City Council - Regular Meeting

Medford City Council Committee of the whole May 6th, 2026 is called to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the role. Councelor Callahan. Council Callahan is absent. Council Lemon. Council Me. Council Scapelli present. Council is saying present. Vice President Lazaro, Vice President Lazaro is absent and President Bears

present. Five present, two abs in the meeting is called to order. Vice President Lazaro and counselor Callahan um send their apologies. They are at the curriculum night at the middle schools. So they won't be able to be here at least for a while and hopefully we'll be done before then. Um we have four departments tonight in front of us and I'll just read the paper. 26 action and discussion items 26061 annual budget process for fiscal 27 preliminary budget meeting number three. This will be the third preliminary budget meeting of the fiscal 27 budget process. Mayor has communicated the following departments will be present. Building clerk electrical veterans. Note preliminary budget meetings will continue after May 15th and the council president will be working with the mayor and city administration to develop a schedule of further meetings to be shared at the May 12th committee of the whole preliminary budget meeting. So, we're going to go a bit past the um time range here in our budget ordinance. So, we will probably be having meetings at least the week after next, maybe even a week after that. Um and we'll coordinate to make sure that folks know when those are happening. We're going to go in order uh little bit of a different order tonight. We're going to take the electrical and then veterans and then uh clerk and then building. So, or building and clerk. We'll figure that one out when we get there. But we'll start with uh Superintendent of Wires Randazo talking about our electrical department and I'll just quickly go through um if you could describe the changes in your budget and then tell us what you've been up to this past year, your plans for next year, and things you'd like to see funded in the future that weren't funded this year.

Uh my good evening, council, first of all. Uh yeah, so I'm trying to continue on just improving the lighting throughout the city. Uh it's my main objective. Uh some some of my increases have been because of it like uh the national grid has increased changes uh their rates. So we've gone up a little bit with that and uh my traffic signal materials and stuff uh some of the traffic signals are starting to approach their age expectancy. So we're trying to update things as we can. Those are the major changes I have. All right. Could you let us know what what your department's some highlights from this past year and some plans for the upcoming year?

Really, we're trying to update the the the traffic equipment, making things more ADA compliant. Uh is basically what we've been doing. And again, trying to improve lighting wherever we can. And that's the plan for next year, too. Correct. Awesome. Um, is there anything that wasn't able to be funded this year that you are hoping will maybe be able to come in a future year? Uh, there is some things that I'm trying to work on trying to uh repair some of the existing lighting that's in place that, you know, I'll probably be asking for funding at some point.

Okay. All right. Do we have any questions from members of the council for the superintendent wires? Oh, Councelor Molain,

thank you. Thank you so much for um coming and and putting all of this together. I just had a couple of just kind of quick questions. Um I know you mentioned about the street lights and um needing more um being able to address some of those things that are kind of uh wear and tear. How like how often are you seeing that? Like are you seeing this? Is it are we coming up and we're going to see more of this happening uh increasingly given the time frames that the last time I would suspect yes uh an increase in in things because the the typical age expectancy of some of the stuff is starting to to to age and sometimes you have more failures because of it.

Okay. And you're seeing more of that kind of happening or I do. Okay. Um, and I'm I guess from the um budget itself to uh I know we're at 268 for that to the 360. Is it just um or 350? Do you just see that more of that will be happening in the next couple of months to kind of catch up to that or is that going to be left over to move to the next budget? It's probably going to go over into the next budget. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you.

Right. Do we have any further questions for Superintendent Wise Renazo? All right. Well, thank you for everything you're doing to keep the city well lit and people from blowing through intersections. Um, we really appreciate it. Thank you, council. Have a good evening. Thank you. All right, we'll move next to the veteran services department. We have Director Shaw with us and um, same questions. if you want to let us know what the differences are between uh this current year and the upcoming year, kind of an update on what you've been able to do this past year, some plans for next year, and then things you'd like to see funded in the future that weren't able to be funded for the upcoming year.

All right. So, we did have we had a lot of changes. I don't know that our dollar amount you won't see a huge change, but our line items changed. Um the most significant that first one under personnel would be my pay because of the um the study that was done. The city did agree um to bring me up to a level along with my peers in other cities. Um that was definitely the the largest increase. Um and then we did have some decreases. Um, we had some minor increases in things like uh repair and for our um our printer because our contract went up and then we're now paying like $70 more a month for it. So, that is the only other major increase. We did go down in several things including our cash aid which is what we use to pay our chapter 115 veterans um and any emergencies that we have. um because we have seen um year after year the number of veterans on our chapter 115 roles go down um there hasn't been as much of a need so we were able to give back to the city um and I suspect that we will see that year after year as those numbers continue to fall and that's pretty much across the state is that we're seeing those numbers come down um so I was able to give back um $20,000 um from last year for that uh line item office supplies stayed the same. We came down on travel and conferences um this year and next year. I won't be attending the veterans largest conference this year. My daughter's graduating from high school and then she leaves for the army. So, I had to prioritize my family over this conference. Um and rather than keep that money, we just we went down on that line item as well. Um and I think those are the major um changes that you see in our

budget. Like I said, I think the dollar amounts are pretty much lined up because we did give so much back out of cash aid. Do you have any questions about the budget itself? Um, I do have one. Yes, sir. And then then we can go through the general more narrative stuff, which is more fun. Um, on that cash aid question. Yes, sir. I noticed the budget versus actuals, you know, we're we're at an actuals of around 116K with the budget of 300. Is that um you know there's more of that coming to be spent out in the rest of the year?

