if you go over, you can come back to us if it were to pass.

Are you ready for a roll call? We'll take a roll call vote on the cut.

Councilor Ash? Yes. Council DiBona? No. Council Hubley?

No.

Jacobs, yes, Councilor McKee, yes, Councilor Ryan, yes, Councilor Yuan, yes, yes, Councilor Yuan, okay.

for the item 570A life insurance, even though Councilor McKee asked that question. and because compare the historical spending, it's still big difference between actual spending in the budget. So I would like to make a motion to cut $70,000 on this item. So it will be still more than the highest spending. of this item for five years.

So we have a motion to cut this line item. On the motion, I would just like to ask a question. Are you definitely going to be offering open enrollment? I attended both of your open enrollment. Very well done. Thank you. And they did mention that, that they don't open it to existing employees every year. It's like every three years. So if you didn't jump on when you were first hired, and more than like they said, they don't do that because they generally do get a pretty good response. So it's definitely in the works for the fall. Okay. So that would be the only thing to keep in mind. Hubley.

Point of order. It might just be me, but I really couldn't hear much of which one we were talking about. So before we do that, do something.

So Councilor Yuan has a motion. to cut the line item for life insurance, 570808, by $70,000, correct? That would reduce that line item down to $606,565. So we have a motion on that. Any discussion on the motion? Councilor DiBona?

I feel that I won't be supporting this cut. I feel that the services for this health insurance budget is very important and vital for the people that but it's still life insurance and it's allowing the opportunity to promote it like Ms. McGowan said so I won't be supporting this, no.

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, she would have to come back if we went over on it. I mean, we'd have to fund it, but she'd have to come back with a special... No, I'm supporting the cut. Okay, that's fine.

Did you have something? McKee.

I might not support quite that big of a cut, but after we go through this, I'll make a motion to Cut to $640,000. So I'm just putting that out there.

Okay. If there's no further discussion, I'd like to take a roll call on the first motion. Oh, Councilor Hubley.

Sorry. Yeah, on the motion, I'd like to ask the department head what... She thinks the implications of a cut, whether it's the one proposed by Councilor Yuan or Councilor McKee, if you could just maybe give us some thoughts on that.

Yeah, I would oppose any kind of cut on it. Again, I would hate to not have the funds in order to cover life insurance for our employees. It's a valuable benefit for our employees. knowing that we're going to have a special open enrollment during the fall. I think it's important to have the funds there to provide that.

So it's a valuable program service, rather, for existing employees, also a way of attracting new employees.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

A few years ago, we increased the benefit from $7,500 to $10,000. So, you know, it's something that we're getting more people interested in as well.

And do you see, how do we... sit in terms of competitiveness among other, whether it's even municipalities or other private sector? Would this be something that we could not attract good talent because we do that?

Yeah, I mean, it's something that when we bring new employees in that they ask as part of our benefit package. It's also important to know that We also have a voluntary life plan, but in order to have the voluntary life plan, you have to have the basic life. So the voluntary life plan could give you up to a much richer benefit, but in order to do that, you have to have the basic life as well.

and to get these types of plans outside of work might be challenging?

They could be, depending on the demographics, the age, whatever you might have happening, but yes.

All right, so yeah, I won't be supporting this cut, thank you.

Okay.

Councilor Ryan? Yes, to you, Madam Chair. So this basic life insurance is being increased from $7,500 to $10,000? It was several years ago.

It's currently a $10,000 policy.

And this is a basic life insurance that is available to all employees?

Yes, and when you're an active employee, you can take that basic life policy into retirement with you. So our retirees are counting on this plan.

Okay, and there's no premiums that's involved with this basic life insurance?

the city pays 75% of the premium.

Okay, so there is a 25% premium?

Yes, very minimal.

And is that used as an offset for this account?

The 75% is paid through this account.

Okay, okay, okay. And the last time you did a special enrollment, that was three years ago. Do you, off the top of your head, remember if there was a large enrollment in that?

I don't know what the numbers are, but we were pleasantly very happy with the enrollment that we saw.

Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you. I'm just going to take liberty. Maybe, Mr. Walker, you could answer this question. It's not like we can deny the benefits. If you get all the people signed up, we're going to have to fund it, but she would have to come back here to this body for additional funding. I'm sorry.

Madam Chairwoman, as you know, I don't know exactly under which line it lies. I'm not looking at it directly. but there is flexibility within each individual category of the budget, personal services, contractual expenses, that there could be some wiggle room to make up any cost if they happen to run in deficit.

Okay. But if it doesn't get used, it gets swept into free cash? Is that where it goes? Yes. Okay. That's the purpose, I think, of usually the cuts that we have been proposing. So we do have a motion. on the table for the $70,000 cut, correct? That's where we're at. Could we take a roll call, please?

Councilor Ash? No. Councilor DiBona? No. Councilor Hubley? No. Councilor Jacobs? Yes. Councilor McKee? Yes. Councilor Ryan? Yes, Councilor Yuan. Yes, Chairman Riley.

No.

Much more again.

Okay.

I'll make a motion for it. Hang on a second.

McKee. So I assume that the year where there was the last open enrollment was coming out of the 2024 budget because that looks like the highest number in recent years, which is 600,000. So I make a motion to reduce this budget to $640,000.

$640,000 even, the line item?

Mm-hmm.

570808. So we have a motion to reduce that line item to $640,000. I don't, I'd have to.

$36,565.

Thank you. Okay, so we have the motion on the table to reduce that line item. on the motion, Councilor Yuan?

Oh, just to clarify, so we voted four to four, four to four, so what's the result? It doesn't pass.

It's pass or not pass?

It doesn't pass. Didn't pass. This is the... Oh, four to four is not a pass. I get it.

Yeah. There's not enough votes to pass it.

So you said Tai.

Yes. Okay. So there's not enough votes to...

So it doesn't exist anymore.

So we have the motion on the table to reduce it to $640,000 even. If there's no discussion, I'd like to take a roll call.

Ash, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Ryan, Yuan, Chairman Riley.

Okay, so that motion passed, correct? Okay. Any further discussion on this budget? From Councilor DiBona, we have a motion to approve this as amended. Any discussion on the motion? Roll call vote please.

Yes. Thank you, Patty.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Councilor Ryan. Thank you very much, Patty. Okay, next up we have Commissioner Murphy with the Natural Resources Department budget. Page 59 in the budget book. Good evening, Commissioner.

Good evening Madam Chair, good evening members of the City Council. Before you tonight is the fiscal year 27 operating budget for the Department of Natural Resources. The men and women of this department work tirelessly to serve our taxpayers and take great pride in their work. Many of them are with me tonight, and I would like to thank them for their incredible work in making Quincy's parks, open spaces, and rec programs the best around. We also employ over 300 seasonal employees to augment our staff during our busiest season. I want to thank and recognize our volunteers on the Park and Recreation Board and the Cemetery Board of Managers who donate their time to help improve our great city. Why are our parks so important? In Massachusetts, homes within a quarter mile of a park are valued anywhere from 8% to 20% higher than the average homes. During the pandemic, our parks helped our residents deal with physical and mental health challenges of the shutdowns. and our great park system creates a healthier city and a higher quality of life. An investment in our parks is an investment in our people.

Our efforts to plant trees and protect flood prone and waterfront open spaces are the front line of defense against climate change. In the past five years, we have planted over 3,000 trees along our streets, in our parks, on our school grounds, and in our cemeteries. Our new Right Tree, Right Spot program ensures a long-term success of our future urban forest. Beyond the obvious environmental benefits, mature street trees also add 7% to 15% to property values in Massachusetts. Working with our environmental scientists, we have just completed the restoration of Sailor's Pond and removed decades of polluted sediment from this neighborhood treasure. We're now working on the Rock Island Cove and Howes Neck to preserve salt marsh through the help of a Living Shoreline grant. Our new invasive species control committee has launched critical cleanups of invasive plants all around our city. Our coordinator of heritage has done incredible work restoring the natural landscape at Squaw Rock Park and has performed similar work in Marymount Park as well.

She has helped restore a number of historic monuments and cultural landscapes throughout our city. The Furnacebrook Golf Course continues to generate additional revenue each year, with more than $1.4 million in revenue expected for fiscal year 26. This is an approximate 64% increase over the past three and a half years. We are anticipating a net revenue budget surplus in excess of $350,000 for fiscal year 26. Our new simulators generated almost $100,000 in the first year and expect to increase in the coming years. This course has benefited more than just golfers. The Clubhouse Restaurant has been well received by everyone, especially the neighbors. In homes in Massachusetts that are in close proximity to a decent golf course, increase in value by 15 to 30%. but as important as the revenue is the function of the course within the community. We are proud to host the Quincy North Quincy Girls Golf Team, the Quincy High Boys Team, the Big Sister Little Sister Program,

the Quincy Recreation Golf Clinics, the Special Olympics, the Southwest Middle School Tournament and a host of other community events and happenings. Each year, our department issues close to 1,700 permits for field use by youth sports, middle, high school and college sports, club sports and adult leagues. Youth and school sports make up about 75% of the permits issued annually, and we now have two picnic facilities for family and corporate outings. Our park and field maintenance program has provided our residents with the best park system around. We maintain more than 118 locations throughout the city, cutting grass, removing litter and trash, planting flowers, maintaining flags, and keeping Quincy cleaner and greener every day. And during the summer months, we maintain 10 city-owned beaches. Our in-house park construction team saves the city hundreds of thousands of dollars by performing in-house what most departments must contract out.

