Finance Committee

All right.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Jake Wilson, he, him pronouns, counselor at large, and your finance committee chair. It's 6.01 p.m. And I'd like to call to order the June 18th, 2025 meeting of the finance committee of the Somerville City Council. First, it's my pleasure to read you all this. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023, this meeting of a City Council Committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio-video recording and a comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. Now, Clerk, could you please call the roll to establish quorum?

This is roll call. Councilor Ambach.

Present.

Councilor Burnley.

Present.

Councilor Clingan.

Present.

Councillor Scott.

Present.

Chair Wilson.

Present.

All right, with everyone here, we do have quorum.

Excellent. I want to welcome everyone to the third night in a series of departmental budget hearings on the proposed FY 2026 budget. Thank you to the counselors who submitted questions for department heads to answer via memo. I trust we've all had the opportunity to look over those memos that were uploaded to the budget book. I do want to flag the new format of budget season this year and the creation of Monday night's additional meeting for any follow up questions counselors might have for department after that department has already appeared before us. I haven't heard from any counselors yet who wish to call back department heads on Monday night, but just flagging that to make sure that you all know that that's there. In the event that one of us does have a department we want to bring back for additional questions on Monday night, just please make sure to indicate that tonight. That will allow us to make sure that we get that message to staff and that we have them there on Monday if a meeting is needed. So I'll make sure to put out a final call for requests at the end of the meeting. I just want to put that on your radar. As in past years, motions for cuts or resolutions for additional funding are in order. After we finish discussing that, Department of Division, any motions will get tabled until cut night on Tuesday, June 24th. And as always, I'll encourage anyone making one of those motions to please speak with our finance analyst, Muhammad Uddin, ahead of the 24th. All right, let's dig in. We're going to start with inspectional services. And I see inspectional services is there in the committee room, ready to go. Councillors, any follow-up questions on the memo from inspectional services or anything fresh? Councillor Burnley, first up.

Thank you, through the chair. For the safety of my signal, I'm going to stay off camera for now. But I did want to follow up on a question That was mentioned in the memo from the department. It did reference the fact that less money was allocated to software services because short-term rentals have become more sophisticated. And my inference is that that meant more likely to avoid detection. As the director may know, in February, I put forward an order to determine how much money the city could gain by putting an additional community impact fee on short-term rentals. So I'm curious from the ISD perspective, what investments have your department made to account for short-term rentals as they become harder to track?

Matt Sano, superintendent of inspectional services, through the chair to you, counselor. We are exploring, right now we're exploring our options as to what we can do to be more proactive with identification of the short-term rentals. There was a time period where As mentioned, the software that was utilized was better at being for proactive identification and but it's been able, but at this point it's a little bit more reactive we're still in the midst of of looking into further how we can. identify. properties.

Thank you to the Chair, I think I might have some follow us, but since I see. Councilor Scott wants to ask a question, and since I'm not at my computer just yet, I think I will yield until I have full-on face coverage in the next few minutes or so.

Thanks, Councilor. And, oh, man, do I have a follow-up on that, but I want to throw it to Councilor Scott first.

Oh, no, please, sir. Go right ahead. I'm going to ask about the vacant properties ordinance.

Oh, okay. Well, that's great then. So on this point, the software, I attended the MMA, well, sorry, Mass Municipal Association, not mixed martial arts, an important distinction, the conference back in January. And I spoke with multiple vendors who had some really impressive looking products. that basically do this sort of thing. They seem very sophisticated. They were, I mean, obviously they're selling a product. They're going to make it sound as good as possible. But some of them even were able to do things like look at the, track the average rates that people are getting and give us some ammunition to go to the DOR and make arguments for additional revenue from the short-term rental scene here in Somerville. I've talked to Director Bean about this. I won't betray any confidences and tell you Director Bean's response to this, but I'll just say I'm really interested in digging in on this and seeing if one of these software packages might be hip to the tricks that we're seeing out there from Airbnb and others, because I just think it really... I think we want to be tracking this. I think we want to... we want to be on top of this and i would love to to follow up uh with director being possibly with y'all and see if if there's something we can do um you know we have to figure out how to fund it but i'm sure that uh we can get creative if need be because i think that this is something that would probably pay for itself um i don't know if you have a response to that but i just wanted to throw that out there in terms of other products uh that are out there, other vendors in that field.

Chair, just happy to look into stuff further. If you've got a list of ones that you particularly were impressed by, I'd be happy to look at.

All right, that sounds like a follow up, then, you know, we'll follow up offline about that. And I'll loop in Director Bean as well. Counselor Scott, you're up. Thanks for letting me ask that question on that point.

Absolutely. I don't want to stand in the way of those questions. Through you, Director Zaino, Director Zaino, Interim Director Zaino is a great superintendent, my apologies. It's good to have you here, and thank you again for the text the other day. You truly are an ISD superintendent if you're receiving texts from me on weekends. I just wanted to ask, because I didn't see anything in the departmental page or in the memo about the vacant properties ordinance, and that's been one of the most consistent requests I get from my constituents. and something that was part of our budget priorities or my budget priorities. Is that anticipated to be enforced this year with existing staff?

Through the chair to you, Councilor Scott, we'd have to look at exactly how staff would be allocated for that. At this point, I think There's been a lot of, I mean, I know there's been a lot of discussion as to in its current form, um, whether or not it's what exactly maybe that the council is looking for. I'd be happy to have those discussions with you as to if we think that there might be potentially updates, the ordinance that we think would be a little bit, uh, make it easier for ISD to implement, uh, it in an enforceable manner. Um, but I. Not sure if I can confirm exactly how it will be allocated at this time.

All right. Well, I share through you the ordinance is five years old now, and it was passed while our mayor was on the council. So I guess this is one of those where I'll simply say I look forward, hopefully, to a discussion in committee about it. But it sounds like the resources aren't there this year. Thank you very much.

And, Councillor, I have a hell of a follow-up question on the vacant properties ordinance that I will hold off and ask in committee myself when maybe it's time to put a fresh order in and have that discussion. So, Councillor Burnley, looks like you're back on camera. Take it away.

Well, thank you, Chair. I was actually going to follow up on, I think, perhaps half of the point that you just made through you to the superintendent earlier. would it be helpful for us to have a discussion in committee about what changes the administration is looking for to this ordinance? You know, I, to counselor Scott's point, this is something that, uh, has been on the books in some role for quite a while, uh, to my knowledge, uh, into the council's knowledge has never been enforced. Uh, and as far as I'm aware, based on your comments has never, uh, had the investments or the administration never sought to have the investments to enforce it. So I guess I'm curious to your point, is this something that a supplemental allocation would be appropriate for? What are we looking for in order to make this viable?

Phil Kleisler, Through the charity to you counselor I think I mean I i'd be open to being part of discussions to to talk about the ordinance and what it is that you know we've been committee. Phil Kleisler, or either either way about what updates could be done as like a first step for or with the ordinance currently and then what other the next steps would be after that.

Phil Kleisler, All right, well. I'm happy to work with any of my colleagues or frankly any of my colleagues that take the lead on that and to collaborate with them because it seems like a conversation that needs to be had. We're going to have laws on the books for half a decade. I think they should be enforced. Another question and it's one I'm sure I could just find by scanning their department's personnel, but Where are we in terms of vacancies in ISD?

Through the chair to you, Counselor, question. This is good news. So we're actually really great on this. We have currently, so we have a building inspector that is currently, I don't know what the right term is, like it's filled, the person's going to be starting pretty much right after, in the new fiscal year. So we'll have full staff, except for the vacancy with the director position, which, you know, obviously is a big need, but all the other staff level stuff is filled, which is a big accomplishment, I think, for the department. Anyway.

