Finance Committee

Good evening, everyone. I'm Ben Wheeler. I use he him pronouns. I am a counselor at large and the finance committee chair. It is 6pm on the dot and I'd like to call to order The Wednesday, October 28th, 2026 meeting of the Finance Committee of the Somerville City Council. This meeting of a city council committee will be conducted via remote participation following Chapter 2 of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Acts of 2025 We are joined tonight by Clerk Delaney Fisher-Cassiel. Clerk Fisher-Cassiel, could you please call the roll to establish quorum?

Yes I can. This is a roll call. Councilor Link Here Councilor Strezo Present Councilor Hardt Here Councilors Scott Present Chair Wheeler

Here.

All right, with that everyone is here so we do have quorum.

Thank you! We will be taking up our seven item agenda in the order posted And as a general note to everybody, if I pronounce your name wrong or get your title wrong or use the wrong pronouns for you please don't hesitate to interrupt me and correct me. I want to get it right! Okay, starting off with committee minutes. Item 1, 26-1578, approval of the minutes of the Finance Committee meeting of October 20th, 2026. Is there any discussion of this item? Seeing none, this item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. Moving onto arts. Item 2 26-1514 requesting approval to appropriate $100,000 From the Encore Artist and Cultural Support Stabilization Fund to support local cultural council grants to artists, organizations, and schools. and I believe we have acting arts and culture director Rachel Strutt or until recently acting, and new arts and cultural director Lydia Warren.

Director Warren and Deputy Director I guess Strutt, could you please tell us about this appropriation? I imagine. Yep, there you go. Got that new button off. Yeah. Oh, it's back on. No, turn it back off. Oh okay.

You can hear me?

Yes, I can.

Great. Good. Sorry about that. So this is for our local cultural grants program. This is really at the crux of what we do as a division. Our very department and division grew out of this LCC program starting back in the 1980s. We redistribute funds from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Aboff, A little over two-thirds goes to project grants, which is it could be a music festival. It The $100,000 from Encore we've been receiving that to augment the money we get from the MCC.

Since 2022. Before that, my predecessor found tried to find other means to augment the money because we believe that this is such an important program and spread seeds to support our overall cultural infrastructure. And this year we have received Let's see, 179 applications requesting a total of $659,000. So even if the Encore money goes through and augments, the 55 that we get from the MCC It's still going to be a very competitive process and I convey that to show that there is a great demand for this program and these funds. and I can give more specifics as to how like some examples of projects. I believe, Councilor Wheeler you had asked for that or happy to host any other questions?

Thanks. I guess I'm just also curious, will this $100,000 basically go into an account that will then be used over time? For these grants is there going to be a sort of single round of these grants where that money is dispersed more or less all at the same time?

Sure, so every year the grant deadline is October 15th and then working with our volunteer board we assemble juries to review all the applications. So over the coming months we're entering jury season and we'll determine which applications are approved and which ones are denied. And then like late December, early January, we send out rejections and acceptances But anyone who applied for a 2027 fund, which these encore funds would go towards, would need to fulfill their grant between January 1st and December 31st of 2027.

Thank you so much. Any comments or questions from members of the committee? I see Councilor Link.

Thank you, Chair, through you. I'm hugely supportive of this. I do, though, just want to say I really would have appreciated having some supporting documents just to kind of you know I'm the kind of person who likes to do my homework and there's not really there wasn't I opened this up like Ready to dig in, excited to dig it. And there just really wasn't anything at all there. So yeah I appreciate some of this information that you just gave us and I guess I would just love to know a little bit more about like you know like how I guess how the grants are decided um you know and uh I guess I'm making sure I how they're how the the grants

you know a general field blitz like you know we get all the city councillors get in addition to many other people I'm sure get like the press releases so you know try to share it out that way but just the more information I can have the better and In this public meeting, the more information the public can have, the better. Thank you.

Through the chair, thank you for that, Councilor Link. And I'm so sorry I did not provide information prior because I absolutely would have loved to. I could go on about this until the cows come home. This is the second time I've been before a Finance Committee. In the previous time, I received specific questions and so I didn't know I was supposed to do that. So I can very quickly answer a few more of your questions and give you an overview. We do extensive outreach to let the community know that these grants are available because we like to be as inclusive as possible. A nice thing about these grants is that it's a springboard to then Go on, build your confidence and then go on to apply for bigger grants say the MCC. They are juried by a board member is the chair of each panel.

So dance theater is a panel, visual arts as a panel literature is a that board member working with the staff assembles a group of jurors experts within their respective Fields to get together. They pre-review all the applications and then they get together on one night to meet as a group to determine which ones have merit, which ones don't, and the ones that do have merit How will they serve the community? and to what extent should we fund them? Because as I mentioned, it's quite a competitive process. I should also mention that Somerville stands out in that because we augment the money like recently through these Encore funds We have a much more robust program than nearly every other municipality in Massachusetts.

and also we are one of only four municipalities in the state that gives out fellowship grants which is money that nurtures individual artists and we believe strongly about that. and even a fellowship recipient before they can receive their reimbursement only grant have to perform a community benefit. So a visual artist might paint a switch box. A musician might go into Somerville High School and talk to students about how to do music recording. And... Yeah, I could give a couple specific examples of applications we've received this year. Please let me know because I could go on.

One or two examples would be great. Thank you. And I just want to emphasize, I'm really super supportive of this, not at all skeptical. Like, this is great.