We support or run many of the events that make our city a community. We support Lunar New Year events, President's Day celebrations, Arbor Day celebrations, Earth Day, Adopt an Island, Neat Neighbors Contest, Clean and Green at Quincy, Memorial Day Parade and Observance, The Flag Day Celebration. Shameless plug, this Saturday, 7 o'clock is the parade, 9 o'clock is the fireworks. Best day of the year in Quincy. Quincy Pride Day, neighborhood 4th of July events, the Maritime Festival of Marina Bay, the Summer Concert Series in the Common, the Ruth Gordon Summer Concert Series, Veterans Day observance, Christmas events, including the Big Parade, Santa's Arrival, and numerous neighborhood tree lightings. We do our best work during other people's leisure time. Our cemetery division oversees six municipal cemeteries, Mount Walliston, Pine Hill, Hall Cemetery, Old Sailor's Home, Hancock Cemetery, and Snug Harbor Cemetery. we provide a proper and respectful final resting place for over 100,000 former residents at our various cemeteries.

This month, we are finishing the expansion and improvement of the Pine Hill Cemetery, ensuring the Quincy residents have available burial space for the next decade. Our recreation programs offer something for everyone. from swimming lessons to basketball leagues, from track club to special needs programming, ice skating lessons to boating and sailing, senior Olympics to talk time programs, from family swim to pickleball tournaments, from summer playgrounds to winter gyms, Our new adult programming has been a smash hit and our night playground program provides helpful structure for at-risk youth. If I have gone on too long, I apologize, but this is only a glimpse of the great work done by this department. The proposed Fiscal Year 27 budget is very similar to the Fiscal Year 26 DNR budget. The primary differences, and we'll get into the details, are that we are seeking increases associated with the collective bargain agreement with Local 1139,

We're also seeking a $45,000 increase in seasonal help at the Furnacebrook Golf Course to manage and service the increased business at the course. We are victims of our own success and we are requesting additional resources to manage the increased activity and business. We are requesting level funding across the board in parks, DNR, cemetery and recreation for both our contractual and expense lines. I hope the detailed packet I sent out last week helped Councilors understand our budget and our mission. My team and I are willing to answer any questions you have to support this budget request. Finally, I want to thank Mayor Koch for his continued support and thank you, the City Council, for your consideration in all the work that you have put into this budget process. Would you like me to start on the cemetery budget first?

Yes, we will begin with the cemetery budget.

So just a very brief overview. The cemetery budget has a couple of points of note that I want to point out. There are two open positions currently that we are hoping to fill, the heavy MEO position and the mason position. Unfortunately, this past year, our cemetery mason, Richie Brooks, died suddenly at the age of 52 years old, a real shock to the department, and he's missed tremendously. We have posted this position in the past, The salary that the city posts for a skilled position like a mason makes it difficult to fill. but it's a position that we desperately need. We have been shifting the Park Mason around to try to cover the amount of need they have in pouring foundations, repairing stones, and some of the important work that the Cemetery Mason does. but we really would like to fill that position. It's currently being advertised right now with the help of Patty McGowan, the HR department.

The other position that is open and we would like to fill is the heavy MEO position. Our two machine operators are closer to the end of their career than the start of their career. both of whom are great workers and have battled various ailments. They're entitled to vacations and sick time, and it's important that we have capable machine operators, and we dig graves for a living, and it's important that we have the appropriate amount of machine operators to perform that critical function. As you'll see, the shift in the labor garden position, part of the 11 to 39 contract in a labor garden position in good standing, after one year moves up into a cemetery maintenance position. It's the same thing on the park side that you'll see when we get into that. And that's why the labor gardener line is zeroed out and those positions have been moved into the cemetery maintenance person position.

Hubley.

Yes, thank you, Commissioner Murphy. That was a very helpful presentation. Just two questions. So the first one is, 512601, just if you could maybe elaborate more on the fluctuation of there between 2526 and the proposed 27 number, which is 412, which is much higher than the 26 and the 25.

Yes, that is the, through you, Madam President, Madam Chair, Councilor Hubley, that is the change from the labor garden positions have been moved into the cemetery maintenance person position. So you'll see that the approximate total of the cemetery maintenance position and the labor garden position squares out to the request for the upcoming year. There are eight positions in that title. All of the cemetery labor guidance are eligible and have been promoted up into the cemetery man and person positions.

Okay, and are those the same, are the Mason positions kind of shared between cemetery and other functions within your organization, or are there separate ones in different organizations?

So there's a Mason position within the cemetery department. There's a Mason position within the park and DNR department. Right now, the person is doing double duty, and there are important functions that aren't being completed as a result. would really like to fill that position on the cemetery side.

Yeah, that explains why. So I put a request in for some masonry work done at the, was it the, sorry, Montclair Elementary School in They're going to get to it, but it's just taking a little time because you're kind of strapped on resources there, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's all I have. Thank you.

McGee.

I think I just wanted to point out there might be another error in the longevity line. that we might need to correct because it's 510140 in the year-to-date budget report it looks like $30,174 has been transferred in but not used at all so that probably needs to go as well. And then there's There is a line in the year-to-date budget for CDL hoisting 510163 but it doesn't appear in the budget details so I don't know if that's also a something that needs to be corrected. Could you clarify which line item was the?

Yes, so 510163 appears in the Year-to-date Budget Report, CDL Hoisting. Yeah, and it doesn't appear in the budget book page. Yeah. And then just for questions, I wanted to know, it looks like there's been a lot of overtime use. And I might be naive, but I would assume that like cemetery work would be fairly You could kind of plan it out, but maybe that's wrong. Why are the overtime amounts higher than budgeted?

Through you, Madam Chair, there are two basic reasons for that, Councilor. One is Saturday funerals. We can't predict how many funerals are going to come in on Saturdays. For example, during COVID, this particular line item was much higher. because the funeral homes are spreading out the wakes and we're having more and more Saturday funerals. Our overtime line is actually down from three years ago because of that. There are still Saturday funerals, but there are fewer now that the pandemic has ended. The other piece of that is much of that overtime deals with getting ready for the significant times of year, particularly Mother's Day, Memorial Day, and Father's Day. and those three days tend to be the busiest three days in the cemetery all in the same time of year. So we will use particularly around Memorial Day to get ready for the events at the cemetery a significant amount of time to get all of our six cemeteries in tip-top shape.

Okay, thank you. And then the... Let's see, it looks like the line item for summer help has been over budget the last two years, like 2024 and 2025. No, that's okay. Clothing has been over budget the last two years, but it's now budgeted for 8,750, but it's been up around 16,000 for the last two years, so I just wondered.

You're through, Madam Chair. I did talk to Municipal Finance about that. That represents, they only picked up one of the two payments in the contract. So in discussing with them, it was less than 1% of the overall budget was de minimis. so we can manage our way through that and they will receive their full clothing allowance.

Okay.

Okay, and I guess looking at the tool allowance, 510192, That's budgeted at $3,120, but the highest amount in the last five years has been $708. So I'm making a motion to cut that line item to $1,200.

Okay, we have a motion to cut the tool allowance line item to $1,200.

Is that what you said? To $1,200, yeah. From? $3,120. Yes, 3,120. Just make a note here.

Okay, any discussion on that motion? Hubley.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Through you, Commissioner Murphy, what do you think the implications of a cut in this line item would be?

through you, Madam Chair. I think that can be absorbed. It is a contractual benefit. There are two positions eligible. And like I said, one of the two is the mason, which we haven't been able to fill. So I think we could absorb that cut.

And you said there's a contractual obligation to provide said tools, correct?

Correct. But that is within the range that we could provide it.

Okay. All right. Thank you, sir.

All set. Any other questions?

Okay, on the motion to cut, do we need a roll call vote or can we just all in favor? Roll call, please.

Ash, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Ryan, Yuan, Ryan.

Okay. Any other discussion on the budget? Councilor Yuan? Are you all set? I'm sorry, yes, I'm all set. Yuen.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. So I have a question. For the item 512601, cemetery maintenance man, how many positions in that item?

Those are eight, Councilor.

Eight positions?

Eight positions.

Okay. And you said that you moved the laborer or gardener to this item, correct?

That is correct. Under the collective bargaining agreement with Local 1139, anybody that was in the labor gardener position essentially got promoted into cemetery maintenance position if they had a year on the job in good standing, which all of our employees do.

Okay, so they get promoted, that means their salary increased, correct?

Yes, I think it's a... I don't have the chart in front of me. I think it's about $2000.

Okay, because I add up the two items in 2026 budget, the item 512601, that's... $56,066 and add that to item 512600. That's 2026 budget is 320,536. Added together is 376,000. but you budget for 412,000, so I'm just asking what's that increase?

My understanding is that's the increase associated with the higher rate of pay that the cemetery maintenance position gets over the labor garden position.

You mean salary increase?

Yes.

Any other questions, Councilor? But I see the actual spending for these two items, fiscal year 2025, add these two items, actual spending is $322,476. In the 2026, these two items add together because only like 20 days left is kind of almost over fiscal year 2026, and these two items added together is 336,000. so compare the actual spending and your budget is over that actual spending.

You're talking about the cemetery maintenance position is over right now?

Yeah, the neighbor gardener and the cemetery maintenance man, that are two items, because you shift to one item, so I added these two items, actual spending together.

Yes, the actual spending in fiscal 26 on the cemetery maintenance position is over because the labor gardeners were moved into that line after the contract was settled in the fall. So those folks were moved into that line. That's why that line is in deficit and there's available funds in the labor garden position. and that's why they combined in the upcoming fiscal year.

Yes, I added these two items together, come up with number 336,045. That's the 2026 actual spending now.

Could I just ask a quick question? So how many of the gardeners, labor gardeners, were promoted into the new position? And you said it was halfway through the year?