Thank you for that. In following up on that, do you think that that staffing level will be sufficient in order to, you know, adequately and I should say maybe perhaps somewhat swiftly, I don't want to say too swiftly, but somewhat swiftly meet the, you know, inspectional needs for the city in terms of buildings, in terms of health inspections, in terms of, you know, rodents, because So a concern I certainly hear from local businesses and property owners who want to do renovations is that the permitting process can be cumbersome and take longer than would be appreciated. So I guess my question is, do we think current staffing and assuming current staffing will be adequate for that or similar to the vacant properties ordinance, is that something that you think might be more of a process issue?

Through the chair, to you, Councillor Burnley, great question. I mean, I don't know if, TAB, Mark McIntyre:" Any department head would or even interim department head wouldn't ask for more people to help with with stuff to make things better, I think that. TAB, Mark McIntyre:" There are always prep and there are process hurdles with a lot of our permitting and stuff that with you know there's always efficiencies that we can look at or tweaks that we can be making. TAB, Mark McIntyre:" I don't know if I can. I feel like that we have a good staff. We have a great staff. And then, but for specifically for staffing levels, you know, I feel like we're in a pretty good place right now. And, but that we can, there's always improvements to be made and we can look to try to implement them.

Thank you. Through the chair. Certainly. I mean, this is, I'll say from our side, I think the council was, receptive to hearing that there needs to be additional staffing. That's a question that's been asked to other departments, and for whatever reason, they don't necessarily jump out to say, yeah, we need more people. But I'm certainly open to hearing that. And perhaps on the latter point, perhaps that's another discussion we can have in committee is what potential inefficiencies there are in the permitting process that could expedite ISD's role Because I'm sure, as you know, this is something that can be a source of frustration for folks. And I'm sure for the department as well, when they keep getting hounded by folks who are looking for whatever kind of inspection they need to get through the process. So, well, I guess I won't say we'll take that offline, but we'll take that back online at a different point after this budget is completed.

All right, Councilman Barr. Thank you, Chair. Through you to Superintendent Zaino, thank you for stepping in. One of the things I hear most from residents and some of the small businesses that I work I try to visit because we like to support our local businesses. It's about navigating complex permitting systems that can be a major barrier. So this is just to kind of shine some light in terms of like transparency, accessibility, and also like equitable delivery. of service from your department. So I guess I'm curious as to what steps ISD is taking to simplify and improve access to permitting and inspection services for residents and small business owners, particularly non-English speakers and first-time applicants.

In the FY26 budget, right, Counselor? Yes. Yeah. Thank you.

Uh, to, um, uh, through the chair to, uh, to you, counselor, that's a great question. I do. Um, I think, I think one of the goals that I have on and not, uh, not in particular to, um, accessibility for other languages, but I do is one of, I believe one of the goals for, um, our FY 26 to try to figure out ways to optimize. some of our applications and permitting processes to make things a little bit simpler and to have better materials for individuals and that also very dated looking and to those types of things so with that pretty much in a line. I mean, of course, and then with the language barrier issues as well, we would obviously want to make those explicitly as well. But that is one of the things we are looking to accomplish this year.

You were muted through your chair. You were muted for like maybe a fraction, like maybe 10 or 12 seconds like that, but I guess the point is, you know, this is not necessarily, you know, it is something that you should, you know, take to heart and try to optimize your systems. Thank you, Chair.

All right, colleagues, anything else here on ISD? All right, any motions on ISD? All right. Inspectional Services, thank you so much for spending some time with us tonight. We're now going to turn to us, City Council. Next up, I'm going to guess, based on past years, we're going to see a familiar face appear in the committee room here shortly. But if you have questions about our budget, get your hands up, get in on this. I don't think there's a memo for this one. I don't think anyone pre-submitted any questions. But if anyone has questions they want to ask about the city council budget. All right, we see our city clerk, Kimberly Wells, and Some other staff there. My vision is not good enough to pick out who else is there, but we can probably guess. Colleagues, any questions here on city council? And we do see clerk of committees listed. That has been folded into another department this year. So let's say we're taking up on the agenda, city council and clerk of committees together. Councilor Burnley.

Thank you, Sue the Chair. How did we go over budget for in-state conferences? Can you explain that?

Yes, through the chair. Thank you, counselor, for the question. That was the funding to attend the Mass Municipal Association Conference, and more counselors attended this year than ever in the previous years. So we did exceed what had previously been a sufficient budgetary amount, and you'll notice that we have, in fact, increased it for fiscal 2026.

All right. Through the chair, I did hear the chair mention the MMA, and I'll try not to take that personal. No, I'm just kidding. that went over. I assume it wasn't just you, given that more than ever went. Hopefully one had gone before. Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing that stands out, obviously, to me, I mean, I guess the two biggest things is how generally static, both how generally static this budget is over the years, and that's been a point that I've mentioned in previous years, as well as the relative De-funding of the legal services line. I think this is a conversation that has been had many years in a row, so I won't elongate the process beyond its means, but I think it's certainly worth noting.

Yeah, I'll take the opportunity to make a pitch for city councilors to attend the MMA conference and anything else like that. I thought it was really valuable and glad to see that budget line going up. Colleagues, anything else on city council? Any motions on city council? All right. Well, City Council, and as listed on the agenda there, Clerk of Committees, we're going to move on past that. And since we have our City Clerk there, we're going to take up our next agenda item, which is City Clerk. All right. There is a memo, I believe, for City Clerk, if the meeting clerk here could pull that up. And colleagues, if you have any follow-up questions or any original questions here, it's a great time to get your hand up.

Go out.

Wait.

All right. Any questions on City Clerk? Any motions on City Clerk? All right. Clerk Wells and staff. Well, don't go anywhere. We still have Licensing Commission to go, but thank you for that. Up next, Licensing Commission. I don't recall there being a memo on licensing commission, but happy to be proven wrong on that.

Mr. Chair, there is indeed.

Oh, there is one. All right. Well, as promised, I'm very happy to be proven wrong. All right, I asked that question. How embarrassing. All right. You see the memo. I have no follow-up on my question. If anyone else has a follow-up on that or wants to ask anything else, take it away.

Through the chair. Counselor Burnley. Thank you. in order to respect the commission, to work enough to ask a question of my own, I'll just ask, through you, would any additional funding be necessary in order to do the work of creating new licensing types? And I ask this because I know that the clerk, as well as the city, as well as myself, both had the chance to meet recently with the Cannabis Control Commission to speak about three licensing types that they are in the process of creating. Hospitality license, new event organizer license, and a supplemental license. Although that process is not complete, and although fingers crossed for this September or slightly later for it to go to the state for final review, I'm just curious if what work or funds might be necessary in order to do the work on our side to prepare for those new licenses.

Through the chair. Thank you so much for the question. There is no additional funding needed. This actually was covered largely in the funding that the council provided to add an additional position to the city clerk's office that was that started about a year and a half ago. So with that, we are well underway with creating the infrastructure to support additional license types. And ultimately, what we are waiting on has nothing to do with money and more on regulations and a framework under which to implement those licenses.

Thank you to the chair. I think I think that's in line with my understanding of the process as well. And I put a forward a resolution about this last year. I'm pretty sure. Here's hoping that the state gets everything going so that we can step up and do our part. But that's all.

All right colleagues, anything else on the licensing commission? I don't see anything, any motions on the licensing commission. All right, thank you everyone there for coming to join us tonight and answering those questions. We're gonna move on now to the law department.

Through the chair, I'll just take the opportunity to say thank you. And we do look forward to another year of supporting the council and its operations.

