[Bears]: You got it. Medford city council committee of the whole meeting notice Wednesday, January 17th, 2024 at 6 p.m. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[SPEAKER_18]: Present. Present. I'll just say present. 7 present, none absent. The meeting is called to order.
[Bears]: There will be a meeting of the Medford City Council Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, January 17th, 2024 at 6 p.m. in the Medford City Council Chamber on the second floor of Medford City Hall and via Zoom. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss compensation for the Medford School Committee, paper 23-467. For further information, aids, and accommodations, please contact the city clerk at 781-393-2425. Sincerely yours, Isaac B. Zach Bears, Council President. Thank you all for being here today. We are here, as I just said, to discuss paper 23-467, a proposal from the prior council by former Council President Morell regarding the compensation of the school committee. Just a few things before we start. Number one, Councilor Lazzaro is attending remotely tonight due to illness. Hope you feel better, Councilor Lazzaro. Thank you for being here. That means that all votes will be roll call votes. Second, just to go quickly through, the proposal by President Morell, as amended by President Morell and Councilor Knight on December 12th, is before us tonight. Short summary is the initial proposal folks have read was to place the school committee pay at 29,359.80 cents, the chair at 32,550, vice chair at 30,640, and secretary at 31,760. amendments were offered to strike several clauses regarding the composition of the Menford School Committee and City Council. Amendment was offered to phase in these adjustments over time, and Councilor Knight offered a number of amendments, including questions regarding state law, Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 44, Section 33, 71, Section 53, 71, 52, and 4433A. I do have legal opinion from of the city's outside legal counsel, KP Law, which I can read into the record. In my opinion, if there's available funding in the Medford School Department budget for this current fiscal year to pay for an improved increase in school committee compensation, then there does not need to be a supplemental appropriation request, given that the school department's fiscal year budget is a bottom line budget. Approval of the increase would be required pursuant to general law chapter 71, section 52, given the requirements set forth in the statute as outlined below. In my opinion, general laws chapter 71, section 52 govern this request, which requires generally a majority vote of the city council to change compensation for school committee members. In my further opinion, in reviewing the proposal, the city council may inquire from the school department regarding funds in the fiscal year 24 budget, if any increases in approved and effective for this current fiscal year. If a supplemental appropriation is required, the increase would be subject to applicable municipal finance principles, including pursuant to General Law, Chapter 44, Section 33A. If the City Council approves an increase to school committee compensation pursuant to General Law, Chapter 71, Section 52, to go into effect beginning July 1, 2024 for fiscal year 2025, in my opinion, such amounts would be incorporated into the bottom line budget request for fiscal year 2025 for review by the City Council, indeed under state law, And according to Desi guidance, the following provisions apply to school budgets that outlines the standard process for the setting of the budget every year. Please let me know if there are further questions. Thank you. And in a sense, essentially that addresses the questions regarding whether this is subject to the provision of a two thirds vote of the council being required. essentially, if a supplemental appropriation required in this were to go into effect in the middle of a fiscal year, then the answer would be yes. If this were to go into effect on the start of a new fiscal year, then a simple majority is required under Chapter 71, Section 52. And so with that, and with the amendments to the questions, I will turn it over to my fellow councilors for comment and discussion. And I see Councilor Collins and then Councilor Tseng. Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. Thank you so much, everybody, for being here today. We really appreciate it. A lot to discuss here. I just want to start by saying I know that this discussion of this in the community has surfaced some painful and necessary truths about the underfunding of the schools and the need to provide every school worker with a living wage. I appreciate that that's been one of the reminders that's come out of the discussion I just want to frame with that as a reassurance that as we talk about raising compensation for school committee for the first time in 23 years that that is close on my mind to speak only for myself. City Council is no legal authority to make allocations within the school's budget. I'm sure that there's been times when we all wish we had that authority. We don't have it. This is one thing that we do have authority over. The mindset that I'm coming to this discussion with is We know it's been 23 years since school committee had a cost of living adjustment or any sort of rationale for a compensation increase. As a Councilor with a vote to change that, I feel a responsibility to change that. It's something that I have the responsibility to change. We don't have any jurisdiction over any other salaries when it comes to the school's department. This is one thing that we do have authority over. And as a Councilor, knowing a bit about Our job, knowing a little bit about the school committee members job though of course, not with that level of granular detail, but knowing how hard our school committee members work as all public servants do in our various roles that are, you know, hard to compare but all contribute to. necessary work of the public sphere. Contemplating an increase for school committee members is something that, you know, I've gone on record and say I think that these jobs are equivalent. I'd like for us to consider, you know, leveling pay between these two legislative bodies. But I'm just, I'm excited to hear the perspectives of my fellow Councilors now that we've all had a few weeks to digest this and to think about the amendments that President Morell and former Councilor Knight made during our first meeting on the topic. So I do have some proposals to bring to our discussion tonight, but I'll hold those until we hear from, you know, some of my fellow Councilors and others in the space. Thank you.
[Tseng]: Councilor Tseng. Thank you, President Barras. As I said at the meeting in December, there's a lot about this proposal. At the very least, the core of this proposal, I very much agree with the principles behind it, the principles of parity, equity, the experience that The experience and time that the school committee puts into their work vis-a-vis compared to ours, and especially this idea of giving folks a chance to take part in running for and serving on the school committee, not just because of the money itself, but because it makes, not because of the money itself, but because it makes doing school can be a justifiable decision economically. I think it pays attention to economic realities. I said at that meeting, however, that we needed to talk through the details that, you know, I really appreciated former President Morales. amendments to have us look at amounts and timing. And in that spirit, I've collected some data, and in talking to folks, put together a range of different proposals as to different amounts that we could arrive at. I sent the chart over to President Bears, if he can show it on the screen. And we've also have printed copies for all the Councilors here. Thank you, President Ferris. I know the text is a little small. I'll read out the most important numbers. But essentially, this is a a listing of four alternative proposals for the school committee pay increase. Now, I think it's really important to underscore that we're looking at a current pay of about $12,000 a year, which has not gone up since the year 2000. And so the very first column is just the fiscal years. The second and third columns are basically, historically, the school committee pay versus the city council member pay, which was brought up at the last meeting. Now, as you can see, the city council pay in the year 2000 was about $13,785. compared to $12,000 for school committee members. And over time, that disparity has grown. And that was a big kind of topic of discussion at our last meeting. The first proposal is just simply following the council. So this first proposal is different from what was on the agenda. The first proposal is following the percentage increases that the city council received in those years. And so what I did was got the data for all the years, went through year by year, looked at the percentage increase, the percentage change, and then did calculations from the starting point of 12,000 off that. which would land us at approximately $25,000 and 500, a little bit over that. Now, the average annual percent change with that would be 3.3% compounded. The total percent change is about 130%. So that's if we follow the city council pay increase. The third set of numbers is, so basically I went and requested the teacher contracts, the MTA contracts, and in talking to some teachers, this was an idea that came up was if we, you know, the school committee pay increase should look somewhat like more akin to what teachers see. And so with that proposal, again, went through the years, did all the calculations, you end up at $22,000, 100, or $22,000, or 22,000, sorry, I'm too tired, $22,105.60. So that's using what the numbers I found in the teacher contracts. Now, obviously there's some nuance to that. I know a school committee member put out a post talking about how we look at those numbers and how we calculate and how steps work, but this is just kind of a neutral setting. I also collected the numbers for the flat 2% cost of living adjustment. which would basically have us end up at $19,687.27. So about $2,500 lower. I was also curious about inflation and what that $12,000 would look like if we use the Department of Labor's data on the change in the consumer price index in Boston. And it actually ends up very, very, very close to the Medford Teachers Association cost of living adjustments, actually just off by $3.30. And so that would basically have us end up at $22,108.69. Um, there's some numbers at the bottom for different, um, different positions, chair, secretary, vice chair. But, um, I think for the sake of this discussion, um, I think the focus should be on just the normal school committee members pay and then we can get to get those positions as well. Um, just some food for thought, some ideas, some different ideas, um, some alternate, uh, alternate proposals to consider.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Anything else, Councilor Tseng? Any councillors like to speak at this time? Councilor Callahan?