Yes, seven of the eight.

Okay.

So it was a pretty substantial amount which would result in a jump.

So now you have no labor, gardeners, they're all cemetery maintenance? Correct. I'm not sure about your numbers, Councilor, but I can see where they shifted with a little bit of a promotion. And the contract resulted probably in an increase in pay as well, the contract negotiation.

Okay, so regarding the unfilled position, you talked about the Work Form and Heavy Machine, the 51243A item. and that position didn't fill for two years and you hope to fill it. My recommendation is Since now the city is in huge debt, I recommend freeze all unfilled positions. if it's not absolutely need. So I would like to make a motion to cut this item.

So is that for a single person? 512438 is one person?

Yes.

Okay. So you're proposing to eliminate that?

Yeah.

Okay, we have a motion to eliminate that. On the motion, Councilor DiBona?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe that's a union position, and I would not be in favor of cutting that. And I strongly suggest Councilors should not cut that. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilor Jacobs?

Yeah, can you explain more about what that position actually is?

What does that person do on the day-to-day? Everything. So in the cemetery, that's the unique role that a lot of these cemetery positions play. They'll do anything from jumping on a mower, to using a WeWacker, but most importantly, these will be the machine operators that would help us dig the graves. And that's the key function that why we want to hire this position and not another cemetery maintenance position. is because two of our machine operators, one of Pinehill and one of Mount Wollaston, as I mentioned, are closer to the end of the career than the beginning, and we're looking to bring up another machine operator When somebody's on vacation or somebody's out sick or in a couple of particular cases people have had to have surgery, that leaves us with one machine operator. And if we had nobody to operate the machines, we'd be in trouble.

We have this CDL hoisting line item here. I know there's some questions about that, but I know those are, I don't know if stipends is the right word, or those are monies that I assume the... the cemetery maintenance people have access to that. If they have a CDL slash hoisting license, they can get some access to those funds. but isn't the hoisting license, like isn't that, if you have that, doesn't that allow you to run a backhoe, like to dig the graves?

That's exactly what that is. Yeah. So the hoisting license stipend and the CDL license stipend are very different. The CDL license is a $5 stipend. Right.

But what I'm saying is like we're saying like the work foreman heavy, Operator, you're saying like, you know, he, not he, they, you know, could jump on a mower, they can, you know, use the backhoe to, you know, dig the graves, you know, but it sounds like it sounds like we basically, I don't want to say, we didn't eliminate that position, but we've made that position basically anybody who is now a cemetery maintenance person can now and feasibly do that job if they get a CDL and hoisting license, it sounds like that they are doing that job, whereas that used to be kind of something that was set aside just for one or two individuals. It would require a hoisting license, yes.

So, I mean, didn't we, in effect, by providing this stipend of CDL hoisting, giving them, I don't know how much money each person gets, you know what I mean, but... didn't we in effect basically make this position not necessary since all the maintenance people can do that if they have a CDL and a hoisting license?

Well, as a union position Councillor, I don't think a cemetery maintenance person would perform the tasks of a higher rated position with any frequency of time without their union stewards saying, you know, this person is a heavy MEO. And they deserve to be paid in that position and not...

So those two people, those two positions aren't in, they're not in the same union, they're in two different unions. They are in the same union.

All of these positions with the exception of the Clerk are in 1139.

Okay, we have a motion though on the 512438 to eliminate that line item. I'd like to take a Yuan.

Yeah, I want to clarify. I just mean the freeze and fill the position. It doesn't mean completely cut that position? It's a one-person position, right?

Yeah.

So if financial situation become better, can end freeze or no? Okay, so the motion is to cut it.

Okay. Councilor Ryan, did you have a comment on that? Yes, is this a union position?

Yes, it is.

Okay. Any other questions on the motion? Hubley.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Through you, Commissioner Murphy, I just want to make sure I understood the response that you gave a little earlier, and that is While some other members could potentially perform the actions of this position, for prolonged experience there, we're gonna end up seeing, we're gonna end up needing him to upgrade a person anyway to that compensation based upon, yeah, so, yeah. I think we're basically moving things around but we're going to end up with the same result without the cut because we're going to end up having to upgrade the employee who's performing those functions on any regular basis to the compensation that meets that grade. So I wouldn't be in favor of that cut.

Okay. Any further comment of Councilor Ash? One moment. Councilor Ash.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just suggest, given the overtime line item being over and above what's budgeted, and the number and the breadth and the increase in parkland and services and cemeteries. And we only heard about Pine Hills. I think by eliminating any position given all of the services that are evolving and changing and increasing would be would really just put the burden or not the burden because these men and women love their jobs but would really just put those tasks on other people that would then need overtime and potentially deal with burnout and working too much, etc. So that would be my opinion on that. Thank you.

Thank you. Jacobs.

Commissioner Murphy, sorry, just one question. I know, I think you said this, right? I just want to confirm. So this position, 512438, It hasn't been filled the last year. Why has it been published? It's been out there?

So one of the things, Councilor, one of the reasons I think that the incentives were put into the 1139 contract, both the CDL and hoisting, was so that we could fill some of the machine operator positions both in DPW and DNR. So I'm hopeful that we can fill this position from within.

I mean, I'm all for keeping this position. I see a bunch of PAC guys out there who I'm sure have been, you know, laborers who have been sitting here being like, I want this promotion, so I would love to see this position filled as soon as possible. I think it's and this is not a criticism, I think it's kind of a travesty that it hasn't been, that it's been sitting empty for a year. I mean, I work in the public sector and I, see jobs, and I'm like, oh, it's empty. Six months goes by. A year goes by. You've been there for 10 years, and you're like, what is happening here? So if this position is valuable, which it is, I think it is, I'm looking at the gentleman back there. It's a valuable position. One of those guys or women should be in this position as soon as possible. So hopefully by the next budget, which is on July 1st, we can

have this position filled.

We actually have it posted as we speak. It's on the city website. It's a heavy MEO position. So I'm hoping we can fill it even before the start of the fiscal year, quite frankly.

It's two years it's been vacant though, right? Yes. Two years. Yuen.

I just have a brief comment. It actually is a usual practice to freeze or cut a position when the city has a deficit. This is not unusual to cut a position. So I just make that comment. When the city and the huge debt, that's a common practice. to cut position, especially cut as a unfilled position, freeze higher of unfilled position. That's common practice.

So we have a motion to cut this position.

If there's no further comment, I'd like to take a roll call vote. Jacobs, Councilor McKee, Councilor Ryan, Councilor Yuan, Chairman Riley. No.

Okay, so moving on to anything else on this budget for the cemetery. Motion to approve as amended. We didn't amend. Yep, motion to approve as presented. from Councilor DiBona. Any discussion on that motion?

It's as amended. We've already done cuts.

Oh, we did do a cut. Sorry about that. I thought we didn't get that one. Okay. Motion to approve as amended. My apologies. Any discussion on that? can we take a roll call vote, please?

Councilor Ash, Councilor DiBona, Councilor Hubley, Councilor Jacobs, Councilor McKee, Councilor Ryan, Councilor Yuan, Chairman Riley.

Yes. Okay, so we will move on to the Parks Department budget, page 60 on the budget book.

This particular budget mirrors the same changes that we saw in the cemetery. The majority of the changes involve the collective bargaining agreements. particularly the CDL stipend that I think there are five members in the Park Department that have the CDL license. The change from the Labor Gardener position, it references Park Maintenance Gardener position, line 512338 is zeroed out. and you'll see an increase in the Park Maintenance Person position, which is 512-605. There is an open position in 512-605. I would desperately like to fill that on July 1st. The reason why it is open is we had an employee leave in the fall. We recognized that we had two lines in our budget that were running higher than usual.

and we thought the prudent thing to do would be to create the breakage so we do not go over in fiscal year 26. Our folks have been doing a great job picking up the slack but I think it would help us perform our jobs better, given the nature of our expanding role, if we're able to keep that position, that open position in line 512605. all the other positions are filled. It's quite a large budget. I don't want to go into job descriptions. I think you all received the package that I sent out with descriptions of what everybody does on that side. Included in this is also the golf course as well. So I'll probably just be better off just taking questions.

Okay. Thank you.

Questions? Ryan. Through you, Madam Chair. Mr. Murphy, good evening. I didn't have a chance to say that to you. Okay, so the increase of the $639,371 to 512605 line item that is, could you explain that again?

So you're referencing the Park Maintenance Godwin position?

Park Maintenance man, yes.

Yeah, so in the 1139 negotiations, the labor gardener positions that were at least a year in employment with the city, 1139 union positions. would get promoted, if you will, to the park maintenance position, which is 512-605. So essentially, you're seeing the roll up of 512-338 into 512605, and those two lines are combined. There are currently 14 people employed in that position in this current budget. There are spots for 15. We have one open position that we'd really like to fill on July 1st.

Okay, so there's 14 employees in the 512605 right now?

Correct.

Okay, all right. Have any positions been moved from other accounts?

I'm not sure I understand your question.

Okay, so for instance, now you're talking about the roll up of some employees and I forget what line item it was. So basically, you roll up some employees into the Park Maintenance Man positions, correct? Correct. Okay, so this is the same question. Are there any other positions that are being rolled up into different maintenance positions or other positions? No. That's the only line item, okay. All right, and so this is basically a consolidation, correct?

Correct.

Okay, all right, so that's good. All right, is this increase offset elsewhere in the budget at all?

It is not. Okay.

All right. All right. Can we receive a staffing chart showing fiscal year 2026 versus fiscal year 2027 positions?

Absolutely. The difference would be an additional park maintenance position.