Yes. So um we will actually we this year um this fiscal year we will give back some of that. We still have three months that to account for that is not included in with this dollar amount of our um chapter 115 payments. We're right around $10,000 a month um coming out for that. Um, I did just add another veteran this past week. So, that will go up by another $1,800 a month. Um, and then what else comes out of that is I just had a widow this morning that needed help with her rent. So, that is what comes out of that. I I need to make sure that my widows, my veterans have their necessary needs and that comes out of that. Um, so that's part of why we do have a buffer. um we can count on like I have exact dollar amounts for 115 but then when there's an emergency one of my um the spouse of one of my veterans passed away this past week and so out of 115 we also help with funeral benefits so that's going to be an additional 4,000 that comes out of that. We had a um an unclaimed veteran pass away um two months ago um and that line item will be coming out soon. that was another $4,000. And so we have to keep a buffer for things like that. Otherwise, we could have given more. And at the end of the year, we do give back. The city takes back what we don't use. Um but I I need to make sure that if I have an emergency with one of my veterans, I have that money to to help them.

Yeah. And I think, you know, of course that that makes a lot of sense of um having the buffer and you don't know can't expect the unexpected and um obviously it's really important things that this money is going to help help folks with. Um in terms of the chapter 115, um could you talk a little bit more about how that works? So folks, certain folks qualify for it. The city funds it or do we get state matching funds? How does that work?

Um, excellent question. I love this topic. I may go on for a while. Um, so chapter 115 is a program by the state of Massachusetts. We're actually the only state in the entire country that has this program or anything like it for our lowincome veterans. And then we also include widows and widowers in that or dependent children. So, if there's any children um of a deceased veteran um who's unable to care for themselves or work, we can help in there as well. And then we help with a cash allowance every month. They'll get a check. It will include um cash aid to help cover their rent. Um we do fuel assistance, medication reimbursement. We have some veterans that may have a higher income, but they don't quite have their needs met. And so they bring us their receipts and we pay them re we reimburse them for their medications. Um and that's huge when when the cost of medications and doctor's appointments are going up. They know they have that safety net with chapter 115. Um and it's it's just an amazing program. So how the payments work is we cut the check from the city um every month. I try to have it out around the 15th of every month and then we get reimbursed 75% of that.

Okay. From the state. Okay. Um, so the city does eat 25% of it, but we do get 75% back. So that's pretty awesome for helping our veterans. Yeah, that's significant. And so this is Is this budgeting for the 25% basically or for the full 100%? This is budgeting for everything. Okay. Um, it it includes everything. Um, it also in that cash aid amount, it pays for our flags that we put out um for Memorial Day.

Um, huge plugs. the 16th, come out and help. Um, and so that is we have we buy about 10,000 flags every year. This year we they charge us 13 or 3,000 more than in previous years. Yeah. Um, we do buy them from the Department of Corrections to help keep that cost low. They're they're the lowest. So we we check everybody to make sure we're getting the best deal. Um, and we get 75% reimbured for that as well. Okay. All right. So, so when you're talking about the number of folks who are eligible for this going down, is that because there are fewer veterans in general or veterans are moving away or

No, the the reason is because when this program was started, it was intended for veterans coming back from the World Wars when they didn't have pensions, they didn't have um retirement funds. And this was intended to help those veterans. But over time, as veterans are better, they're coming out financially better after retirement, they have the pensions, the retirement plans, there's just less of a need. So, it's not that we don't have as many veterans, although in Medford, we do. We did see a pretty significant drop from last year's census. Um, but the veterans in need are just less um because they do have those other sources of income. Um, we also did see people moving away. Um, we did have several die last year. Um, that brought our generals. When I first started, we had about 15 and then after my first year, we went up to 21. Um, and then now we're back down to 13. And so, it's a combination of people passing away and then there's just not as big of a need. And that is something that we're seeing across the state as well. And um my last kind of question along this line, given the the kind of changing demographics and um are we able to maybe does that does that give you maybe some more space to try to find folks who might be eligible who aren't taking advantage of the program? Is that something that I know you were working on that a couple years?

That's actually part of my goals that I was going to talk about next. So part of how I got to the 21 was by doing outreach. Yeah. Um, I went to the churches and spoke to their senior groups. We encouraged people to come to our monthly senior um, group over at the um, senior center. Um, and so it's a matter of getting my face in front of veterans. Yeah. And doing outreach. Um, there's still a lot of veterans that don't even know that we exist. I come across them all the time. They're like, "What do you mean there's a veterans office?" Yeah. And it's been here since like 1972. People still don't know that we're here. Yeah. Is there any um does the VA offer any support uh to help you identify folks who may be residing in Medford? No.

No. So, sort of I sort of sort of sort of kind of what I do get is a list from the VA for every service member that is leaving the service. Yeah. Who has um on their DD214 their home of record as Medford. Yeah. or if they're leaving and they're coming to Medford, they will leave a um their forwarding address with the military. I get that list. This is the first year um since I've been here that I have any had anybody actually come back to Medford after the service. Okay.

Of those, I think I had five. None of them are here anymore. Um I did have um several move here, but coming out of the military, none of them stayed in the area. The other thing um is I get a list from EOVS, so the Executive Office of Veteran Services. Every year they send out a list of all of the money that veterans bring in. Um I know people think that veterans we're we're taking money from the city. We actually bring in millions of dollars in pensions in VA disability, um which is going to pay taxes. Um so I get that list. I know how well I have a dollar amount of how much VA money is coming into the city.

Yeah. Okay, great. And but there's no list of like uh veterans don't like being on lists. I think that's fair. I think that's fair. Yeah, I hear that. I have been trying to and they're like, "You're going to send me stuff?" Yes, I'm going to send you stuff. So, no, there there is not. There's um I have a list of the killed in action that we've had over the years. Um I have kind of little specific lists, but I have no comprehensive list of every veteran in the city.