[Callahan]: As a new city councillor, I would love to ask how this discussion is going to proceed. So it sounds like my understanding was that there were going to be some proposals that would change either the number or the start date or something like that. Are there any proposals to do that, or is this simply discussing the original?
[Bears]: At this point, councillors can either make statements or they can make motions to amend the paper. Councilor Scarpelli, then Councilor Leming. I think I saw your hand, Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you. I think I was pretty clear at our last meeting that where I stood on this topic, I think that there are so many factors to look at this, but looking at this is more prudent and realistic. process, when we look in the basic sense of the perfect world, this would be easy. If we had unlimited funds, then we would do what we need to do. But unfortunately, we're talking about a school system that right now Today is drastically underfunded. And when it comes to next year's fiscal budget, we're gonna be talking about some pretty difficult decisions to make. And those decisions are gonna be, gee, can we afford a language teacher, a foreign language teacher in the middle schools? Where could we find 45, $55,000? I know we could find it right here. Let's look at the conversations. Well, how do we fund these clubs? All these great clubs that we started, these small stipend clubs that teachers do it for service for their children in the schools. How do we fund those? Because they're gonna be on the chopping block. They're gonna be cut. And the question is gonna be, where do we find $36,000? Right here. If you listen to my council colleagues, I appreciate the hard work you did, but where was this math when paraprofessionals and teachers are negotiating? This is, this perception's reality. And I think that it was brought up at the meeting when, I've had a thousand phone calls. I think I've shared it with you people. And I want you guys to understand that I will share what they've said to me. The perception of reality that when you have an organization running for office in the city, and they run in a slate, and that slate goes on a gigantic picture all over the city. And then as soon as the election is completed, then the word goes out that that organization is now going to support each other to raising funds. So that's a glaring question. Whether it's true or not, that's not what I'm saying. It's the perception of what we're trying to do here. Now, I've gotten a message from different members of past school committees. I've gotten messages from present school committee members. And the idea of saying, this is equitable, what we do is no different. Absolutely, it's different. Absolutely, it's different. And no one can tell me otherwise, because I'm the only one here that has done both. And I will tell you that this position has way more pressures. We have way more work to do. Every single day. Now, when you think about it, what is the school committee? The school committee is a policy making authority. They set policy. They set policy. They have a superintendent that does all the work, that sets everything in motion to what the vision of this school is. Is it working? I don't know. That's still out for debate. But the question that I have is understanding this process today and what they're asking for today. And I shared it with my colleagues today, tonight. It's very simple. If the community didn't want this, well, you should have come out to vote. Because there are six people from one side and one from another. And the philosophy is very simple. This is just common sense philosophy of doing the right thing today. Until we have a better understanding of what our fiscal responsibilities are when it comes to the budget, we should not look at any increases like this at all. It's borderline dangerous because what's next? When I joined the school committee, it was a service-based opportunity. It was for me to work and give back to my community. And to hear the responses, but we'll get better candidates if we get paid more. Here's a here's a lightning rod to everybody. We make $28,000. I'm not I'm not I'm not getting rich over $28,000. So if the fantasy is a school kid member sending me messages saying that Well, it'll bring in better candidates. I've worked on a school committee with great candidates. I've worked for school committee members that we couldn't shine their shoes and how dedicated they were. And they weren't getting a penny. It was a volunteer basic process. Neighborhood communities, because I did some homework too. What we're asking for here is an absolute disgrace to what neighboring communities just around us get. Some of those are the highest, and I think that they're bordering between $16,000 and $18,000. That's it. Everybody else. There are some communities that, when I brought it up, they were like, what? Are you crazy? To equate it as the same responsibility as what we do here is different. It's not the same. It isn't. It just looks and it feels funny. I look at the situation that we're in tonight, when we're bringing this up, and we understand the voting process now. And I know some of the council wanna know where we're gonna go next with this. And I think that, you know, is there something that we can do? Yeah, you hear that the equity piece is being thrown around. If that's the biggest issue, then let's correct it. If we make 28 and they make 12, well then why don't we all pull together, not jeopardize the funding mechanism, what we don't have at the high school right now and drop our pay. And I don't. I don't do it for applause or social media comments. I'm dead serious. When I started in 2008, when I ran for office, I did it because I wanted to give back to the community. And you know what? I've stood in there, I've stuck in there pretty long. I've learned a lot and I've done a lot. I'm pretty satisfied that my legacy, that what I put forth to this community is something strong that my kids will look at and say, well, my dad was part of that. And that's what it's all about. If you're doing this, we're doing this for the money, we're in big trouble. Because if that's a reality of what this body thinks of what is a successful financial situation in your homes, this isn't it. So I truly, I would make the motion that we look at all of our salaries and become equitable by dropping our salaries. Because if the city council school committee, if that's the biggest issue, then let's do that. This isn't something I'm not listen, it's not going to make or break me. And I tell people it's just 8000 less than I'd have to donate. And I'm sure all of you feel the same way. I don't think anybody here if you've been here for a while, have seen where your money goes. Your money doesn't go to fancy cars, doesn't go to fancy houses. It usually goes back to the people that helped you. And that's what we're all about. So when we sit here and talk about 100 and whatever percent raise increase, I think it's disingenuine. And to be honest with you, I think it's a slap in the face for the people that are really having a very difficult time right now. The morale in the school department is still terrible. It's still terrible. Our scores are very low. You know, we're in flux in many different areas. Our school facilities look terrible. Our custodians still don't have, if they've settled a contract, it's gonna be lower than ever, or they haven't either. So you still have unions out there that work every single day, that are doing the dirtiest, most disgusting work in the city, and with a smile on their face, picking up kids and hugging them after they vomit all over them. But at the same time, oh, people are gonna offend that I said that, but by the way, kids vomit. So we shouldn't be offended by that. Because, and this is funny, because the other piece of this is, I've heard from teachers, I've heard from teachers, qualified, respected, long-term educators in our system, that have been absolutely torn down by administrators and school kid members because they've come to that podium and raised an issue. That's a disgrace. This is their podium. They're taking care of our children, whether they live in Medford or not. They're more of this community than most people. So listen, we realize, and I think everybody has to realize this, the vote's gonna be the vote, and we have to move on. But I think, in good faith, this council can work together to show the community, can we be responsible? Can we send the right message? And is the right message to give an increase at this amount? No. Do I think that that and in reality of life that we haven't touched there. They haven't, the school committee hasn't gotten an increase since I believe, yeah, I was there in 2008 and eight, six years before that, we didn't get that. But I tell you what, George Scarpelli didn't care. Ann Marie Cuno didn't care. Paulette Van der Kloot didn't care. Billy O'Keefe didn't care. John Falco didn't care. Mayor Michael J. McGlynn didn't care. We went to work every day for our city and we did a lot of great things. So be careful what we do, because once we open this can, guess what's going to happen? Do you know how many committees, commissions we have in this city? What's to say we can't look at what they're doing and saying, well, we've got to compensate them now. So careful of what we do. If we, like I said, if we had an abundance of funds, then maybe we can look at and working it together and try to build it up slowly. When we're talking about, and we all heard it, everybody heard it, let's all be realist here. The next year's budget, when we sit together, when we lose ESSER money, and we look at what the ARPA money we've lost, and we look at the positions that those funds hold for us, we're gonna be in deep, deep trouble. And I'm gonna tell you, I'm like, listen, I've only, I know I could speak, but I've told you guys, I've really pushed in things that I've seen just by being part of this community for so long. You saw how it worked with the city solicitors. You saw how it worked with the budget. It's just not equitable. Be smart, be prudent, and use common sense with these issues when I say, Maybe it's not fair, but they ran. They ran for office at $12,000 as a payee. That's what they ran for. So that's what they should have until we make sure we know what our fiscal future looks like. Please. That's all I ask this committee to do. Councilor Callan asked a question that, where do we go from here? What's the process? I would hope this is still a feeling of process, because the truth of the matter is, when you have an employee, because that's what it seems like to me, when you have an employee that's come to you for a raise, right? I'm assistant director of a program, and I've had employees come to me and say, George, I think I deserve a raise. I said, you know what? Let's sit down and talk about it. Let's sit down at your body of work and let's sit down and talk about it. Have any of you talked to any of the school kid members? No, you've talked to all the school kid members. Don't say it, careful, because you don't talk to all the school kid members. Because if you really want to do some homework, you've talked to all the school kid members. So my recommendation would be to have the school kid members here. and let's talk with them. Because I think when you put it together and you understand, and maybe you sit and look at people eye to eye and you say, well, this is how it hurts. Here's the reality of it. The school committee knows how bad the budget is gonna be. Let's be serious, they know. So when you look in the school committee's eyes and say, okay, your child goes to the Brooks, your child has kindergarten AIDS. With this increase, this could be the increase that avoids kindergarten AIDS next year. That's what I'm trying to say because listen, I taught for 15 years. I was on the school committee for eight years. I've been on this committee for six years. I understand how all the balls are being juggled right now. So please don't make something that looks good on paper. Have you make a decision because ultimately, the decisions we make tonight will affect what we do in June, in July, in August, and in September, more importantly, in such a negative manner that it will hurt us. It will. That's just the reality of it. So thank you, Mr. President.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Did I have Councilor Leming or is it Councilor Tseng? Councilor Leming and Councilor Tseng.