Okay.

Everything else would be the same.

Okay. So could you actually send us that staffing chart?

Absolutely.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Okay, so that's all the questions that I had on that line item. Okay, thank you. Anyone else?

Council McGee?

And again, in this budget, it looks like there's another error in longevity with the transfer in of $35,194. So that should be corrected. I'm not sure the CDL hoisting has... So the budgeted amount is $120,000. Year-to-date actual is $21,879, and then $57,000 was transferred in this past year as well, but it's only... I guess I'm not sure why $120,000, that's for the full year, but I see.

So I guess I'm a little bit confused about how much...

I think I can add some clarification. the transfer is in, Councilor, in both the cemetery budget and this budget. We're not heiress. I know that was the answer for the HR. This was to fund the differences in the union contract that was settled back in October, November. So, Muni Finance transferred money in to cover the cost in fiscal 26. of the 3% Kohler increase and the CDL hoisting stipend increases. So when you see transfers in, to Longevity and those other lines in there. Those are done by Munify to cover the cost so we can finish fiscal 26 in the black.

Okay, so it's not going to longevity, but it's going to salaries.

It's going throughout the whole budget to cover salary increases and stipend increases.

Okay, so it just tends to go through the longevity budget, it seems.

Yes, ultimately what Munify wants us to finish with is the bottom line personal service line in the black. So the sub lines from time to time will be over and under, but as long as they plug in those numbers, they square up after June 30 and move that money where it needs to go at year end.

So the CDL hoisting This line is still, it still seems much higher than it might be for Like if we've used, and apologies if you've already said this, but it looks like we've used year to date about $22,000. When did that begin?

So the CDL stipend takes a couple of different forms. So there's basically a $5 an hour stipend that folks with the CDL will get for hours worked. They don't get it for vacation time or sick time, comp time, anything else like that. So as long as they're on the job, they'll get that $5 an hour stipend. and that applies to both overtime and their regular rate. So it can add up pretty quickly and that's the reason why it pops up in whether it's overtime and then in the other lines that Munify put it into so they can square up at the end.

I guess I'm still not sure why it hasn't been used, like 57. Oh, we just started on the end of March. Okay, okay, sorry, thank you. Okay. The contract manager position looks like it's been over the last two years. And summer help as well.

Yes, the contract manager position is over because we had a retired contract manager come back and help us with a couple of projects, including the Faxon Park Pickleball Courts and the pavilion we built up there. So that's not one person in the 26 budget. He's retired, so it's one person projected for the 27 budget. but the reason why that particular line is over is because he did some part-time work for us on project-based work for us.

Okay. and then the landscape designer. How many are there?

There are two of those positions. Those are both 1139 positions.

and they're just, they're doing new parks or something like that?

Yeah, so one is actually designing many of the heritage tree parks that you see around the city. He's a very talented gentleman with tremendous experience in both the public and private sector. The other landscape designer is a long-time 1139 employee who designs all of our planting beds and flower beds around the city.

and how many general foreman timekeepers? Two. Two, okay. It looks like forestry overtime and overtime for the past two years have gone over budget. So I wonder how you could address that.

Councilor, the forestry overtime line is a contractually related stipend for an on-call phone. So we have employees that are on call for any type of emergencies, tree calls, et cetera. So that's the forestry overtime budget. In addition, this year we've happened to have a lot of and a number of pretty bad storms, including one two Saturdays ago that nobody told us was coming. It was quite a surprise. Expenditure and overtime this year is much higher than we anticipated, mostly by factors that we can't control. The other issue is the stipend issue, which will be made up from the money that was transferred into those other lines by Munify. So our overtime costs are also up because the stipend applies to overtime work as well too. So the overtime line hit is going to be bigger because of that. that is separated out into the next budget.

So it's a little bit confusing because we're kind of in transition with the new contract settling in November. So the 26th budget didn't contemplate the things that we're talking about right now. The 27th budget is contemplating it. That's why it calls out a separate line for CDL hoisting for $120,000. So right now that's hitting salary lines, that's hitting overtime lines because it wasn't separated out. In 27, the goal is to take that stipend, whether it's overtime work or straight work, and put it into the CDL hoisting line. And that's... confusing. There's no ifs, ands, and buts about it. I think we're trying to feel our way through it.

Okay. I guess I'm wondering, is it the, wait, is it this one that has the golf course? Is it possible to, probably this is all just under parks, but it would be helpful to have all of the golf course everything in one area, but I guess I can just look at, so golf course, everything related to golf course will have the word golf course in it, or are there any additional

That is correct.

Okay. Because, yeah, just to kind of keep track of what's coming in. I'm glad that the revenue is higher than the expenses. That's great. Sorry. What is the improvements trees line?

That is our tree planting budget. So you'll see a few years ago it was reduced from 400 down to 300. That isn't because we're planting any fewer trees. We received a $750,000 federal grant for tree planting. So what we do is we supplement the city appropriation every year with additional tree planting. not in quite frankly above and beyond even the 100,000. So we've been planting quite a few trees lately and our team did a great job landing that grant.

Was that the Miyawaki Forest Grant or a separate one?

That's the same one, yeah.

Same one? Yeah. Okay. And so is it not going to be a Miyawaki Forest anymore?

in the works. It still is.

Oh, OK. Do you want to come up just so people can hear at home?

Good evening, Council. Yes, the Milwaukee forest microforest plan is still in the works, but due to other planting priorities, it's been pushed back a bit, but it's still in our budget for this grant.

That's great. Well done for getting that grant. That's a big one.

We're very happy with it.

Can I ask you two, just really quickly, because I have you here, what's going on with the tree inventory?

the tree inventory is up and active. Our GIS team has been fine tuning it and made some changes. They moved it around a bit where it lives on their computer system or something, but it is up active and outward facing. and it's actually integrated with our management system for tracking the tree production that goes on in the city. So it's a, it's a, has a Outward resident-facing piece that you can track tree information on, but it also talks to the back end to know, oh, this tree was last inspected on such and such a date. Click here for a street view of it. So we're pretty excited about the system we have in place now.

That's wonderful. And one more tree question. Absolutely. I was sent some pictures of what looked like maybe dead trees in burlap. And I'm not sure. They were in a park. Maybe it was Marymount. I'm not really sure. Do you know anything about that? Okay. Thanks.

That was Dan Cathcart, our tree warden, if he hasn't been introduced yet. I'm going to guess some of our heritage tree parks are in existing parks and there were a couple of trees down at Pond Street that had burlap around them that were dead. that have been replaced since. So I'm not sure when the pictures came in, but if you want to forward them to me, I could probably identify and follow up. But I have seen a couple of the newer trees have to be replaced. They're under warranty. So the contractors have to come in and Our urban forester project manager, Mike Castanelli, stays right on top of the contractors to make sure that they're watering the trees and replacing them through any type of defects.

Did they die because they were just sick or were they not planted fast enough?

That's a great question. I'd have to get specific information on those trees to know for sure.

I will wrap it up. Debbie's kidding.

Ryan.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Mr. Murphy, I just have a couple of questions to go back to the CDL hoisting, if you don't mind. Okay, so this is a stipend that's provided to employees with CDL licenses, correct?

Correct.

Okay, and is that to continue to retain them also? From what I understand, talking to other departments, there has been a little bit of a a reduction in the amount of people who have CDL licenses, and that's one of the reasons why this stipend has been created, correct?

Correct, both to maintain and recruit new.

Okay, all right. So what is the stipend amount per employee?

Five dollars per hour for a CDL and one dollar per hour for a hoisting license.

and that's $1 per hour for, I missed that last one. Poisting license. Poisting, okay, all right, okay. Okay, so is the city paying for any licensing costs if someone decides to go for the CDL license?

The city has entertained doing in-house training with a partnership to reduce the cost significantly for those that are interested in doing it. the DPW is putting that program together so I can't speak to it directly, Councilor, but they're being very creative in filling some of those long-standing positions especially after winter like we just had with all the snow, CDL drivers become even more valuable. they're being pretty creative and I think they're going to offer with a partnership with the CDL training company an in-house class which should significantly reduce the cost.

Okay, you don't know when that might happen, though?

I'd have to talk to Mr. Prenville and Mr. Grazioso.

Okay, okay. All right, so this CDL license is not required by collective bargaining agreements, correct?

It's required for certain positions, but not all of them.

Okay, all right. What happens if employees choose not to obtain the license?

they wouldn't be eligible for the CDL required positions, but there are more positions than not within our budget that don't require a CDL. That's perfectly fine.

All right, so with this addition for employees with CDL licenses, will this reduce overtime?

I don't believe it will, Councilor.

Okay, all right. Will this reduce contracted services?

potentially, particularly in DPW, I would assume, more so than us. Maybe a little bit with us, but much more so with snow removal, which is paid out of their budget, not ours.

Okay, so I do have a recommendation to reduce this by 60,000. Is that a possibility?

I think the budget before you, Councilor, is the budget that I would recommend you pass.

Okay, so that would be $120,000. Okay. All right. Okay, thank you.

So there's no motion on that?

No.

Okay, thank you. Ash. Thank you.

Commissioner, I have two questions with respect to, and I I'm not sure if I just missed this, but with respect to 512338 Park Maintenance and Gardiner, I know we talked about moving, merging that position with Park Maintenance Man 512605. If I take the 2026 budget for those two numbers, I get $873,741. the proposed for next year is actually lower than that so I'm not sure if there's a position that was moved out somewhere else or if you already covered that but I wanted to ask that if

I think, Councilor, that could be a byproduct of a figure being used for higher steps originally and we have a Younger is probably the wrong term. Newer crew is probably at lower steps. So if they did basically an accurate run-up, the amount may not be as high as it would have been with some of the most seasoned employees that have either been promoted or moved on.