Great, thank you. Through the chair last year a couple awardees so these are grants that are taking place right now there's a community puppetry project at the Argenziano School The Gilman Square Music Festival received funds through this LCC grant program. Arts at the Armory received funds for their Performance Opportunity Program which enables them to in turn kind of re-grant the money to people who aren't available to pay the price for their cafe or their performance hall so making Arts at the Armory more accessible. This year two examples are Boston Comic Arts Foundation seeks 3,000 to support

12 community drawing and comic writing nights with guest presenters like graphic novelists over the course of the year serving, they estimate 600 people. They would be monthly meetings. at the Boston Drawing Center in Union Square. And then another example, The Welcome Project asks for 5K They want to tell Somerville's modern immigrant story by documenting recent immigrant stories and then sharing them with a video. and Art Exhibit, and on social media. And again I could go on and on but there's some pretty like so many strong applications and the juries really do a great job almost obsessing over you know Mr. Chair, I am totally satisfied thank you very much

Thank you, Councilor Link for those questions.

Thank you Chair and through you to Ms. Strutt, this is I'm also it's great to hear more I've seen over the years so many projects like really wonderful projects that have been supported Um, so I'm very happy to approve this. I was just curious about more information if you could tell us about the Encore Stabilization Fund and a little bit more about the The levels of that fund and how it's funded.

Sure, it's my understanding This is like a community benefits agreement with Encore and the city actually receives 600,000 but 100,000 starting in 2022 have been earmarked for the LCC grant program. I think the person who could speak more on it is Director Alan Ignacio, if I have his last name correctly. But that's my understanding of the funds. Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank You.

Thank-you Councilor Hardt and Councilor Scott

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to say of course I support this. I'm glad to hear everybody digging into it. This is a direct channeling funds that the community fought for and negotiated for from the Encore Casino project. And it is a way for the Arts Council, although I think there's a different name now to continue their work that they've been doing of putting money directly into the hands of Somerville artists. It's It's really astonishing and it's one of the bright spots. As anybody who watches during budget season knows, that's one the bright spot in the city government in terms of making sure every dollar gets spent well. And it all comes back to enrich the community so I just wanted to give my thanks and once again, my welcome to our new director. So thank you very much Mr. Chair

You're here, Councilor Scott. First of all, what is your current title?

Cultural Director.

Cultural Director Strutt, thank you very much. Am I right in that the name of the division now is Arts and Culture?

That is correct.

Great. I'll try to get that into my head and get used to that. I wanted to echo my colleague's welcome to Director Warren I look forward to meeting you in person and being part of all the wonderful ways that our city supports the arts. Thanks for being here. Okay, any other comments or questions from members of the committee? Sure, go ahead Culture Director.

We will have an LCC gala in February where we invite the grant winners and the jurors, and we will be inviting you as well.

Love it. Thank you so much. That's exciting. Strezo. Sorry, there's a light in the background that's right where the hand is. It was hard to see. Please, please, Councilor Strezo

Totally, yeah. Thank you. Through you to our new cultural director because I remember getting deep in the weeds about the encore surrounding community agreement. Back when I started on the council and making sure that the agreement was being as... Respected as possible and so it's good to see this conversation happening but also that and forgive me if I have missed this, but Director, and welcome by the way. Super excited to get to work with you

And going to enjoy this, but wanted to ask you, remind me please if this is a focus on Somerville artists or if this Is Metro Boston or Yeah, we'll start there.

Through the chair, Councilor Strezo, it's a great question to receive a fellowship grant you have to live in Somerville To receive a project grant, you do not have to live in Somerville but the project or event has to specifically serve the Somervill community and take place in Somerville.

Okay, and has it through you Mr. Chair? And there's no I mean I support this and I'm happy about this but So happy to have the conversation, but want to make sure that Somerville artists and and anyone affiliated with Somerville is that we're hyper focused on that. I know that there have been projects where we have art exhibitions There were no artists from Somerville or even Massachusetts that were. Included, which is staggering to me with our creative stock that we hear in our city. So I am very much highlighting and emphasizing genteely that we completely prioritize Somerville in every way. and if possible, that project grant or either of that.

If we can keep it with Somerville residents 100%. I know that can be a heavy lift, but really asking if we can continue on and do that as well.

Thank you for that feedback.

Thank you so much and I will just say as a closing note on the topic of Somerville's financial relationship with these various forms of community benefits from the Encore Casino and Resort. Of course, there are quite a few Somerville residents and other residents of the region who are employees at Encore. It's worth noting very much worth noting that Unite here Local 26 and Teamsters Local 25 who work for Encore are currently on strike. I believe about 50 days into that strike and one of the other benefits This is why this is on topic. One of the other benefits of the Encore Casino and Resort for the region that was promised and agreed to, was good paying jobs. So we are hopeful. I can speak for myself, I am hopeful And I know many of my colleagues feel this way as well, that this strike will be resolved soon.

and that everyone can get back to work and we can have all of these community benefits happening for the good of all. Thank you for permitting that slight diversion. Thank you again, welcome Director Warren and thanks for this information. This item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting And that brings us to elections! Item 3, 26-1545. Requesting a supplemental appropriation of $72,000... Sorry, I'm getting an echo. Thank you. Oh, I think that was you Director Salerno. Yeah, hold for just one second then I'll turn mine off. Item three 26-1545 requesting a supplemental appropriation of $72,824.03

To various accounts in the election department to fund the two special elections. And we have Commissioner of Elections Nicholas Salerno. Commissioner Salernon, could you please tell us about this appropriation? And I will mute.

