Finance Committee

Hello everybody, welcome and sorry give me just one sec. I was a little too quick to say we should begin and I still need to pull up my notes so apologies give me one moment. Okay, thank you. Good evening everyone. I am Ben Wheeler. I use he him pronouns. I'm a counselor at large and the finance committee chair. It is 6 p.m. And I'd like to call to order the Tuesday October 6th 2026 meeting This meeting of the City Council Committee will be conducted via remote participation following Chapter 2 of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Acts of 2025. 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. We are joined by a clerk. Actually, I don't know which clerk we're joined with tonight. Clerk, who are you?

Good evening Chair, it's Maddie.

Thank you so much. We are joined by Clerk Madeleine Letellier. Clerk Letelliar, could you please call the roll to establish quorum?

This is roll call. Councillor Link. Councillor Strezo. Present. Councillor Hardt. Here.

Scott, present. Councilor Wheeler, present with four counselors present we have quorum thank you so much and i'll just note that counselor link is not here because he is busy chairing the school building facilities and maintenance committee We will be taking up our nine agenda items in the order posted. And as a general note, 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. I want to get it right. So let us begin with the committee minutes. Item 1, 26-1450, approval of the minutes of the Finance Committee meeting of September 22nd, 2026. Members of the committee, any discussion of these minutes? I am seeing none and so this item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. Okay moving on to Office of Housing Stability, Item 2

26-1396, requesting approval to pay prior year invoices totaling $10,224.39 using available funds in the Office of Housing Stability Ordinary Maintenance Account for Legal Services. And I believe we have Director of Housing Stability Ellen Schachter here, if that is the case. Oh, I'm not seeing Director Schachtar on here. Is there anybody else who is prepared? I see Chief Assessor Ed Bean. Chief Auditor.

Just followed by my abilities to be an assessor. Actually, Director Alan Anasio was scheduled to speak on this matter. I don't see him here but I do know the situation is that This was a billing at the end of the fiscal year by some attorneys and the PO did not cover the full bill, hence the need to appropriate monies out of the existing Fiscal year budget to pay the attorneys. That's what I understand it to be. Unless Alan is here, I don't see... There's Alan. Alan, do you want to chime in here please?

I'm sorry, I'm just joining. I was having trouble with my home internet so I have to join on the phone. Was there a question?

No problem. I'll do a quick recap and I will just introduce strategy and planning director of finance and administration. Oh, sorry that's not your updated title is it? Director of Finance and Community?

Community Development.

Community Development, director of finance and community development, Alan Anasio. Director Anasio, we were just discussing item 2 26-1396 the Office of Housing Stability prior invoices approximately $10,000.

Yes, thank you. Through the chair. So at the end of the year we make our best efforts to project the final expenses for the month of typically June sometimes a little bit of May but typically those last couple weeks of June We opened a PO, however when the final bill came in we hadn't projected enough. There were more hours that came in so we didn't have enough in the FY26 PO to Pay the entire invoice. It was too late to open an FY26 PO, so now we have to come back and request it as a prior year invoice.

Thank you, Director Inacio. I see a question or comment from Councilor Strezo.

Thank you very much. Through you to Director Anaccio, is this for services for de novo?

Yes that's correct

Thank you. And can you please share with us a little more about... Variable of what you were expecting versus what the needs were is this... and increased due to extended need or can you share a little bit more about that please?

Sure. I mean, I'm not exactly sure the specific cases or exact circumstances I can follow up with OHS but basically through the chair De Novo provides legal services to our residents typically those with you know housing related Housing-related instability, a lot of them are some of our immigrant population. And so depending on what we projected for the number of cases they had at the time, the number hours that it would take to resolve those cases and then Bumping up against what actual was their final billable hours and the final amount of time they spent on cases at year end, there was just a discrepancy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and if I may?

Please.

Thank you. No skepticism per se, more curiosity questions. Meaning, was the need a lot worse than anticipated? Or is the... Fairly new right to be able to legal counsel somehow affected in the cost that we're paying. I know that you are speaking on behalf of Office of Housing Stability. We don't have Director Schachter here, I get that. But just if there are any more details, that would be great so we know what to expect as it comes into winter.