All right, while they get things switched up in the committee room, if you have questions for law, get those hands up. I see you, Council member, you will be first up when law joins us.

Thank you. Hopefully I don't confuse myself.

And I don't think there was a memo from law. I don't think.

I didn't see one.

I'm just glad that the response was not, oh yeah, there is, and you submitted a question for it. So already doing better than the last one. All right, I see our city solicitor there. We all ready to go in the committee room? All right, Councilor Mbah followed by Councilor Burnley.

Thank you Chair. Good to see you Solicitor Ma. Appreciate you and your staff and all the work you do. So just be patient with me because I'm going through like various worksheet and I also have before me an email that was forwarded to the council, I think, on May 29. So I'm just trying to look at the various data points so that everything makes sense to me. So when I look at the law department, it shows a small addition to your salary line, which is for conversion of a part-time paralegal to full-time. And the OM line has been reduced from, I think 768,000 actual spending to 646,000. But now when you look at the memo that was sent to us on May 29, also show a special item of 529,000 as part of the law department budget. So what is that?

I believe the 529, if I'm not mistaken, is that the judgment and settlement increased? Because Mike's checking on that for us. I believe that that's judgments and settlements, but we'll know in just a minute.

Sure. Yeah, because I was wondering if it was involved, like some expected cost for outside law firm work.

Can you ask him to?

For me, I mean, we're a firm firm.

HAB-Jacques Juilland- And counselor about like master buddy budget director through the Chair, could you could you please. HAB-Jacques Juilland- share with us a little more information, so we can understand the question I think we're having a little trouble following.

Okay. Yeah. So I'm saying, because we got, we got, you know, like general fund appropriation order that was on May 29 of this year. So it has like so many different, you know, numbers. I also, I mean, there's like multiple numbers that I just want to make sense of, even including, I think the judgment that Solicitor Amari is saying is actually somewhere else also, like, is under judgment and settlement. So I don't see that as, you know, but this one, the money I'm asking is under special items. When we got that memo on May 29, it shows the law department, you know, that personal service was a million, 1.7 million, ordinal maintenance, you know, was like $488,810 special items, $529,000.

If I may, we've now realized what- And that was part of your budget.

So I'm just wondering, like, what is that amount?

Counselor, through the chair, that $529,000 is allocated to human resources, not law. It's on the line actually below it. um that's the uh the line i think you're looking at in the appropriation order there's no special items in law that's actually special items for human resources so they'll be able to talk about that later tonight okay thank you

Thank you, Director Mastomani. So also, when I'm looking at it, so last year, the law department laid out a number of contracts for outside law firms for litigation, particularly 90 Washington Street. And also... the complicated contract work for the storm sewer treatment agreement with the state and other neighboring towns. So I'm seeing that they required supplementary appropriation that raised the OM from the original appropriation of 676,000 to adjust it. There was this adjustment of $883,000. Although it appears that that you've only spent 768,000 so far by end of May. So I'm wondering if there are any additional like outside litigation or contract work that is outstanding.

Well, One of the large ones you sort of hit on is it's only been very recently that we were able to finalize the contract for the, the water and sewer outflow project with the state that needed to get done. So that was a recent appropriation because we could not have possibly known about it in advance. And we took the money now so they could get started and do a fair amount of now.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you. And yes. I will be wrapping up trying to appreciate that. So then I'm seeing like another large expense for fiscal year 25 was the unexpected order of the court to pay $60 million more for the 19 Washington Street. But this amount does not appear here in the law department budget. So, but it is shown in the supplemental cost that was added to the judgment and settlement budget line. That's where I actually find it. which had an original, you know, appropriation of 269,000. So if I see, like, for the fiscal year 2026, you know, it included in the line, it says, like, 3,864,000. So I'm wondering, like, I see two different numbers. Right now, it actually says 250,000 is being reduced. So how do you reconcile that from... Like the May 29 memo, the budget was $3,864,000, but not at this current one, it says $250,000.

I've been told this is really more appropriately answered by Mike, who is right here.

Sure. Thank you again, Mike Mastroboni, Budget Director, to the Chair. Councilor Abbott, two different lines are actually In that organization, there's a building insurance and there's a judgments and settlements of claims. Is that why you're seeing the $1.887 million number? So that's two separate parts of what we do, but they're in the same organization. So the software bands them together. In terms of judgments and settlements of claims, you're right that we budgeted $270,000 in fiscal 25. spent $16,200,000 to settle the 90 Washington case. That's where that supplemental appropriation comes in. But you're also right that the fiscal 26 budgeted amount for this is $250,000. So be wary that the building insurance and judgments and settlements of claims are two separate programs within the city, two separate objects of expenditure, I should say, but they do come up in the same report. So Yeah, all that is to say, you're right, we're budgeting $250,000 for next year.

Okay, at least if it makes sense. I mean, I just want to make sure that it's making, because again, like I said, I've been looking at the numbers. I'm just trying to make sure that they're all, they're adding up. Thank you for that. And the last piece that I find here is that, you know, another, you know, significant outside law firm cost for the city, you know, like we also like needed like the, program for legal assistance for immigrants and for low-income tenants were in danger of eviction. So are these OM costs under the law department or are they under another department?

They're not under our department. I believe they fall under Soyuz budget.

Got you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. I mean, that makes sense. Come on, sir. All right. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Burnley.

Thank you to the chair. You know, I never try to get one over a lawyer, so I don't expect anything flashy from me on this one, but because I, again, respect the The eagle-eyed nature of your profession, I have to get a little nitpicky. And I did notice that in your department, the online subscription line, the actuals were above what was budgeted in FY25, about $4,000. But I didn't see any additional allocations to that line for FY26. So I'm curious, what was it that made it? unless the budget book is incorrect, which has happened more than I would like. What was it that made that line go up in FY26? And why is it that your department feels that the current allocations at 12,000 will be sufficient for FY26?

Well, I think during the course of the year, we found that there were a few small items that would be helpful for us to have and that we were able to put them into our budget. And there were probably a few things that we get In conjunction with other things we were able to get back so basically we were the position that everything we need to function efficiently, we have so we didn't feel a need to seek more.

So just to restate that and clarify a bit. Do I understand that your department in terms of this those subscriptions there were certain subscriptions that would have been. additionally helpful that your department procured. And then there were other things that either because of those additional services or separately were no longer necessary. And with the combination of that addition and subtraction, it got you back to essentially the same place for the budget, $12,000?

Correct, because it's really not a particularly fluid expenditure for us. things may change slightly one year and we might be shifting a little bit, but overall we have the basic tools we need. And so the changes are really fine tuning. And so we don't feel that we will need any larger amounts.

Thank you for that. That makes sense to me. And that's the very nature of what you just said is why I had that question. It's strange from my perspective, when we see that level of spike by the third of that budget, No, about, yeah, about a third of that budget increasing above what was allocated and then going down for the next fiscal year. It's confusing until you have that conversation. So I appreciate the clarification.

All right, colleagues, anything else here on law? Are there any motions on law? All right, we're now gonna take up something related, damages to persons and property.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, counselors, anything on damages to persons and property? We heard that discussion earlier about the somewhat interrelated nature of these two. All right. Any motions on damages to persons and property? All right. Thanks, Director. We're going to move on to elections. We're going to give them a chance to get the elections folks here.

They're on their way in right now, Mr. Chair.

All right. Thanks. It's that time of night. Anyone know any good jokes? No pressure, Counselor Scott. You usually come through with something.

Yes, sir. Why does the Swedish Navy put barcodes on the sides of all their ships?

I give up.

So that when they return to port, they can Scandinavian.