Sorry to come up with such an atmosphere. Playing a good tune, I hope. Meantime, I think you have before you the information... I don't know why it's doing me... I would guess the best thing to do is just plow through.

Just go ahead with what you're going to say. Okay, great.

Thank you for watching! and we put everything together that was necessary in order to put the process in place. And whether it's, you know, co-workers advertising Hmm. Maintenance of machines, programming of machines Putting up pole workers in place And it's very straightforward in my mind It brings us to the point that The minute we press the button Say we're going to have elections that the costs fall suit. And that is why I'm here requesting that amount of money to run the two elections in early 2027.

Thank you, Director. And just to make clear, words two and three have the special election, correct?

Correct. We will be opening round three seats.

Thank you, Director. Any questions or comments from members of the committee? I am seeing Intergovernmental Affairs Director Amanda Najim-Williams. Director?

Mr. Chair, Amanda Najim-Williams, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. I was just going to note that I believe there was an attachment with this item in case folks wanted to see that as well. Thank you, Clerk.

Thank you, I appreciate that director. What are two small notes or questions on this? I wondered if there was just a typo with how salary- is spelled if salaries and the final S cutoff.

I didn't quite get the question. I'm sorry if something's wrong with the audio. I could try tuning it off and on again to see if that helps in it.

I think that's okay. I could bring that point up offline. Are there any comments or questions from members of the committee on this item? I am seeing none. Just to share a few quick notes, and this is coming out of a conversation about this item I had with Director Najam Williams and Finance Director Ed Bean Am I right in understanding this item is funded from the tax levy using the slightly more revenue than had been projected? and avoiding using free cash? This might be a question for Director Nadja Williams.

3, Mr. Chair, Amanda and Andrew Williams again yes that is my understanding of the conversation that we have with Director Bean I think beyond that I wouldn't be able to speak more to it but yes That is fair

Okay, I am not seeing further questions or comments from members of the committee. Thanks for this work. I appreciate how it's all been done to try to get all of this to happen. as quickly and efficiently as possible. With appreciation this item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting Okay, moving on to health and human services. Item four 26-1531 requesting approval to pay prior year invoices totaling $12,844.97 Using available funds in the Health and Human Services Administration Ordinary Maintenance Account for Medicaid billing and collection services. and I believe for this one do we have, yes we do, Health & Human Services Finance Manager Anup Malik. Manager Malik could you please tell us about these prior year invoices?

Anup Malik, HHS Health and Human Services Finance Manager through Chair Wheeler. Yes. This is the invoice, as a matter of fact, FY26 final invoice from Public Consulting Group for our Medicaid billing. and collection services contract that we have with public consulting group. This final invoice came in late and our purchase order as part of that didn't have enough funds to pay for. This came in late, in part because of the fiscal year end on the public consulting group side and you know reconciliation process so hence We're requesting approvals so that we can then open a purchase order and pay for it.

So the invoice attachment that is before the council members calls for two different charges. So that is FFS Medicaid minimum, which is the fee-for service and then the Medicaid third-party recovery direct service minimum which is the quarterly charge Based off of the percentage that was decided when we had done the contract with them back in October 2024. I should also note to Chair, the contract goes through September 2027.

Thank you, Director. Could you please describe what Public Consulting Group does in this work?

So Public Consulting Group is the company that we, the city has hired to Help us summit the Medicaid claims to the Medicaid. So this accounts for the city of Somerville and the Health and Human Services has responsibility on the billing maintenance of the contract. and the school side partners with these consultants to seek support in the What's called the quarterly billing of, you know, you have nursing services that get billed. You have other services that can build. So there is a lot of education that's involved here by the consultants to the For example, special ed staff that tracks the services being provided which then translates into data that public consulting consultants use to build the Medicaid.

So in return, then we get reimbursements that us here at the Health and Human Services are responsible to ensure that they're being booked and being tracked. So each year, like last year, this year we had a budget of $300,000 that we're seeking from Medicaid as a response. Thank you. So, um...

These just understand this kind of roughly $11,000 minimum amount. That's a quarterly amount that we're paying sort of?

TrueChair, the $11,260.15 is the full year, the July 2025 true... So it's essentially FY26 full-year payment. that fee for service is billed on a yearly basis so hence in this final invoice you are seeing that amount and then the Medicaid third party recovery, the direct service minimum is the quarterly amount that they bill us. So hence, that's for April through June here.

Thanks and just one more question on this director I imagine that whenever possible, if we can get large bills broken up into smaller amounts throughout the course of the year so that we're not... you know as much left with a large bill for the previous year I imagine that keeps the finances Cleaner and Easier to Anticipate. Is anything like that a possibility here? It just sort of strikes me if we've got a minimum amount for the year, Could it make sense to sort of negotiate a payment along the way, perhaps at some kind of discount? Does that make sense? I know we're not talking about a colossal amount of money here but... Trying to think of how to avoid having too many prior year invoices this size.

True share, absolutely. As the contract ends next year we'll be looking to add in the language Request monthly invoices and future contracts will follow that language as we have been doing that with many of our vendors here. As a matter of fact, in Health and Human Services across the board. And then we also typically don't close out POs and open a PO for the full amount at the start That also allows us to help through the fiscal year to ensure that we are able to pay within that fiscal year. An exercise we do internally also to ensure that there are no prior year invoices that we have to pay after the year closes, but certainly share.