Sure, I can certainly go back and try to get some more information on the caseload at that time but could be a variation of more complex cases than expected. Additional cases came in that maybe weren't anticipated Could be a variety of things. Oftentimes we'll have opportunity to put on a late PO in those first couple weeks of the year that just didn't turn out to be the case this time

And I'll just interject because I'm a big fan of defining acronyms, even if they're ones we use a million times. By PO, we are referring to a purchase order. A way that funds are assigned to be able to be used to make a particular purchase, if that's a decent description. uh i had a question um sorry members of the committee any other members of committee have questions or comments before i ask this i'm not seeing hands um i have a question about this you know i understand there are um It can be tricky at the end of the year where you sort of have this hard wall as opposed to prior months where you can have a little bit more spending one month, a little less another month. But as I understand it from the document, I think this was received June 18th. I'm just sort of curious why a past charge like this from June

Thank you for watching! I'm just curious about that delay, if that's something that happens for a variety of reasons, if you know, Director Inacio.

Through the chair, to be perfectly honest we were just sorting out some staffing transitions on my team so there could have been a little bit delay. Typically there are a couple weeks in June where accounting activity is Standard activity, accounting activity is a little bit slower because we're trying to close out the fiscal year and do some other year-end reconciliations. And then this particular year end I had a couple staff transitions on my team so that might have slowed things down.

Thank you, and I see that this invoice also refers to a grant agreement number. Are these funds that are largely or partially paid for by a grant? Or is it sort of referring to, in a sense, the city of Somerville providing de novo grant?

Through the chair, yes. It's a little bit intricate to explain but typically with nonprofits oftentimes what we'll do is a grant services agreement whereas typically your private Vendor contracts tend to typically be called contracts. It's a little bit of a nuance, but you will see that with a lot of our nonprofits we do enter into what is called the grant services agreement. A lot of times they actually are funded by grants Not necessarily always the case, but oftentimes when we engage with nonprofits especially for more like service related items We do enter into what are called grant services agreement. This is the case in this particular instance.

Thank you so much. Okay, any other questions or comments on this item from members of the committee? I'm seeing none, so with thanks this item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. Moving on to Community Preservation Act. And I'm just checking to see who we've got present in the meeting. Item 3, 26-1393 requesting the transfer of 153,000 $987 for the Community Preservation Act Community Housing Debt Service account to the Community Conservation Act Community housing reserve. So, for this one Director Anasio are you prepared to speak on this or is there anyone else?

Thank you. Yes, through the chair I believe the next item will also follow a similar vein again through our Euron procedures and through the budgeting process. When we allocated the budgeted amount for what we anticipated to be, the debt service in the two CPA categories We need to true that up. So I believe we over-allocated and now we need to move the funds back into the CPA reserve so that they can be allocated to projects.

Thank you very much any comments or questions from members of the committee? So just to understand, it's always great to hear that there is a surplus. Surpluses are better than deficits in many ways. I'm figuring that this is a standard thing that happens with bonding authorizations. You have to make a best guess at allocation. Would you mind explaining sort of why there was a gap between our Allocation and what was necessary.

Yeah, again it was a particularly busy end of the year for my team this year but we work with the auditing office. We try to get as best estimate of what we think the following years debt service is going to be for our outstanding obligations Sometimes there's minor revisions on what that debt service amount is going to be. In this particular case, always being conservative and making sure we have enough to service the debt We over budgeted for what we thought the debt service was going to be. Now, we have a firmer idea of what that is and we can reallocate those funds back to projects once the council approves.

Thank you very much. Any comments or questions from members of the committee? Seeing none, this item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. And then moving on as Director Ignacio pointed out a related item to Community Preservation Act 26-1392 requesting the transfer of $22,596.24 from the Community Preservation Act Historic Preservation Debt Service Account to the Community preservation act historic preservation reserve Director Ignacio, could you please tell us about this transfer?

Exact same scenario through the chair. Exact same scenarios as the previous item. So this is the outstanding debt service we have on I believe The West Branch Library, it's one of the CPA projects we did years back. Yes, I'm pretty sure that's the only certain one in historic. And anyway, in the historic category similar to the previous item took a conservative approach debt service came a little bit lower we can now reallocate that to future historic projects

excellent love to hear it thank you for the fiscal responsibility and care any questions or comments from members of the committee on this item Seeing none, this item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. And that brings us to other strategy and planning related items item 4.1 26-1391 requesting approval of a time only contract extension until February 15th, 2027 for Utile Inc. to complete any outstanding task related to our upzoning and five-year zoning review efforts. Director Inacio, is this one that you are here to speak on as well?