Understood. And then with respect to the CPA administrator, there's a line item and then there's an offset. Is that because the administrators paid through the community preservation account?

Yes, my understanding is that the CPA admin costs are used to offset the CPA administrative line in this budget. That's why there's those two adjacent lines at the top of the sheet. The Preservation Committee typically Appropriates not just project costs and recommended projects to the Council but also recommended admin costs and the offset is right below the position cost.

and then I will just say, just give a thank you for another successful year of working with your department. I see a lot of members in the audience, everyone very hardworking and like I said earlier, clearly love their job. whether the projects be big or small, whether it's the trees with Mr. Cathcart and pruning and looking at them and planting them with Mr. Cassinelli or the larger items, of course, the parks. of Faxon Park Extension and Cleverley Court Extension coming in and the ropes course. And just thank you for another successful year of certainly Me knowing that my neighborhoods are looked after and well cared for. Thank you. Thank you.

Council UN. So I have a question about item 512414. That's a heavy machine. So 2025 budget $56,838, and actually, 2025 actual spending is zero. does that mean you didn't fill that position?

That is back in 25 we did not council that position was moved. into another position, the zero funding would indicate that we didn't need the position, so we struck it. And that's why there's no funding in 26 or 27 for the heavy MEO one.

Okay, I missed the move to which item?

I believe, let's see if I can find it, it was a couple years ago, Councilor, forgive me if it takes me a minute to track it. It looks like the following year the positions of landscape designer were created. So I'm guessing we struck the heavy MEO position to create one of the two landscape designer positions. and then struck a working foreman's position to do the same. You'll see line 512443, working foreman, Labor Gardner. and you'll see heavy ME01 and 25 were funded and not funded thereafter. And then corresponding to that is an increase of two positions in line 512190, the landscape designer.

Sorry, I didn't follow the number. You moved it.

I'm sorry. I can slide. I do talk fast. So it appears as if 512443, which was a working foreman labor gardener, was one of the positions that was turned into a landscape designer position. And then the heavy ME01 position was also turned into a landscape designer position. And that's 512414, that's the one you asked me about. So those two positions were determined to be obsolete and a better use of that funding was to fill the landscape designer positions.

Thank you. And another question is 512410 Mason, since from 2026 actual spending, you lost another Mason?

No, we're splitting him in half. So right now he's half cemetery, half park until we can fill the cemetery position. That's why that line isn't fully expended.

Oh, okay. Gosh.

I have so many. I can come back to you, Councilor Yuan, if you have more questions.

and another item 530340 that achieve pruning removal Your 2026 actual spending is $87.545. It's kind of half of your budget.

So we will have a number of bills that hit that. This month we had a really bad storm a couple of weeks ago and we had to call in outside help. We have an emergency services contract with Bogan Tree. So we'll have a pretty good chunk of that spent. We've already spent it, it just has to be processed. But again, Councilor, to your point, that's speculative. We can't plan for what we don't know. So we try to put enough in there. One of the things I would say is none of these budgets have contingencies. And we have a responsibility to finish within our budget. So when we plan for this, I have to say, OK, what does a bad year look like if we have a number of storms? And it's not just storms either. So we'll get calls from people that may be about a marsh. and the trees behind the house. And we may not have the equipment to get behind.

They may require a crane, which is very expensive. In some cases, we may require tree climbing and use some outside services. So it's not just storms. We run into a number of tricky scenarios with trees that require us to use this particular line.

Yeah, because I was wondering if you decreased some position in this item. That's why you're spending only half. I was thinking it's personal. No, it's just luck. Decrease some position. Okay, I have another question about item 530804, invasive species control. I'm wondering, has the city applied for CPA funding for this item?

So I think the answer to that is, in a roundabout way, yes. We've received quite a bit of grant money on a number of different projects. Butler's Pawn, for example, the CPA was extremely helpful. Sailor's Pond, the original planning and design for the remediation of that pond was done through CPA. We received a million dollar state grant for the pond improvement as well, too. One of the reasons why we haven't fully spent the invasive species control is we haven't done the work that we typically do on an annual basis because we've been working in those ponds to make those improvements. Now there are many, many other places that we are targeting for invasive species. Heather has put together the invasive species control committee, which is targeting a number of different areas. I know Councilor Hubley is working with Heather right now on a

are basically cleaner, greener invasive species today at Zero Harriet Ave in Montclair in Ward 3. There are Phragmites. and every corner of the city that we would like to address. We've been working with the state to try to get the appropriate permits to do that. And once we do that, I think you'll see quite a bit of work, particularly in Ward 1. but there's no shortage of invasive species work for us to do.

Has any grant funding been awarded for this item?

Yes, that's the, for example, invasive species are a big part of the butler's pond and the sailor's pond projects. And we received a million dollars from the state to reduce sailor's pond. We received quite a bit from the CPC for the Butler's Pond project as well, too. The other project that received CPC funding is Manit Lake, which we're tackling as well.

So if grant funding exists, why is the full amount being requested from taxpayers?

Because the grant amounts and the budget amounts aren't always the same exact thing.

You mean you have to match the grounds?

In some cases, but what I'm going to say is that we have contracts with companies that treat Butler's Pond, Sailor's Pond, Furnace Brook, all the wetlands to keep the invasives down. They'll actually go into some of these areas and remove invasives for us. And we'd like to expand that scope. Like I said, there's no shortage of areas with invasives that could be dealt with. So it's outside contractual work for the most part.

This is the most outside contractor work.

Yes.

Another question. Item 540600, Grants Keeping Supplies. This fiscal year you budget $150,000. I'm wondering what are the largest purchase of those equipment? Which item is that, Councilor? 540600. Grants Keeping Supplies.

Sure, just give me one second. So groundskeeping supplies is where we purchase flowers, mulch, the engineered wood fiber that we use to keep all of our playgrounds safe. the flags that we put on 46 different flag poles around the city, trash barrels, mutt mitt stations, soil augmentation products when we do flower beds and tree planting, things of that nature. Sloan.

And can purchase be phased? Like you have to buy them at one time, or you can buy them in different phase?

I'm sorry?

Faced? Faced. Faced. Yeah, it can be purchased and be faced.

Well, through the course of the year, you know, a lot of our beautification efforts take place primarily in the spring, some in the summer, and then we ramp back up in the fall.

In the can, any purchases being delayed? can any purchases be delayed? Means you don't have to get it immediately.

Well, the nature of what we're purchasing, there's a certain timeframe in which you can plant flowers. So we're purchasing the lion's share of that in the spring. Mums in the fall, you know, engineered wood fiber for the playground safety. I wouldn't want to delay that. Deal with any safety issues at the playgrounds. Same thing. I mean, we ramp up our beautification efforts in the spring. And if you take a look at our year-to-date budget, we've expended almost the entirety of that budget.

One more question. For account 512623 golf course seasonal health, You budget $165,000. I'm wondering, is the golf course self-supporting?

Yes, yeah, the revenue that we're receiving from the golf course far exceeds that. We're taking in about $1.4 million in revenue this year. and we're operating at a, we have an operating surplus of projected to be about $350,000 this year. Now, that's the line council I mentioned. We're kind of a victim of our own success there. We're seeing a lot more activity at the course, which means we have to do more work, we have to hire More people to work on the course, fix divots, cart people, a ranger, a starter, another help in the pro shop. and then we have the simulators too, so we need to staff those. Typically before we wouldn't have seasonal help on in the winter, now we're a 12 month operation, a 12 month revenue operation, so we are producing a operational surplus of significance.

and how many seasonal employees are included?

There are approximately, at any given time, about 20, and those are generally split between the groundskeeping team and the, what I call the pro shop simulator car team. So about 10 and 10. We get great bang for the buck out of seasonal employees, not just in this particular budget in cemetery and of course in rec.

Okay, thank you, Ms. Murphy. Thank you.

I think I had to go. Councilor Hubley was next.

Thank you, Madam Chair, through you. So where do I begin? Yeah, I'll start with this. So Commissioner Murphy, thank you very much for all the time you put in. with me and my Ward 3 neighbor, Mark, who we both had questions about the performance of the golf course asset since it's a very new asset being revitalized. and we were very excited to hear that it was running in a very positive way which is excellent and I think there's even more upside potential there. The simulators, though I haven't tried them myself, I've got a back issue, I can't do it, But if they were putting, I could probably do it. And so that's great. It's super that that asset is, that investment is paying off. Going back to the invasive species, efforts. This is something I'm trying to actually ramp up. I've participated over the years with Heather's cleanups in different areas and Heather and I are working together on

July 8th, if anyone wants to join us, get your hands dirty. We'll be at Zero Harriet Ave in Montclair, cleaning up some invasive species down there. That'll be from 9 AM to 11 AM. You can see it online as well. Very excited about that. We're incorporating the Wallston Garden Club into that effort, the Wallston Naval Association, the Montclair-Wallston Naval Association, as well as the Boy Scouts. So it's become sort of a multi-discipline, multi-group effort. And when I started learning about it years ago, I found myself walking around the neighborhood like looking in neighbor's yard saying, hey, you want me to take care of that for you? But I asked permission first. but they do a lot of damage and they drain a lot of the groundwater and they just suffocate all the other plants that are indigenous to this area. by plants that were brought in from outside. So if I could add, I would be adding to this, but it's not my role.