Thank you. I appreciate you letting me go down that rabbit hole. Sorry, members of the committee. Any questions or comments from members of Oh, sorry. Councilor Strezo, I'm hearing you and I'm seeing a hand from Councillor Hardt. I'm happy to go with either.

Hopping in line, of course. Yeah.

Okay, thanks. We'll go to Councillor Hardt and then we'll go

Okay, thank you Chair and through you too Director Malik. Thank you for all the explanations I just want to be sure I understand what's the foundation of the work that's being paid for You mentioned some examples of services provided through the schools, but are there other things as well? And how does that connect with what's in the school budget versus what's on the city side?

Through Chair to Councilor Hardt. Yeah, I'm happy to follow up on this if you like because I would love to have... The CFO, Bobby Breda. As he is the point person who actually certifies Quarterly Reimbursement Report, as to speak, that gets submitted to Public Consulting Group. First, the data gets shared with them. They prepare the report and then it gets reviewed by Bobby Breda and other members on his team to and then he certifies that report that gets submitted. I would have to look into deep details here but i know that there are multiple services that get built

and we meet with them regularly to see where we can improve because there are some data that is not always accurate. Data gets summited, it requires more information on it and so we meet with them regularly. I am going to see if i could pull it up but I would take the opportunity to certainly If possible to get back to you on this and happy to explain what are the services that are being built and how frequently we do, which is on a quarterly basis. and I'm happy to work with IGA on that if you like.

Thank you so much, that would be great. Thank You Chair.

Thank-you. Councilor Strezo?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, Councilor Hardt was On the same pages as I am, I was on the same page as Councilor Hardt and where she was going with this. And with this, going to show my cards right away I'm going to request that we keep this in committee until we get these answers because this seems very complex and I was very much trying to dissect The pots of money of why this is coming before us. And yet it's still because there's a lot of questions where the consultants are coming in. But Medicaid billing has to do with this and then of course, the school budget

I don't think we're going to get the answers tonight and at the very least, we can understand this deeper if we can have this in next Committee with some answers and Director Barretta in front of us as well. What I do want to ask Mr. Chair through you is Is this an issue of care of students with complex needs or where does nursing and... Help me find the connection, please.

Through Chair, to Councilor Strezo. I was happy to...I was able to locate most recent slide deck that was presented with us and I'm happy to share a little bit more here So service log is what the terminology gets used. And the things that we... The things that are being accounted, so there are behavioral support as a service. There is counseling services that are Occupational Therapy, Orientation and Mobility, Physical Therapy Psychological Services Social Work Services Speech and Language Services So that's a little bit there, but I'm happy to work with IGA and happy to answer those questions together with the school colleagues.

Thank you on that. Okay, so we're getting a little deeper into this. So is this by chance consultants That could have been Somerville public school staff, but because of the shortage of Somervill public school teachers and professionals that these are the consultants that were hired in lieu of that.

And Councilor Strezo, I'm seeing a hand from Budget Director Mike Mastroboni. Director Mastroboni, do you have comments on that question?

No, just in answer to that question, thank you, Mr. Chair, Mike Mastaoboni, Budget Director, through you to Councilor This isn't something that we've ever done as a city. Medicaid billing is a highly specialized field and using a consultant here just allows us to focus on the things like the actual care. You know, this is a contract that we pay, you know, a moderate amount of money for. And you'll notice in the budget that we get quite a bit of Medicaid reimbursement because as you're aware, our students, you The public consulting group helps us get that money to the city.

Mr. Chair, if I may and thank you for that question Director Mastrofoni because yeah Quickly on that, when we talk about service logs and the information that's shared between consultants is that also, and with additional with Medicaid billing and students in vulnerable populations ought. is where does HIPAA come into that? And is that data that is shared private or how is that conveyed?

Director Malik. Sorry, go ahead.

Through Chair, Councilor Strezo, happy to work with IGA, Amanda and colleagues at the school side, and very happy to respond back to your questions.

Thank you very much. I know these are... We are way deep in the weeds now. Mr. Chair, can we please keep this item in committee?

Councilor Strezo, I'm certainly open to it. What I would be just curious about hearing from Director Malik, from Budget Director Mastroboni and from IGA Director Nigel Williams is what's the sort of time sensitivity of this item? I do note that because of the way November goes, Starts, it's going to be an extra week until the next council meeting. So if sort of fast forwarding we're talking about Maybe having this item in committee, having it go back to the council in late November. It's quite a bit of a wait time and so I have some caution around that. Just to get a sense of the time sensitivity.

Mr. Chair, on that point, can I just make a suggestion?

Sure. On that point. Thanks.

Could we maybe just approve it and then if with the condition that you're expecting Strezo's questions to be answered in the intervening times and if not we can sever it and put it back

I feel like that approach probably makes sense. Is that something that you're open to, Councilor Strezo?

Mr. Chair, no, I'm not because number one we haven't had in respectfully We haven't heard an answer of when this is due If we have some space for that and also I think that there could be room for because we're dealing with two separate pots of money And also would like to hear from Director Beretta as well on this I think it's a fair request to ask that this be kept in committee barring no outstanding timeline, but it sounds like there's not because usually when that does happen we hear about that ahead of time in this committee. So I think it's a fair request to keep this in committee, but you're the chair.

Are there comments on the timeliness of this, Director Malik or others?