Thank you through the chat. I'll do my best. Director Dan Bartman could not be here tonight. He had a previous personal commitment, but yes this is a contract extension as you mentioned of our on-call contract As you mentioned, it will be for dimensional graphics and technical analysis related to our upzoning feasibility and five-year zoning review. And other sponsored zoning amendments as well. and it's an on-call contract so you know we whatever the scope allows but this is particularly to wrap up the ongoing work in these areas.

Thank you. And just to recap, because it's not obvious to people who don't attend a lot of these finance committee meetings what a time-only contract extension is, but this means there's already a contract in place, And this party has agreed that we are not adding money to this contract with this approval. We are just extending the ending date of it so that work can continue. Does that match your understanding, Director?

Yes, through the chair. We're not asking for additional funds on the contract, just trying to wrap up what we have in the queue.

Thank you so much. Any comments or questions from members of the committee on this? I am just curious to know what is the scope of the upzoning and five-year zoning review efforts? Is this something looking at the entire city in its entirety? Is this looking at particular areas? I know there is some zoning-related research work being done by our... City staff in strategy and planning?

I believe it could be. I don't want to misspeak, I would definitely...I can certainly go back and reach out to both Director Bartman and Deputy Director Fiona as well, but I believe it covers and or both under the scope of the on-call. But if you have any specific questions, I'm happy to go back to them and provide you with a more detailed answer.

Thank you very much. I'm curious about it, but since there's not a financial component to this extension, I don't see a reason not to approve this today. Any comments or questions from members of the committee? I am seeing none so this item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. Okay, that brings us to this Department of Public Works section. Item 5.1 26-1340 requesting approval to accept and expend a $169,000 grant with no new match required, from Urban Area Security Initiative to the Department of Public Works for equipment to strengthen school security systems. and I believe I saw DPW Director of Finance and Administration Megan Huckenpahler on the call. If so, then Director Huckenpauller could you please tell us about this grant?

Sure thing. Good evening. This grant is $169,000 so that we can update the public address systems at the Brown School, Capuano and there is an error in the body of this text it should say edgerly not winter hill for schools to have in need of emergency communications And I've been asked to note that this is not UAC 2025 funding. It is from 23 and 24.

Thank you. And just to point out why that is an important distinction, which I appreciate you making. The federal government has these programs and has for a long time. UASI, Urban Area Security Initiative is a program under FEMA the Federal Emergency Management Agency I may be getting that little bit wrong and As part of the shift in the presidential administration that began at the beginning of 2025, there's also been a shift in terms that are attached to WASI grants. Those terms begin being very different in 2025. That is a big topic that we will talk about quite a bit. This grant is through a 2024 set of provisions, does not include the changes made in 2025.

every item connected to this grant is necessarily in line with everybody's preferences but that's just a very important point to clarify and I am seeing Councillor Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciated that summary for the public. Not to put too fine a point on it, but UBASI is a division of Department of Homeland Security. So the concern of the public is the obligations that accepting federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security place on the city potentially to assist with Federal immigration efforts. So I appreciate the due diligence, the documentation on this one is a little bit thin but it does very clearly state that this is a fiscal year 24 grant and so just to reassure folks who are watching these grants very closely the fiscal year 24 grant did not include the new language that has caused so much concern in the community. Very much appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

A confusing thing about... The UASI grants is that they refer to a document called the... Sorry, give me just a moment everybody. The fiscal year 2024 UASI plan project justification. Part of what's confusing is I have been unable to find that document made publicly available anywhere online I will mention, I filed a public records request for it and did receive it. It is a Massachusetts document that

defines the agreements between the Massachusetts sort of body that handles these grants and the Department of Homeland Security, UASI office. So that I'm able to see what these specifications that this project must conform to in this target hardening section are. To my knowledge is not available to the public, but it's a public record. It's something that I would be happy to put in the public record by my read in that target hardening section and the document as a whole. I feel satisfied with the nature of the specifications that the project must conform to, but I don't expect everyone to take my word for it. I'm going to go to Councilor Hardt and then come back to you, Councilor Scott.

Sure, thanks. Well related to that I just wanted to because the grant letter didn't specify the specific projects and i appreciate the explanation but i just wanted The only things covered by this grant are going to be the public address systems. And nothing else.

