Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good evening, everyone. I'm Jake Wilson, he, him pronouns, councilor at large and your finance committee chair. It's 06:00 on the dot, and I'd like to call to order the Tuesday, 10/07/2025 meeting of the finance committee of the Seminole City Council. First, it's my pleasure to read these words to you that allow us to do this right here on Zoom. Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025, this meeting of the city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio video recording and a comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City Of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. Clerk, could you please call the roll to establish quorum?

This is roll call. Councilor Mbaugh?

Present.

Councilor Burnley? Present. Councilor Klingen?

Present.

Councilor Scott? Present. Councilor Wilson?

Present.

With all five councilors present, we have quorum.

Excellent. Five for five. Folks, we're gonna be taking up our 16 item agenda in the order posted with one exception, and we'll get to that in a moment. We're gonna start by taking up the minutes from our last meeting, ID number 25Dash1511. Approval of the minutes of the finance committee meeting of 09/23/2025. On the minutes, no discussion. Alright. The item is laid on the table to recommend approval with a single vote at the end of tonight's meeting. Now I wanna take up, our one out of order agenda item. We're gonna take up agenda item eight.

That's ID number 25Dash1449. The mayor the mayor requesting the appropriation of $240,664.10 from the Transportation Network Company special revenue fund for the f y twenty twenty six Vision Zero safety efforts. We have with us, I see director Brad Rossen from Mobility. Director Rossen, you wanna take this one?

Yes, chair. Good evening through you. Thanks to the committee for managing your agenda. I know many of us have multiple meetings on a given evening, and I appreciate your forbearance here. So, finance committee is aware that the state has utilized something called a special revenue fund ever since the legislature voted into law the operation of transportation network companies, what we all think of as ride hailing apps, Uber and Lyft being the dominant players in that industry.

And the finance committee will recall that approximately, you know, 20¢ per trip is added as a surcharge to those trips, 10¢ of which chair is issued to the municipality in which the ride hailing trip begins. So every Uber and Lyft trip that begins in Somerville, 10¢ will flow to the Commonwealth and then be redistributed to Somerville, subject to your annual appropriation and acceptance. Typically, chair, Summerville has received between $203,100,000 dollars of this special revenue source, and the legislature's law does require cities and towns to use those special revenue funds to mitigate negative impacts of the ride hailing industry. So, typically, Somerville has used those funds for three major areas of our work chair. One is design and engineering for our safe streets projects.

The second is for planning or data collection tasks to support that design and engineering. And third could be for project implementation, often in the form of flex post purchases, pavement markings, things of the like. So I just wanted to provide that quick summary. So we're here to seek your approval to accept the most recent tranche of funding from the Commonwealth. This would bring us current for all ride hailing trips to begin in Summerville in calendar year 2024. Commonwealth The tends to run about, you know, fifteen months behind in terms of dispersing those funds. So we only found out about this in June 2025. Chair, I hope that's a helpful background and summary, and I'm happy to answer questions that the committee may have.

Absolutely. Thanks for that. Colleagues, discussion. Councilor Mabaugh, your first up.

Thank you, chair. Thank you, doctor Rauson, for your work. You're one of those fierce employees. I really appreciate, you know, your everything you do for the city to keep our residents safe. I guess the when I when I saw this, I asked myself, like, you know, I think we already have this appropriation in the budget.

So I'm wondering if this, you know, like, does this pay for discrete, you know, like, all these other, like so does this money offset any CIP project cost, you know, beside you've mentioned all this design and engineering flex post. I think we already have an appropriation of this like in our budget. So I'm wondering what else is this if this is additional funds, it's actually going to offset some maybe capital improvement project costs essentially allowing us to borrow less money for street improvements or like how does it feed into like the bigger picture goals of you know, or is it adding to your division, you know, or maybe like the highway division budget fund to cover the regular programs of street and site. So you've mentioned the three major category, but I think we appropriate these funds already during budget season. Can you just expanse it like how this is going to if this is an enhancement or like is it gonna what is what's the difference between our budget, appro appropriation for street improvement and then with this additional funds?

Sure. Through you. Thanks for the question and for the compliments, counselor. The PNC special revenue funds should be thought of as supplemental and in addition to any operating bud budget sources that the council has worked with us on over the years. Sure, I'll note that mobility division's operating budget for things like design and engineering tasks typically runs at about, you know, $300,000 a year, and the finance committee will recall that those design funds typically go to support engineering division's annual street and sidewalk contracts.

The TNC funds has typically been used to support our quick build program, which is typically not handled through our operating budget. So it's definitely complementary and additive. I hope that's a helpful answer to the question.

Absolutely. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, chair.

Any other discussion on this? Alright. I'm not seeing so, director, thanks for joining us here, and we will lay this one on the table to recommend approval here at the end of the meeting. That is gonna bring us back to our regular order of business here. Let's take up then our second agenda item, ID number 25Dash1462.