To Chair and to the Councilmembers. I've been in touch with our point person on the public consulting group side and had made them aware that this was going before the council, and then we will be able to pay Only then we will be able to pay the invoice. Not certainly a timeline. I mentioned to them that sometime in November, we should be able I'm happy to just kind of based on where this goes and ensuring that the responses are there for the questions from the council member, happy to let the point person know that there is slight delay here. But I worked. Not too far from CFO Beretta, and I will make sure that we all respond to the questions.

Thank you. I'm seeing Councilor Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Fundamentally this is an invoice for services that have been provided over the last year I don't think anybody is indicating that the city is interested in balking on its obligations for work done, work contracted for and done. This sounds like a policy conversation about the use of Medicaid billing, Medicaid third-party billing. rather than a question about whether or not to approve payments for obligations that have been incurred by the city. So as such, I'd be inclined to pay the invoice and then encourage folks to create another item for discussing the policy choice made by the school department to use Medicaid third-party building. Thank you.

Thank You, Councilor Scott. IGA Director Nedjum Williams?

Mr. Chair, I'm happy to work with Mayor Malik and any city or any staff on the district side to be responsive whether in memo form before this item if Aboff, Follow up with staff if you have additional questions, but I think we absolutely can commit to getting some written responses to the questions that were asked here tonight if the committee wishes to approve this tonight pending that information.

Thank you, Director. I am inclined to agree with Councilor Scott's judgment on this. It does seem to me that they're really interesting and important questions about trying to understand better how the city is approaching these These uses, the balance of staff and consulting and issues about student privacy Those seem like questions that we should definitely set up meetings for. I think we can use our council order powers as well to... Make sure there are conversations that happen in the public eye. In terms of the payment of this item, you know, this is an item in that kind of category where if it weren't for the timeliness It would just be one of the things that we've budgeted. That makes me sort of think that the timeliness is the financial question before us now.

Obviously, we always want to make sure that we're paying attention to that From that perspective, I am inclined to approve this item tonight and send it back to the council at which point we'll have the chance to sever. Councilor Strezo?

Absolutely. And usually, and as we all know some of the members of this committee have never been strangers to Pause and hold things in committee to the next one, especially on finance. So this is not an abnormal practice. Okay, and I hear all the points and very happy to consider and listen. And of course it's whichever you know how many The majority of votes gets if it gets approved or not, and that's fine. I do not think that we are on a time crunch, and I think it's still realistic to wait till the next meeting, like I said don't want to hold up the process with this um we're gonna pay our bills we always do so i'm not worried about that uh it's more of right where are we with this and would at least in this minimally

I get an answer from someone here to represent this on, was this a staff? Could we have done this in house? with staff instead of consulting because that is a direct question on this item. Because in the past, In SPS, there have been issues of staffing where we have had to hire outside consultants within the schools and with that paid about Aboff, and some of the other services that are discussed. So that was my specific question on this item.

So with that, is there again was this something that could have been if we had the proper staff to address this? That could have been handled in-house with our city staff, our SPS staff.

Thank you, Councillor Strezo. And sorry, Councillor Link if you'll give me just a moment on that. Just to restate my understanding of what Director Mastroboni was saying since The services in question that we're talking about these consultants providing are providing expertise on how to go about Medicaid billing. to make sure that we get the full reimbursements that we are legally entitled to as a city. In my mind, that strikes me and so on. As opposed to sort of experts in providing services to students, that I 100% hear the points about. We want to make sure that when we're repairing our roads, when we are providing

Health Services and Mental Health Services to people of all ages. Those seem like areas that I think it's really important that we develop in-house expertise on, and I really hear that about sort of Knowing how to navigate these ever-changing federal policy landscapes to make sure that we're getting the reimbursements we're entitled to, as I understand it from Director Mastroboni's explanation That feels satisfactory to me. But going back to the points about the conversations we can have, I just want to reiterate, we have the ability to set up meetings to either private one-on-one meetings with some of these questions or larger questions with more counselors that are public in session. I think that's something where it's very appropriate for us to use our council order power to call for those kinds of reports and meetings.

And I really sort of encourage us to. Sorry, I stepped in front of Councilor Link but I saw you put your hand down. Okay, Councilor Strezo.

Yeah, on that point, Mr. Chair, thank you for all that. Can I please get through to Director Mastroboni a yes-no on that question?

Mr. Chair, through you, yes this is not something caused by our lack of city staff. This is something that we've been consulting on for a long time and we will likely We will remain consulting on. It's a very specialized skill set.

Mr. Chair, through you to Director Rasmussen, thank you very much for that answer. That's all.

Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. Okay, seeing no further discussion on this item, this is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. Thanks, everyone. And moving on to item 526-1524, requesting approval of a transfer of $545,649. from the infrastructure inspectional services salaries account to various health and human services public health personal services accounts to correct an allocation error in the fiscal year 2027 budget. And I believe Budget Director Mastroboni will speak on this item as well.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm trying to be brief. As you're aware, as part of Mayor Wilson's reorganization of departments and divisions this year, we split Inspectional Services into two pieces. A number of employees and ordinary maintenance went to infrastructure, and another number went to health and human services. Public Health. We identified six positions after budget approval that went to inspectional services in the infrastructure department, Rather than public health in the Health and Human Services Department. So what this transfer does is it corrects back to what the original budgets should have been again, this is six positions that were inadvertently Budgeted in infrastructure rather than human services. So that's what you see before you happy to answer any questions, but we're doing this for two reasons one because

Public Health will run a deficit if we don't move these resources over because the employees have been charged there. And second is, we want the record to We want the record of the city's ledger to show the correct allocations in the future, and that's why we're here to do this now. Thank you.

