AI-generated transcript of Medford City Council Committee Of The Whole 06-28-22

[Zac Bears]: Committee of the whole meeting notice, Tuesday, June 28th, 2022 at 6.15 PM. Mr. Clark, please call the roll.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Caraviello.

[Zac Bears]: Present.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Collins. Present. Councilor Knight.

[Unidentified]: Present.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli.

[Zac Bears]: Present.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Tseng.

[Zac Bears]: Councilor Tseng will be joining us shortly.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay. President Morell. Present.

[Zac Bears]: Vice President Bears. President, six present, one absent. The meeting is called to order. There'll be a meeting of the Medford City Council Committee of the Whole on Tuesday, June 28th, 2022 at 6.15 p.m. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss any remaining budget issues, including insurance, pensions, and debt service. The City Council has invited Mayor Brianna Loco Kern, Chief of Staff Nina Nazarian, Finance Director Bob Dickinson, and all relevant department heads to attend this meeting. For further information, aids, and accommodation, please contact the city clerk at 781-393-2425. Sincerely yours, Nicole Morell, council president. So we'll be looking at the three final budgets tonight before our seven o'clock meeting, where we will be considering the full budget. The first of those is insurance. I do believe we did go over this a little bit last week. We had some questions on it. Just if there's any presentation by the administration, we'd be happy to hear it. And then if there's any questions by the Councilors on insurance, further questions on that, we'll take those questions. I do see Chief of Staff Nazarian on here as well as Mr. Dickinson's with us. Do you have any, Insurance. We already had some questions last week, but I know we were down some colleagues. So I don't know if, uh, Councilor Knight, Councilor Scarpelli, do you have any questions about the insurance budget?

[Adam Knight]: Um, Mr. President, with all due respect every year, I offer the same question. Was this, uh, insurance, uh, put out to bid and, um, I know it's not something that's subject to public good laws, but, um, it seems like time and time again, um, where, going back and doing business with the same operator without actually requesting that a bit to see if we can do better to cover show us question of us in the past. It's always been no it's not required and I'm sure that's the answer tonight. That's also a request that I'd like to offer is that especially in time this was in a budget crisis. Services like this out to bid might result in a more favorable package should.

[Zac Bears]: Is there any response regarding putting out elements of the insurance budget to bid? I see Mr. Dickinson.

[Bob Dickinson]: Again, I'm new here, but it's through the state, the big chunk of it is health insurance. It's through the state GIC, which offers a full range of plans for the employees of the city. And that's completely bid. If we needed to do something else, we'd probably be looking at Blue Cross Blue Shield, something like that, to see what different plans they have. But again, GIC is run by the state. several, many different plans available to both city employees and retirees. So, we could certainly look into that, but I haven't gotten there yet.

[Adam Knight]: Just so I can be clear, it's not so much about insurance coverage, but on the liability coverages, you know, the current insurance for our police department, stuff like that, that we have, it's, you know, always been looked at the best.

[Bob Dickinson]: that I actually that I don't know.

[Zac Bears]: I do see a hand from the chief of staff, madam chief of staff, if you have any further information.

[Nina Nazarian]: Thank you. No, finance director Dickinson answered the question and then I was planning on indicating that as far as the health insurance component, we're beginning the process to inquire with the GIC as to the city's loss history and utilize that information to query other health insurance. But it sounds like Councilor Knight's question is pertaining to regular insurance for most of which the city is self-insured and does not qualify for some of the more municipal packages that are for smaller communities.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Madam Chief of Staff. Any further questions on the insurance section of the budget? Seeing none, we'll move on to pensions. Pensions are budgeted at an expenditure of $28,675,464, an increase of $2,002,636 over the previous year. Is there any presentation from the administration regarding pensions? Oh, I'm sorry, that's the wrong number. I was reading off the budget book, but it looks like the number's actually $14,337,732. My apologies. Mr. Clerk, please mark councilors saying as present.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Got it.

[Zac Bears]: Madam chief of staff or Mr. Dickinson, any presentation regarding the pension budget?

[Bob Dickinson]: That number is provided by the retirement board, but that's what they voted this year to as the city's required contribution. So.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Mr. Dickinson. Any further questions on the pensions budget?

[Adam Knight]: Mr. President. Councilor Knight. I know that there's a certain, actually, no, we got this right. This question was answered at a previous meeting. I have it in my notes, thank you. Thank you, Councilor Knight. Any questions on the pensions budget?

[Zac Bears]: Seeing none, and just in case folks didn't hear that the pensions budget is the number provided to the city by the Medford Retirement Board. We'll be moving on to debt service, bonds and interests. Let me just make sure I get this number right. I believe the number is $6,465,121. This is for bonds and interest debt service. Turn it over for a presentation from director Dickinson or the chief of staff.