It's a mayor requesting approval to extend and amend a contract with City Hall systems for an additional two years until 12/17/2027 for online bill payment services. We I believe the clerk is loading up here a memo. Well, that's the arts council one. There we go. There's there's the memo I was about to reference. It should be uploaded, into Legistar as well, our legislative legislative tracking system. Explaining this request, Hopefully, colleagues had a chance to look this over, but any discussion on the request? Councilor Mabaugh.

Thank you, chair. I guess the only question I have here is, you know, whether this which I didn't find here anyway. Does this contract renewal, like, need us to pay more money?

Is the administration able to answer that question?

Through the chair, my understanding is this is, the amendment to the contract is the date at which the contract will be extended, the extension, and the there are no other changes to the conditions. But in terms of the total amount paid, I'm not sure I can answer that with a with a good authority. So I could bring that back to staff if you'd like clarification.

And I'll just say, I hate to I'm 95% sure of this, but I believe the compensation to the to the third party provider here is in the form of the service fees that they capture for for doing this. I don't recall seeing, I hate to be wrong. I don't recall seeing any payments from the city in addition to those.

Yeah. No. It would be good to clarify. I think when when I had looked at this, you know, like, for the three year contract, it was, like, 2,500,000.0. So and this is I just wanted to make sure if if it's require us to pay, you you know, more money, then I wanna be curious to know, you know, why, you know, like, you know, why is the contract this big, you know, eligible for renewal without a new procurement?

Because if it's gonna be another 2,500,000.0, then it has to be open for another procurement and just so that people can come again and bid because it's been three years. So given how fast technology system keep changing, the system that it provided still the most efficient in operation and cost effective three years later?

Does the administration have any response to that? Any anything you wanna indicate?

Through the chair? No. I can bring that question back to staff and get you clarification, and I'll send that, as a follow-up to the full committee after the meeting.

Okay. Thank you.

Council Mai, are you comfortable, putting this on the table to recommend approval assuming you get the answers that you want, before Thursday night?

I mean, if if this is the main thing is if we don't need to pay more money, yes, it it's it's good to go. But if we need to pay more money, then there will be an other question that, like I mentioned, it just is it what approach like, what is like, this whole protocol now is I mean, we just we just need to understand what we are doing. This is Right.

So so, counsel, we're not gonna get that we're not gonna get that answer tonight. But are you are you okay with laying this on the table to recommend approval here tonight so that if you don't feel comfortable with that, you could move to sever on Thursday.

Sounds good. Thank you, chair.

Assuming the rest of the committee is also I'm I'm asking one member of the committee, but as I've I'll look out. I don't see anyone expressing objection to that. So, clerk, what we're gonna lay this item on the table to recommend approval, and we'll look to get the answers to councilor Bob's questions. And then as we said, if necessary, this could always be, we could there could be motion to sever this from the committee report on Thursday, if we're not happy with the answers that come. So

No. Thank you, Chen. I I appreciate that. As you know, money is tight, so we gotta keep looking about how to, you know, like, spend our money the most efficient way possible.

And how? Okay. That is gonna take us to our fourth agenda item. That is ID number 25Dash1494. We'll cut request approval. It's the mayor request approval to use available funds in the law department personal services accounts in the amount of $6,296.88 to increase the annual salary of the municipal hearing officer. And I believe we have our city attorney, Cindy Amara with us.

Hello.

Solicitor Mara, please take it away.

Thank you, to the chair. This is a pretty simple, request. We have money in our account. We my budget covers the cost of the municipal hearing officer, and he has been trying to retire since, I believe, the June. And we have been trying to replace him since that time.

We now have a pretty robust group of candidates from which to draw from, but we were up against a wall, for the September hearings because we did not have we weren't that far along in the process. And for the additional $500 a month subject to your approval and appropriation, he was he was willing to continue through the end of the year. So the end of the year being the December. And so we're looking for roughly 20, $6,200, and we have it in our budget. We just need to switch it from one personnel line to another so that we can pay the municipal hearing officer to continue to conduct the end the hearings through December, at which point we hope to have a new, municipal hearing officer.

And it is the intent, as far as I understand, that there is a movement by HR and, I believe, the clerk's office to shift the payment from a stipend type situation to more of an hourly type situation. But this is only to get us through the December.

Alright. Thank you for that. Councilor Scott, your first up.

Yeah. Thank you for that, mister chair. Just checking in. Remind me who our hearing officer is again. Is this still Bill Roche?

Correct.

Alright. Sorry. Through the chair. Yes.

Alright. And not for nothing. So this isn't a salary that's established in the city salary order. It's an exception. Correct?