Through the chair, that is correct. Thank you. That's it.

Thank you, Councilor Hardt. Councilor Scott?

Well now Mr. Chair I've got a whole new question. Thank You Councilor Hardt When I'm reading the text of this item, it says it is to pay for upgrades to the public address system and cameras. Am I misreading that?

Through the chair, right now we only have quotes to do the three schools PA systems. We may add a fourth school and we may work with the schools to identify a camera need for the same purpose like what they did at Argenziano um but nothing that should violate the uh Surveillance Ordinances.

Okay, all right well I just I wanted to be sure because the text of the item did include cameras there, but it wasn't mentioned in the earlier discussion. And obviously a concern for folks would be patching in or surveillance sharing through that Department of Homeland Security arrangement. So I appreciate that. And I'm glad the intention isn't to do cameras right now and that any implementation of cameras will be in accordance with the established surveillance technology policies. So thank you, appreciate the second bite at the apple there Mr. Chair

Absolutely. Any other comments or questions from members of the committee? I just wanted to ask Director Hockenpahler something I just feel a little confused about is so my understanding is this award is to Department of Public Works but the word letter addresses police chief Benford and I know security is something that often involves I'm just sort of confused if this is just a grant to DPW, what's the relationship with the police department?

That is a great question, Chair. Emily, I think, is on board to answer.

Thank you. I see Police Department Finance Director Emily Wisdom.

Good evening. So the way that the UIC grant works is it is made up mostly of law enforcement so Chief Benford is the what is called the JPOC for Somerville currently which is the jurisdictional point of contact so most of all correspondence was made will be made to him because he is the point of contact for the whole city of Somerville and it works that way um There are a couple of fire chiefs that are point-of-contacts for some of the other jurisdictions, so in that case any letters would be written to them. in place so if just for example Chief Breen was our JPOC instead the letter would be written to him most likely but he but Chief Benford is the JPOC for Somerville and that's why most correspondence is addressed for him.

Thank you so much, Director. Appreciate that. Um, the only other thing I wanted to ask Director Reckonpahler and Director Wisdom if relevant is so this has a deadline. Am I right of May 31st? Is that correct? Where am I making that up?

That is correct. The FY24 grant cycle period of performance, however you want to call it, it does end in the summer of 2027 and So projects are expected to be wrapped up by the end of May.

And there's no concern about that timing? We have plenty of time from your perspective to solicit bids and implement this.

So after speaking with Commissioner Wiseman, it's my understanding that he believes there will be time to do that but Megan might have a better update on that. It's been a few weeks since I spoke to him on this.

No concerns on our end. We have the quotes in hand and we're ready to get working on this.

Okay, thank you very much. Any other comments or questions 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 both. Moving on to the fire department. Item 6.1 26-1397 requesting authorization to borrow $2,082,498 in a bond and to appropriate $2,082,498 for the purchases of an aerial ladder truck and a rescue truck for the fire department. So I believe that we have both Fire Chief Charles Breen, and Fire Department Director of Finance Administration James Mucci. Chief Brain or Director Mucci, or both. Could you please tell us about this bond request? Sure, I'd be happy to help. Maybe I should set the stage, Mr. Chairman.

Sorry, sorry, please. Auditor Bean, go ahead. Okay, and then we'll move to the chief who can get into some details here. So the original plan was to buy needed fire apparatus through ARPA, good use of ARPA funds. Ladder aerial truck in the amount of $2,099,475 and a rescue truck in the 1,081,808. So to date, progress payments have been made to the manufacturers totaling $1,098,786. The manufacturers have stated that they cannot deliver this apparatus to us by December 31st of this calendar year. ARPA funds expire on December 31st of this year. So we have to pivot here.

We're certainly not going to return monies back to the feds, So what we're doing here is the remaining balance is $2,082,498 for both pieces. We're going to borrow that money to consummate these purchases. And the chief can explain that this is a real problem in the fire service. There are a limited number of manufacturers of fire apparatus This is a nationwide problem not just here in Massachusetts and there are very significant delays in getting these things built. So that $2,082,498 will borrow to make good and get these two pieces. And the chief can express the need for that. and the city has reprogrammed that $2,082,000 to the biggest capital projects for the city which is the Parkless Street Pump Station.