I'm here for that. I thought it was going to be an Ikea joke. All right, we have elections here with us. I see Chairman Salerno there. Colleagues, if you have any questions for elections, great time to raise your hand and get in the queue. There is a memo for elections. And we are seeing it now. All right. Any follow-up questions? Any fresh questions? Anything at all on elections? Council Burnley.

Thank you to the chair. You know, don't want to waste these folks' time, so just really quickly through you. I'm curious, the city's acquisition of the Brailler and now the usage of it, is that going to play any role in terms of your department and specifically the availability of notebooks in Braille?

We have an accommodation in place now but for people with the disabilities to use our auto-mark machines, and which there is the capability of Braille. And what the auto-mark machine is, it's a large marking device, and we have one in every precinct across the city. And the person, after they register at the front desk, they put their ballot into this machine, And they can do it unilaterally. They don't need additional help unless they request it. But they put it in and they choose the mode they want. It could be for people who are hearing impaired or Braille required. And what they do is they operate with the Braille function. And once they're finished, they punch the appropriate button and out comes their ballot. And then they go over to the actual uh voting machine the scanner and place their ballot in there and that takes it and and and the number on the machine advances so it's just like a like someone walked right in and voted without any assistance wonderful to hear um through the share i figured uh given the a largely federal well i shouldn't say largely federal

The federal nature of some of our elections and the federal nature of our ADA clients is that there's probably something already in place. I was just curious if the Brailler was going to expedite anything, but it seems like y'all already have a better system in place than a lot of other departments. So perhaps there's some follow-up questions I have there, but those can be handled offline.

Thank you.

All right, colleagues, anything else on elections? Any motions on elections? More elections. Oh, they're coming. All right, Chairman Salerno, thank you so much. We appreciate you coming and answering the memo and spending time with us tonight. That is going to bring up auditing first in a series of finance areas tonight. We see the memo up there on the screen for auditing. Colleagues, as they get ready to appear here, any questions? I want to jump in the queue. Get those hands up. All right, I see they look to be ready there in the committee room. Any questions here on auditing? I'm guessing we don't have any because no one has jumped in. Going once. Going twice. All right, any motions on auditing? All right. I don't see any of those either. So Director Bean, I suspect this is not the only thing you're going to be here for tonight. So to your staff, we'll thank you for coming and hanging out.

Thank you very much. And I'll be here the rest of the evening. Sure.

I figured as much. All right. That's going to bring up grants development. I don't recall seeing a memo on this one. Clerk, feel free to pull up the budget book for Grants Development if you don't mind. All right. Any questions for Grants Development as they get set up there? All right. It looks like they're ready in the committee room. Colleagues, questions? Motions? All right. I'm not seeing anything. Thanks for hanging out. Sorry we didn't. Hopefully, I take that as a budget well put together. We didn't have anything for you here tonight.

Thanks, Richard.

PB, Harmon Zuckerman, All right, we're going to move on to assessing. Oh yeah, Council Scott.

I just, I just had a question about the vacancy and the grant writer position. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, I do see a 71 start date on that. Do we know where that position is in the hiring process.

Through you that it is not a 71 start dated as a nine one start date, as far as I'm aware, first of all, making Kelly our grants administrator she they pronouns. I am filling in for director hard key and deputy director Allison. So forgive me for, you know, being the third string, but I that is a nine one start date at this time. We can further confirm any information. Yes.

Oh, interesting. Interesting. All right. So is that being impacted by the hiring freeze or has that been advertised yet?

So it has been impacted by the hiring freeze. We have been allowed to push up the hire date from 1-1. The job has already been posted. We will be understaffed until then, but the job has already been posted. So there are candidates in the pipeline. All right, thank you very much.

All right, colleagues, anything else on grants development? Okay. Now, we'll again bid you a good night. Thank you. All right, next up is assessing. I don't think there was a memo for assessing. It doesn't mean there won't be questions, though. So if you have any questions, as Beyonce said, get your hands up.

Mr. Chair?

Counselor Scott, did you have a question about assessing?

Not a question, more of a comment. Just to say that all these finance departments are not only... very lean in terms of their operating budgets, but also very consistent in terms of their staff. So for folks at home who may be wondering why this is flying by, it's because these are all very familiar faces, top to bottom in these departments, and run, perhaps predictably, a very tight ship financially.

Yeah, exactly. And for those of us who are veterans of multiple cycles here on the Finance Committee, these budgets look very familiar to us at this point. All right. I see we have Chief Assessor Golden with us there in the committee room. Chief Assessor, thank you for joining us tonight. We'll see if we have any questions, but you heard the comment from Counselor Scott that might indicate we don't have any questions, but I'll open it up to the committee. Anything here on assessing? Any motions on assessing? Counselor Burnley has a motion on assessing. All right. Not a motion, a question.

All right. All right. Just again, just because, you know, I want to be nitpicky with the departments that I love the most and that I have the least convergence about. I did notice that the in-state travel line was about three was, again, relatively small, but about three times what was allocated. Can the director just speak to what kind of changes happened there? Was it that far more members of your department? I would imagine it couldn't be far more, but some more members of your department once they quit part in conferences?

Chairman Wilson, through you. Basically, We're big on education. We have two assessors that don't have their accreditation yet to be assessors, and we're trying to get them there as quickly as possible. So, yes, there is some heavy travel. Southbridge and Plymouth are the two places that they can get educated in person. So we have three members of the staff going to Plymouth next week. So I would imagine you're going to see that line drop a bit.

All right, thank you. Through the chair, that kind of gets to the next question I was going to have off of that, which you just addressed. The FY26 line for that does not increase to that 3,000 amount. Is that because those folks are going to be accredited and therefore won't need to take part in those efforts anymore, that your whole department or the necessary parts of the department will have that accreditation?

Mike Nygren, Chairman through you. Mike Nygren, Basically there's a lot of online opportunity this year there's a lot of in person opportunity, so we encourage the online opportunity when we can. Um, we are in a reval year and it's, it's important that we have a new assessor analyst that we educate him as soon as we can. Um, and it's not an easy process. It probably takes two to three years to become an assessor and you're taking two or three classes a year to achieve that. So, um, this year there's just, this seems to be a little more travel than usual.

All right. Well, Uh, I won't try to do any ride alongs cause I don't think I can pass those kinds of math tests right now, but, uh, I look forward to the staffing fully accredited as quickly as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, also just being nitpicky, you know, as was stated, mostly, uh, everything is consistent. I did notice a, an increase of, um, around. $7,000 for printing and stationery. I'm assuming that with anticipation of something, I just wanted to hear what that might be.

Chairman, through you, we're involved in quite a few mailings over the course of the year. The residential exemption has to go to every new home buyer. All the exemptions are mailed to all the qualifying year prior residents, so I wouldn't say the number's growing, but it's pretty consistent that those mailings have got to go timely and this is that time of year where that all happens. It's probably a good time to tell the public if you bought a property in calendar year 2024, you will be eligible for the first time for the exemptions and please respond to our mailing because it hurts the community when we don't have timely application because it then doesn't come out of the tax rate. It comes out of the overlay and the times that we're heading into, we need every dollar in that overlay.

Okay. I mean, are you expecting postage to go up? I mean, I'm not, I'm just saying historically it's, you know, this is an increase of about $6,000 in that line. I'm happy to, you know, I have no problem giving it. I just was curious if it was something...

It was taken from the Treasury Department.

And given to assessing to streamline to gain an efficiency with the finance newsletter.

Finance newsletter, okay, got it.

Yeah, it's to create an efficiency with the newsletter that we mail annually to all residents. Okay. Now it's solely ours, so that's why. Linda Dubuque's right here whispering in my ears.