It's a I apologize. Yes. So so the chair to you, it is a stipend. It is not a salary. So we're we're just increasing the stipend amount for September, October, November, and December.

Got it. Understandable. Just wanted to make sure, that we weren't that we're playing above board with our salary ordinance and everything else. Understand the situation. Seems seems fine. I look forward to who our next hearing officer is going to be. Thank you, mister chair. I'm also

Thanks, Kassar. In a good spot. Alright. Any other discussion on this one? Alright. We're gonna lay this one on the table, recommend approval as well. Solicitor, thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

It's gonna bring us now to, ID number 25Dash1479 as we get into prior year invoices. That's mayor requesting approval to pay prior invoices totaling a $121,818.23 using available funds in various Department of Public Works accounts for various services. We have with us tonight here DPW commissioner Jill Lathan as well as, director Danielle Palazzo from DPW as well. Who would like to kick this one off for us?

I'll start us off. Hello, committee and chair and committee members. Jill Lathan, DPW commissioner. Danielle Palazzo, my deputy, director of finance, will be presenting these items and breaking it down what this total amount, comes to. Danielle.

Good evening. Through the chair. So DPW is asking for the use of f y twenty six funds to cover three different vendor f y twenty five invoices for net metering accounts. Unfortunately, these invoices can be extremely difficult to forecast as they are solar dependent. So three vendors, Sun Wealth Power, Greenbacker, and Select Energy Lisey are the three vendors that we need funding for in f y twenty six, as we fell short in f y twenty five.

Although we did carry forward the purchase orders we had on hand, the funding just wasn't sufficient enough to get us through the fiscal year. We also have an additional request for Verizon for the fleet tracking system for vehicles. We had an open purchase order that we carried forward in f y twenty five that was $2,124.13 short of being able to pay the final bill for fiscal year '25. So those are the four invoices or the four vendors that I'm presenting to you, and we also have superintendent, Ben Waldrop who can speak to the Always Green and the Stanley Tree invoices that we're asking for additional funding for in FY twenty six.

Alright. Superintendent Waldrop.

Danielle, don't you just go ahead and summarize that in case she's having technical difficulties?

Absolutely. Through the chair. The other two vendors, one being Always Green, is, one of the grounds vendors, and we fell short $3,075 for this particular vendor for services that were off contract expenses. There was an issue where the contract expired, and there was a small time frame in which the expiration didn't quite meet the updated contract date. Therefore, we fell short $3,075 that were considered off contract expenditures with that vendor.

And then for Stanley Tree, we had completed all of the trimmings in Ward 1. And due to the enormous amount of trims needed in Ward 1, we exceeded the value of the year one contract, and additional monies were needed to complete the trims in Ward 2, which were completed in fiscal year twenty five.

Thanks for that. I saw councilor Scott nodding at the mention of, completing the trims in Ward 2. Councilor Scott.

Thank you, mister chair. Yeah. I I'm I'm always glad to have the trees trimmed down here. Miss miss chair, I was gonna, pass through a question to, director Waldrop about this, but, seeing his house, he's getting, he's got some technical difficulties. I guess I'd just point out, let me let me ask through you to the deputy director of finance here. This override on the Stanley Tree is for pardon me for a second. I had that number right in front of me. Here we go. For 23 22,001 half dollars. The total contract for Stanley Tree, remind me, what that what that total fiscal year contract is?

I do not know the total contract value of that contract, but I'm happy to get that information and send it along to you.

Oh, I bet commissioner.

No. Through the chair. Ben's he's trying to get on. He he needs to be unmuted.

I think I'm back now. Can everybody hear me?

We can hear you. Superintendent Waldorf.

My apologies, chairman Wilson and, councilor Scott.

Did you hear the question by chance?

I did not. Go ahead and repeat that if you don't mind, please. Sure. Sure.

I was wondering what the total amount on that Stanley Tree contract is on an annual basis.

The total amount on the Stanley contract through the chair is right over $444,000, I believe, per year, and we had overspent right at about $20,000 on that, for completion of Ward 2, which is still ongoing. Right now, we just ramped that contract back up as of about three weeks ago. So we're working on Ward 2, and then we'll transition into Ward 3, come later in the fall.

Alright. Well, mister chair, I just I appreciate that, deputy director Waldrop. Always a pleasure to hear from you. Mister chair, I guess I'd just leave it, at pointing out the enormous size of that contract. And, you know, given given what we've said about ground staffing over the years and how helpful another ground crew would be for all of the green infrastructure improvements and parks down here. Hopefully, our next mayor, will be listening to this conversation, since both of them are potentially in this in this committee. And we'll hopefully, we'll have a smaller contract and increase our internal capacity next year. Thank you very much. And as always, thanks for getting those trees trimmed down here in Ward 2.

Alright. Commissioner Latham, did you have something to add to that? I see your hand up before I call in councilor Mabaugh.