[Leming]: I'd like to thank my colleague for his words. I would tend to agree with him that the optics on this are terrible when teachers that are underpaid see the headline, politicians are looking to increase other politicians salaries. morale is a real issue there. That and that is something that is really on my mind in this process. Um, I personally would be more amenable to one of the, uh, to either, uh, the raised to something around 24 21,000. Sorry, we're getting the wrong numbers on the, um, basically the equivalent of cost of living adjustments over since fiscal year 2020 of 2 to 2.5%, which would be, I think that would be a little bit more reasonable and putting that adjustment over a period of several years in order to not strain the budget immediately. But that being said, so, The city council, the city council salaries are something that are make or break for a lot of us. The city council right now is a majority is majority renter. And so having that having the salary to be able to justify 20 plus hours of work that we put into this every week, I think, is fair. When it comes to the school committee members, if they're putting in 20 plus hours a week, I think that in order to improve the school system, I think that a similar to be able to justify. Similar compensation is fair. We had a candidate this past time who was put it who was putting in shift work during a lot of the campaign working as a server and so having the having the salary to be able to justify the time that they put into that if we're going to expect them to put in. There have been a lot of people, there are a lot of people in the city that Medford relies on who are volunteers. We are, and Medford, they are the foundation of the city in a lot of ways. Volunteerism is incredibly helpful for running the city. It is foundational to Medford's functions. But we, We can't expect to run essential functions on the back of volunteers. There are people who would make great school committee members who would be willing to do it for free. A lot of those people have been cornerstones of the community. A lot of them have come up against these raises, and there are a lot of people who would make great school committee members who would be completely unwilling to work for the current stipend. And I think that being able to being able to raise the salaries by a certain amount would allow us to have more people at our disposal when it comes to running the school system.
[Bears]: Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilor Leming. I'm going to go to Councilor Tseng, Councilor Lazzaro, Vice President Collins. Councilor Tseng. Thank you.
[Tseng]: There are a lot of arguments that are, I think, fairly being raised, some that I don't disagree, that I don't agree as much with, but I still do believe that there's a lot of this that needs to be balanced. And so I think Councilor Scarpelli's core ask, that we look at the timing so that we have a better picture of what things look like financially is not an unreasonable ask. And that's why I would personally be in favor and I will motion later to have this, instead of having this be implemented immediately, have a proposal be implemented over the two years, which would give us time. So basically, July 1st, 2024, July 1st, 2025. This would basically give us time to go through the budget process to have a better picture of what things look like at the schools before we move forward with a proposal. In the first year, I don't think that we should do the full amount. That's my take. And so I would have this be spread over a few years as well. And that will hopefully give us more time to solidify our understanding of the picture. I have also taken time to talk to people with a better financial picture. And the financial picture is nuanced. It basically says that we have a small, small chunk of money that we can spend, but little consensus about what that money should be spent on. And it's, you know, it would be more ideal to give people across the board raises, but it's not enough money to do that structurally. And so the question is, what do we do with that surplus, with that tiny surplus? So that's a consideration. Ultimately, I grew up close to my teachers. I ran for city council because during the pandemic, the school's budget got cut in real terms of close to 9%. I fought hard for more money for our schools successfully, but we also have to be fair to all our staff, and that includes people who run the schools as well. I think Councilor Leming makes a great point that I see in my real life. When I say that this makes running for office justifiable, right? I think the service argument is important. But there are tons of people who want to serve, but can't because they have to put food on their table. They have to pay their rents. And so they ultimately don't make that choice. Nat cited a an example here in Medford. But it's a story that more often than not ends in people deciding not to run for office than to run for office. With that being said, again, so in summary, I think we should discuss the phase-in over two years. And I agree with Matt that I think we should end up around where the teachers end up. I think that's only fair. I think the logic is more sound. the data is there, and so I believe that we should end up basically raising school committee pay to $22,105.60, which is basically the same increased rates as MTA cost leveling adjustments, phased over two years, going into effect July 1st of 2024 and July 1st of 2025. It seems to me like the most reasonable approach. It's a compromise that not many people are going to be happy with, but that's the nature of compromises, and I think everyone can find some progress in that deal being made. Um, and I think we should discuss that proposal. I think it's more palatable. I think it gives us more room to, um, to look at our picture and look at what, um, what the picture looks like going forward. And I would be happy to motion now, but I am also happy to have a discussion first about it.
[Bears]: Thank you. Answer saying Councilor Lazzaro.
[Lazzaro]: Thank you and I appreciate everybody's flexibility with me being on zoom today. There are just two things I wanted to mention. This has been touched upon, but I think that the an important thing to acknowledge is that. Many of us. Well, I think all of us ran for office because of the value we have for the city and because we care a lot about our community, and because we have a certain level of love and care for our community members, but If these positions are all volunteer positions, it requires people to have enough personal income to not require an additional income source. And that requires a baseline level of income. And I don't think that's representative of the city. And I think we should just consider that one aspect of making sure that we're really having people representing the city that that truly represent the people that live here. The second thing I want to make note of is that just because other communities other surrounding communities are not paying their school committee members the same as they're paying their city Councilors. And I would respectfully disagree with Councilor Scarpelli I worked as the executive assistant to Superintendent Edouard-Vincent for a few years and with not this current city council but a city council a couple of years ago, that was made up of many of the same folks. And they work a tremendous amount. They were incredibly hardworking. I can tell you because I had to go to all the meetings, and it was a lot of meetings, and there are a lot of subcommittees and Committee of the Whole meetings every week. So it's, they're very hardworking. I'm not sure how it was when Councilor Scarpelli was on the school committee, but I will say that just because other communities aren't maybe necessarily doing the right thing by paying their school committee members the same that they're paying their city councilors doesn't mean that we shouldn't do it. I think being a leader in a group is a great thing to be and leading the way and saying, hey, these two bodies are equivalent in the accomplishments and the work that they're doing, and that's something that we're acknowledging and valuing, then I think that's something that we can stand up for.
[Bears]: I'll go to Councilor Scrivelly, but if we could keep it short.
[Scarpelli]: To the personal privilege, just to Councilor Lazzaro, when you use a person's name, and understanding what I did when I ran for office, and I was a school kid member, We worked our tail off. We changed policies. We put in bullying policies. We made sure we had new science labs, new fields, new gymnasium, new curriculum. So we worked our tails off. And by the way, while this council was doing that, he owned a fence company. He owned a painting company. He worked as a coach. and he worked as a full-time recreation assistant director. So I completely understand how hard it is to want to be part of a position, but when you use the name like you did and understand, I don't know what you did or what school department you work for, but I made reference to the school committee, the teaching and the city council work that I've done in this community, in the city of Medford. So I appreciate that you have an overview of what happens in another- It was Medford, actually. Well, in Medford, but I truly didn't even know you worked in the city. So thank you, Mr. President.