And then additionally, over the years, whether it's Porch Fest, whether it's Saturdays in the park, whether it's our potlucks at the park, all the different events and also the renovation after the CPA project of Safford Park and Wollaston. Your crew does just amazing work. The other thing we talked earlier about trees and the storms. entry removal, entry cleanup that has to happen. There's rainstorms, snowstorms, so forth. We've already covered that. But also, these things have a tendency to grow. And so a lot of times they grow towards our properties, over our properties, endanger our properties. There's a lot of work that happens in that area. So I'm very thankful for the work that your crew does on that. So anyway, I think that covers some of the things I wanted to say. So I'll leave it at that because we've got a lot to talk about. Thank you.

Have you already spoken on this one?

No, I got actually another one.

I know, but you haven't spoken at all yet. Neither one of you have. Okay. Let me just, I'll take Councilor Jacobs, then Councilor DiBona, and then we can go back to you.

Good evening. Thank you for your presentation on this budget. I just had, I wanted to kind of go back and just say something again about the CDL. I know we spent a lot of time talking about that, sorry. and I understand what you were saying about how right now it's not really in the budget but next year it will kind of offset because the money will come out and lower those other line items. that made sense to me. So I'll be looking for that next year. But this is a new program. I mean, I don't know how many of our Parks Department employees have The CDL hoisting license. It's five, right? It's five.

Mike?

between nine and 10. Okay, nine and 10. Well, that's good. So, you know, I don't know, again, I don't know how much people may, you know what I mean? But I don't know how long, if you think we're gonna reach the 120,000 threshold like this year, but for like, the younger people who maybe are just getting in, do we have a program for them? If there's funds left over and we move it into free cash, I mean, shouldn't we be reinvesting especially in our younger parks workers to make sure that like they're getting like I have a CDL right so I know that that's it's not easy to get if it's not it's time consuming and I have a hoisting license, right? So that is also just time-consuming. But there is a cost to that. So when we move this money to free cash, I mean, is there a way to help some of these people who

may not have the financial resources, especially if they're working for the Parks Department, they're living in Quincy, it's very expensive to live here, very expensive to live anywhere around here. I mean, are we... Do we have a program in place to help these folks try to get access to this money? So the short answer is yes, Councilor.

I think Councilor Ryan was asking about- Yeah, I think I walked out. I'm sorry, I know. That's the DPW who's putting this together. They deserve the credit. They're partnering with a CDL trainer to do local training. The cost of the CDL license is also a major issue. It went up dramatically in the last couple of years. which makes it a little cost prohibitive for some people. So if we can help lower the cost and offset that so that we can, you know, we have an incentive too. We want to have CDL drivers. So the short answer is we are working on a program, DPW is working on a program that we would partner with them on to make this more accessible for people that wanted to improve themselves.

Perfect. And when I came in, I had said, did we just talk about that? But we weren't 100% sure. and I want to just go to line item 510192. It's that tool allowance. Clerk, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, Koch, Mahoney, Ryan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, Yuan, Walker, and over the five-year look back, we haven't really used that much. Sorry. So it looks like the most we've used was in 2024. My favorite Nintendo 64 game, 1080. So $1,080. So I'm going to make a motion to cut from this line item.

to bring it back down to the original 2,280 to subtract $2,400 from the sign-in.

Through you, Madam Chair, the The contractual benefit, I think there are three employees in the Park Department now that are eligible, and that benefit I think was increased. and it gets paid out in June, so there's a chunk that's coming out that you haven't seen in the budget before you, I think. Do we have a list of that? and I think the benefit for next year is $4,500, I believe. Let me double check.

$4,680 is what it is, yeah, on this anyway.

What is your opinion?

So it appears as if, Councilor, it looks like the benefit is just over $1,000 and there's three people, so there may be a little breakage there.

Okay.

So you say they're each eligible for $1,000. So maybe just cut $1,680. So I'll amend that. Is that a motion? Yeah, make a motion to scrap the one before and subtract $1,000. What did I say?

$1,680.

Thank you.

So on line item 510192, there's a motion to reduce the line item from $4,680 to $3,000, subtracting $1,680. Any discussion on that motion? Do we need a roll call vote? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay? Looks like we got that one. Okay. Any other discussion from you, Councilor Jacobs? Are you all set? Councilor DiBona.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner Murphy, thank you for your presentation tonight for the parks, forestry area of the budget. Thank you for your statistics and your profit margins on the Furnacebrook Golf Course. It looks like it's been going really well. Thank you. I've gotten a lot of great feedback from the place. We're getting underway with the Butler Ponds and the Sailor Pond restorations. I know sitting on the CPC for years, we've always tried to find funding to really tackle those areas. And I want to thank Heather Liss, an earth scientist. She's done a great job over the years with just, you know, being a center point basically in your budget and just getting out there. I know you guys let the turtles go just recently. It was great. Also, Tree Warden.

Geez, I think when we first had the inception of bringing the Tree Warden in here, I don't know what one person, not even 1% of the people that were against it, everybody was in favor of that position. I'm glad it's continuing to go, and we could talk about trees all night. I think that's one area where I think we all probably agree on, which is rare, in getting a handle on the tree inventory and the planting. and the pruning and what you've done over the years. Thank you for answering all the questions, everybody. The invasive species control, just getting a handle on all that stuff in your budget. With that, I'd like to make a motion to approve as amended.

Okay, we have a motion to approve as amended. I certainly have questions I didn't get to ask yet. And so do we want to take a roll call vote or all those in favor of approving this as is? Say aye.

Aye.

will take a roll call. I still have questions, but... You can still ask them.

You can still go.

Okay. Did you want to go first, Councilor McKee? No, I'm done.

Okay.

Okay, first question is just a follow-up question on the profitability of the golf course. That doesn't include the bond debt, though. It does not. So it's just your day-to-day expenses, your labor, your materials.

The operating surplus, yeah, just the operating cost.

The operating part of it. Insurance, there must be insurance on it, on the golf course, or? No. There's no insurance, or it doesn't include it? There's no insurance. Oh, okay, because it's municipal? Correct.

Okay. We're self-insured.

Self-insured, okay. The foreman position, is that one position? That is two positions. Two positions, okay. clothing allowance. That's a lot of clothing. Can you explain a little bit about what that clothing allowance is for, for the closing budget?

Yeah, that is a contractual line item in the 1139 contract. The 1139 employees all received a clothing stipend for boots, long pants, winter jackets, things of that nature. I will say that you'll see a lot of us around and very handsome few of me even have it on tonight. Park Department shirts. That is a byproduct of how proud we are of where we work. Those are all paid for by the employees, and there's no budget money that goes into any of the pocket apartment gear that you see. If you want something, you can see Steve Zambruno. He'll give you the catalog, and it's a great vendor. So you've got to pay for it like we do, but it's all paid for out of everybody's pockets.

You're all always very well swagged out. So I don't think I can motion on anything anyways, but there's no way to take a closer look at that over timeline.

I think if you take a look at where our overtime is this year, Councilor, I think that you'll see that it's running pretty hot already. We do have a 3% increase in that line. We have done, I work pretty closely with the General Foreman on a weekly basis to go over how we can basically every weekend and night schedule between events and games and our weekend park cleanup. Some of these folks work Saturdays and Sundays from 5 in the morning to 9. give up the whole weekends to work on the overtime shift. I think that there's a give and take to everything we do. Those resources allow us to provide the service level that we do. if we cut that, I think that we'd be losing something on the other end of it.

Again, I don't think as the overseer I can propose that, but I will leave it up to my fellow... if they wanted to. So the only other item that I do need to address is with the CPA admin and the offset that goes with that. And Councilor DiBona, you can certainly feel free to add anything to this, but that line item has to be 100% dedicated to CPA administration. So do you have a sense of that position? and how much of their time is spent on CPA work?

What I would say, Madam Chair, is that the existence of that line in this particular budget is probably a byproduct of seven or eight years ago when the CPA administration used to sit down in the Park Department. The CPA administrator has been up in the Mayor's office for the last seven or eight years. I know that any time that I reach out to her on the projects that we have in the Park Department. She's always available, helpful, et cetera. But I would defer to Mr. Walker, who's really her supervisor, and not me.

Mr. Walker.

Through you, Madam Chairwoman, to your question, yes. That salary is 35 hours a week. That is what the CPA administrator, that's the work that goes into the administration of the CPA. As I think you know, there are some additional projects and some things that managers appointees of the Mayor take on. That's not unusual, and certainly not in this case, and pretty much across departments. We try to provide opportunity for folks outside of what might be in their, the meat of their wheelhouse. to do some different things, and that's certainly the case here, but that 35 hours is the CPA administrator job.

and the increase in salary, I don't believe that came from the CPC committee.

Through you, Madam Chairwoman, I don't know that the committee has recommended salaries relative to that. I believe that has historically been an administrative function. Of course, obviously approved by this body.

Okay. So it was in the Mayor's budget in 2011 and 2012, and then it switched over to the Parks Department. In 2013, it was a $36,000 salary, I presume, Hardtime, either that or only part of it was allocated and now it seems to be 100% allocated. So are you going to tell me that it's 100% dedicated to that function?

that salary is for that position, yes. And I can go into some detail if you wish relative to the changes in CPA and the role and why that salary has changed over the years. The CPA is, as you know, handling a great increase in number of projects. There's a tremendous administrative function that goes along with it. in addition to the 18 projects that were submitted this year. There are you know, roughly two and a half to three million dollars of projects on the street. The administrator's role is to facilitate that work from beginning to end, from helping folks worked through the application process to explaining the eligibility requirements, getting through the committee process, working with the committee,

the position is the direct liaison to the committee from committee approval to mayoral appropriation down to approval by this body that follows the monitoring and the reimbursements and ensuring projects are kept on online and there are reporting mechanisms that need to be done. The job, the position has certainly grown in terms of responsibility over the years. And we think it's incredibly valuable.