Thank you, Jared, through you. So I think I heard the answer to my question and I just want to make sure I heard Notations need to have been made, have been so that going forward this will all be super set. Is that correct?

That's right, through the chair. Yeah. I think it's unlikely that we'll be splitting many departments going forward. There was a lot of movement and this is the mistake that we made. It's mostly inspectors which have a dual role, so it's not a total surprise. But yeah, we shouldn't see this again. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councilor Link. I'm not seeing other hands. So Director Masterburn, I'm just trying to understand. I am looking at the budget book and if I'm looking in infrastructure inspectional services Am I right in understanding that some of these positions in this personnel listing, these are dual roles where these folks that are listed here are also doing work in public health?

No, that's not right. It's just the titles. There's inspectors and there's Board of Health and Public Health. And we just had a little confusion on which positions to allocate where. That's all. It's not that they work in both departments or divisions. The ones that we're moving here are, I'll name them really quickly for you. Chief Code Enforcement Inspector, Safety Inspector, two Senior Code Enforcements Inspectors and other safety inspector and other code enforcement inspectors. So they're just enforcement inspectores that were, again, budgeted in one place but were always planned to be paid out of the other place so we just didn't want to correct that.

So, sorry. Does that mean that these roles or the funds for them were never listed in the budget book under inspectional services and infrastructure?

They were listed in infrastructure and they should have been listed in public health. So we'll make this movement and correct that.

Part of what's confusing to me is I don't actually know if the online budget book is a living document. I'm sort of assuming that this... is a snapshot of what we all understood to be the case at the end of June. are there some of these titles building inspector plumbing and gas fitting inspector which sorry you know that we're realizing these titles are the wrong titles for these people they have public health titles Do you understand my question? Like if these roles that are listed here are moving, which ones are they?

The role... Sorry, I'm just pulling up the budget. That's why we'll take a look at the exact same thing here. So you're looking at infrastructure.

And pardon me. I'm sorry. Clark, it could be helpful... To pull this up as well, I don't know if you have this link handy clerk for the fiscal year 2027 budget book.

I will say, I do not have that super handy. But if you do, you can just go ahead and share your screen if you're open to doing that. Otherwise, I can pull it up. It just might take me a minute

Mr. Chair, I can answer that pretty quickly. I just took a look through what you see in inspectional services that we presented in the budget is what we're correcting to. So what you see, all the positions you see listed in Inspectional Services, the org chart is the correct one. What happened was just those six positions Their money was allocated in inspectional services when it should have been allocated into public health. And that's the difference. The reason that we're mixing them up is because, or that we are talking about them together is because they used to be one department so that's that's

The budget book has the information that is correct. What we actually did with amounts that we put in which account, that was incorrect and we are correct. That's correct. Okay, thank you. I didn't totally understand. I feel like I do now. We got there. Appreciate that. Just to be sort of clear for the future, are there sort of steps or practices that we could take so that An allocation mistake like that isn't as likely to happen. I understand that we don't split departments in two very often, but whatever the nature of the pattern here is... you know how can we sort of avoid making this kind of mistake and if we make it notice it more quickly

So two answers to that. We noticed it quickly, we just wanted to make sure that we had all parties involved so we've had a series of meetings to make 210% completely on board with the numbers and at the end of the day right The end of the race is the end of fiscal year, so there wasn't necessarily a time crunch. The way we're going to avoid this in the future is spending a lot of our time working with Our friends in HR on position control. So this is a best practice that basically makes slots for positions and you put human beings into those and we're able to know with a little bit more clarity across systems, right? Across Munis, across ClearGov exactly which positions we're budgeting. And typically our challenge is around Parktimers, where we struggle with that right? Where there's like you know 50 different

People in this one position. But this unique challenge, I think we were really focused on making sure payroll was right and we put these folks in the wrong division but this is important to us.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments from members of the committee on this? Seeing none, this item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. Moving on to Department of Public Works, item 626-1539, requesting approval to enter into a 60 month contract with Boston Carding Services LLC for hauling municipal solid waste recycling and yard waste. and I believe for this we have Department of Public Works Director of Finance and Administration Megan Huckenpahler, and Commissioner of Department of public works Eric Wiseman. Directors could you please tell us about this contract?

Eric Wiseman, Commissioner of Public Works. I'm covering for Director Huckenfaller today. I have a brief presentation to run through extremely quickly if you'll permit it

Please, that is fine with me. You may have to request permission. Oh, great. I love that we're set up. Thank you, clerk.

Okay, or I can just run through these. That's fine. Okay so if you move on to the next slide please? So very briefly the agenda. I'm going to go over the request, take you through Municipal Solid Waste 101 and Review sort of the distinction between Boston Carding and Casella, which has come up a few times in our conversations. Talk briefly about Boston Cardings labor status and give you plenty of time to ask questions. Okay, so if you move to the next slide please and the one after this All right, so what we are requesting is that you approve a 60-month contract to haul Somerville's municipal solid waste. So in that contract agreement will be with Boston Carting Services LLC Services include residential solid waste recycling, yard waste, mattresses, white goods among others. The contract would begin January 1st 2027