[Bears]: We don't all know everything. Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. I appreciate hearing from my fellow councilors about this. A lot to respond to. I already started out my comments with where I'm coming from in my overall approach to this issue, so I'll do my best not to reiterate myself because I don't want to bore you all. I'm going to make a couple of proposals. First, I do just want to, I do feel like it's important to emphasize this isn't about feel like this shouldn't be a controversial statement. This isn't about this school committee. This is about the school committee. Whoever is on it, any changes that we pass will be in effect. into the future. What, speaking only for myself, what we'll be voting on, I would vote on regardless of who was in those chairs, because I think that, and it was mentioned also tonight, compensation, the need to, sometimes it comes up, we discuss how should volunteers be compensated? Should we compensate volunteers? How should boards and commissions be compensated? I have been a little bit obnoxious in saying whenever it comes up, I believe that we should compensate members of all boards and commissions. I just bring that up to say, I think it's, It's really understandable that these conversations get personal. For me, this is not personal. This is about how I think this body should be compensated. Moving on from that. I appreciate Councilor Tseng's motion to raise.
[Bears]: It wasn't a formal motion.
[Collins]: It wasn't a formal motion, a bit of a hint of motion, pre-motion perhaps. I appreciate Councilor Tseng's idea around raising school committee compensation to follow the same year over year percentage increases that have occurred in the MTA contract from the numbers that we received, which would arrive at that $22,105.60 number in the year 2025. If you make that in the form of the motion, I am happy to support that. I like that for a couple of reasons. One, I've made it clear I'd like to support a proposal for a school committee compensation increase. I've been clear about that. I think anything that we do at this point, I think it makes a lot of sense for it to be not effective immediately, but go into effect at the start of the next fiscal year and be phased in in accordance with the start of future fiscal years. If you make that in the form of the motion, I will support that tonight. However, I have also been clear. We are a legislative body. We make policy. School committee is a legislative body. They make policy. I don't feel comfortable as one Councilor Tseng that I know our job to be more substantial or more work than theirs because I frankly haven't seen evidence of that. So I would also like to make the proposal in the form of a motion that school committee compensation be raised over the period of four years to be leveled to city council pay, July 1, 2024 through July 1, 2027, first two years meeting parity with that MTA contract line number, and then closing the gap in 2026 and 2027.
[Bears]: Is that a formal motion? There's been a lot of conversation. Is that a motion? You've just made a motion. Is there a second to that motion? So, conversation's over. No, there's plenty of time for more motions, and we'll take them in the order that they were made, and then we'll have public participation. Is there a second on the motion? I'll second. There's a second from Councilor Tseng. I will go to Councilor Callahan, then Councilor Tseng.
[Callahan]: Whew, wow, so much to say about this. First, I want to say that a number of years ago, the Somerville School Committee, the paraprofessionals were asking to have their salaries raised to, I think it was $25,000 a year, which I can tell you in Somerville, nor here is a living wage. I was outraged that the school committee was like, nope, flat out. wouldn't do it. And one of the reasons that they gave was that they were talking to other school committees and the other school committees from other cities didn't want Somerville to raise the wage because, oh no, then it would mean that they would be under pressure to raise the wage. And I said right there that it was my, I was incredibly disappointed. They should be proud to be the first city to do the right thing for the paraprofessionals. right? So, and I want to start off by saying how much I believe that our paraprofessionals, especially, but also our teachers are underpaid for the work that they do, how incredibly important that work is. You know, I'm boggled by the types of industries that get paid twice as much as teachers, genuinely. So, That is very important to me. And I think, unfortunately, the only way that we are going to get the things that we care about in this city to be properly funded is to increase the total budget. Because we're not going to steal from affordable housing stuff to pay the teachers. We're not going to steal from the teachers to pay for putting us in line with our climate change goals. We're not going to pay for those. We're not going to steal from one thing to pay for another. Our roads, everything is underfunded. We are wildly underfunded in Medford and we have to solve that problem. So I wanna make sure that we don't come into these detailed arguments that are like, oh, well, we can't spend this $60,000 this way because it's gonna come back and fight and compete with the other 70 things that we could spend $60,000 on, right? So I wanna talk a little bit about the value of having a genuine democracy, right? I truly believe, and this is something I've spent like seven years working with experts on, studying, training people around the country in how to get a better democracy. It's very important to me. I know a fair amount about it. So when we talk about getting better representation or good representation on a city council or on a school committee, it is not about getting people who are dedicated. It is about getting people who genuinely not only represent but vote in favor of policies that even the scales. Our government in America at all levels overly supports and overly serves people who are wealthy, people who own property, people who are white collar, people who have white collar jobs, people who are overly educated, people who are white. And when we talk about having a better democracy, it isn't about getting people who are dedicated.
[Bears]: Councilor Callahan, just if you could, if you could direct your comments to me and make sure you're speaking into it. You're fine. Yes, I apologize.
[Callahan]: New city councilor, you gotta correct me on these things.
[Bears]: You know, you're good, and I made a lot of mistakes. Not that it was a mistake, but I was corrected many times by Councilor Tarapelli. Wonderful.
[Callahan]: Great, thank you. So having run workshops around the country for many years and having, in these workshops, to create these workshops, I studied with experts, mostly in democracy and specifically in democracy at the local level. So city councils, town councils, more city councils than anything. And I'm just gonna, I pulled up here something that was from one of my workshops so that people understand that this is in, like a sphere of things you can do to structurally have a better democracy and better meaning we're not only representing home owning wealthy white people in your city. that you are properly representing the people who earn less than 50% of, you know, half the people in the city earn less than 50% of the average wage. Okay, that's the way it works. So things that you can do to make your city be better represented. are public financing of elections, having district awards, making sure you have vote-by-mail or early voting. I'm not going to read all of these. There's like two dozen of them. Are your elections on paper ballots? Is there a hand-counted audit of at least 1%? And are your elected officials paid a living wage? So the problem with this idea that it should be a volunteer effort is that there are lots of people, mostly people who earn less than 50%, less than the average wage in your city. that they just can't volunteer 20 hours a week. Neither they nor their spouse earns enough money that they are able to spend time with their families and live a decent life and pay their bills, their rent, or their groceries, or whatever it is. It's not about them not being dedicated. do the job if it doesn't pay. And I'm going to say, I don't think any of us on the city council, and I don't want to speak for other people, but in most cities, no one on the city council and no one on the school committee falls into those categories. And that's why these people are underrepresented. So I care a lot about democracy. And I genuinely believe that the right thing to do is to increase the pay of the school committee. Now, that doesn't mean, that being said, right, I also believe that as a city, as an elected city councilor, it is my style to make a bunch of, to be able to pass a lot of things that materially help people. Fix the roads. make sure all of our positions in the school are properly, that we have people who are second language teachers, that we have after school programs for everyone, that we have these things before we do anything that is either for ourselves or cultural. That is my style. So I feel incredibly uncomfortable voting on this as the very first thing that comes up in my term as a city councilor, because that is not the way that I want to serve. That is not the way that I want to serve. But I want people to understand that my viewpoint on this is not something that I come to in the last month because this particular issue came about. This is a viewpoint that I have held for many years, having worked with many experts on how to get your city to properly serve the underserved, which includes the paraprofessionals and the teachers and the other union workers who work here for the city or in the city. Those are incredibly important to me, and it's important to me that we serve those people first before we serve ourselves. But it is important because the only way you can sustain a city council or a school committee that makes those right decisions is by paying a little bit more so that we can have people on those bodies who come from those backgrounds and not just people who want to to hope to serve those people, but never actually talk to them because we all live in our own bubbles. Okay, stop there.
[Bears]: Thank you.
[Tseng]: Councilor Tseng, um, I think, Oh, given given the fact that Councilor Collins made a motion, I also just wanted to make a motion to to basically do the MTA, to have the cost of living adjustment reflect the MTA raised over those years. Over which years? Yeah, do you want formal language? Over which years, sorry? From fiscal 2000 to fiscal 2025. Right, and then over how long?
[Bears]: Over those years. Sorry, it would go up, but what would be the effective date?
[Tseng]: Oh, to have it go to $17,000 by July 1st, 2024, and up to $22,105.60 by July 1st, 2025. Okay, so it would be the 24 and 25. Right, it would be that one.
[RhUNhYl62Oo_SPEAKER_05]: All right.