I'm all set. Thank you, chair.

Alright. Councilor Mabaugh, you're you're next up here.

Thank you, chair, for the recognition. Just wanna thank commissioner Leland and and director Peluso and superintendent Wild Wildrick for your work, and thank you for trimming the good counselors trees in Ward 2. I just wanted to make a statement that when I see, like, invoices, you know, request for invoices, we should not have more than two minutes debate. An invoice is an invoice, and it should be paid. You know?

So I think all these four items, you know, sure we can move quickly and and have them, you know, being paid. That's that's all I wanted to say. Like, it's an invoice. It needs to be paid. Thank you, chair.

Well, counselor Ma, you're gonna love how the next three items go. But on this one, any further discussion? Superintendent Walder, did you have something to add to this one still? Is your hand still up maybe?

Yes. Councilor Wilson, I would just like to add kind of the nature of the work on both of these contracts that were overspent in grounds, or I'd say not overspent, but with last year's money. They were kind of the peak season for grounds. That's where the fiscal year dealing becomes difficult with the grounds department because right when our peak season starts, the budgetary year ends and then restarts. So we had an ending contract at Lincoln Park and then activating a new contract, hence, the always green invoices.

And then Stanley, more or less of the same with that where we had that $444,000 contract executed in full, and then we had to close out some POs and then reopen them to start that work July 1. So hence, the spending differential there and these invoices that that went unpaid kind of being right in the the grounds busy season. So

And superintendent Waldrop, this is the, if we're looking at the budget for grounds, this is the care of trees line and and ordinary maintenance we're talking about, $434,445?

Yes, sir. That's correct.

Alright. Alright. Anything else on this? Alright. This item's laid on the table to recommend approval. Thank you all from DPW for coming and hanging out with us and answer our questions tonight.

Thank you.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Alright. Now councilor Bob is gonna like this part. We're gonna take up together agenda items five, six, and seven, and I'm gonna waive the readings of those. Those are three very small dollar figure prior invoices. Pretty self explanatory. But if anyone has any questions about those, this is the time. If the clerk wouldn't mind just scrolling up a little, please. Show five, six, and seven. There we go. Going once, going twice. Alright. Those three items are also laid on the table of recommend approval. And that's gonna take us to our ninth agenda item. Yeah. What's that, Counseling? Say, yeah. That's There we go. There we go. Everyone loves an efficient meeting.

Agenda item nine. That's ID number 25Dash1459. The mayor requesting approval to appropriate a $100,000 from the encore artist and cultural I was reading off the screen. It just went away. Cult one second. Let me pull that back up. That's what I get for trying to read off the screen.

Sorry. I was pulling up

the No. No. No. You're doing your job. I should have been I should have been looking at this. Cultural support stabilization fund to support local cultural council grants to artists, organizations, and schools. Alright. As the clerk was going to, there's a there's a memo, for this that we received. I suspect we're about to see in a second. There we are. Colleagues, assuming you had a chance to look through that memo, this is one that we, that we do get on a periodic basis, but any discussion on this? Councilor Mabal on Money for the Arts.

Thank you. Thank you, chair. I guess the question I have is is for the encore. Like, is the encore, you know, artist grant also annual, or is this the last 100,000 payment from the casino community benefits agreement?

Does the administration wanna comment on that? Lee as in Hunter.

Thank you, mister chair. Can can you repeat the question, councilor Mbaugh?

Yes. I'm asking you know, we know, like, the mass cultural council grants come every year. But is the ANCORE artist grant also annual? Does it come every year or is this the last 100,000 payment from the casino as a community benefit agreement? Is this the last payment that we are receiving from them, or this is also, like, a yearly thing?

Through the chair, I know we have received it in many years past. I don't know if there is certainty about future years receiving these funds. I can go back to staff and confirm if we know if we're going to get that for future years. I think there is some shenanigans about this fund earlier in the year that was sort of outside of the city's control and sort of at the state level. So I can up get an update on where that stands, but you are correct that these are funds we've received in the past.

But I'm not maybe I maybe I'm not super clear. So the first question is is this, do we get the Mass Cultural Council grants comes every year. And then this appropriation of 100,000 from from Encore, does it also come every year?

Through the chair. In the past, that has been true. I do not know if it it's if there is an end date on when those funds happen or, essentially, if those will be coming in future years or if there was a time period of five years, and this is year five. I don't know the Okay. Details of that agreement. So I can get that information from staff for you so you have clarity.

Thank you, Lesley. Hold on. Thank you. That would be great. Thank you, chair.

Absolutely. Councilor, I'll ask you the same question. You could, you could recommend approval of this one?

Absolutely.