with a total estimated value of $34 million over five years. We're currently under contract with Boston Carding and we would continue to be under contract and I wanted to highlight that this contract includes no new increases from the current 2026 rates so uh rates will be flat for the next two years and then have a four percent escalation and residents can continue to expect the same quality of service. Next slide please So again, I want to hammer that some of the highlights include $2.3 million projected savings Some strengthened school zone safety agreements around hours of collection, around pickup and drop-off times at the schools as well as collection frequency in city and school buildings and enhanced liquidated damages languages

and that lets us hold the vendor accountable for missed pickups, late collections etc. And I just want to highlight that like in the past we had a sort of a very an old contract this really modernizes the contract and brings it up to line with like the more modern hauling contracts that we see elsewhere in the state. If you continue to hauling versus tipping, this is like a big point of confusion. And I just want to highlight that this is a hauling contract and hauling is the collection and haulings materials It includes costs related to labor and vehicles required to safely collect and transport The price of hauling is typically a flat fee based on estimated pickups and frequency of collection.

Tipping on the other hand, which is the processing of disposal of trash recycling yard waste etc. Those costs are related to like the labor facilities and equipment used to process or store or dispose of. And the price of tipping is typically a per ton cost and driven by volume. Just as a comparison, the waste management contract that you approved back in June is a tipping contract. Okay, next slide please. All right we don't have to go over these but these are the major contracts here I just wanted to have this if you wanted to refer to this. Next slide please All right. And then the big question on everybody's mind is what about compost and how will compost impact this contract? I think

As we adopt composting throughout the city in the future, it will impact our tipping costs but it's unlikely to reduce the cost of our hauling in this contract. Although if we see a major change in the total amount of trash, the number of pickups that's like I think can be fuel for how we negotiate the next contract okay and that's because they're still making the same number of collections, they're making the Okay, and then quickly what's the difference between Boston Carding and Casella? There's some confusion around this because Casella Waste Systems purchased Boston Carding in April this year, or maybe March this year from a private equity firm.

So now, whereas before Boston Carding was owned by a private equity firm I cannot remember the name of it right at this second, but now it is owned by a solid waste company, Casella based in Vermont. It's like a national solid waste... Industry Company. So the impact for us will be that we will still have Boston Carding Services providing our service and frontline and operational staff have been retained at Boston Cardings But Casella brings the sort of industrial know-how and resources to the table. Next slide, please. All right so I put this slide together because there were questions about this when we came before you guys for waste management. So Boston Carting is represented by Teamsters Local 25,

They have been represented by the Teamsters since Boston Carding purchased FW Russell. My understanding is that CBA expires June 30th, 2028 and that there are escalators in our contract for, that may be impacted by the resolution of that contract. and just to give you a sense that Casella operates other hauling operations in Eastern Mass. And those employees are represented by two other Teamsters locals, Local 170 in Worcester and Local 633 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Okay next slide please oh yeah this is the slide where I let you guys ask questions so thank you for your time

Thank you, Commissioner. Councilor Scott?

Thank you Mr. Chair and thank you to Commissioner Wiseman. You know when we chatted earlier I said, you know what might be good to just have a little slideshow. You aced it. So thank you for covering all these questions and thank you also for providing the entire contract here. This is actually the entire bid package that's attached to this item Teamsters 25 and on page 55, it shows how the cost of the contract could be increased if in 2028 The new bargaining contract increases the wages. I'm personally very happy that we're not seeing any increases in the first two years of this contract. That is very uncommon.

In my experience here, and also just wanted to give Councilor Davis a little bit of a shout out that his truck side guards are down in page 71 of this contract too. So... All in all, this is great. I do note that it looks like this came back in March which kind of indicates just how cumbersome these processes can be. Or at least a piece of this came in, the wage request came in So it takes a lot of work from a lot folks to get a big, big package like this together. So all of my compliments Director Wiseman All of my concerns have absolutely been addressed. So I'm happy to move forward on this tonight. Thank you.

Through the chair, thank you.

Thank you Mr. Chair uh through you so also um thank you for all this there's No lack of information. So this question really just is... because I couldn't find it in the contract. So, I don't know if I missed it cause it's just a rather long document. I'm curious so we have... I noticed in the presentation, so the union contract ends in 2028, I believe it was. And this is a five year contract. So I'm just wondering what would happen All in my mind whenever I think about these sort of things is what happened with Revolution where they... Or not Revolution, Republic. Where they...

went on strike and there was piles of trash along some of our neighboring cities' streets. Is there any way that we would address that? In this contract. Without, and I should not emphasize, sorry just real quick, I should emphasize without having scabs.

Yeah through the chair yeah thank you I think we learned a lot from what happened with that contract and saw how other cities handled it in a way that was sensitive to the organizing of the workers. at Republic. That is not laid out specifically in the contract, but I'm sure we would be speaking to this body frequently if we were in that situation. I do want to say that... While that unrest was happening, we didn't experience any of that with Boston Carding. And anecdotally, we reached out to contacts... at Local 25 that have said that they have a strong relationship with the Teamsters.

So I think that we're probably in a good position not to have to find out this. But I can't promise anything.

Mr. Chair, through you, that is music to my ears. I do hope, yeah, I guess as it gets closer to their contract, I hope we're keeping a close eye on it just so that Not Caught Unawares, and Rats Are Enough of a Problem Without Trash Piling Up. Thank you.

Thank You, Councilor Link.