[Tseng]: Sorry, I misunderstood your question. That's fine. Again, this is all about balance. This is not a proposal. This motion is not a proposal that was put out in the first place by either side of this argument, but I think it's As I told people coming into this meeting, I think this meeting is about finding a reasonable compromise. And I believe that motion brings us there. And I believe very strongly that we should take advantage of this opportunity to set a precedent and to ensure that rising tides actually lifts all boats and lifts all boats into the future and that we can hold ourselves to account with that statement as well. I believe that this specific proposal with the MTA cost of living adjustment rates brings us most closest to that idea.
[Bears]: There's a motion from Councilor Tseng to increase school committee pay based on the pay scale we discussed be around 17,000 July 1 2024 and 22,000 July 1 2025. Is there a second on that motion, second, second Councilor Leming. there was a bunch of conversation, and I'm gonna take it in order, and I'm gonna go to Councilor Collins first, and then I'll go to Councilor Callahan, and then maybe Councilor Scarpelli, or if there are others. There was a bunch of conversation before formal motions were made to make motions, and I wanna take the time to ensure that all motions are before us, before we go to public participation. So just if you had said something that you would like to be a formal motion, raise your hand and I will call on you. We'll start with Councilor Collins. Yeah.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. Thank you for your deference, Councilor Scarpelli. So we have two proposals before us. And again, I say this a lot, appreciate my fellow councilors comment. This is a sticky subject. I appreciate the conversation that we're able to have about it. I know I've already put forth a proposal. Councilor Tseng has put forth another one that I also support. I don't know which of these will advance. Coming into this meeting, I know what I want to see is some increase for school committee members, and I would also like to see us create some sort of mechanism for regularly evaluating and updating and increasing school committee compensation and that of all elected officials in a regularized way. Maybe it's an automatic COLA increase, but I think one of the things that has made this conversation very difficult is that talking about school committee pay at all is an entirely discretionary conversation for the city council to bring up. And so it's been 23 years since we have, since I think it's been very murky, who controls that and why and how does it get brought up? And I think that that's just been a disservice to the conversation. All that to say, I don't know which of, if either of the two proposals that have currently been proposed will go forward. I'd like to propose a third towards that goal of setting some sort of creating some kind of mechanism for us to revisit this more than once every 23 years when everybody thinks of it. The motion would be for this council to refer this paper to the governance committee for consideration during charter review with the goal of creating a mechanism within the updated city charter to trigger automatic COLA increases and or compensation review for all elected positions at regular interviews. And I can forward that language to you, Mr. Clerk, if you like. And just to reiterate, the goal here is to come out of this with some sort of mechanism for looking at elected compensation so that it doesn't fall by the wayside for 23 years, because I think that that is one of the ingredients in this scenario when we haven't talked about it in a couple decades. And so when we do, one of the things we contemplate is a triple digit percentage increase because it's just been so long since we talked about it. Thank you, that's my motion.
[Bears]: On the motion of Councilor Collins to refer a paper to the Governance Committee for consideration during charter review, and I'll paraphrase, I think it's to create a mechanism for review of compensation of elected officials. We'll get the specific language and we'll read back all language before final motions and votes. Is there a second on that motion? Second. Second, Councilor Tseng. I'll go to Councilor Callahan and then Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Callahan.
[Callahan]: I was only going to ask for the motions to be read more slowly before we vote.
[Bears]: Yeah, we're going to have to go back and get specific numeric and legal language when they're to be finally considered. But I think we can put the substance on the table. We can do the detail work after we've had more discussion and participation. Councilor Scarpelli, your motions?
[Scarpelli]: Yeah, first, I think the point of information is for clarity purposes, Council President. We're not, as we move forward, we're not tying in the increase if this passes with the school committee, correct? It's not, it's not, it wouldn't be voted by the school committee because in essence that would be a conflict of interest, correct? It would be something that if we do, if we do vote yes to this, that the increase would have to come from the council every year after that or put into place now. at that time, because I think it's a conflict of interest if we're having the school committee voting on something that's going to be on the same line as the teacher's contract. That's a confusion. That's all I want to clarify.
[Bears]: Yeah, no, and that's where we're going to get the specific language. I do not care. What, pursuant to the legal opinion, The school committee cannot vote to adjust its compensation. Only the council can vote to adjust its compensation. There are other laws governing the council, like we could not vote our own compensation in the term in which we're elected. There's different laws that govern our compensation. This would not tie it into the contract. There would be specific numbers effective on specific dates. And once those were in effect, let's say that the proposal for an increase in 2024 and 2025, there would have to be a new vote after 2025 from the council pursuant to this general law.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you for that, Claire. Yes, absolutely. My motion would be that the City Council lower their rate of pay the school board. To uh, equitable rate for the school committee and then follow Council sayings or, uh, process of compensation moving forward. I think that. With the. With the, uh. The fiscal our concerns and issues from all sides to be on level playing field. And that's not a political ploy. This is something that I feel strongly about, that if this is a wrong and we wanna make it right, let's make it right. Thank you, Mr. President.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Give me one second. Let me, I think it's a motion. for the council to lower its own rate of pay to the school committee rate and then increase that rate of pay based on the motion by Councilor Tseng which is based on the percentage increase for the MTA contract from fiscal 2000 to fiscal 25. That's it. All right. Is there a second on that motion?
[SPEAKER_18]: It's gonna be a difficult two years, isn't it everybody?
[U1EIl_L-LWc_SPEAKER_00]: All right, can I ask for some clarification on that?
[Bears]: Yes, Councilor Lazzaro, what's the question?
[U1EIl_L-LWc_SPEAKER_00]: Can you clarify the dollar amounts?
[Bears]: Could you repeat that, sorry?
[U1EIl_L-LWc_SPEAKER_00]: Can you clarify the dollar amounts that that would be?
[Callahan]: Can you clarify the dollar amounts?
[Bears]: For Councilor Scarpelli's resolution? Yes. Um, best that I can tell it would be blended rate that it's equitable for both parties. It would be to go down to 12,000 and then go up to no, no. It was 17 and then to 22.
[Scarpelli]: No, it would be taking our salaries, pulling together an all-stop level playing field, roughly 20,000, whatever the math comes up and then go up and then go up with what the process would be.
[Bears]: Okay. It sounds like it would be that we would all be around 20,000 and then it would go up at least to the 22,000 over the next two years.
[Lazzaro]: I'd be happy to second this. I would like to see the, I think, I just think I would want to see some clarity on the numbers a little bit more.
[Bears]: Sorry, I couldn't hear that.
[Lazzaro]: Sorry. I'm not sure why my, my computer's being fussy. I would be happy. I would be happy to second this. I would just want the numbers to be a little bit more clear. Like, would we take all of the dollar amounts of the city council salaries and the dollar amounts of the school committee salaries, even them all out for this year. And then for next year and the year after and like, and then have them all be the same, but raise them up to the level of. whatever it would land at with uh Councilor sang's final level and then we everybody would be even yeah i mean that sounds like the idea given i do not know that we can legally do that and even if we were to do that the money would not be in the schools because they're two different budgets right okay so this is my this is my hesitation i really like the idea though
[Bears]: Thanks, buddy. I'm more concerned that I don't know that we can legally take that vote, and I don't have the legal authority on it. Where's Adam? He appears from his file cabinet. All right, so there are four motions on the floor. They've all been seconded. There's a motion from Councilor Collins to use the MTA pay scale the COLAs over the last 25 fiscal years to increase school committee pay on July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2025, and then to also increase to equal pay to the current council salary July 1, 2026 and July 1, 2027, seconded by Councilor Tseng. There's a motion by Councilor Tseng to increase using the COLAs of the MTA contracts on July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2025, There's a motion from Councilor Collins to refer a paper to the Governance Committee for consideration during charter review to create a mechanism for regular automatic review and adjustment of the compensation of all elected officials. And there's a motion from Councilor Scarpelli for the council to lower its own rate of pay to the school committee to lower to even out the rate of pay between the council and the school committee take the total amount divided by the number of people serving and then to increase it based on the COLA schedule of the MTA contracts from fiscal 2000 to fiscal 2025. I believe those are the four motions on the floor. at this time, unless there are further comments by members of the Council, I'll open the floor to public participation. Again, as we did last time, please, you can come up to the podium, make a line here, you can raise your hand on Zoom. I would ask that everyone please try to respect a three-minute time frame so that we can hear from everybody. And please keep your comments directed to the topic at hand and not make them personal. Thank you.