Um probably the closest to that would be from the census. If veterans selfidentify, then um voter registration can give me a list. That's how I know that our numbers dropped last year. Yeah. Okay, great. Well, I will stop going on this tangent a little bit, even though it's a subject I like talking about. It's all good. Yeah. Great. Um, all right then. Yeah. What's you've been doing for the past year? What's the plan for next year? And, um, some items that weren't included that you'd like to see in the future.

So, things that I actually had the list so I would make sure to to tell you everything. So my the list of things that uh the veterans office has done in the past year um we celebrated the army's 250th birthday and the army and navy or the navy and marine corps um we celebrate or we participated in ree across America for the first time we exceeded our goal and we have doubled that um for this coming year we've been invited back so we are going to participate again this year um we'll be kicking that off in July with a Christmas and July by promotion. Um my our goal is 500. I would love to get up to a thousand. I think if if we um promote it a little bit more, that is a reasonable expectation. Um there was definitely a lot of um really good feedback from last year. I'm excited to do that again. Um we began working with the American Legion and Suffach Construction on the potential for a veterans home here in Medford. um converting the American Legion their house portion um which is currently unoccupied into a home um for transitioning veterans um some long term and shortterm um so we're still in the the feasibility study plan. We know that we can't con reconstruct what is there. Um so now we're looking at the possibility of removing that building and building a brand new home for veterans. Um, so we're we're very excited about that. That is a current goal and a long-term goal because we're looking at this being a multi-year program um to get up and running, but that did begin uh start the process this year. Um, I was able to secure a CPA grant to fix the Angel of Victory and

Peace in Oak Grove. We officially break ground the day after Memorial Day. And from Memorial Day to Labor Day, from now on, the Angel will be fully functional and lit up at night. Um, so we're very excited about that. Um, us Samson will be doing the construction on that. Um, we are still working on digitizing all of our files. That is a ongoing thing. There's a lot of files that um from years and years and years that we're looking to get digitized so that we can free up some space in the basement and in our office. Um and that way all of our files will be ready at our fingertips um without having to um go searching through boxes and boxes and boxes. Um we had two Veteran Street Corner dedications this year. Um the we'll be doing probably two a year um as long as we can make it work with the mayor's office. Um completed several outreach programs through the senior center. I try to pair a lot with them because so many of our veterans use their um facility and it's a great way of combining my resources with the senior center. Um we've done uh this is the second year in a row we did we created all of the wreaths that you'll see throughout the city for Memorial Day. Um it was a great opportunity to bring the community together for our veterans. Um second year in a row I participated in the pit count um that we did over the winter for the homeless count through HUD. And there was a lot. Oh, uh, we did change how we did our reertifications for chapter 115. Um, this is probably going to seem small, but it made a huge

impact in our office. Um, previously there was no accountability for veterans doing the reertification process. So, we did make it a requirement that I have to put eyes on every veteran or widow um, and just bring them into the office at least once a year. It made our reertification process that usually takes months. We had it all done within a uh one month which was huge for us. Um so we will continue doing that going forward. And then where we want to go um my my number one goal that I turned into the mayor is to increase visibility within the community. I need to be out there. I need to see veterans. I need to meet them where they are. Um, we do have homeless veterans in Medford. Um, so I need to be out there getting to them. Um, I need to be at the churches and the senior groups. Um, because they don't all know where we are. They don't know what benefits are available to them. Um, and I'm only one person. So, I need to be able to do as much as I can to get out to them. Um, my second goal actually goes handinhand with that one and also goes to your question about what funding I would want to see happen. Um, and I do understand that it was not possible this year. Um, I'm not, you know, unhappy about that, but it is a need in my offices to bring in a veteran service agent that would help with me being able to be out because right now closing down the office is usually the only option for me being out there because my assistant Darlene, she's only here part-time and she's amazing and wonderful, but when she's not there, the option is closing down the office, which is not great for walk-ins. um or I put things off and that's also not a great so I would love in the future to be able to bring on a veteran service agent. Um

for a city our size it is recommended um but it is not a requirement. Um so that was actually my second goal that went with number one. Um my number three goal is I would love to have a food pantry here in Medford just for veterans um and their families. There are some other communities within the Commonwealth that do a program like that. Um, and we were I would love to base it out of the American Legion. They have the space. It's more just a matter of who's going to fund it. Um, making sure they have the space, but food insecurity is becoming a very, very real thing for a lot of veterans. Cost of food's going up. It's it's becoming an issue of are we going to be reactionary or are we going to be proactive? and I would rather make sure the food is there versus having them come to my office and say I can't feed my kids, can't feed my wife, and having to wait for a check. This way I can say here we have the resources. So that is a goal that I have to have before the end of this year is to have even just a small food pantry with some very basic staples to help offset that. Um, Reese across America is I told you the increase. I would love to see that. Our current goal is 500. I my personal goal is to get us up to a thousand. Um the creation of uh the homeless and transitioning veterans home at the American Legion. Um I did include that in addition to what I started this year because it is a goal. It's going to be a long-term thing. It's going to take several years and I want to make sure that stays kind of in my focus. I don't want to forget about it when, you know, we haven't heard anything from SUFFK. I want to make sure that stays on my my goal list. And the last thing that we will be pushing out to um actually not the last thing,