So we've moved that 2 million 82 thousand over to the Parkles street Capital Project, because we certainly don't want to return that to the Feds. Okay? So Chief, maybe you want to explain the need for these pieces of apparatus.

Sure. As Ed already explained, these The Rescue and the Ladder Truck are both in the manufacturing process now. The Rescue is scheduled to arrive just after the first of the year, and the ladder truck will be here in June of next year We had hoped to get them here sooner, but delays in the manufacturing process pushed the timeline back and we were fortunate that Ed was able to Move the upper money to something else so we didn't lose it. And that's why we're here tonight for this bond.

Thank you, Chief Brain. Director Mucci, do you have anything to add? No pressure. Just wanted to make sure you knew the floor is open to you as well.

I'm good at this point.

Thank you. Okay, I am seeing Councilor Hardt.

Thank you, Chair. I'm just curious if these purchases are adding to the fire truck fleet or will be replacing trucks that are going to be retired when these arrive?

They won't be retired, but they'll be placed into a reserve status and we'll use them in case we have any issues. A truck has to go off for maintenance or whatnot. We need spare equipment always on hand to put into service.

Thank you

Thank you, Councilor Hardt. I'm not seeing hands from other councillors. The question of... Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Councillor Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the explanation here and I just want to make it crystal clear that these were already planned expenditures under ARPA and the Poplar Street Pump Station is something the city has been committed to for many years. So this is just simply a timing problem that is requiring us to shift where we're pulling the money from. If this had not been something If we didn't have this timing problem here, we'd be looking at a future 2.0 Change Million Dollar Bonding for the Poplar Street Pump Station, or perhaps we could be reducing the existing authorized bonding for the Papa Street Pump station. So I guess through you to...

To Director Bean, is this going to reduce the necessity of future bonding for that pump station project or is it simply going to allow us to pay down the debt on that pumpstation project sooner?

Scott. So you will see two orders going into Thursday's meeting. This will reduce Thank you very much. Talking with our outside auditors and the feds, we're going to have two authorizations here. One is to reduce the current $89 million authorization and then appropriate an additional authorization. So you'll have more details after Thursday, and Rich Rach and IAM will come before you and discuss both of those things.

All right. I appreciate that. I just wanted to provide, maybe pull back the veil a little bit for anybody confused about how the money slides around. So as always, you're the best at that. Thank you, Director. I'm all set, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councilor Scott. And just to sort of echo your question, to be 100% sure I understand the net finances for the city The idea of the kind of shifts that we're making instead of assigning these ARPA funds to these fire vehicles, instead assigning them to this Poplar Street pump project. The purpose of this is so that the city won't lose any money because of the expiration of these ARPA funds.

That's correct. We would have to return the money to the federal government. So we'll also be looking, there may be another small pocket of money that we'll want to appropriate before December 31st. We're still trying to get some estimates on that. During the tax recap time in November for our final appropriations for fiscal 2027, if there's a small amount of money we're going to appropriate it somewhere so we don't lose it after we turn it back to the feds.

I appreciate that very much. So much better to be anticipating this and setting ourselves up to not lose any money than... Thank you so much for joining us. My only other question, since this sort of brings up the question of the rate of replacing fire trucks and the I'm just curious in the opinion of the fire department, um is the wear that we are seeing and the sort of need for replacement something that's more or less on schedule. Sorry, I got a lot of cat out of the room. Something that's more or less on schedule.

Are we seeing requiring replacement sooner than we might have anticipated?

Neither one of these vehicles are being replaced sooner than was scheduled.

Thank you, Chief. And these vehicles aside just because this sort of brings up the need to eventually replace vehicles I'm just curious, is your assessment that the vehicles overall, the sort of rate of wear that we are seeing is... in line with expectations or faster than expected or slower than expected. Sorry, I know I'm asking for an overall assessment that there's probably very precise information about each of many, many vehicles.

Ed, did you want to say something?

Well, yes. Through you, Mr. Chairman, the Chief and I have been working on a long-range vehicle replacement plan for the fire department. So we're going to present that as we present the new CIP and I think that will happen in November. We're trying to time this thing out. Of course, the problem is going to be just, you know, the timing of the manufacturer actually delivering that. So, you Thank you so much.

And just for anybody who doesn't know what that acronym is, that is the Capital Improvement Plan. And the capital improvement plan is designed to be done approximately every five years, is it? It will span five years.