Alright. Any other discussion on it? Alright. The item's laid on the table. Recommend approval at the end of the meeting. That is going to bring us to our eleventh agenda item, and that is, as I flip back to that window, ID number 25Dash1418. The mayor request an approval to accept and expend a $10,000 grant with no new match required from the Fenway Community Health Center to the police department for post overdose support. And we have, I see, director Emily Wisdom from the police department with us. The first of several items we're gonna have you with us for. Please tell us about this request.

So this grant is a a yearly grant we receive. It it's typically known as the SOAR grant. It's a a subrecipient award that we get from FINWAY from a a grant that they receive. Typically, these funds are used by court and police officers to do outreach and follow-up on calls that involve behavioral health issues as well as offer training and, for comm training around, behavioral health issues and, overdose, you know, post overdose issues that they provide training for the community and law enforcement, as well as some, jail diversion.

Alright. Thanks for explaining that. Colleagues, discussion. Councilor Mabal, you're first up.

Thank you, sir. Doctor Wisdom, good to see you, and we're good to see you again. So thank you for your service. I guess I'm just curious as to, like, if, like, if, say, like how do I frame this? So, like, this cover, like, the expense of individuals from for whom like the police respond with overdose emergency service, and and the the point I'm getting at is like how many people is this is this money able to serve, and do we have other funds in the budget to help more folks with emergencies?

So this particular grant is it's actually lowered this year. We received $10,000 So for the most part, these funds are used typically for the supplies and the, I guess, like, the pamphlets and things that they provide for outreach. They do minimally use this grant for a little bit of OT. It doesn't go very far, you know, once you kind of break break down this $10,000. But I they kind of use it as a supplement to their kind of the CITT grant and the jail diversion grant to to do some of that additional work around behavioral behavioral health issues.

They do do provide a little bit of training with the with this to law enforcement officers that kind of goes out of the scope of CITT and kind of goes into the scope of overdose awareness. So, I would say that it it's pretty minimal in terms of, OT and more used for programmatic expenses and the outreach. Like I said, it they the way that it's been described to me and how I've noticed it being used in the budget is kind of as a supplement to the to the overall core strategies so that they kind of work together with with their grants and their budget to kind of do the most that they can do.

Gotcha. Excellent. Thank you, chair.

Thank you. Any additional discussion? Councilor Brinley.

Hello. Through you. I'm curious if the director has any insights into what other departments, deliver these sorts of direct services, to residents. I ask because I know that the firefighter is are involved with a lot of, serving these communities. One would imagine that HHS plays some part or some role in overall service providing here. So I'm I'm curious how this grant relates back to the work that other departments are doing as well. And so I'll stop there

for now. So through the chair, I don't know exactly I I will say, you know, necessarily what HHS does or the firefighters. I do know that this these funds can be used for community outreach, not just law enforcement. So there is there is applicability in that more than just law enforcement can be can be can be used can be trained with the the utilization of these funds. I could if if if it would be something you'd be interested in, I could inquire and see if there's any, I guess, parallel or adjacents, you know, where where the core program works with others outside of the police department, if that would be something you might be interested in.

Yeah. I yeah. I'm I'm curious where these funds can have the most impact. I can work up a an order so that we can have, like, a a separate discussion about that. I don't see any need at this point to to hold this item, as a result. But I think it is important for us to have to be thinking holistically and intergovernmentally about these supports in particular. Thank you.

Alright. Any other discussion? Alright. We're gonna lay this on item on the table to recommend approval, but don't go anywhere, director. Up next, our twelfth agenda item, ID number 25Dash1408. The mayor request for approval to accept and expend a $155,278.38 grant with no new match required from the Massachusetts State nine one one department to the police department for training costs for nine one one certification. Once again, director Wisdom.

Yes. Thank you, chair. So this grant is, again, a grant we receive year over year. This allows us to bolster our nine one one budget and take some of that off of of of the community and our operating costs. This grant this portion of the grant in particular, as you mentioned, is training costs.

That includes some of the OT required to allow nine one one operators to attend the certification off of the clock. So it it's overtime. So that means that they have a chance to to work on their certification while they're while and then allows them to continue to provide their services as nine one one operators without being conflicted. You know? So that that's a great opportunity. Additionally, this also pays for the vendor costs for the nine one one certification, so that also helps, alleviate that off of our budget.

Alright. Colleagues, on the item. Any discussion? Should we have taken these up together?

You could have.

Yeah. Let let's let's do that. Let's take up, let's waive the readings and and take up thirteen and fourteen with this ID number 25Dash14O9 and ID number 25Dash1410. Anything to add to these that wasn't already said about the previous one?

So, typically so the, the second portion, is for the personnel costs. So they actually, provide us with a portion of funds to cover personnel costs, so that's incredibly helpful. And then the third portion is for us to have a contract with Cataldo to to they it makes them our kind of our primary emergency dispatch so that the you know, we have someone that is responding to our 911 calls with urgency on a regular basis.