Thank you. And on that last point about making sure that our relationship and the company's relationship with the Teamsters is tight, Director Wiseman from your mouth to God's ears. And I want to ask about the start time of trash delivery and if we have any questions. If we have any say in the start time on the roads when collections begin on weekdays and if if that is modifiable

Through the chair, the start time is laid out in the contract as part of the terms of the contract. It's on page 14 if somebody wants to share that on the screen. So that's a 7 a.m start and what we really oh there you go perfect thank you so much um This was part of negotiations. We really need to maintain that 7 a.m. start any earlier and I think we would get significant complaints about Noise, and that's sort of affected by our noise ordinances. And then I think if we started any later, we would really push the collection into a later part of the day. I'm sure the contractor would love to start at 4 a.m. to get out of the city and on to another paying customer as early as possible but i think we have to balance like noise restrictions

concluding collections in a timely fashion.

Mr. Chair, through you too Director Wiseman the reason I asked this question is because if anything I prefer to push it back um good to know about 7 a.m starting time and is there typically a grid I wasn't able to go too deep into the contract before start our meeting tonight so Happy to follow up on this, but the reason I ask this is because with school times for instance when throughout the community on certain streets. It becomes dangerous for both the collection employees

and also Uncertain Roads, the backup when we have that convergence of school start time, heavy road usage and stopping up certain streets in school zones. And I've always just opined if it was possible, any future contracts If it was modifiable, or at least we had a say of that timeline or the location of where that collection begins and ends Seeing if it's not near school drop-off zones or in the surrounding roads around that because there are dangerous scenarios.

Bikes on the road with trash delivery, with collections coming back and forth. And then heaven forbid a frustrated driver driving irresponsibly in that moment. It's a great recipe for someone getting hurt, and I don't want that. So I wanted to hear your thoughts on that.

Mr. Chair, thank you so much for a really great and thoughtful question this was like a big issue for us Clerk, if you could jump to page 45. We've laid out the school zone restrictions for collection that are specified by school and by collection day. To avoid conflict around these issues. Sorry if I didn't get the page right, but you can see how this is laid out. And if you hear of any conflict, please do reach out because I have found that the contractor has been very supportive of feedback around issues like that.

Mr. Chair, you to Director Rosamond thank you because yeah sometimes I have seen Incidences. And I know, I believe we switched or there's now one, Casella is now Boston Carding. So and then I know there was variables of different companies in between that. I have not seen that and I have seen it in surrounding school zones. So this is very encouraging and I really, really, appreciate this. And I will put that out to constituents as well. I love seeing this Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness on this and I'm not even going to finish that sentence. Thank you.

To the chair, thank you so

Thank you, Councilor Strezo. Any other questions or comments from members of the committee? Seeing none, this item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. Thank you Commissioner. Okay, and that brings us to our last item of communication, Item 726-1548, Sharing the Metro Boston Homeland Security Regions, MBHSR. Urban Area Security Initiative, UASI Fiscal Year 2024 Plan and Allocations. I'll just speak briefly to this item to try to describe it a little confusing like why is this item being shared so several items that we've approved this year and also some items from last year have come under UASI program with its money that was supplied as part of its fiscal year 2024. It's a for ourselves in a year that is not fiscal year 2024 like fiscal year 2026, or 27.

The region in question, this Metro Boston Homeland Security Region includes Somerville, Cambridge, Boston, Brookline, Chelsea, Everett, Quincy, Revere and Winthrop. Get in there little Winthrop! This document is a plan that's between this whole security region of all these towns and cities. and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, its UASI program. So it's not... The plan is not between Somerville and UASI. It's sort of indirectly part of this whole group of cities and towns, but by participating we are indirectly helping to require this whole region to comply with these Plan requirements that sometimes have requirements about overall in the whole region, a certain percentage of money has to be used for certain purposes.

has to be used in certain ways those conditions can change from year to year some of the changes for fiscal year 2025 are going to be ones that we discuss It seemed prudent to find out what those requirements were for our 2024 grant acceptances and I didn't know of anywhere that I could find Those requirements publicly. Earlier this year, I filed a public records request with the city of Boston. The City of Boston's Public Records Department responded by providing these two documents in an unredacted form later I was provided with redacted versions of these forms by the Massachusetts Office of Grants and Research, with an explanation that the redactions cover There's a long list of things that they were saying kind of allow them to redact, but as you can imagine these include various security concerns.

I don't know how merited these are about the sort of particular numbers, Whether or not we are obligated to use the redacted versions when sharing these documents with the public, the portion of this document that I had been seeking, the specific requirements for compliance in order for the region to receive UASI funds according to to the different grants that we'd received those portions are clearly readable where you can see what the sort of requirements are for these grants that I feel satisfied with the redacted versions. you know considering how this compares to any future versions of these requirements that we see so that's just all sort of on background there's no other point that I have with sharing this document, I just think it's a useful one for the public to have

Any questions or comments about that from members of the committee? Okay, seeing none I think we can mark this item work completed. And that brings us to the end of the meeting and the end tonight's agenda. Do I hear a motion to recommend approval of the items on the table, and then to adjourn? I'm seeing a wave and I saw an unmute from Councillor Strezo. Councillor Streza moves to recommend approval of the items on the table and then to adjourn. Could the clerk please read the agenda item numbers of the item up for recommendation to approve and call the roll on recommending approval of those items and adjournment?

Yes. On adjournment and recommending approval for agenda items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilors Strezo?

Yes

Hardt, Councilor Scott, Chair Wheeler. All right with that that is all votes in favor of recommending approval and adjournment it is 7 22 p.m and we are adjourned

Thanks so much everyone and have a great night.