I was going to say, should we just ask Treasury Dubuque to just identify herself?

Yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, all we see is the line here. We just have to ask, you know, like I said, it's above $6,000. So it sounds like there's been some changes made and that all made sense. I didn't notice the decrease on the Treasury side, but all set. Thank you.

All right. Anything else here on Treasury? All right. Motions? No motions. All right. Chief Assessor, thank you for coming here answering our questions. Have a great night.

Thank you.

Up next, the aforementioned Treasury with the aforementioned Treasury Dubuque. There is a memo. All right, Treasurer Dubuque, are you and your staff ready to go there in the committee room?

Good evening, Linda Dubuque, Treasurer Collector. I'm with Cheryl Cruz, Deputy Treasurer, and Nick Dervis, our new Deputy Collector.

All right, welcome. Colleagues, any questions here on Treasury?

Mr. Chair?

Yes, Councillor Clingan.

Thank you. I just wanted to comment that I see the aforementioned $6,500 that was moved over. So that checks out.

All right. Anything else? Any motions? Motions on Treasury? All right, thank you all for coming and joining us tonight. Building insurance is up next, though. I believe, yeah, there's Treasury Dubuque. Colleagues, anything on building insurance? I don't think there was a memo. Over the years, this has generally been a pretty tame one, I think, except for the switch I think we went to doing some self insurance, as I recall, that led to some questions. Anything here on building insurance? I don't see anything. Any motions on building insurance? All right, Treasurer Dubuque, thank you so much. Thank you. Up next, procurement and contracting services. You see the memo that's up there with the question that was asked ahead of time about procurement and contracting services. If you have questions, get them up. We'll get a queue while they get things situated there in the committee room. I see we have our chief procurement officer, Angela Allen there with us. Hello.

Hello. Good evening.

All right. Uh, committee members, anything here? Counselor Burnley.

Thank you to the chair. Uh, hello director. Uh, excited to talk to you this year. Um, always have been primarily in the past it's been because i've been really excited about the disparity study that your department was leading the effort on so i'm curious in this in fy 26 how that the recommendations for that from that study are going to play into the overall workload for your department.

Through the chair to Councilor Burnley, thank you so much for that question. It's an excellent question. In fact, we've been actively evaluating the recommendations to determine what we can do with existing resources, existing staffing, existing level service budget, and what may require more. And it is not just the procurement and contracting services department. It is a cross-cutting effort as we've discussed and OSPCD managed the project. So I'd say for the time being, what's really important is that we fill the recently vacated deputy CPO position, because that is really a key position for the data reform recommendation that came out of the study. We have existing staff who have the skills we need, but It's going to tie into a bigger data management system for the city that we're evaluating. I will say we have actually this Friday, my team and I are meeting with the city of Boston's procurement office and supplier diversity team. And then separately with Cambridge's to just talk about the actual practice, like how did you implement these recommendations? So I believe I'll have something more concrete in the months ahead. to answer your question with more specifics, but in terms of resources, we're committed to using what we have because right now I feel like there's a lot we can do. We've even started doing it. We put out a buying plan and we're updating that twice a year, forecasting to small disadvantaged businesses or local businesses as well that would actually bid on our opportunities in Somerville. But, yeah, it's really when we start the data work that I'll need to make sure I have the resources in my department as well as the other departments, namely the CAO is involved, IT, RSJ, OSPCD. So it's a multi-department effort.

Right. Well, through the chair, we'll watch that space, you know, councils certainly i don't think by any means that you're you're lagging on this the report's fairly new um but the worst thing that i think we can do when it comes to these studies is take all the time in the world to do them and then put them on the shelf so excited to see how we're gonna operationalize what we get out of this

All right, anything else on procurement contracting services? Any motions on procurement contracting services? I don't think we refer to them as PCS nearly enough. I think we need to make PCS happen. As long as our chief procurement officer doesn't object. All right. Do you all refer to it as PCS internally?

We do.

All right. We're going to make that happen then at the council level. All right, I don't see anything there. I think I asked motions. All right, so thank you so much to our CPO for joining us here. Have a great night, and we're going to jump on to our next thing.

My pleasure. Thank you very much.

All right, up next, human resources. There's a memo. It's up on your screen. We're going to have our folks from HR here before us. Going to guess you all have some questions about HR. So if you do, raise those hands. As you see the breakdown there of the PTS for HR. All right, I see Councilor Abbas first up. I also see a committee room full of the fine people from Human Resources. How are you all doing tonight? If you want to just introduce those who are going to be speaking, if you want to introduce yourselves.

Certainly. Good evening. I'm Ann Gill, the Director of Human Resources, and I'll have people, my staff, the managers, introduce themselves.

Ellen Collins, Deputy Director of HR.

And behind me, Statman Rene. Rene Mello, Worker's Compensating Manager. Lisa Jones-Brinkley, Benefits Manager.

Kristen Hill, Recruitment and Retention Manager. Jessica Paveo, HR Admin Manager.

Thank you.

All right. First up is Councilor Mubah.

Who doesn't like HR, Mr. Chair? Good to see you, directors. Thank you for your work. This is like, the amount of work that you do, sometimes people don't see, but it's like, the depth and width of it is felt by everybody in the city. I guess I see that there's no substantial change in you know, HR salary, but your O&M has decreased. So the cost of administration for your department are not changing significantly, but both for last year and this year, there has been noted like a special item, also like $500, $500,000, a special item, what is that?

Sure. Thank you. Through the chair after Councilman Barr. Thank you for the question. And Deputy Director Collins has the answer for you.

Through the chair. So the special items budget, which comes right after ordinary maintenance, is several items. These are varied. Many of them are union related. So we have different educational programs. So we do reimbursement for different programs. courses that employees may go to in the various unions and non-union. We also have some fluency bonuses. And we also, the largest item here is the MBTA PASS program, which provides a MBTA card for all benefit eligible city employees.

Gotcha. Thank you. And then just one last piece. It's that I also see that there's been a substantial increase in major, you know, benefit expenditures with cost of insurance and Medicare increasing by 10% and pension contribution by 8%. And these numbers reflect both inflationary cost pressure as well as the addition of new people and increase in the base salary or which it, I mean, like, I guess I'm trying to like analyze and answer the same thing I'm thinking maybe like, what is that? Like the, that 10%, why the 10% increase and the 8% increase.

Yeah. Through the chair to councilman Bob, we do have the benefits person here, director manager here. However, I think the cost of the medical insurance, You know, across the nation has been astronomical and the city of Somerville is not immune from that. So the cost of the GIC, the cost of medical across the board has increased significantly. And so the cost is associated with that cost for current employees. And also we're hiring new people, obviously. So that increases as well.

Yeah, I don't need the benefit person to tell me. I think that's understood. Thank you, Director. No more substantiation.

All right. Colleagues, anything else for HR here? Either on the questions in the memo, any follow-ups on those, or anything fresh? All right. Any motions on HR? All right. Thank you all for coming and hanging out with us tonight.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

All right, next up, health and life insurance and Medicare, which will bring back some of the folks you just saw. Or at least one of them. All right, are we ready in the committee room? all right uh any questions here for uh health and life insurance and medicare one of the larger increases as we know this year because of reasons uh all right i don't see any questions that's any motions i'm not expecting any motions uh anyone anyone want to introduce anyone who wasn't previously introduced want to introduce yourselves while you're there it's the least we can do well to my

To the chair, to my right is the benefits manager I referred to earlier. You probably just didn't see her on camera. She's on camera now.

That's what I thought. So thank you. I appreciate that clarification. All right. I asked about motions. We didn't have any motions. So thank you all. Up next, workers' comp. Very small change there in the room. All right. Is that Manager Mello I see with us there?