um I am partnering with the cemetery and with another member of the American Legion to clean up the veterans graves. Um, the way that the cemetery works is the families own the graves themselves. And so the cemetery doesn't have the manpower to go and clean up all of those graves. So we're going to go lawn by lawn and make sure that every veteran that does not already have a headstone or a foot plate has one. We do have a lot of veterans thou over a thousand that have no recognition at all. And so the goal is to make sure that all of those veterans have something on their graves identifying them. Um, and then to clean up the ones that are already there because when the families pass then the graves, the cemetery does the absolute best that they can and they do a great job. But those those graves need a little bit of extra love. And so over the course of probably the next year and a half, maybe two years, we're going to go lawn by lawn and clean up those graves. And then for to get the bronze plates um we will fill out the paperwork. The city will become the next of kin and then the VA will create the bronze plaques to put in the ground and that is free for the city. The city doesn't pay anything but it does give that recognition to veterans. And then the last thing that I'm everybody will be getting a notice about this in the coming days. myself, the recovery coach, Chris, um, and public health, we have partnered to create a veterans and first responders recovery group, um, that will be open to every veteran, first responder within our city, neighboring cities. It's going to be held not on city property, so every veteran and first responder feels comfortable. Um, but it will be within our city. Um, and it's going to be free for veterans, but it's going to be free for everybody. And we just we're so

proud of the work that we've put into this. And so you will be seeing large amounts of emails and Facebook posts and um to get it out to everybody. I think that's it. That's all right. Was that appreciate comprehensive answers to our questions and also just appreciate the passion that you're putting into uh your work and the passion you show for our veteran community. Going to go to councelor Lemming. Thank you very much, Veronica. I think I speak for the whole council when I say that you're doing a wonderful job. I do have one question, which is has uh has anybody uh taken up the uh rental assistance program yet?

No. Right. They have not. I am working with a veteran right now um who was looking for private landlord and she actually refused to let us use it with her veteran. she did not want her landlord to benefit from her service.

So, I have gone back to the drawing board um to see if there is a different way to go about this. I'm not giving up on the program, but when I have spoken with the the problem is multiffold. One, the rents here in Medford are a lot. Um and I haven't had a whole lot of veterans looking right now. I've had This past week, I've had three veterans looking to move to New Hampshire. Um, which is awful. I want them to stay here. I think we have better benefits here. Actually, we know we did. I just turned in a thesis statement on all the awesome things that Massachusetts has to offer veterans. But realistically, lower income people can't afford the private landlords, and the veterans I have already have someplace,

right? Uh well, I would I would appreciate two things from you. One, a recommendation for how much it should be increased because 750 a year is not all that much of an incentive. Uh the second is just reach out to Steve and Steve Smury and ask him to put a link to some kind of a application form. It could be a Google doc. Absolutely. even for the uh veterans uh web page just so that people can uh people can apply for it because that should get at least a little bit of advertising for it.

Um and I have been I have two land or um realtors that I have been working with um so they know about the program. One I work pretty consistently with when I have veterans looking to buy homes. Um so they are very well aware of the program. It's a matter of I haven't been able to find anybody to connect. Well, hopefully a slight increase in the in the amount which absolutely I would be interested in hearing your recommendation on what you think would be helpful and just a an application form. But, uh, yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. And we'll get back to you within a moment. Best of best of luck planning the Memorial Day celebration as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Leming. Council me. Um I also wanted to say thank you so much for uh especially for your passion and the work that you've been doing. Um my grandpa was a World War II veteran. He took um many advantages of working with his group there locally and it really made a huge difference for him. So thank you very much. Um I know you had talked about the veteran service agent in that position. Um and you have someone in there right now that's part-time. Is is that person never even considering to go full-time or would you need someone's completely different? I would need somebody completely different because Darlene is not a veteran. And to be a veteran service agent, you have to be a veteran. Got it.

Um and honestly, she is so amazing at what she does. I don't want to change her job. I want her to stay exactly. She is my brain. She tells me where I need to go and what I need to do. I don't want to move her. Got What I need is um a veterans agent that can help with the claims

so that I can focus on the the outreach, the working with the homeless veterans, finding resources. Um and I I am doing it now, so it it is but it would be it would be nice. it it's not something that I'm going to go home and cry about, but it is definitely um as my cabinets are getting more full because I have seen an increase. It it has become more aware of okay, I have to really tighten my schedule. I have to limit my time outside of the office so that I can do those claims. Got it. Thank you.

All right. Do we have any more questions for our veteran services director? All right, seeing none. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, we will go to the clerk's office budget. We do have our city clerk here. He reminded me that he was going to be here no matter what. So, that's that's true.

Um, but yes, I will I will ask you the same questions. Oh, you can go. Yeah, go ahead down. Fun. Yes. Welcoming our acting city clerk, Rich Elisio, um to present the clerk's office budget and generally um share with us about the changes between last year and this year. I had to clear a room.

Yeah. Um changes between last year and this year. Some work that's been going on. you know, what's your update for the year that's ending in June and then some of the work that um your office is planning to get done in the upcoming year and then any items that weren't included this year that you're hoping will be included in future years.

Thank you. Uh thank you everybody. Nice to see you all. Um yeah, so with the budget, um we didn't really cut much out of the budget. Um, we did take uh $500 out of our printing. Uh, which basically was uh bindings, book bindings and most of that stuff. Uh, and then obviously what gets paid out of that too is, you know, the uh printing of the paper, you know, using the paper and the machine and all that. Um, but we had a little room there. So, I took we took $500 out of that. Uh, we took $500 out of our office supplies. Um, which $4,000 should be good for us for the year. uh we should be able to manage that for the fiscal year. Um and then the only other line that we really took much out of was the subscriptions and publications. Uh that basically covered our citizen serve licensing. Um Lisa I was made aware that Lisa's license is actually in buildings budget. Uh and apparently that's where all the licenses are going to be paid out of. So for right now we only removed one license out. The second license we're hoping to get that'll be the other full-time staff members license, Cassandra. Um, and then $500 is going to be for which will be uh which I'll talk about the goals, but is getting city hall systems online instead of uh gov. Um, and I'll explain that in the goals as to why we're about doing that. Sorry. Uh as far as uh accomplishments we've had this year, our main goal last year was to get the uh applications and licensing online onto citizen serve platform. I worked with Scott Vanderwal uh the former building commissioner and we were able to do that. We accomplished getting the uh common vicular licenses