I do not disagree, however, I'm Now sitting on the CPC, I don't know if the job is clearly defined, and it has nothing to do with the individual who sits on it. It has to do with adhering to the law of the Community Preservation Act. And interestingly, even though the offset has been in there, it's never actually the line item zero on the actuals. So under the CPC admin offset 512984, it's been zero for the last six years. So I am going to have to ask that that be... that that be removed. It really needs to be sorted out by the Community Preservation Committee. And I think the role needs to be more clearly defined so that the person doing it has the ability to be successful and to

obviously we cleaned up some projects with the assistance of Madam Auditor, but we are not in compliance on that right now. I'm working with the Chair on it, but we need to take that one out.

take what, I'm not sure.

The offset needs to come out until we can straighten it out with the, and be more compliant with the CPC law. DiBona, you're certainly free to add anything if you'd like. But it seems like this has sort of been going on. The salary has grown. the allocation was either a part-time job or only part-time allocated to the CPC. It is now a full-time job that's doubled in salary. And while I agree that the administration of the CPC could be a full-time job. I do not believe that right now that that person's time has been allocated full-time to it and that it needs to get resolved. It's not in compliance with the CPC law right now.

I would respectfully disagree. I don't understand how it's not in compliance with the CPC law.

because it's not being performed full time. I mean, we basically meet for three, four months. And once the things are approved, there's very little to be done in the off season. Not that there couldn't be.

through you Madam Chairman, again, I couldn't disagree with you more. I just went over a series of work items that the position performs over the course of the year well outside the application process, the renewal process that you're getting into, as I mentioned, from beginning to end shepherding these projects, working with the applicants, working with the city departments that are involved, working with Municipal Finance, working with the purchasing department, working with the legal department. This has been, for some time now, a full-time job.

Mr. Walker, since we're in a public meeting, I will respectfully disagree that that's been the case. And again, it's no disrespect to the person doing the job. I just think that they have not been fully allocated to CPC work. and I am taking that from having observed now well over a year because I was involved with the CPC meetings before. So again, it's about being in compliance with the CPC that needs to get resolved. certainly, Councilor DiBona.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I sat on the CPC for the last 10 years, but you now sit on there, so I can't speak about the last six months. However, just for technology purposes, the offset would add to the budget, and we don't have that ability as city councillors, so we really can't add. So the offset to remove it, we're adding to the budget, which we really can't do up here. And I don't know legally.

Well, the offset hasn't been used the last five years.

It has.

Oh, it zeroes out?

It zeroes out.

It zeroes out. Okay.

Councilor, I would... If that is your concern, we are talking about this at a public meeting. I'm happy to work with you. and the committee over the course of the next year to determine what the body feels is to some degree maybe better explaining what the work that goes into it every day, and maybe there are some things that can be done differently, but again, I think that this is a full-time job.

I agree that it's a full-time job. I just do not see that the resources allocated full-time. Quincy 400 work is not CPC work.

Well, through you Madam Chairwoman, that gets to my original point that there are other things that folks that work in mid to higher level management, appointees of the mayor, that they take on from time to time. Quincy 400 was...

But Mr. Walker, if I could, that is not allowed under the CPC. That's my point.

What I'm saying, respectfully, Madam Chairwoman, is that the 35 hours a week is not implicated by additional work that any one individual position does outside of what those 35 hours are billing. We're offsetting 35 hours of work for CPA work. that's the role. There has been, no doubt, other duties performed by people in many different positions. This one's a little bit different because there's a specific offset to it. but having people take on different roles in different things, as long as they're performing in accordance with the offset, according with the CPA, as long as they're performing that duty, at that length of time, then I think we're in full compliance.

Okay, I won't. But again, I'm willing to work with you. We're not going to resolve this tonight.

Yeah, I will work with you. I'm sure we can hash this out.

Okay, Council UN.

Okay. and through Madam Chairman, I have a last question. the item 5100163 that CDL commercial driver's license. So, So you added this item only from this fiscal year, 2027, and you did say if you add this, it can reduce the contracted service. So, but you contracted so it's still budget the same. as before, so I would like to make a motion to cut $60,000 either from this item or from contracted service item. Which line items are we talking about? The 510163 CDL Hoisting.

That's a commercial driver's license. 510163. Commissioner Comfort.

Through you, Madam Chair, if I can clear up some confusion, if I misspoke or you misunderstood me, the The contracted impact is probably more so, for example, on snow plowing or something like that if we have more CDL drivers. The contracted line and the park department budget is used for Stump removals, the GPS service we have on our trucks, the port-a-potties that we place around in various parks around the city for sporting events, picnics, etc. that's different than hiring contractors to run heavy equipment, which is what the CDL license, the CDL would allow that to happen. I think the that having CDL drivers, we don't have any more CDL drivers than we had last year. We're just paying them a stipend to maintain their CDL license. That wouldn't affect our contracted line or reduce that in any material way.

And a cut to that line would be a cut to likely stump grinding, port-a-potties, things of that nature. It wouldn't be a reduction in contracted services.

But because you added this line, so before some work have to be done by contracted services, now you can down your house, so that's why. I said we can cut some contracted service if you add this item.

I understand your perspective, Council. What I'm saying is that this was added to the 1139 contract which affects Parks, Cemetery, DPW, Soil Water Drain. The contracted work that our folks do, we're not hiring outside contractors to do CDL work that we can't already do. I think that may be a helpful bonus maybe in snow removal efforts, but relative to the work that we do, this contracted line isn't hiring outside contractors to do CDL-style work. This is apples and oranges.

Do you have anything else, Councilor? Councilor Ash?

Hang on.

Commissioner, is it? is a stipend line item of this nature? Have you used it before in the budget? maybe help clear up some confusion. Outside of saying $5 an hour for CDL, $1 an hour for hoisting, outside of implementing that wage in that person's Salary, I guess it might help clear up any confusions or questions for fellow Councillors if that's a more palatable avenue and if there's cost savings of that nature.

Through you, Madam Chair, maybe I'll go in a little different direction. So this budget has a number of stipends in it, and CDL is one of them. Clothing is a stipend. The tool allowance is a stipend. So if it's in the 1139 contract, we've got an obligation to fund it within the budget. So the CDL hoisting license is another stipend that we pay people that have a certain license. it's not saying that people are going to do different work or more work. These are folks that already have their CDL and we're rewarding that and the maintenance of keeping that are licensed. We're also hoping to incentivize some of our younger workers to go through the training and, quite frankly, lay out some money so they can get their CDL license as well. I keep doing the repetition there, sorry. Again, I think that we're a smaller department than DPW. I know that this is a...

I think a bigger issue for them in attracting more CDLs because they have more positions. But this is simply a stipend that we pay to our existing workers just like we pay them a clothing allowance and a tool allowance.

if ancillarily on the other side, one of the derivative benefits from that is less overtime. Of course, that's helpful, but that's not something we would be able to really see right now, given that it's the first year of this being in the budget.

Yes, I don't anticipate that having a direct line effect at all. Thank you. Not in this department. Thanks.

Anyone else? I would like to ask if one of my fellow councillors would be willing to enter a motion on the CPA administrative job to reduce that by 50. Oh, to approve as is? Roll call. Any up for the discussion? Roll call vote.

Councilor Ashton? Yes. Councilor DiBona? Yes. Councilor Hubley? Yes. Councilor Jacobs? No. Ryan? No. Council Yuan? No. Chairman Riley? No.

Okay. I'm going to ask if somebody, if my fellow council, would anyone be willing to enter the motion to reduce the CPA administrator? I think it should be reduced by 50,000. It's a half-time job. currently.

Jacobs. I'll make the motion to reduce the CPA administrative by 50%.

Well, both of them. So 512-109 and 512-984. I understand they both would have to be reduced in order to keep the budget.

So it would go down to, you know, $50,200 and... Sorry, I just want to make sure I, so it's 100 and, let me see, it's 100, 532 as well. So reduce it to 50,266.

50,266.

We're going to table this whole budget. Just this particular, I mean, this is like, you're cutting that 50%. That's a significant cut for a person.

I'm sorry, Councilor DiBona. Go ahead.

Madam Chair, if you could, that's a significant cut for a person. We're not going to get into other budgets that have already occurred up here, but In my personal viewpoint, you've got to think that this is a person, probably has a family. to cut a 50%. That's quite a bit. That goes from $100,000 to $50,000.

In 2023, this job, this position had $51,793.

But what about the last three years? What's the last few years?

$51,000. It went up to $66,000. And then in 2025 and 2026, it was $97,000. and now the proposal is 100,532. This position is seen as significant increase. Now, my assumption is that it was an allocation. that the person was being paid from somewhere else possibly in those other years. And now it is 100% going to the CPC and it is not a 100% allocated resource.

Can I get through you to the auditor just to get the actual numbers? I mean, because I only got a view back of 2025, 6, and 7. and I got 97,603 and 100,332, which is this proposed next year. So it looks to me at least the last three years, the last five years, I think, yeah.

fiscal 2020, the amount was $50,477. In fiscal 2021, $50,284. In fiscal 22, $50,284. in fiscal 23-51793, in fiscal 24, 66,950, in fiscal 25, 97,603, and in fiscal 26, 97,603.