The one presenting five years yes

Great. And that should give a portrait of the next five years of our anticipated capital needs for the city overall, if I am understanding correctly. That's correct. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that work, and I look forward to seeing that plan The itemization of the city's many, many capital needs. Much appreciated. Any other comments or questions from members of the committee? I am seeing none so this item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. Thank you And that brings us to the police department. Item 7.1, 26-1413 requesting approval to accept and expend a $297,679 grant

with no new match required, from the Mass Department of Mental Health to the Police Department for operational funding for the Metro Boston Crisis Intervention Training and Technical Assistance Center. And I... I'm guessing that we will hear Police Department Director of Finance Administration Emily Wisdom speak on this item. Director Wisdom, could you please tell us about this grant?

That's correct. I don't know, Chair if you want to read these in together they're part of the same grant

Thank you, I was wondering if that would make sense. I'll take your suggestion. I will also read in and let's consider together item 7.2 26-1412 requesting approval to accept and expend a $57,925 grant with no new match required from the Mass Department of Mental Health to the Police Department to fund the operation of the Jail Arrest Diversion Program for fiscal year 2027. Director Wisdom

Thank you, Chair. So this one might feel a little familiar. Just a couple of weeks ago I submitted, I believe it was 19 and 20 If I'm remembering correctly with the two end numbers for those orders.

Yes, and I'll just interrupt to clarify that's item 26-1219 and item 26‑1220. For anyone who's listening, please continue.

Exactly. So when the state originally gave us an appropriation of funds to contract for, they were not ready, they Who saw last time was just enough money to get your corporate salaries. And then they... provided us with the full year amended contract. So these are the full amounts for the full-year, the prior amount that was accepted That was just for quarter one. And now we have the full length, this will provide for 14-13 That's the operation needs that includes salary and some other operational costs for the crisis intervention training team that they do. And then

The 1412 is entirely salary and fringe. So these grants will be used exactly as we spoke about previously, nothing in the terms change and I went ahead and I attached, I know it's a question that we discuss every year because we're mindful of where we upload our information and What information is available when we work with grants? I went ahead and I uploaded the memo that was associated with the previous discussion we had for the quarter one funds to discuss what... data we provide as part of the contract with um with the department of mental health so none of that changes everything stays the same the only thing that's different is this is for the full year amount rather than a quarter

Thank you. And that document, I believe I'm looking at that one now. That is the letter from Jennifer Korn, the Director of Community Outreach Help and Recovery. That's the letter you're referring to, right? I see that at the end of that letter she says it.

Yes, that was the memo.

Thanks. Maybe I'll just quote that line. There may be more about here. There's a paragraph where Director Korn discusses what this Jail Diversion Program database captures from police incident reports like report number, responding personnel nature of the call. whether a psychiatric issue was involved. I'm sort of scanning through this and demographic information including gender, race, age, and ethnicity but individual names are not reported to the Department of Mental Health This database is populated with information from police incident reports for calls that are coded for mental health or substance abuse or alcohol misuse concerns. That's a A quick sort of summary of that section just to provide context.

Okay, thank you. Let's go to members of the committee with questions. Councilor Scott.

Thank you Mr. Chair and I do appreciate that context in the memo that was attached You know, that kind of broad data gathering is pretty common in grant administration just to ensure that the programs being funded are actually – or the grant monies – are actually being used to expand programs in the to match the intention of the program, state or federal. So I appreciate that. I just had a couple questions based on what I was looking at here in the application documents for Director Wisdom. Director Wisden, one of these and I apologize because there's a few of them. One of these indicated that the lion share this 200 39,000 let's say of the 300 000 grant request here

was going to go towards the salary for program director, program staff, administrative staff, other staff and fringe benefits. Those are existing positions that are within the police department budget, correct?

yes these are those are for the core positions that exist um that is the deputy director of a program assistant and then the coordinator of law enforcement partnerships all three of those are fully funded by the grant for 1413. You'll notice that the amount that we requested is decreased. So we ended up only receiving the $297,679. The reason for that is because as we entered the beginning of this fiscal year, the project assistant and the coordinator of human resources Police Partnerships. Both of those positions were vacant, so they are still in the hiring process to fill. So the Department of Mental Health asked that we reduce

The budget that we had given them to reflect the basically like we do when we do the budget and there's an opening we do a percentage of the year to cover that so that's why you'll see that there's a little bit of a difference between the amount we originally asked for and the full amount of the grant that we're receiving yeah absolutely that all makes a lot of sense

Those positions though were fully funded within the fiscal year budget, correct?