Yep.

All right. Welcome. Colleagues, anything on workers' comp here? There was no memo with questions for workers' compensation. All right. Any motions on workers' comp? All right. That's the end of our HR categories here. So thank you all so much.

Thank you. Thank you again.

And we're going to jump on to information technology. And this will be a big switch of the room. Actually, we don't have to switch the room. IT. There's IT ready to roll. All right, colleagues, any questions on IT? Any follow-ups on the memo that you see there before you? Any fresh questions? Give people a second. There's a lot in the memo. People may not have read it yet. Going once. Going twice. Yeah, there's a Canva question in there. All right. Any motions on IT? All right. I'm going to thank you all. I think seven is one of the larger number of questions for any department this year. So thank you all for answering those ahead of time. You see the results here. Very short departmental hearing here. So thank you all. Have a great night.

Okay. Thanks so much.

All right, next up, Parks and Recreation. As you see, there is a memo from Parks and Rec there. If you have any follow-ups on that, anything new, jump in the queue. I see you, Council Member Bayh, you'll be first up when they're ready to go in the committee room. All right, when you're ready in the committee room, please introduce yourselves.

All right, Sue Yerkes, Parks and Recreation Director. Linda, Finance Manager, Parks and Recreation.

Yanni Taragades, Director of Operations, Parks and Recreation.

All right, thanks for joining us tonight. Councilman Baez, first up.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Director Yerkes. I think Parks and Rec has become one of my favorite departments these days. I'm increasingly like falling in love, you know, and probably spend like part of my day, like, kind of wonder how I'm going to approach PACS and RECS today. But I think I figured out, you know, we need to, I think it's good. We continue to strive to just optimize our system. So, When I look at PACS and RECS, first, thank you for your work. I think you're also one of those essential departments. And actually, I see that your department shows almost no significant change in either the salary or OM compared to last year. And I guess this is a little bit surprising to me because you know, I was hoping to see some significant improvement, you know, in recreation programs for kids during the summer and after school program, as well as improvement on your website and methods for parents to enroll their kids, you know. So, and why I say that, because like last year, you know, we had the same discussion about hiring lifeguards and other recreation supervisors and making sure that their salaries are sufficiently filled. And so I guess, does this year's budget contain all the funds that are required for these jobs? That's like just as simple as that.

Yes. And a part of the reason why there wasn't that much of a change between last year's budget and this year's budget is that we did a deeper look on each account line. So if you do look at the individual account lines, you'll see that we did increase individual account lines more than the average 3% that we have for the whole budget. And those changes were based off of any transfers that we might have done historically. And just to make basically the budgets for each individual account line more accurate than what has been for the past two or three years. So even though the overall budget only increased by about 3%, if you look at the individual lines, we did increase things like professional services technology that we are anticipating larger increases for recreation supplies and just making more accurate adjustments based off of the actual spend and any transfers in and outs.

Good. I appreciate that. And so I'm also seeing that, you know, like Parks and Recs, you know, is one of also the agency, you know, for which the expense budget is often offset by the revenues from fees. So, and I see that you also have like separate independent, you know, revenues expense budget for your different facilities, like Z-Boy and Jeannie Smith. So what are the projections for these other revenues and costs in the coming year?

That's an ongoing process for us. First and foremost, we see our department more as providing services rather than as a moneymaker. So while we do understand that for enterprise funds, we should be more self-sufficient, that's going to be an ongoing process that we're going to be partnering with the finance team on in reviewing our revenue structure.

And Council, we're going to get to the enterprise funds here momentarily. They are next up in the queue.

yeah no yeah i i hear your chair but i'm kind of like looking at packs and regs like this is like the odd numbers they even have uh uh if you look at cip you know parks and res acquisition still packs you know so whoever I can't move the question. I'm looking at my Paxman Red sheet. So anybody that can step in to fill in, I'm sure some of the questions will apply to the budget director if they're there. But I appreciate you mentioning that. I guess where I was going is that when I asked about the projection, it's just to ensure if they're expected to stay the same or if there are significant changes anticipated in any of them. So.

Since 2023, but that's one of the things that we'll be revisiting with the finance team and. If they're earning revenue where the structure changes, the city council will be informed of that before anything takes place.

Okay. Colleague, do we want to take up the enterprise funds at the same time if people have questions? I know Parks and Rec answered some of the enterprise fund questions in that same memo. So I'm happy to let the conversation flow if people want to take those up. Let's go ahead. Let's take up enterprise funds at the same time. So, Councilman Bob, if you did have enterprise fund questions, it's a great time to ask them now.

Yes, and thank you. I will come back to that. And the main point was, like, usually it's to project if the swimming, if the fees are expected to go up, and if so, if it would be better, you know, to put some money into the borderlines to keep the cost for families low. That was where I was going with that question. So, I just want to leave it there so you understand, like, the exact rationale sometimes when people ask questions. So, but I guess another aspect of PACs and RECs also, Recreational Finances, are the expected capital costs and future operating costs for the anticipated new projects. So for example, when I went to like the website, there's like the CIP, Capital Improvement Plans, there's like a bunch of projects there, like the Art Farm, Boynton Yard, PACs, 2017 summer they have. So there's a lot of them. And if you see this, like the park related projects on the approved 2023 to 2029 CPI, most of the capital costs will be covered by the general obligation bond. And the impact will be on the debt service line for the city as a whole, like the park and recreation budget itself. So like, however, the way I see it is that there are portions of this cost that will not be bonded and are expected to have developer contributions. So the question that I have is what expectation does the department now has about its ability to carry forward the capital projects?

No. Mr. Chair, if I may, Mike Mastroboni, Budget Director. I think through you to Councillor Baha, if I understand the question, you're asking what's going to be the impact on the long-term budget through fields projects or parks and recreation projects. I would love a little more clarity on what specifically you're looking for.

So, in other words, like, Dr. Massaboni, to what extent does this fiscal 26 budget include costs for project planning and design? Like, I'm just, I want to, because the way I'm going with this, it's kind of, like, interesting to see, you know, I feel like we already have like this, like money that has been, it's been bonded for, and this money it's, is it part of like the depth, like the depth service? I'm just, I cannot make sense out of like something that if you add all these funds, you know, it's quite a lot. And. Mr. Chair, can I add the debt service? Can I add this into the debt service question? Because I'm seeing most of my stuff really overlap. Is that okay? Because I know we also have debt service in the whole. Yeah, we have it coming up in non-departmental. It's a Parks and Rec debt service question? Yes. Well, I mean, but no, for Parks and Rec, I'm just curious as what expectation the department now, the department has about its ability to carry forward the capital project that is already listed these ones under the capital project. uh uh improvement project plant it's almost like this a project they're already projects that are underway at them how are like what is like the expectation to carry the about its ability to carry these projects sure i think i can understand that uh i mean i answered that i'm sorry um counselor will or chair wilson through you um we are at a turning point in our capital planning ecosystem landscape um and

I think what I can say that specifically refers to how Parks and Rec fits into that. As you're aware, the OSPCD PSUF group designs and constructs parks, DPW maintains them, Parks and Rec programs them, right? We work to create the facilities that they then program. And we do that together. Parks and Rec, through the CIP process, submits all their needs, just like every other department, and work through that. The challenge we have right now is the starkly different revenue projections that we're looking at from when we last developed a CIP. So to say what is and isn't projects that are underway or continuing, but in terms of what new projects we're going to start, I think that's a much longer conversation that we're looking forward to having as soon as we can.