Alright. Thanks for that. So now on the three items together, any any discussion? I don't see any. So going once, going twice, laid on the table to recommend approval.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, director. Alright. That's gonna bring up our penultimate item, ID number 25Dash1344. That is an order by councilor Vada, the director of finance, provide a comprehensive accounting of all stabilization accounts that have remained unspent for three or more fiscal years and provide a report for each fund. Now we had received at the previous meeting prior to the previous meeting, a report the the report that was requested, counselor indicated that he had questions. So we wanted to hold that in committee to give councilor Bah an opportunity to ask some of those questions, just have that discussion. So, councilor Bah, I'm guessing you are you wanna be first up here?

Thank you, chair. First, I wanna give a shout out to, you know, director Bean. Like, that's some of his finest, man. Jeez. Cannot believe, like, the the finance department did a stellar job, like, quite a robust, you know, information, and I'm glad that just the first part, it was helpful to know that we could identify some funds, you know, that have been sitting unused for so many years and that we can easily repurpose.

That was about in $252,156,000 dollars. So that's a great stat, and we can quickly see as you know, I I sit on the job creation and retention trust, and so funds have been, you know, like, drying up. I guess when I looked at this whole other table, because you explained this analysis was so spot on, And I'm looking at most of this the funds, the stabilization cash balances, the all earmarked for various things. And one thing that even picked my eye is the GLX. We're done with GLX.

You know? And I see, like, you know, about $4,000,000 in that in that account. And as you probably know, we actually removed part of that money to actually, you know, fund the high school. So I just was curious how we can move some of these funds around. Like, what is, like what will be, like, the process, like, you know, even though they've been earmarked, but some of the projects, they no longer exist. So what how do we you know, what is is director Bien here to begin with?

No. Counsel, I don't I don't see director Bien.

Yeah. Did he he speak to that to this? Because I'm No.

No. There was a a memo and a and the report were sent last time.

Yeah. No. No. That's what I'm saying. No. I enjoyed the memo, man. Everything is so spot on, you know, even including, like, our bond rating, why we keep certain percentage, you know, of funds because we have, like I think we are probably the highest in the in in the state. You know? I'm sure other communities do their own differently. I'll be curious to know, like, you know, I could not even find anything for Boston, so they probably have their own system.

But I was I'm not sure. Like, I just wanted to know, you know, what what the process would be like to, you know, like, increase that amount by looking at some of these funds that because he's clearing mark like the no activity one. That was that one was was clear. It was easy, and he already acknowledged that we can repurpose those. But I'm just I'm I'll it will be good to know from him, you know, what some of these other earmark funds for projects that no longer exist.

Like, what are we what is, like, the plan for those? And the main thing is about just suggesting how we can have a broad policy conversation about what is needed, what is prudent, whether it will be able to make, we'll be able to make like higher withdrawals and repurpose funds in the next fiscal years. During budget season, can if we run short of budget or grant funds for our priority services like say, housing stability, immigrant assistance, or after school program. Like, what is that what would that process look like? Do I make sense?

Yeah. And and, counselors, it worth taking up the sort of sister item here, which is that, as we talked about at our last regular meeting, the the comments that Bill Valletta submitted, the really extensive comments

Yes.

Yeah. On this. Let's take that up as well. ID number 25Dash1514. I'll waive the readings of of that and take it up and submit so people can discuss what's in there because that did have it was an extensive

Yep. Yes. Yeah. That was actually, yes. Thank you for mentioning that because it was through the citizens' chat that I looked at other communities.

It was very interesting to see that, you know, we were up there like 32%. Meanwhile, you know, the rest of other communities, like 5%, 2%, you know, so it's like, I could not also understand the rationale why we are at 32%. Is that the is that is that actually, you know, like, what where we need to be, or is it, like, are we, you know, like, why can we not come down to, like, 15% or 20 or something? Like, so we can actually use those funds or anticipate you know, start planning on how to use those funds in the future once, you know, the budget is tight.

Yeah. Thanks, councilor. I saw legislative liaison, had a hand raised. Legislative liaison, did you wanna chime in on on this at all?

Thank you, mister chair. Just to say that I know, director Bead is not here tonight, but is happy to have a conversation with you directly, councilor Imbaugh, or anyone else who has questions around the nitty gritty is of the process and wanted to also note that as stated in his memo, there is a process in undergoing in the finance department right now to look at those funds exactly as you have raised, councilor Mbaugh, to figure out which ones can be repurposed. And there should be items coming before the council in the coming weeks. I think there are two items that'll be before the council on Thursday regarding the creation of a few of new stabilization funds to track and define the purpose of of what those are gonna be used for. And I will note that all stabilization funds appropriations from those funds have to be approved by the council, and I believe also repurposing those funds has to be approved by this council.