online uh which helped us decrease the number of uh missing applications or incomplete applications for businesses down from 40 to 50 as we talked about down to about 10 and 11 which is where we're at right now. Um we also have the uh auto licensing on there now. We have gas and garage on there now. Uh so basically our four major licenses are on the citizen serve platform for people to go in. That was one of our main goals. Second goal was to get the staff trained, get them going to the conferences and and stuff to get training, the necessary training and for me to give them the necessary training to help the office move forward into a positive direction. We somewhat accomplished that. Um, we've had a lot of staffing questions. Um, so we haven't really had a chance to get the staff to these classes um when they become available. I haven't been able to attend the classes as the assistant uh nor is the acting uh we have been short staffed in the office. Um so that's why if you notice that line item where it says dues and conferences, no money has been used out of that budget. Uh so that's why that is the way it is. Uh there any questions on the budget items?

Any questions on budget items or what's been going on the past year? Councelor Leming. Yeah, this this could be a really basic one. Where where does the city messenger fall under? The city messenger is actually going to fall under the legislative side of the budget. So they will fall into the the legislative budget, not into the clerk's budget. Okay. All right. Gotcha. Thank you. Do any further questions for the acting city clerk right now? All right. What are we up to in the next year? And what are some things that maybe weren't included this year that you'd like to see in the future?

Yeah. Um, so basically, as you guys know, the clerk's office, you know, we serve as the recordkeeping department, um, and the, uh, legislative support for the city council. Um, basically what I would like to see going forward is we're working on trying to get a countertop computer uh on in the office to help with residents who come in or business owners who come in who need to file applications instead of having to send them right now to the building department which is the only access they have to citizen serve. Uh we'd like to get that online. Hopefully uh get a swipe system with that so we can start accepting credit card payments uh for the applications right in the office because right now we have a lot of residents that come in that don't have cash or don't have checks and they have to go to the bank to get money so on and so forth. That's another reason why we put a lot of the applications online so people can use the online payment system. Uh other things I would like to see would be uh I would like to present to the council and uh administration the vault in our office is very heavily overused and oversted. We have no room to keep our vital records. half of our vital records, maybe a third is downstairs in the basement, which we don't have continuous access to. Um, so I would like I have a had somebody come out do a presentation uh to me uh give me a quote and stuff like that to redo the vault racking system, change everything in there to double the amount of space storage wise in our vault in our office. So basically, I'd be able to

bring everything up that's downstairs and still have room for at least another 20 or 30 years worth of stuff. Um, which would be ideal because the vital records that are in the basement need to be up here in the office because we need to have direct access to them and right now we don't. So that's creating a little headache when we have to go research older records. Um, other than that, uh, I'd like to still be able to keep the, uh, legislative tracking going. I notice, uh, we've, uh, made strides in getting the tracking updated, getting an online an Excel application for you guys to be able to track your resolutions, the ordinances, you know, the way they should be tracked. And I'd like to continue processing that, getting that moving forward, adding some stuff to it. It's now sharable, so you guys can actually view it live. You can go into the link and see every time something's added in. Um, and then training. Training is a big thing in the office and my staff is doing great. Uh, they are doing what they need to do. They're working with the now part-timer we have in the office to help get her trained. I'm helping them train as much as I possibly can. But we are very still very short staffed in the office without having a clerk. Technically, I'm the acting. We don't have an assistant and we're down to two and a half employees in the office. So, the the workload is there and it's affecting our ability to train the proper way. Um, so I would like to get our training up to snuff this coming year, which hopefully will happen. But everybody, we're doing a great job. We're moving forward. We're keeping the office focused on what needs to be done. And the morale is up. It's good. It's

great. And that's all you can ask for. So, uh, if there's any other questions, anybody has any questions about Do we have any questions for our clerk? Councelor Lemming.

Yeah. And apologize for you said this. What was what was the cost estimate for the vault project? So the vault project is approximately so there's two different it's not really a big difference but they sent me the first plan which was a full vault redo with a full racking system which is roughly about $109,000 and then a $9500 um uh separate bill which would be to take everything out of the rack, take everything out of the vault now separate it, secure it where we can get to it. The company would go in, take all the racking out, throw it all away, go in, reinstall all the new racking, and then take all the stuff that they took out, reorganize it in the racks, and then get it all organized so we can take the stuff from downstairs and bring it up. Um, that came to about 9,500 bucks. Uh, the only thing we would be responsible for is the dumpster to throw the old racking into when they took it out of there. Um, other than that, the second option was one less rack system. So, one less rolling rack, uh, which was like a $6,000 difference. Um, which wouldn't significantly impact the storage. They said it would probably take, you know, maybe 5 to 10 years worth of storage off. Um, which may not be a big deal, but You know, I I prefer to stay with the the whole unit system, which is $ 109,000 and then $9,500 for the um taking everything out and then resetting everything afterwards, which would take the burden off of us having to do it. So, about $120.

Thank you. All right. Do we have uh any further questions from members of the council? I just had one, Rich. You know, I know the big other big change in this budget is moving from three full-time uh clerks plus the assistant plus the city clerk to two and a half. And I'm wondering generally with the workload um what the impact of that is going to be um and and the capacity in the office.