Thank you. Just my years of being on there, the role has definitely expanded. We've had a lot of there's a lot more work that's been done over there at CPC. Now you sit on it, you know how it feels to be over there. I know you're in with a new new representatives, new members on there. However, some of them have a lot of experience. So basically, I mean, you're gonna be going backwards here because you're gonna be going from 100 even further beyond three year back, less than 66, you're gonna be going down to 50. I just think you should reconsider cutting this. I mean, I'm not in support of it at all. I mean, I would be more in support of, hey, why don't you just keep it the same as last year? just keep it at 97603 if you don't feel that she should get or he or she should get an increase.

It's not about the individual. It's not about the individual. It's about the amount of money being allocated for the position from the CPC. it seems to me from this history that the CPC has been paying more and more and more of the individual salary. But Councilor Hubley, he's had his hand up.

Thank you, Madam Chair, through you. I don't know that we have anyone here tonight that can answer these questions, but I would like to pose them as questions in case we do. I think the city's been tremendously successful at getting our share of value out of the CPC program. A little shout out to Steve Perdios, who's one of the people who spearheaded bringing it to the city. years ago, and it's been incredibly valuable. I guess one question that occurs to me is I wouldn't, well, first I'll make a statement. I wouldn't want to do anything that would compromise our ability to best leverage CPC funding. we've benefited tremendously from this program. The second thing I'll say is Would we be out of compliance, potentially, if we were to reduce this position? I don't know. I don't know enough about the back office part of being a participant in the CPC program, CPA program.

and then lastly, so all I've heard thus far are sort of anecdotal and I don't know how one would know the time allocation of any given position unless one was following someone around throughout the workday. So I guess I haven't heard any real compelling reason to make such a drastic move. So I'll leave it at that. I wouldn't be supportive based upon the information I've been provided. Maybe there's more information that I need.

I guess I would argue that we are out of compliance by not having this person 100% resourced. And I apologize, Mr. Murphy, because this comes under your budget, and part of this only became I only came to understand how this all works more recently. Obviously, again, I'm newer at it being on the committee, but I guess I would Did we have a motion or not? I don't think we did. I will back off from this and I will work with Mr. Walker to make sure that, because there is plenty of work to be done for the CPC. and I will back off from this and I will work with Mr. Walker to get this person 100% resourced into CPC. There's plenty of work that needs to be done. We need to have a Procedures Manual, which we do not have. There's a lot of processes around even clawing back the money that should have been identified in written form.

And there is certainly plenty of work for this person to do. So I will back off from this. and did we have a motion to approve this budget? Motion to approve this budget as amended. Was there any further discussion on it? Okay. Roll call vote.

Hubley.

Yes.

Councilor Jacobs. Yes. Councilor McKee. Yes. Councilor Ryan. Yes. Councilor Yuan.

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay, last one. Did we have one more? Recreation.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Recreation Department budget is essentially level funded. I went through a reasonable list of the incredible amount of activity and programs that they've taken on. Most recently, I mentioned in my package when Quincy Track Club was getting ready to go under, they stepped in and took it over. When all three basketball leagues in the city were looking for, were ready to go on during the pandemic. It was the Rec Department that stepped up and did it. And as I mentioned, they do their best work while everybody else plays. The nights and weekends that our Rec Department puts in to make sure that we have, in my opinion, the best rec programs in the state really to be commended. The expense budget and the contractual budget are level funded. The positions are all exactly the same.

and I would request your approval and if I can call Mr. Rooney up so I can take a little break, that would be appreciated.

And this is actually a good opportunity. We do want to take a vote to suspend Rule 24 so we can go past 11 and we can get everything done tonight. Is there anyone opposed to going past 11 o'clock? All righty. take it away.

Thank you, Councilors. My name's Christopher Ernie. I'm the Director of Recreation for the City of Quincy and the Department of Natural Resources. Like Commissioner Murphy just said, we have a pretty level funded budget this year like we did last year. I think the proof is in the pudding with our programs of what we do. We ran over 65 clinics last summer. We have 14 free playgrounds. a program for students with disabilities. We have a boating and sailing program. We run multiple winter programs from instructional ice skating, after school gyms, basketball, volleyball, pickleball. We have a pool that's open six days a week year-round. Right now we have 187 part-time Quincy Recreation leaders on staff. Those are our Quincy High School students, our North Quincy High School students, some private school students, our college students. We have Quincy public school educators on our staff who are supervisors during the summer season. So I would just wish you to approve the budget ahead, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you. Questions? A few more questions. Jacobs, did you have your hand up? No. No. OK. Councilor DiBona.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just want to say, Mr. Rooney, great job this year with the recreation. especially the ice skating rink and all the different programs that you're doing across the city. How do you think, do we have enough funding for you to be honest with you? I mean, I know there's so many more services that I want to provide for obviously not just the kids but just services in general for recreation. Do we have enough funding in there? Is this good for you?

I do think the council provides enough funding that we had last year and I think this budget in front of me today provides us enough funding as well. We're going through a transition period at the Quincy Recreation Department where we have a lot of college H students who are going into the fields full-time that we are losing. We have a lot of college students going into internships that we are going to be losing, so we're looking at a pretty extensive hiring process as long as this budget is approved. If it is approved, we will start that hiring process tomorrow. Last summer we had 275. and recreation leaders for our summer program. Like I said, right now we're at 185 going into the season. So there is a lot of substantial amount of growth that we need to do. It's a great program for teens to come in to get leadership opportunities, work with the team, get their first job experience with the Recreation Department. It's definitely a hard first job. You're working with kids, you're not just sitting behind a counter, which is, you know, a lot of our teamwork activities is something that we're really proud upon. that we do.

So this budget definitely allows the funding to bring on that staff and train them and provide them job opportunities.

I think as our city grows and it's growing every day and we want to give the services for you and your department to do a real good job out there so I mean it's pretty straightforward here with this budget so I'd like to make a motion to approve.

Motion approved by Councilor DiBona. I know Councilor Hubley had your hand up.

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair, through you. Yeah, I think the program is wonderful. My kids have participated in it. Well, when they were kids. They're no longer kids anymore. I keep calling them kids. and so it's been a great resource. I also noticed in the past couple years you guys have really sort of stepped up your social media game which is how A lot of young people are attracted to this type of program. I was going to quote a friend of mine who was like, dude, great social media. I do have one question. I wanted to understand a little bit about what the 530303, which is contracted services, what type of services, what does that entail?

So that entails our website. We have quincyrec.com that does all our registrations. We have all the city of Quincy, whoever provides our program, we have all their information so they can register for the programs. It also does our scheduling platform for our 275 employees. In the past, it was rec supervisors, operations supervisors texting kids to see if they can work. Now we have a complete scheduling platform where they can tell us when they're available to work and we can schedule them right away without trying to text 15 kids to fill five spots. It's been a great resource for us. Great, and keeping track of, keeping the attention of a large population of teenagers, I can imagine that. It does, it streamlines payroll, everything gets exported right onto an Excel sheet, so instead of having 15 pieces of paper to sort through in pen and pencil, it all comes up in Excel.

Yeah, I think this program is wonderful in terms of, you know, giving kids positive things to do during the summer months, the off times. You know, idle hands can sometimes go in a bad direction. I sometimes resemble that remark. But that's all I have. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilor.

Councilor Yuen. A question already asked by Councilor Hubley. Okay. So you're all set? Yeah. Okay. Anyone else?

So again, in longevity, this is probably the same thing where it's going to increases in salary. There's a transfer in for $9,582 in the year to date. for this budget, but is that also kind of money just funneling in through longevity to go to contractual increases? personnel increase, okay. And then for the salary wage perm line, is that, how many people is that for?

The salary?

Sorry, this is the 510110?

Yep, that's our personnel services line, and that is the line that pays our recreation leaders.

And that's like 187 people? Is that what you said?

Right now we have 187. At our peak we're around 275. In the winter we're around like that 120 area. So it depends on the season.

Okay. Okay. That's all I have then. Thank you.

Ryan. Going back to line item. Thank you, Madam Chair. Going back to line item 530303. I noticed that you have it budgeted for 2027 for 22,000. But for this year, you only used 18,000. So I'd like to make a recommendation to reduce that by 2,000.

Councilor, we have not yet filled our obligations in paying for our technology fees. So we still have about probably $2,000 to $3,000 left to pay on our scheduling system.

Okay. So that would make it, what, 21,000 that you would want to have it budgeted for next year?

I mean, we would like to have a budget for the $22,000. Yes, we don't know if cost goes up with our website. Our website is also dictated on revenue that we bring in, so that changes year to year.

Okay, so I guess we won't be cutting that.

Thank you, Councilor.

You're welcome. Is that all?

Okay. Ash.

Thank you. Thank you. Director Rooney, I echo what Councilor Hubley said. It's visible. throughout the city on our computer screens and our phone screens how much the program, at least to those of us even that don't have kids in it, how much it's growing. So I think that the increase in this year's budget is completely reasonable. I did want to ask you what the line item 530500, what recreational could mean in the recreation department budget?

Yep, so that recreation, so that can be anything from staff, Staff Clothing. We can buy anything from if we need new hoops for some of our programs. It can go into, let me see, I have this all here for you. So we'll pay for summer field trips. It pays for advertising in the Quincy Sun of our programs. It pays for booking for our senior Olympics for their bowling billiards. It pays for equipment rentals for water days, electronics, speakers, cameras, video cameras, sports equipment for pickleball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, etc. So that really is an important line item for us as we go through year to year. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor.

Anyone else? We had a motion to approve this as presented, right? We didn't make any amendments to this. All those in favour? Aye. Any opposed? I think that does it for the evening. Thank you very much. We can go over.

Thank you, Councilors. I really appreciate your support through this budget process, but all throughout the year as well, too. So thank you. Thank you for being here. Appreciate the work you do.

1101, motion to adjourn.