That's it. So thank you, Director Masturbani. And to you, Chair, so I guess, you know, when I was asking, when I look at this stuff, you know, I'm wondering if it would be necessary to adjust the schedule of some of this work, you know, or its complexity in light of the uncertain future economic conditions that you're saying. Because I can see, like, all this money, the Union Square Plaza, Dear Boy Field, Central Hill, like this stuff that is already... It's as if they are ongoing work. So I just, you know, but I see what you're saying.

Mr. Chair, through you, absolutely to say that the next CIP will be less ambitious and more realistic. Not even less ambitious, just adjusted relative to the new economic conditions. It will be thinner, more streamlined, more focused on maintaining core services and our existing assets rather than expanding assets. It's just kind of like the general fund budget. So yes, to answer your question, counselor.

Gotcha. No problem. Thank you. And sorry for this, you know, Dr. Yerkes, you see, that's why I said, I know you have backup, but I mean, I'm looking at everything is packed and ready, but of course the financing, you have somebody to your right, you have somebody to your left. So this is, I just want to understand like how everything adds together. Thank you, Chad. I think I'm all set for now.

All right, thanks. Well, since we picked up the enterprise funds, I have a follow-up on my question about the Dillboy fees. I appreciate that response in there, roughly a little over $106,000 in actual revenues as of June 12th with an additional $40,000 expected. I'm going to guess those are spring vendors who haven't yet paid their invoices for the field permit fees. Through the chair, correct. I know how that goes from being on the other side of it. So we're going to end up somewhere, expect somewhere around $150,000. That's roughly what we took in last year, as I recall. Last year when we had this discussion, you might recall I was excited about seeing what might happen with permanent fee revenue because of the pending opening of Rivas Field. and the impact there of shifting high school and some youth usage away from Dillboy with the hope that we could then, you know, get some organizations in there who are, I guess we'll say, paying full freight as opposed to the subsidized rate that local youth, you know, very rightfully get charged to use Dillboy. So I'm going to guess with revenues looking like that, Did we instead, I guess my assumption was that we would see steady usage. Have we actually seen a decrease in permitted hours at Dillboy in this fiscal year?

Through the chair, I think we were in a transition into Revis Field. So we had permitted Revis and Dillboy equally. I think we're in the transition. So we will be able to use Revis Field more for the high school and transition with... some more adult leagues on the Dillboy field. But as you know, their fields are very high commodity. I'll speak on that. That's your expertise.

Yeah, I would say that even through the chair, I'm sorry, I'm not too sure how this works. But I would say the majority of the new openings have still been used by the same groups. I feel like the high school... has maintained the same amount of hours that they've had at billboard while using Revis youth soccer still uses roughly the same hours they were using before at billboard while using Revis. Um, I think it's something that we can circle back on and see how effectively they're actually using the fields and see if there's an opportunity to, to move them around. But Revis opened and a lot of the scheduling at billboard has remained pretty much the same for those groups.

Maybe the piece that went unexpectedly then was that growth on the youth soccer side actually led to them maintaining their usage at Dillboy as opposed to switching entirely away. I guess I was assuming, given the much higher cost of Dillboy for someone like youth soccer to rent, that it would... They would want to move, but maybe they had to use Dillboy just because of numbers. So, okay, that's interesting. I appreciate you letting me go deep on Dillboy fee revenues here. Colleagues, anything else on the enterprise funds? That includes Jenny Smith or Sanders Pool. Actually, I got a follow-up question on my Jenny Smith or Sanders Pool question. Those retained earnings, I mean, that's basically... saving us from doing another, you know, equal, you know, well, I guess it wouldn't be equal for another really large subsidy out of general fund this year. What's that going to look like next year?

Thank you, Mr. Chair, Mike Baxter, budget director again. Yeah, I think we, what we're, what we're trying to balance is, you know, do we raise, revenue or do we utilize the resources that we have available to us this year for a number of reasons, mostly due to our initial sort of startup costs of the Jenny Smithers pool rolling over year to year. To my understanding, we have this balance, so we're going to use it. You know, that's $373,000 we otherwise would have had to reduce from the general fund budget. So, you know, this is an important community resource. We want to see how things go. And we also expect program revenue to continue to increase from usage and however that moves along.

All right. Director, I guess the question being, we're not going to be able to do, I'm sure, another retained earnings program. plug like that next year, I'm guessing. So, you know, unless we see the program revenue go up dramatically, we're probably looking at a big increase in the general fund subsidy, correct?

Very fluctuates. I would expect an increase. But again, that assumes we spend every dollar and don't generate a $1 additional in revenue besides what we budgeted. So there is, you know, a little bit of a push and pull there. Yeah, this is never meant to be a moneymaker. This is meant to be a resource to the community. So, you know, we feel like it's something that we can manage over time.

Sure. And for the record, I'm very supportive of subsidizing the pool out of the general fund. Just look to track how much we're doing that and to make sure that we're, you know, trying to make a decent amount of program revenue out of it as well. So, all right. Colleagues, anything else on enterprise funds or parks and rec? All right, any motions on any of those three things? All right, thank you all so much for coming before us here and spending some time with us.

Thank you.

That's going to bring up Arts Council. Our final departmental of the night. End of budget season, actually. we're going to take up those non-departmentals together after this we're not going to go through each one of those by themselves i don't think i don't know if there was a memo on arts council i'm trying to remember i don't think i read one yeah i am not seeing one yep yeah quick if you don't you can just pull up the budget book if you want to here for for arts council colleagues if you have any questions on arts council You can indicate as much. Oh, Mr. Chair?

Yes, Councilor Mabach. Are we done with PACS and RECs?

We are.

Oh.

Okay. I don't know if they've left the building. No worries.

Okay.

All right. When you're already in the committee room, introduce yourself and we'll take it away.

Hello. Good evening, Chair and Councillors. Gregory Jenkins, Director of Arts Council.

All right. Welcome, Director Jenkins. Colleagues, any questions here? There's no memo to ask. Follow-up questions on any fresh questions? Anything here for the Arts Council?

Council Mabaha. Thank you, Chair. Director Jenkins, good to see you. Um, thank you for your work for the ads, you know, I guess like everything about your stuff, it's like, there's no change, but I could not, I almost, I should have probably sent you like a letter note just, but I guess I'm just curious about, uh, the only little surprise that I saw, you know, uh, for this fiscal budget, it's, uh, is that I know you're taking greater responsibility with the art of the armory. So I wasn't sure where the extra money that will be needed to cover the operation, like where it will be coming from. So I don't see that. Give me some juice there.

OK, through the chair. As I think many of you know, and especially in the community, that the city's been going through probably a three-year master plan process with the armory. We just recently released the master plan. We're getting ready to work on the RFP process to lease spaces out that are leasable spaces in the armory. Based on the pro forma that we're working on, currently we're looking at Absolutely. I think a little bit of the discussion that happened in the prior department, we're looking at how we can basically have a fee structure that comes in that will provide sustainability to the building and to the operations of that. But yet at the same time, have it be sort of equitable and fair to the community. And I think we're going to hear more about it this summer. We're having community meetings about this. It will be in the RFP process. But you're absolutely right. There's no specific 01 line item to support the armory. I will say the other thing about this and people in the public and community should know that the whole benefit of the city owning and maintaining operations of the armory, as it relates to like an economy of scale, meaning that DPW is there two hours a night. The Arts Council is there supporting some programming. OSPCD is doing this. So at this point, we've got about six different departments that are working on supporting the armory as a building. And then what we're looking at is the economy of scale of how we can continue that. And then how can potential rents coming in further support that? So at this time for FY26, there's no additional low one request.

Thank you, Dr. Jenkins. No, I appreciate that. Because when I saw, when I read their report, I think they had like $14 million in estimated deferred maintenance. I was like, okay, like, I mean, you know, but thank you. I appreciate you and your work. Thanks.