Yeah. Um I'm trying to streamline the process uh processes in the office, trying to make things more organized and more easily accessible. Um but it The girls are taking on a lot of excess work from not having that third full-time person in the office that would normally be able to separate the duties. Uh Kathy, who is the current uh part-time staff member in the office, she is doing a dual role in the building department. Um and you guys know building has a lot of responsibility. She has a lot of responsibility in that office. So I can't bombard her with the kind of workload I would even as part-time that I would give to the other staff members. Right now she's handling the citizen serve platform uh issues and stuff like that that we have with applications because she's familiar with the citizen serve over in building. She works with it all the time. Uh so that's basically her job. She does help out in the office with like extra stuff as she's needed. Um and then she does help at the counter when you know when she can. Uh but the mo the brunt of the workload is falling onto the two full-time staff. Um, and they are very overworked. But again, I'm working with them, trying to help as much as I possibly can when it's needed. You know, not having that third full-time person in the office affects the scheduling as well, too, because if they're out and I'm out, that leaves one full-timer in the office on days that Kathy's not available. So, it's we're trying to work out stuff like that, too. Vacations and everything coming up now. So, I mean, there there's a burden, but we're making it work, you know, and it's it it would definitely be nice to have a full-time person in the office. Um, but I understand with the budget constraints and everything going on, it's it was tough to do that. So, they made this position to kind of like help two offices at once. Um, but yeah, it would

be nice to to have a full-time individual in the office for staff. Have any further questions for the acting city clerk on the clerk's budget? All right, see none. Thank you, Rich. And we will move to our last budget, which is the building department. I believe the chief of staff is on to present the building department budget. Um, we have the same questions as always. is if you could describe the change between fiscal 26 and fiscal 27 budgets, um update on what the office has been up to for the past year, plans for the upcoming year, and um you know, and I don't know if on either of those or on this last one, if the commissioner was able to provide any sort of notes or prep documents on um things that they were hoping to do in the future that weren't able to be funded this year. And I'll recognize the chief of staff.

Thank you, President Bears, members of the council. Um, as the council knows, our former building commissioner, Scott VanDeral, has transitioned to another community. We're fortunate to have Mr. Vanderwal supporting the city in on an intram basis. He's actually uh in the building now uh supporting the department and working through things that need to be done in the office. um he and I had connected before this evening's meeting on who should present the budget and at his request. Uh he wanted to focus his attention and time, the limited um resources on the the office and the things that need to happen in the office. And I felt comfortable enough with the budget. He and I had worked together on the budget to be able to present it. Obviously, I'm I work with every department head on all of their budgets with our budget manager. Um, as the council will see, uh, the department budget really has some some changes as the as was been discussed just a moment ago by acting city clerk uh, Lisio. We have a part-time staff member in the office now that's supporting the administrative work. Uh, the team seems to be working very well. Um I think Commissioner Vanderwal had fostered a very good system and uh working to streamline the the efforts of the office in particular citizen serve which has been discussed this evening. The building commissioner serves as the main point of contact for citizens serve throughout the organization and supports departments throughout the organization when uh launching or you know adding permits to different departments. Presently the department is supporting the health department with some permits obviously um as acting clerk Alisio mentioned as well as um you know transitioning in the clerk's office with continued support and work that's

ongoing. Um so overall the one of the goals is to continue to maximize the um opportunities and uses of citizen serve throughout the organization. It started back in 2020. um the building department was able to kind of on the they were on the cusp of of that bringing that technology in and um you know we were one of the organizations that had limited to no downtime as far as uh building permitting. But now through the support of all of our uh departments and all of our department heads and all the staff in their departments, it pretty much touches every department at this point that does any type of permitting or external um application process. Um or at least certainly does with most if not perhaps I you know most of our regulatory um departments which is which is wonderful. Um the going down further on the budget um everything is just sized based on you know both actuals and um contracts. Uh heading down into the ordinary expenses section. Um, by and large, everything that was presented as adjustments by the building commissioner, uh, if I'm not mistaken, with potentially minor differences are presented here. The other thing that didn't originally come up in the original submission of the budget was an increase to the citizen serve licenses per seat. We are going to contact citizen serve to see if that can be reduced because it is um a significant increase to the lensure but that number is reflected here as you can see it's about I think it's it's um it's not exactly 28 because I think it's a license number difference but 28% that's shown here but it's roughly in that vicinity. So, we're going to try to see

if there's any way Citizen Serve would be agreeable to um you know, potentially phasing that increase in or potentially um you know, increasing at a different time. It's always worth the ask, that's for sure. Um, and beyond that, I don't believe that there's anything else that really needs to be materially highlighted other than to say that um, Commissioner Vanderwal had um, throughout the year in terms of, you know, what took place over 2026 and what uh, is anticipated for 2027 as we work to recruit a new uh, building commissioner. Commissioner Vanderwal made it a point to um hold tabletop trainings and discussions with the staff in the department. I hope to see that continue uh with a new building commissioner. Um I believe that they were very positive and I think they I believe they were positively received by the inspectors in the department. Obviously the inspectors continue to perform and attend trainings at the professional level in their associations which is um instrumental in um you know staying up to date with code and changes within their profession. Um so that's generally all I have. I've touched on everything other than to say the only other major highlevel piece that would be something that's obvious and near and dear to all of our hearts in terms of work that we have going on that is a critical component to the building commissioner's position would be us continuing to support the zoning process.

Thank you, Madam Chief of St. Do we have any questions for the chief of staff on the building department budget? Um go to councelor Melain and then councelor Lem. Um thank you uh chief staff uh for running through this with us. Um I just had a question uh when it came to the salary piece of it um at the bottom. I may have missed this when you were going through some of the explanations, but it looks like the principal clerk was budgeted one at 55 and then we're down to a half at 58. And I was just curious if I was missing something to those numbers.

That's an excellent question. Um, I will look into that one. I don't have the answer uh in front of me because it doesn't look right at the moment, but um I will look into that and get back to the council. Okay. Thank you. Looks like the numbers are swapped. Are they swapped? Yeah. Oh, from above. Swapped. Yeah, it looks like clerk and the Okay, that was the other. Yeah, thank you. That's a great catch. Yep. The head clerk and the principal clerk's numbers for FY27 are in the wrong spots. That's most likely. Yep. Yep.