So they were included in the budget but there was not a money amount associated with the fully funded positions. They were just listed. The budget that we submitted included the Full funds for the director of CORE and I think it's about 45 percent of the salary for Sorry, I'm going to stutter over my words here. The jail diversion clinician. So you see in 1412 This specific portion, $57,925 only covers 60% of salary and fringe. at the SPD slash core budget are responsible for that. And then we also have an additional jail clinician on our budget that is not covered by the grant.

So all of those positions were listed in the budget and it was indicated whether or not there was a dollar amount associated with the position um in the

Okay, well I appreciate that. I can understand how it could be a little bit confusing for folks though because Here it says program director or manager for $102,000 salary whereas the core director also has a hundred and change thousand dollar salary there. Are you indicating that?

So the director of corps, so those are actually state labels for those positions. So that's actually for the deputy director. What you're seeing in the budget that's in front of you, that is the deputy director position that is covered by the grant. The director of core is covered

Okay, so this isn't going to be... And the reason I ask the questions as I'm sure my colleagues will recall Frequent Flyers to our meetings in one of our recent meetings we had a grant that was covering salaries that actually was creating kind of a double dip or a lag money type situation. So this is not one of those, this is one where we budgeted in advance to be receiving this grant and pay for these positions specifically the well here it says co-director of core and the Project Assistant, and the coordination of law enforcement partnerships. So this is in effect money above and beyond what's already in police and corps budgets.

that is correct through the chair um what you're referring to is the e911 budget where if we were not to receive the grant we would have we would you know emergency services uh so i think that that might be the difference in like if if perhaps the grant we were not to be a recipient of it we would have to come back and ask for additional funding to pursue the program Rather than, you know, with E911 since it's an emergency service.

Right. This is a program expansion that's being funded by these. Exactly. Yes. Thank you. I got it. All right. Well, I appreciate that. Mr. Chair, you know, I went through and I did some quick math on it. You know, last year grants... like this one and others into the police department we're somewhere north of two million dollars uh so far this year if we accept all these grants tonight it will be a little bit over 1.5 million in grants that have gone to supplement the already large $21 million Somerville Police Department budget. So I'm not ready to... I appreciate the explanation there, Director Wisdom. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I'm all set.

Thank you, Councillor Scott. And can I just say on that topic, I think you're bringing up a good point that we talked about in some different forms during the budget process in June where there's so much useful information. Oh, and please let the record show we've been joined by Councilor Link. There's so much useful information in the budget book, which is deeply appreciated and adds a lot of transparency. including in the budget book, such as if there was a certain amount of grant funding on top of the budgeted amount for a previous year Having that sort of clearly spelled out as a distinct amount so that maybe there could be some reasonable extrapolation of what might be expected in the next year.

and I'll just mention on that topic also there are some part-time positions that are not included in the salaries line. That was another related topic that came up, I don't want to get too far Off Topic, all in the spirit of the budget book being as informative as possible. And I will recognize Councilor Link

Thank you chair through you yeah just to build on what you're saying it would be wonderful even if it was just a you know grants over for and this is not directed specifically at the Somerville Police Department, but all departments related to this item. If there was any grant over a certain amount of money That is that we intend to apply. Most of these grants are ones we have applied to already by the time the budget book comes out or that we know we are going to apply to So, you know, having those in there I think is it makes sense to me.

Thank you Casper Link. Any other comments or questions on these two items? I am seeing none, so with thanks and appreciation these items are laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting which we are at. That brings us to the end tonight's agenda Do I hear a motion to recommend approval of the items on the table and then to adjourn? Motion to approve the items Thank you, 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 these items and adjournment.

This is items recommended to be approved and on adjournment to item 1, 2.1, 3.1 ,3.2 4.1 5.1 6.1 7.1 and 7.2 Councilor Link

Yes.

Councilor Strezo? Yes. Councillor Hardt? Yes, yes. Councillor Scott? Yes Councillor Wheeler? Yes Those items are recommended to be approved and we are adjourned

Thank you all and have a great night.