And all stabilization funds have to have a designated purpose. So just wanted to know that those things are forthcoming. This conversation will be ongoing as we, the city does take steps to, repurpose the dollars we have in the stabilization account, and that director Bean will be before this committee to talk in detail about the items that will be before the council as of Thursday.

Alright. Thanks for that. I mean, I given that we're taking up, mister Voletta's communication, I wanted to point out some things that I found particularly interesting there. The the the number, at least $365,000 that, was identified as stagnant or residual, money that's in some, you know, relatively tiny accounts. You know, those small amounts add up to $365,000.

Right? And if we're looking at being, you know, in a situation where, you know, we're looking in the sofa cushions, then, I think that only makes sense. I've actually we have mister Valletta with us. I'm sitting here speaking for him. You know, I've if if someone's willing to I'll sponsor mister Valletta if he's interested in speaking or if he's just here to, mister Valletta, if you're interested in speaking, raise your hand.

I'd be curious to hear from you directly on this. If you're interested, if you don't want to, I totally understand that as well. But, given that you took the time to send us such a thoughtful set of comments, I'm I'm inclined to to sponsor you here to hear your thoughts if you want. No pressure. I see a hand up.

Clerk, could we please go ahead and and, promote William Valletta in the in the I know talking's permitted, but, if he wants to go on camera, happy to promote to panelist here. There we go. Feel free to turn your camera on. Oh, it's not gonna let you turn your camera now that we've promoted you. But if you can, please feel free to unmute, and and it's the least we can do all sponsored.

And if the if the committee agrees, I would love to sponsor William Valletta to speak here to talk about that comprehensive communication sent to this council that I thought was fantastic. Mister Valletta, if you're able to unmute, or did we break you when we, promoted you to panelist? Folks who might have flown too close to the sun there. Mister Valletta was unmuted and ready to go as an attendee. There we go.

Mister Valletta, see you're unmuted. We can't hear you, unfortunately.

If he's on a phone, what are the instructions for to come off of mute with a phone? Well, then again, he's he's off mute, so I'm not sure why we don't hear him.

Oh, after all that buildup, don't tell me we're gonna be undone by technological difficulties.

I know. I know. What a moment. No. Thank you, Chip, for really even for your generosity for

Oh, that's the least you can do when someone sends you a, what, 17 page report. And not know, and actually full of really good, really good content as well. While we're seeing if mister Vledick had me, I'll just say that the recommendations I thought that I pull out of there, what you know, how do we how do we keep, like, an inventory and and make sure that we're standardizing every stabilization reserve and trust account to make sure that, you know, we're keeping track of of the purpose of it, what its origin was, and and if there's any legal obligation or any legal authority. With that, how do we set target balances for each fund? You know, either I guess, it's it's a percentage of the budget or or a dollar cap.

And then what do we do, you know, if we need to return or repurpose any excess funds? How are we reviewing accounts periodically either, you know, once or or or once a year ever once every other years, once every year to just to identify funds that have gone stagnant. When do we close or or reallocate balances if we determine that that an account has is obsolete or if it's gone dormant so that we can transfer those to a high priority area, infrastructure, schools, public services. And then, how do we improve transparency by publishing just the full account details on it? We've talked about this, you know, in way of having possibly a Tableau or something like we've seen with the ARPA funds, and and tying those, to back to any originating actions by the council.

Now those were that was my view of of the recommendation. That was my takeaway. If colleagues, wanna share theirs, unless mister Valetta has has managed to become unmuted here.

Mister chairman. I don't

think so. Colleagues, anything you wanna add here? And, Valletta, I'm sorry we're not able to hear directly from you tonight. Mister chair. Councilor Klingen.

Yeah. Through you. I really you know, I appreciate this conversation. I really do look forward to sort of a detailed breakdown as to what the funds are specifically. You know, I see the Alpine restaurant stabilization, but more importantly, the the Alpine Street stabilization. I'm just curious as to what project that was part of. Like I said, like I've noted before, there was a I thought there was a Lowell Street stabilization fund, and maybe we spent that one down and somehow took it off the list. But I could've swore that was the actual name of it, Lowell Street. So this thing kinda does remain a mystery to me as well, and I and I am curious. You know?

Like you said, maybe it is that we just buy MGL. We have to give it back or once we feel like it's been satisfied, you know, the the stipulations from the ZBA or or whatever body. And, yeah, it's just it's I mean, some of these are just so mysterious. 15 you know, there's a lot of money in some of these, and

I'd

be interested to see how we've used it and and so on. So, you know, happy that this was brought up and looking forward to hopefully getting that on the website and just, you know, having more information in general.

Because if there is a

way we can recycle the money, obviously, you know, if if as times get tougher, we'll look on, like, you said, in the seat cushions, it'd be really great to be able to figure out how to, acquire like, access these funds for different purposes.