[Eleanor O'Leary]: Hi, can you hear me?
[Bears]: Yes, we can hear you. Name and address for the record, please.
[Eleanor O'Leary]: Eleanor Brady O'Leary, 30 Norwich Circle, Secretary of the MTA, Teacher's Association, and a teacher in this school district for 33 years. What I want to say is what I heard during negotiations over and over and over. And mind you, not when one single school committee member was sitting there. I'm sorry. You cannot have that cola raised because we need to be fiscally responsible. If we heard it once, we heard it 100 times, no matter what we asked for. And I guess when I sit here and listen tonight for you to tell me that you are going to use our contract, full-time teachers, to pay part-time school committee members. It is unheard of. I'm appalled. I stayed in this district for 33 years. I was raised here. I went to school here. My father was a teacher here for 35 years. Why? Because we love this district. But when I hear this stuff, it makes my blood boil. Yes, I am retiring in June. And you know something, we fought and we fought and we fought for a contract last, the past, how many years? And I'm gonna tell you, a school committee member, one, showed up at one negotiation meeting. And I'm gonna tell you, I was at a negotiation meeting, I don't know, I'm surprised I'm not divorced. But I would say five times a week, at least. For nothing, no stipend. Why were we on that? We were on that to fight for what we believed in. Where are the school committee members tonight fighting for what they want? Why aren't they out there picketing like we did? Why aren't they offered the little small minute that we were offered? I'm sorry, I have a really hard time with it. And the other thing that I was listening as we went along, do they deserve a raise? Sure they do. But when I read in Jenny Graham's email tonight, that a teacher's raise over the course of time is 256%, it took me 33 years to go from here to here. And, I had to pay for those increments. So when I went from a bachelor's to a bachelor's 15, I had to pay for it. When I went from a master's to a master's 15 or 45, I had to pay for a school. So I put out, I don't know, $20,000 to get what? $1,000 raise each time? So when you sit there and say, they get all this money, We don't get all this money. We have to pay to get this money. And then when they turn to us and say, I'm sorry, we don't have the money to give you 3%. You're not getting it. We'll give you, I think they started at zero. Oh, 1.5. They did start at 1.5. And then they were very upset that we came back and said, no. We were off at pencils. We thought that was pretty crazy. The things that they think I don't understand. I do have a part-time job, along with, I'm gonna say 70% of the teachers. Do you think I make $30,000 in my part-time job? No, of course I don't. Why do I have a part-time job? Because I'm a school teacher. And I have two children in college. And I own a home here in Medford. So yes, people, my husband and I don't make a lot of money. So I fight for what we're going to get. And I haven't seen anyone on that school committee fighting for their race like we had to fight for us. I'm sorry I get emotional because this is my home. This is where I work, where I live, everything. And I just see it and it's driving me crazy. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_18]: I'm going to go to Zoom next.
[Bears]: Patricia Cherry on Zoom. I'll unmute you. If you could give name and address for the record, please. Patricia, are you there? All right, I'll go to Tracy on Zoom. Tracy, if you could give your name and address for the record, please.
[Clements]: Yep. My name is Tracy Clements. I live at 28 Alfred Street. And I don't attend a lot of these meetings, but I've been paying a lot more attention. And I, like everyone else, I believe people do deserve a raise. But when you read Jenny Graham's email, and she states that you're at risk of losing 30 staff when you already don't have enough. You've got buildings in disrepair. People are waiting down halls in the high school. There's multi classrooms. The school my child goes to is severely understaffed with custodians, with aides, with teachers. And I just feel like you need to think about what you're doing before and understand and look at this budget before you start voting on raising your rate for a job that you wanted to run for, you got elected for, I understand you want to make money. But reading Jenny Graham's email was really disheartening to see some of that stuff and to stand up there and say, you're going to make What just and I don't I don't remember what the pay increases for years three and four, but if it's It sounds like it's going to be an enormous jump and if you already don't have the money now And there's really no plan in place to get any more money from the city because you're not doing props You're not putting anything in place on on the ballots to get more money. So I guess it's just really disheartening as a parent to see how hard these teachers work day in and day out And then to see like the previous speaker just said not one school committee person like fighting for this They're just assuming they're going to get it. So it's just And maybe some of them don't even want it so I can't even speak for all of them It's just really disheartening as just a citizen of medford to see how bad the schools are but yet, you know reaping the benefits of Money, that's not even there
[Bears]: Thank you, Tracy. I'm going to go back to the podium. Name and address for the record, please.
[Anthony]: My name is Anthony Guillen. I live at 45 Elm Hill Avenue in Leamington, Massachusetts, and I am the president of the Med Fatiges Association. like to start today, while it has been unpopular to just read out what other spoke of many snake in the surrounding towns, as was mentioned by Councilor Scott Peli Malden $12,000 a year, some level $15,000 a year. Everett $12,500 a year, Belmont is unpaid, and Arlington is $3,500. And I've heard arguments that a higher stipend or a higher yearly salary for a school committee member will attract lower income people. And the hard truth of it is, the financial barrier is not once you get elected. I've worked in local politics in many different levels, the financial barrier is running. So there is a barrier already in place. So we cannot pretend that an increase in the stipend is going to attract lower income candidates because they don't have the money to start with. This is the matter of putting a down payment on a house argument. If you don't have the money for the down payment, you can't afford the mortgage. So I find it to be a disingenuous argument. I'd also like to address again, as we got the email from school Councilor Graham on this hypothetical teacher who jumped from $30,000 in FY 2000 to $106,000 in FY 24. I'd like to point out that to jump from a bachelor's to a master's is $7,500 per semester. If you go to a program like I did at UMass Boston, which is one of the cheaper programs you can get your teaching certificate at, So you're looking at an average of four semesters, five semesters, depending on what you can do. The plus 45 attached to that master's comes with programs you have to pay for out of pocket. So. you're already spending money to get these changes. And again, this comparison is not culpable. As an order to gain this increase, the teacher has to work the job for 24 years. This doesn't attach the money to the position, it attaches it to the teacher and it's there to keep them there, right? So we cannot compare a teacher who has worked for 24 years to a position that may rotate in and out because the next teacher who takes over for that teacher isn't getting that pay, that pay goes down. I also wanna address that when we were here last time speaking on this budget, many paraprofessionals came to speak, and after the meeting, they were pulled in for disciplinary hearings on what they said at this council. Members of the school committee felt it was their duty to tell an educational professional to take their beating in silence, and I would like to say this, as the president of the union, as a teacher, and as a parent of a child who is in a special education program, that anyone who asks for silence from the workers who help our students is not abdicating for the students, they're abdicating for the status quo. Nothing else.
[Scarpelli]: Point of information, point of information, Councilor Villescaz. I hate to interrupt, If this is true, have anybody filed? Because this is serious.
[Anthony]: This is a paraprofessional. I am not privy to who has filed. That is a different union.
[Scarpelli]: I was spoken to by the head of the paraprofessionals union. Again, this is one of the issues that I heard myself, so thank you.
[Anthony]: Good. I'd like to end speaking tonight reiterating what I stated in September. Our football coaches make $3,000 to $6,000 less a year than our neighboring school districts. Our basketball and hockey coaches $2,000 to $3,000 less Our senior class advisors are given $1,000 annually to plan the prom, to plan graduation, to plan the gifts. They start at a freshman level at $600 to plan the events. We have several people who put on dances and put on events for the school that are paid almost nothing or nothing. And the money that's being talked about today can make a difference there. I'm not going to overstate how much money it is, but it can make a difference to the stipends. And to be honest, the people who have been running our sports programs have been waiting for a raise just as long as school committee. There has not been movement on that for a long time. And I will acknowledge we are in negotiations currently on that. But again, that has to move at our pace, whereas this seems to be moving much faster. So I thank you for your time. I thank you for the opportunity to speak.
[Bears]: I'm going to go to Patricia Cherry on Zoom. I'd also like to back up for it. Name and address for the record, please.
[Cherry]: Patricia Cherry, 20 Wellesley Street, Method Mass.
[Campbell]: Thanks, Patricia.