Great. And then just the other piece of it, I was looking um of the permanent employees and the permanent part-time. um those two numbers added up to 767 on the 758 that's proposed down. So I just wasn't sure where some of the other monies might have been put in there. Um so uh could you uh through you President Baris to council me could you please repeat the uh two numbers you were looking at that make the 738?

Yeah. Uh, no, I was looking at um at the top for the fiscal year fiscal year 27 proposed the permanent employees the 738 and then the part-time at the 29. Um I think when I added that number up as compared to what the department totals were proposed for fiscal year 27, they were off um by around like 9 or 10,000. I just wasn't sure if there was something else in there that we may have been missing. Okay. Um I will look into that one. We've solved the first question. We haven't solved the second question. I will look into that um addition question. Thank you.

Thank you. Go to councelor Leming. Are you good? Same question. All right. We'll go to councelor Sang then.

Hi there Nina. Thanks for doing the building department for us. Um, I think one of the main things that we hear from residents is, um, you know, when they when they talk about noise, when they talk about all these different things, I think always ties back to code enforcement and the need for more, um, more present, more just staffing to do code enforcement in the city. Um has the administration looked at um whether the need for code enforcement is kind of matches the staffing at that level right now. Um and if there's a gap um is there a plan to increase that over the next few years.

Um so I know we've discussed the question thank you um councelor Singh and then through you of course president bears. Um I know we've discussed the question in the past in past discussions we've had uh deliberations on the matter. Um, I think generally speaking, the challenge that Medford continues to have, and I'm not going to be saying anything you don't know, councelor SC saying, or the council doesn't know, um, is, you know, we largely face, um, you know, um, very, very stark differences between ourselves and communities that are closer to Boston, that have access to more dollars. Um and the resource levels that we have are I believe um you know PE the staff do all that they can and I I don't think you're saying anything different counselor I I just find that we are in a situation where we often um are and this is not all that different in other local governments that I have had experiences in but we are prioritizing and we are handling ing questions as they come in, inquiries as they come in. I have not seen a situation where we have had a um complaint that has been made that has gone unressed because we don't have the resources. So, um, while I think that the city could always use more resources in various areas, including code enforcement throughout, um, I I'm not aware of a tipping point that we have reached where complaints are not addressed or um, issues that are brought to the city's attention are not able to be addressed.

Um, just to um, kind of add a follow-up question. I I'm curious. I'm glad to hear that complaints are being addressed. I think sometimes residents feel like it's not as timely as they would want it to be. And I think, you know, when you uh I mean I I think everyone's just being stretched to to what they can do and there's only so many hours in a day for people to do the job. Um so that I think I would just flag that. Um, and I guess another question on top of that is um, what I guess what kind of focus is there being put into the department when it comes to things that could generate new growth for the city like resoning? I think that's gonna if we're, you know, I I I think we're all aware of the revenue um challenges that we faced and other cities like us face, but um with more new growth um that could be a potential avenue for getting more staffing into this department as well.

Um yeah, I mean I I may be missing your your point. maybe. Yeah, sorry that was messy way to put it. Um I I guess I was just asking like um you know uh given that one of our challenges is um is revenue and being able to fund more code inspectors, more staffing across departments. Um what is the administration planning at least with this budget um in terms of focusing on bringing in new growth? Um and is what role does the building department play in

you know I mean um largely the building department is I mean I'm the building department is kind of regulatory in the process um you know I don't know as though that the the city's focus is generally in the economic development for new growth obviously inspections have to occur um but the new growth really actually gets captured by our assessor's department. So again, I I apologize, counselor. Um I'm I'm I want to answer your question. I just it's not registering to me how the building department directly can help. Obviously, if the building department ever became aware or had any inclination that um a matter was unpermitted or work was unpermitted, they would work with uh with the property owner. they would work with the assessor's department to make sure that that you know fell into compliance and that it was captured with new growth but that's really an assessor function um and the economic development component being you know um under under planning development and sustainability so again I I apologize if I'm missing your point it's been a

as with I'm sure for all of you it's been a long day so I I apologize no worries it's been a it's been a long day for me too um uh I guess what I I was thinking is like in terms of speeding up permitting um speeding up those functions making it easier for people to build a Medford to to get their plans permitted. Has there been any focus on that?

I think the Thank you. Um I think the best and most obvious thing we can we can say in that area is the significant change that has been created by streamlining permitting itself. Right. and uh the building department um has kind of spearheaded over the years and lean in leaned into heavily uh citizen serve as a platform and I believe and I I really see benefits significant benefits from the work and energy that's been put into it and um our our outgoing commissioner who we're fortunate to have supporting us in the interim um continues to focus on the importance of citizen serve, streamlining citizen serve. I know sometime early in his um tenure he was looking at uh certain certain elements that were falling off uh of the sort of payment process. you know, uh there was kind of a gap in the way that applications were completed and and he filled that gap um in terms of the logistical order of approvals and also compelled prior um permit applicants who had not paid certain applications to make payments on those. So he chased those down, closed those potential loopholes. And there's been a significant amount of energy placed into utilizing citizen serve to its full capacity to streamline um you know permitting and ensure that the city's moving as quickly as possible. There's there's always ongoing communication between our our building department and our other regulatory departments, whether it's, you know, health department or the historical commission or you name it. Um our our departments are working very

well together interdep departmentally trying to solve large and small city um you know streamlining overall. Um thank you. And could you give us a quick update as to um the hiring timeline for a new building uh building commissioner? Like where are we in that process right now? Certainly. Yes. We are currently going through interviews. Um I don't I unfortunately I wish I had a crystal ball. I don't I'm not able to give timelines because I don't want to I'm never going to want to make a promise I can't keep. So um I'm happy to say we're in we're in the process of interviewing right now and hopefully more to come. Thanks.