Absolutely. Colleagues, councilor Mabaugh, before we let you go, did councilor Scott, any anyone who's not spoken on on this yet wanna go?

Oh, I'm just grateful for the work Ms. Villardin did putting this

out. And,

You know, I'm my mind is a whirling with, all the potential requests I can make for deploying these funds here at Ward 2.

Here for that. Alright. Councilor Mabal, we'll call on you for a second bite of the cherry here.

Oh, no. No. No. I'm I'm all set. Thank you. And I and I just wanna, you know, I also, like, just share my appreciation for,

like,

the legend, you know, in the name of mister Valetta, like, for, like, doing this work. They said there's a lot of people like that in this community that are so resourceful that we have to take advantage of those. When they send a memo, we gotta take it seriously. And thank you, councilor Klingon, for appreciating me bringing this forward. I appreciate you and I.

Absolutely. This is one of those moments where you just stand back and and appreciate the sheer volume of of expertise that's out there in our community. Yeah. We have really good city staff too, but, man, do we have some absolute gems in this community, who just give freely, with their time and and with their knowledge and their expertise. And and, yeah, hats off, mister Valletta. This is, hugely helpful.

And, mister chair, and all this also started, you know, because since I sit on this job creation retention trust, there's all these projects that, you know, are literally fading away, including, I'm sure you recall, like the governor was funding this community colleges, tuition free, providing stipends and all whatnot, then now they've stopped providing those stipends. So this is like how we can now continue now to step in and continue to support our community members in the face of this budget shortfalls. So that was how I started really rolling my my brain and looking at all this. How do we find funds? How do we understand how what is happening?

And it was it's so interesting, very resourceful data that we are getting that will help us for many years to come.

Hear. Hear. Alright. So disposition time. Councilor Bob, you heard what the legislative liaison said about talking to director Breen. Are you good with that as as a course of action here if you have additional questions?

Absolutely. I mean, as as you've seen, there's a huge appetite to, you know, like, see where we are going with this. You know? We don't yeah. Okay. Thank you, Grace. So that we don't have to come back again and start to wonder, like, well, this is this is, like, so there's so much volume.

Alright. So you're good with marking these two as work completed, and then you can follow-up with director Bean for that offline conversation?

Absolutely. Alright. Unless any

member give my best to Grace, and we're gonna sorry. Do you wanna say something else?

No. No. No. No. Thank you. Yeah. I'm just saying that unless any member of the community feel inclined to, you know, pick in suggest otherwise. But I think, yeah, I'm really I'm I'm satisfied.

Alright. And I see our legislative liaison has a hand raised.

Thank you, Grace.

Yes. Thank you, mister chair. I wanted to follow-up on a question regarding the the Encore funds. I was able to get in touch with staff and wanted to provide that answer if that would be

a lot. Let's let's pick that one back up off the table then, clerk. So that this is back to item

Item nine.

Nine, I wanna say. Yes.

Thank you. I was curious.

Oh, so let's let's dispose let's mark these two as the the items fifteen and sixteen. We're gonna mark those as work completed.

Yeah. Mister chair?

Yes.

Yeah. I missed that communication.

So we're gonna mark fifteen and sixteen as work completed. We're gonna pick back up item nine. You had the question about the encore Yes. One. We're gonna pick that back up up off the table because we believe we have an answer for you right here in real time.

Amazing. Thank you.

Alright. Legislative liaison, please enlighten us.

Yes. Thank you, mister chair. So I confirmed with staff that the covenant or the agreement with, Encore for this, fund is an annual allotment, for as long as the casino is in operation. So as long as they continue to be a business, we will be receiving these funds, and it is always this amount for the arts portion of that. There are other funds that are split up into various buckets, but for this particular purpose, it's a 100 k per year.

Excellent. There's some of that. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Alright. So with confidence then, we can put this one back on the table, laid on the table to recommend approval then. So alright. That brings us to the end of tonight's agenda and and tip of the cap to our legislative liaison for bringing us an answer here. While we're still in the meeting, that is much appreciated. So we've reached the end of tonight's agenda. Clerk, can we please take up the items on the table, awaiting a a vote on approval and take a a batch vote on those, please, as well as, councilor Mabaugh's motion to adjourn. Take those up as one joint joint motion, please.

Yes. So for the tables laid for the items laid on the table for approval, agenda items one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve thirteen and fourteen as well as adjournment. Councilor Mbaugh?

Yes, please.

Councilor Burnley? Aye. Councilor Klingen?

Yes.

Councilor Scott?

Yes.

And councilor Wilson?

Yes, please.

Those agenda items one through 14 are approved, and we are adjourned.

Alright, everyone. Have a great night. Ward 5, we're headed your way.

Oh, yeah. Thank you, chair.