[Cherry]: Go ahead. I first want to start with a quick question just to clarify something. This money that we're talking about that we're going to be using to give the raise to the school committee, are those funds available to be used for anything other than that? could they be used for for teachers? pay? Could it be used for paraprofessionals pay? Or is this a different fund?
[Bears]: Under the proposals that have been proposed going to an effect? Yes, July 1 2024. I mean, it's it's money that is appropriated by the city budget. So it could go to any rated amount.
[Cherry]: It could Okay, because I just thought last time we were talking about it, that it was being said that could only be used for raises for the school committee. She's talking about raises.
[Bears]: Yeah, I mean, again, Patricia, just I have a point of clarification that we do not negotiate contracts. We don't set the appropriation of any item school budget as a city council, except for this one item. This is the only item that is set by the city council.
[Cherry]: Okay. All right. And so for me, I mean, I do think the school committee needs a raise. I do think that they're underpaid. The amount that you guys are talking about is a stretch. Um, I also think this comes at a really bad time. Like we're just starting off the year and you guys are like paying for a job that we haven't even seen anybody do yet. So it just, it's kind of disheartening in that. But again, with that being said, I do think the school committee does need a raise. I just think that the amount that you're looking at is just right now, not something that we can afford. Um, to the schools are underfunded, understaffed. Um, it could be used in better ways, I think anyways. But I did want to touch on one other thing. I think it was the gentleman who just stood up and it was said earlier about some comments that were made at the last meeting by paraprofessionals that were standing up and talking about how difficult their jobs are. And we all do know they are difficult. But what I thought was a little bit much is the way that they were coming up and speaking of the children that they take care of. It was kind of degrading as a mother of a child with special needs, it made it seem like all kids, because they kept saying high needs, high needs, high need classrooms, high need classrooms, that's all they were talking about. Well, these kids were fighting and spitting and kicking it made it seem like every single kid in the classroom was doing that. So when I walked away from that, yeah, I was upset. And I was one who complained, because you know what, you already put it and my kids already stigmatized as it is, you just put some more on them. So I wanna make that point to the guy who just stood up too, that that wasn't fair. Again, our kids are already fighting to stay afloat, getting up there and making it seem like they're the only ones that are giving teachers and paraprofessionals a problem was a joke. Because I can tell you, they're not the ones out there stabbing kids in bathrooms. They're not the ones out there punching each other. They're not the ones out there having fights. So next time you should just do it as an overall and say, All kids are an issue. We have a high job because all kids can be disciplined problems, not just high needs. That's just a little food for thought for next time. But yeah, so that's all I really have to say. Thank you guys for the work you do.
[Bears]: Thank you, Patricia. I'm seeing no more hands raised on Zoom. I will go to the podium. Name and address for the record, please.
[Buckley]: Walter Buckley, president of Local 1032 Method Firefighters 340 Salmon Street. I spoke in December at the meeting when it was first raised. I just want to reiterate that the teachers and the fire department and the DPW and some of those small unions in this city have just negotiated their contracts. The police are currently out of a contract for over a year. For around 3%, say. So this raise right here would take us 49 years to get to 148%. 49 years. And you guys are talking again about equality. Well, Boston Fire makes $150,000. We don't make close of that and we get laughed out of the city hall for trying to negotiate that. So just a point of information there. It's sad that it's come to this and I don't know what kind of rules, are there rules to this meeting? Are you guys following the Robert rules or anything like that? Or is it just a meeting?
[Bears]: been following the rules, are there rules?
[Buckley]: Well, I'm confused because Councilor Collins made a four-year motion that Councilor Zhang seconded, and then Councilor Zhang made a motion for two years. Would that not be an amendment to the motion, or is it just taking a bunch of motions?
[Bears]: They filed as separate motions. We'll take them in order, and we'll read the full language. We haven't taken votes on the motions. I made my choices chair that I wanted to hear from the public before we.
[Buckley]: I'm just trying to for clarification.
[Bears]: Yeah, no, they're separate motions. I don't know. There may be further amendments to the motions, but we'll take them in the order that.
[Buckley]: Again, I just want to reiterate, we settled for a little around 3% and that would take 49 years to get that. So that's a little food for thought.
[Bears]: Thank you. We do now have some hands on zoom. I'm going to go to Paul Garrity on zoom and then I'll come back to the podium. Paul, name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good evening. My name is Paul Geraghty, 40 Cedar Road in Medford. During tonight's conversation, I heard a number of items mentioned relative to the amendments. One was a regular evaluation. Another one was passing this before the city charter for you. My question is if it's in this the charter committee with some sort of evaluation process put in place. Will there be any wording to the effect about metrics for performance? I'm hearing evaluations and the job we're going to do. But I'd like to see somewhere along the line some standards that the committees have to be held. Some major project has to be completed, some proposal that's being funded for the year. But somewhere along the line, If the members of the council and the school committee are looking for pay and pay for performance, I would like to have some wording in the final writing of the bill, if it goes forward, in terms of specific metrics for performance. And if they're reached, fine. If they're not reached, then there needs to be some kind of consequences or other alternatives. I just don't want to catch a cold. Thank you.
[Bears]: Thank you, Paul. I do not know that we have the authority to implement that. Certainly under this process, I don't know if the charter process would be different. Go to the podium. Name and address for the record, please.
[nSaVwvkinrs_SPEAKER_00]: Hi there. My name is Maureen Lavin. I'm a teacher in the metropolitan public school system at the Andrews. Um, again, I had no intention of speaking tonight, but I guess I can't help myself. Um, a couple of things. Um, it seems like everybody's all over the place. So to put a vote forward would seem crazy. I think that, like, getting numbers and whatnot in order seems like that's what you folks are going to do, which is great. because it's confusing sitting here listening to all kinds of numbers flying around. Now, I don't think anybody is opposed to anybody getting a pay increase, but correct me if I'm wrong. These are stipend positions, right? Are these stipends? I'm asking.
[Bears]: In what sense? I receive a weekly paycheck.
[nSaVwvkinrs_SPEAKER_00]: So it's a weekly paycheck, but is it considered a stipend?
[Bears]: The school committee? We're W-2 employees at the city of the school districts.
[nSaVwvkinrs_SPEAKER_00]: Okay, okay. So my concern is that the huge increase given the state of what's happening in our schools, which has been brought up by many people, but this is a part-time position, right? And somebody spoke to making a living wage Well, this is not a living wage position. If you want a living wage, go get a full time job. I mean, I'm a teacher. And I've always had two jobs while teaching. The only time I haven't had two jobs is when I was paying for my own advanced education. And that's how we get like a a better pay increase, which has been brought up. Because otherwise, as teachers, the more we work, the less we make, because don't forget, many other unions here, they get overtime, we do not. And the paraprofessionals that spoke last week, I don't think anybody meant to offend anybody, but those paraprofessionals tend to be the ones that are in those high needs classrooms. And I don't think that the general public understands what that is on a day-to-day basis. I don't think anybody was trying to offend anybody, but I really, would like to see folks visit our schools and see what the day-to-day is for us. We have trouble getting substitutes. School committee, come on down, spend a day once a week and sub at a different school in a different subject. As a paraprofessional, see what our day-to-day is. It's important that we see the whole picture. And there was many conversations that took place that, oh, I didn't realize that's what was happening in the schools. Well, how can you speak to that if you don't know what's happening in the schools? So I really, as city councilors, I really hope that you dig in a little bit deeper into what's actually happening in the school systems. We've had rain, a lot of rain, and the schools were affected by that. This is not something new. It just was over the top with the amount of rain that took place. But every day, the buildings leak. This is not anything new. We have problems with our facilities. But I'm gonna just back up one step. Our coaches, and our paraprofessionals need to get a better salary. than what's happening. It would make no sense at all to put a huge increase into the school committee before our full-time paraprofessionals. And our coaches, like Anthony said, haven't had an increase. It's probably the lowest paying salary or the stipends, because they get stipends, one of the lowest paid stipends in the area. So I do appreciate the data. We all like data. What do the school committees make in other districts that are similar to ours? Nobody's making 20 plus thousand dollars. Nobody is. Somerville is 15. I looked that up. Melrose, guess what they make? Nothing. They don't make anything. It's a volunteer position. We appreciate that you're here doing a service for our community. But you can't expect a fair wage. It's not a full-time job. Go get a job and then do this part-time. I have a full-time job and I have a part-time job because I'm a teacher. And that's what we do. We have two jobs. And now I have to come here tonight when I'm exhausted from working two jobs because I'm trying to fight for the rest of us. So please consider that I don't know, I you know, I hope that there's more that goes on than one against everybody. I hope that you guys can collaborate. Because that's how things get done. When you work together, see each other's point of view. And don't Don't just focus. We're programmed. You say yes, and everybody follows in line and says yes. And then that one person says no. Let's work together here. That's for the greater good of our community. And we need that from you people. And we need that from our school committee. And I'm gonna leave, end with this. When I want a pay increase, I show up and ask for it. I don't see anybody here asking for a pay increase. When we want to pay increase, we ask for it. How many of the school committee members have asked for a raise? Because maybe they should be here and say, yes, I'd like a raise. No, I do not. Like, let's get a poll on who wants it. Because are we just going to give out a raise to a group of people that one person wants to raise? Or does the whole body want the raise? We need to work smarter here, and we need to take care of the people on the front line who deal with the children. Our kids are the most important thing, your kids are the most important thing, and we need to serve them fully. That's all I have, thank you.