All right, anything else here on Arts Council? Any motions on Arts Council? No one's going to move to give them all the money? All right. Councilor Scott, you're usually good for a motion to, no.

They do spend every dime they get. I guess I'll just have to wait until my corresponding cut in the police budget.

All right. I don't see any motions on Arts Council. So, Director Jenkins, thanks so much for staying here.

Thank you very much. And thanks for your support through the year.

All right. We're now down to what we call the non-departmentals. That's everything left on... That agenda for tonight, salary contingency, revolving funds, PAYGO, which stands for pay as you go, one of the greatest acronyms of all time, debt service, unemployment compensation, pension, and state assessments. So I'm going to guess we will have Director Mastroboni here. Yep, there we go. Colleagues, to round out our budget hearings here, anything you have on these non-departmentals? I'm trying to think if there were memos on any of the underlying things.

There were no questions submitted for any of the other departments or organizations.

Yeah. Yeah, revolving funds and PAYGO. Yeah, I appreciate the answers to those questions. All right, colleagues, anything here on any of these non-departmentals? Councilman Baha.

Thank you, Chi. I know I'm going to confuse a lot of people now, but that's okay. I want to make sure that, you know, what I'm seeing is making sense because I'm seeing just the... Let me open like some shit. Let me open something first. Because I would think that by now we have, I thought that dev service would be more, not this small amount. So among all the numbers I was looking at, I could not understand why a dev service is this small, given all what is going on. So that's it. First, there's like a small, minor increase in our in-depth service, you know, which implies that there's like very little new borrowing for capital projects for this current year. So, and I'm wondering, you know, if this idea is consistent with the anticipated capital projects that the city has promised to pursue.

Sure, Mr. Chair, through you. Councilor Bayh, our debt service for fiscal 26 is budgeted at $22.6 million. Avid season budget watchers will know that our target for debt service is, the bond ratings have a target of debt service to general fund revenue of 10%. Our preferred metric is 8% or lower. And you will notice an approximately $900,000 increase from Fiscal 25 original budget to Fiscal 26. The projects that we borrowed in May were the Somerville Ave streetscape, some recurring street resurfacing, Union Square Plaza streetscape and design, Spring Hill sewer, Clarendon Hills infrastructure improvement, Assembly Square fire fit out, Edgerly building improvements, a fire pumper, and the 217th Somerville Ave park. What you're not seeing in here is we have a strategy as a city to manage our debt service through a number of ways. One of those is trying to reduce the amount that we borrow. So there is a paired appropriation from pre-cash, right? From stabilization funds, $4.7 million for this year that finance director Ed Bean, who if you couldn't guess is off camera over here, We are netting down the amount of principal that we're borrowing by that $4.6 million for this year. So that strategy will save us $400,000 in debt service next year and $9.6 million of debt service over the 20-year period, which we would have borrowed that. We pay for our capital projects using a variety of tools. What you see here is the debt service piece. There are other pieces, of course, it's CPA, it's stabilization funds, it's pay go capital. So just wanted to use that as an opportunity to kind of talk through by this number, I'm happy that it feels small, $22.6 million, but we do have a great need for many capital projects and a difficult, uncertain revenue future.

okay i guess that question made sense because i can see that you know like they say list of authorized ongoing projects you know and uh that were under construction and already financed totally like 70 million plus another list of expected new projects during five years totaling 339 million so so this list the expected amount of new projects each year you know, like you, I could see like the chart, you know, fiscal year 24, 48 million, 25, 95 million, 26, 71 million. So that's why I was like, hmm, like if all these listed projects were started and financing undertaken, then we expect an added debt service of about, you know, if you multiply like the interest rate by say 6%, that would almost be like $10 million, right? you know, as a total of 190 million times, like whatever fraction, interest and principal repayment per year. So that's why I was like, it did not make sense to me. And... Hmm.

It is...

And I see that you haven't increased also your debt survey by 10 million since 2023. So, but for fiscal year 2025, it appears to be about 500,000 less than 2023. Is that accurate?

I don't think that's accurate. I think I'm looking at fiscal 23 actuals of around 19 million. But remember, projects from the past are always falling off. They end up being paid. So when we take a look at next year's, each successive year's debt service, we start with last year's, look at what's been paid off. right, that falls off. Look at what's new borrowing that gets added on. And so there's a constant updating of this on an annual basis. So, but that being said, I do see fiscal 23 as about just under 20 million and we're at 22.6 million now. So I don't think that's accurate. That might be a misunderstanding.

Okay, but no, but I think the nice thing that you gave me is like, is that, you know, you've been Because one of the things I was, is that my takeaway here is that there are other alternative, you know, like sources, you know, because the question that I had was like, are we slowing down the, you know, the accomplishment of the capital investment plan in order to minimize adding new debt? You know, that's why it is this slow. Or have we been using alternative source of capital? So I think you tried to explain that.

We have used alternative capital. A lot of that is ARPA, right? The roof over my head right now, ARPA. We will be slowing down the pace of capital projects going forward due to revenue uncertainty, due to economic uncertainty, due to rising interest rates and difficulty even getting contractors to bid on our projects when they don't know how much, I don't know, let's just pick a random commodity steel is gonna be next week or next month. So it's an uncertain time, and we're going to take a pause. We're going to rethink this, and we're going to try and be sustainable and continue to get things done for residents.

Okay. Thank you, Dr. Massaboni. I appreciate your patience, because the numbers were all over the place. So it had to make sense for me, and then I think what you're saying actually makes sense. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Counselor. All right. Any other questions here on non-departmentals? real point asking for motions on non-departmentals because not much we can do about any of these so no more questions all right that brings us to the end of tonight's agenda thank you director um had motions been made tonight they would have been kept in committee uh as we said for discussion on tuesday june 24th at cut night uh Now, as I teased at the beginning of the meeting, I'll ask, are there any departments that counselors have additional questions for that you'd like to bring back before this committee on Monday night? This is the time to indicate that so we can give them a heads up so we know whether, as the paper planes fly in the committee room, so we know whether or not we need to have a meeting on Monday night. And also you're always free, you know, to, if you have some new question appears to you, you're always free to contact, uh, you know, staff on back channels and try to get that answered as well. But I don't see anyone indicated that they have any need to call back people. So it looks like we are going to have an unexpected night off on Monday night. Um, Give folks one last chance to indicate anyone they want to bring back. Uh, yeah. Hello. Uh, committee room.

HAB-Jacques Juilland, Director just just want to offer you know if there's questions that counselors have whether that's committee members or counselors that. HAB-Jacques Juilland, As a larger group if there's any questions that they have they can email. through IGA, what questions and what information they would want to know for cut night. We are happy to provide as much information as possible. The faster we get that, obviously, the faster we can get that back to counselors and we want to have productive conversations at cut night. So any additional information that's required, we're here for it. We want to get that done. So please reach out. Don't be afraid to ask more questions.

Thanks, Director. And I'll put in a plug for copying our City Council's finance analyst on that as well. All right. That's it for tonight. That's it for the Department of Budget hearings this year. We are on to cut night. And with that, Council Member Mbah moves to adjourn. Could the clerk please call the roll on adjournment?

All right. This is on adjournment at 7.52 p.m. Council Member Mbah.

I will just volunteer by the chair. Yes.

You're voluntold. Councilor Burnley.

Aye.

Councilor Clingan.

Yes.

Councilor Scott.

Yes.

Chair Wilson.

Yes, please.

All right. With all votes in favor, we are adjourning at 7.52 p.m.

All right. Thank you, everyone. See you next week.