[Bob Dickinson]: Well, it's not much of a presentation. That's what we owe for debt service. We've budgeted $75,000 getting a short-term loan to cover capital projects that are starting up. That would be the interest on the short-term on the BAMs. The rest of it is from general obligation bonds that have already been issued. So you have to pay your debt.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Mr. Dickinson. Councilor Scarpelli.

[George Scarpelli]: Do we have an update on our bond rating? Where are we now? Is it still? It's the same. Could you share that with the public, what it is?

[Bob Dickinson]: I think it's a double A plus.

[Zac Bears]: That sounds right to me. Madam Chief of Staff is nodding her head, yes, it's a double A plus. Thank you. Any further questions on debt service? I have one question. Does the city expect in fiscal 23 or fiscal 24 to be issuing bonds for any major projects?

[Bob Dickinson]: The city itself for fiscal 23, no, I believe we'll be looking at some for the water sewer enterprise funds through the Mass Water Resources Authority.

[Richard Caraviello]: Okay. Councilor Caraviello. Thank you, Mr. President. The library was bonded in full some, I think, four years ago, which is an amount higher than what we owe. So that's gonna have to be repaired, am I correct, to get it down to the right number? When our library project first came in, we had to commit to the bonds. but it was at a higher number than the bid came in at the time. So I'm assuming that bond has to be rebid to the new number. Well, if the bonds have been issued, then- Well, the bond has never been issued, but we did vote for the bonds. I think it was four years ago, maybe five years ago, when the library first came in. Because in order for us to move the project forward, we had We had to flow the bonds to make sure we were committed to it.

[Bob Dickinson]: And I think that- That would be an authorized and unissued debt.

[Richard Caraviello]: It's not on here, but it's at a higher amount than we actually need to borrow.

[Bob Dickinson]: Well, just because it's authorized doesn't mean you need to borrow all of it.

[Richard Caraviello]: No, but we have to get a lower number.

[Bob Dickinson]: Once we clean up the project, then you should rescind any debt, any authorization for debt that you haven't used.

[Richard Caraviello]: So that'll hit our books right next year, probably.

[Bob Dickinson]: Yeah. I take a good hard look at that once I get into get done with fiscal 22. Okay. Thank you. And that has to do with getting waterfall scheduled together to see what that is retiring down the road. Um, so that, you know, that gives the city the opportunity to maybe go out and borrow some more money for capital projects.

[Richard Caraviello]: No, we did ask for a meeting with bond council a couple of weeks ago. So do you know, does that go through you? Does that go to your department or does that go to the mayor's office?

[Bob Dickinson]: I think that'd be the mayor's office.

[Richard Caraviello]: I say, yeah, because we haven't met with bond council in a couple of years.

[Bob Dickinson]: So yeah, having a meeting like that and having all the debt service stuff together would be a good idea.

[Zac Bears]: Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dickinson. Any further questions on the debt service? Any public participation on the insurance, pensions, or debt service budgets? We have one. Mr. Castagnetti, name and address for the record, please.

[Unidentified]: Mr. Castagnetti, name and address

[Andrew Castagnetti]: Andrew Cassinetti, Cushman Street, East Medford. I have one question for Mr. Dickinson. How much is the total debt that is owed by the city?

[Unidentified]: How much is the total debt that is owed by the city?

[Zac Bears]: Mr. Dickinson, do you happen to have that number available?

[Bob Dickinson]: I can see how quickly I can look it up. Everybody will bear with me for about a minute.

[Zac Bears]: We have the time.

[Bob Dickinson]: There you go. I'll play the scene of Jeopardy while I'm looking. I'll have to go downstairs to get the ukulele. Total long-term debt as of end of fiscal 2021, which is the latest statement of indebtedness was filed as of June 30th, 2021. Total debt is short, long-term debt was $72,556,935. I could break that out between water and sewer, but that would take a little bit of time. That's all right. I think that's a sufficient answer.

[Zac Bears]: Our debt to GDP ratio is pretty good, I'll tell you that. That's just a joke. Any further questions regarding debt service? Any public participation? Any further questions from any of the councilors on these three budgets? Seeing none, is there a motion on the floor?

[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I do see that there are some individuals here that might have general questions on the budget. Will we still have some remaining time? Maybe now's a good time to allow some public participation on that.

[Zac Bears]: I'm not sure it's in the scope of our agenda, to be honest. Is there anyone who has general questions about the budget who would rather speak now than at the 7 p.m. meeting? Seeing none, is there a motion on the floor? Motion to adjourn by Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Collins. Before we take a vote on that, I just want to remind everyone who's on Zoom or in the audience or watching on Metro Community Media that we will be resuming a session in our regular meeting at 7 p.m. We will be taking up a number of budget related items, including the fiscal 23 budget for the city of Medford. So we will be, this meeting will be adjourned and then we will open our regular meeting at 7 p.m. On Councilor Knight's motion to adjourn, seconded by Councilor Collins. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you, we'll see you at seven o'clock.