Right. Thank you. Councelor Sang. Do we have any further questions regarding the building department budget for members of council? I just have one. Madam Chief of Staff, um I think there's a pretty persistent, you know, and I understand capacity and as a question here. Um I think we have persistent violations of the leafblower ordinance ongoing. Um you know, number of residents certainly one highly committed resident has been um reporting instances. I think uh the building commissioner was doing his best to um try to get warnings and and notices out, but it also seems like um we haven't been able to implement kind of a cross city departmental plan. um specifically maybe trying to get addresses and contact information uh from various licenses and permits or the assessing department for companies that may be um operating or or based in the city. Um, and then getting all of the warnings like basically there was first like notifying people of the change in the city ordinance and then now as we see like relatively persistent violations and repeat violators um escalating those uh cases to their first, second, third fines um and then continuing that. I think that's really what's going to be needed in some cases um to make sure that people are following through. I know there's folks who have been received warnings or even received fines who are continuing to violate the ordinance. And then I've also heard from some folks, some companies who said, "We um made the investment to shift to electric systems and we feel like there's not a fair

level of treatment if folks are just able to keep using the gas systems without any sort of um without being addressed in in a consistent way. So I understand that there's been some capacity issues there. It seemed to me like it was mainly that Commissioner Vanderwal was trying to handle that himself in addition to all the other work that he does. And I understand that that that's difficult. Um and I and I do think some progress was made. I do know that warnings did go out. I do know that some fines were issued. I do know that several, you know, at least a dozen companies were contacted. So, I do want to acknowledge that work as well. But it does seem to be pretty consistent. I saw two today um in my my travels and I don't think we're ever going to be able to catch everyone or get everyone into compliance, but I think the part of this that was really um telling to me was hearing from a a company, a landscaping company that said we we worked to do the right thing and you know the folks who aren't doing the right thing are are not really being um held to account for that. So that's like one just one item I wanted to bring up. I understand it in the larger context that um has been discussed here around code enforcement and our resources for code enforcement. But I it's a more recent example of I think larger questions and issues around code enforcement that we see um where our limited capacity does lead to um folks who aren't aren't doing the right thing kind of just getting away with it. I do think, you know, figuring out if there's ways that we can try to enhance our existing capacity or bring in information from other departments that might help us. Um, or maybe even some less labor intensive strategies, then I think right now one of the main things is that we're responding to active complaints. um maybe there's a way to get ahead of it a little bit through some sort of communicating out to a

regular list on a regular basis um information uh or or updating the way that um our web communications are talking about how to use leaf blowers in the city. I do wonder if there's some kind of lower things that don't require someone to respond to specific cases um because that that can take even more time I think than a good information campaign sometimes. So that was a little bit rambly. I think you get my point. Um, and that's really the only thing I wanted to bring up around our building and code enforcement. I'm happy to turn it over to you if there's any thoughts that you have on on that.

Thank you, President Bar. No, I I I hear you and I appreciate the the thoughts on that and I mean obviously the city will continue to enforce the ordinance. um you know it's it is it is something that you know maybe there are other ways we can look at how to do that and how to achieve those goals. Um, as you mentioned, Commissioner Vanderwal had kind of utilized Citizen Serve platform to be able to kind of track and automatically issue um, you know, letters and warnings and fines through that platform, which is another, you know, example of maximizing the use of a um, a software that is available and, you know, being adoped opted, you know, pretty widely by the city, which is excellent. Um, so certainly something we can we can think through and consider ways to enhance.

Great. I appreciate that and thank you. Um, is there any um other requests or questions on the building department budget for the chief of staff? All right, seeing none. Um, Madam Chief of Staff, I just do have one further question. I know, um, we're hoping, you know, maybe there's a couple I think we're through many of the smaller departments, probably still a few to go. I know legislative, um, executive, law, um, probably a couple others, although who knows how long those discussions will take. Um, we do have an hour next Tuesday. I don't know if there are a couple of budgets that we might want to try to plug in there.

Yeah, it's possible that I'm uh Thank you, President. It's possible that I'm uh looking at maybe even potentially a longer list than would uh accommodate the time, but we can chat um offline and I can kind of give you the what I'm looking at. I think it's a I mean, I can certainly mention it here, too. Um I think it's accomplishable because uh you know part of them are fixed things like pensions and um uh bonds and interest and you know they're just they are what they are um especially for FY27. Um so perhaps it's possible that uh we can accomplish a few more than than we because they might be fa faster ones. Um, but we can certainly chat. And um I was also thinking we would be able to because we have uh you you all have a regular city council meeting next week on Tuesday. Um focusing on getting papers to the council tomorrow and then um getting you know everything to you all first thing Friday morning in terms of the uh budgets.

Okay, great. Yeah, that sounds fine. Um in terms of yeah I mean bonds and interest pensions maybe insurance um y workers comp type of thing um uh you know maybe facilities assessors is kind of what was on the on the horizon. Great. That sounds good. Okay. Great. Um, and then looking forward, um, and we can talk more about this offline, but it's looking like our next available time would be the following Tuesday at 6 p.m. on the 19th. Um, and and then we'll have to talk about the 20th, but it looks like we're going to have at least a couple of committee meetings that night. So,

Okay. Um, but yeah, great. Okay. All right. Thank you for the heads up. You got it. Anything else for the chief of staff or anything else anyone wants to talk about for the fiscal 27 budget? All right. Is there a motion on the motion to keep the paper in committee and adjourned by councelor Lemming? Seconded by councelor Mlain. Mr. Clerk, please call the role. Councelor Callahan. Absent. Council Lemming. Council me. Council Scarpelli. Yes. Nonthala Singh. Yes.

Vice President Lazaro is absent. President Bears. Yes. Five in the affirmative, two absent. The motion passes and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you.