[Bears]: I'm going to go to Gina Koffler on Zoom, and then I'll come back to Anna for you. Gina, you're gonna have to unmute.
[SPEAKER_18]: Okay.
[gqBOBLNPKLQ_SPEAKER_14]: Sorry, sorry, I was busy doing busy doing things, you know, things for the health of parents. So it's Gina Coppola. I'm president of the PEP professionals, Kids Corner, OTAs, PTAs, anything that has to do with assistance. First and foremost, let me apologize. Great. like mother and father, because I know what you go through every day. But I want to say that as 122 members, this has taken this is not a fight to say that a child comes in and fights a paraprofessional? Absolutely not. And another thing that was written to me in an email is that paraprofessionals go up to school committees and say about disabilities so that we can get more money. Hell no. Our kindergarten teachers are making $17,000. They're using Google Translate all day long on their own phones, not reimbursed. just to make sure, because I've always said to them, make sure that the child can say, I need to go to the bathroom, I need a drink of water. And they said to me, Don't worry about it. We have a Google Translate. Oh, citizens pay for that. They don't care. They just care about races. Okay. So let's start with some sort of, you know, mechanism for useful tools, maybe a walkie hockey, maybe some kids get into the building, maybe a computer, maybe a translator, maybe paying for people that are changing diapers, for people that are cranking. So you don't know what we do. And I apologize if it looks like Is it the student's fault? Absolutely not. Students have nothing to do with this. They are every day fighting just to be the best person that they can be because we love kids with disabilities. We love any kids. And I can tell you that maybe if somebody said, okay, I got hurt in the eye, but that had nothing to do with the child, they're saying the job is a little volatile, not the child. So I really, I just want to, I want to say how we appreciate any student, but we are also called off onto the table every day. What did you say? What did you do? How did you handle it? Where did you go? Were you wearing perfume? Were you wearing lipstick? Did you eat tuna fish? Did you have a cup of coffee? Where's your phone? Hey, enough. Listen to us. We're here to educate. And we educate when we educate. We belong, we educate the community, not just the child. So I appreciate Ian, Councilor Ian, for even saying paraprofessionals, because nobody has ever said that word before in any chambers, including the mayor. And George, you know, we love you down here. So I appreciate you. And other councillors, I trust in you. I know you'll do the right thing. but 17,000 translating people, changing practice, breaking people. No, not good at all. So let's show some spirit, some community spirit. Let's have the school committee come to all members, teachers, and every public employee, and sit at the table just like we do, and negotiate with us this time. We'll negotiate with you for a raise, just like we're told there's no money. I thank you for your time, Councilor Bears and everybody else, and I appreciate all my co-workers that are up here speaking for me. Thank you. God bless.
[Bears]: Thank you, Gina. Can I have your name and address for the record, please?
[Silberman]: Hannah Silberman, 15 Maynard in Bedford. I teach at Roberts Elementary School, and again, that's the second largest school in the district, second only to Medford High School. And again, if we're going to talk about equity, I think that we should start with our zoning and redistricting issues that lead to inequitable student numbers in our elementary schools. And if you're wondering why our chamber is a bit empty this evening it's because teachers are really frustrated really disheartened by this whole resolution and feel that it's hopeless to be here that there was no point in us being here tonight, and that you've already made up your minds anyways, just like last time is what I heard today. What I heard last time we were here was that a lot of the issues that we raised were news to you, that you were grateful to us for bringing these issues to your attention, and you asked us to please come to more city council meetings and make our voices heard. And listen, we're tired. It's already past my bedtime, and these kids don't teach themselves. This job gets harder every single year. And it was my understanding that it's the job of the school committee to inform you of issues pertaining to the schools, not our job. And if the school committee is not doing their job, then why are we giving them such a huge raise? It seems like City Council would rather spend school funding repairing the relationship with school committee than repairing our flooding, molding buildings. City Council gets to vote on giving themselves and giving a school committee, giving school committee a raise whenever they want. Teachers, however, do not get to give ourselves a raise. We stand outside in the freezing cold with signs for a 3% raise. We bust our tails continuing our education with the latest best practices. We have to constantly fund our own education on our teacher salaries while working multiple jobs. With every tone-deaf resolution like this passed, Medford loses more and more credibility. Who would want to work for a school district that puts more money and more funding into administration than school and student support? This resolution is going to give the mayor an extra 30-ish thousand dollars a year from our school budget. There's already a very limited pool of funding, and taking away from that is going to decrease the chances of student success. You say that school committee should be representative of the city of Medford. Yes, absolutely. And so should our schools. You're saying that you need the salaries to be competitive. Yes, absolutely. And so do we. We are trying to get the best applicants possible to work with our students. And to do so, we have to attract those applicants. There's a continued list every single week in the superintendent's email of positions we cannot fill. And if we want to fill those positions, our salaries need to be competitive. And they are not right now. Which is why all of these positions have been open since the beginning of the school year. If you're using the school budget, then we should be talking about using this money on people that our students see every single day in front of them, that they can learn from, that they can connect with, not a politician who stops by the school once a year for a photo op. Giving the school committee members a raise is one thing, but giving them a raise of this size from our already underfunded school budget is fiscally irresponsible. Please do the right thing and spend school funding on what's important, the students. Thank you.
[Bears]: Seeing no other hands raised on Zoom, I will go to the podium.
[McGilvey]: Thank you. Harry McGillivray for Piedmont Road, Medford. It's a very interesting meeting. I've heard a lot of things that were really interesting tonight. I've been negotiating contracts with the city since 2002 for the police patrolman's union. I'm no longer in that union. I'm in the supervisor's union. And I have a position on that executive board, but I have a decent amount of experience negotiating contracts. And a couple of things jumped out at me tonight. Like when I heard Councilor Zang talk about inflation, We're not allowed to bring inflation up at the table. So when we signed our last contract, gallon of gas was probably $1.99, home heating, oil was probably $2.39. No one cares. When we're at the bargaining table, no one cares. I think President Buckley can back me up on this. We talk about COLA like it's a cost of living. We have never received a raise in the 20 plus years that I've been negotiating contracts that rises up to a cost of living. It's always about one and a half, 2%. Am I right to say that, Eddie? So I'm not gonna, I make a good salary. I love my job. This is what I wanted to do. But you know, you mentioned Somerville. They didn't want to be the first ones. Well, that's what the MMA's purpose is. The MMA's purpose is to collaborate and tell each other, don't give the firemen this, don't give the teachers that, don't give the police this, because if you do, we all have to do it. So We all have to stay together on this side of the room as bargaining units, teachers, fire, police. And when we get there, we deal with canceled meetings. We deal with, sorry, not enough. We deal with, our staffing's been down since 2000 and probably six. We've never met the staffing levels that we were promised. Equipment, we deal with all that stuff. So, Any union member would never say they're against the pay raise. No one's against anybody receiving a pay raise or an increase in benefits or a better wage package, anything that will improve the quality of life. What we are saying is let's treat everybody fairly. I would love to get a four-year deal that Councilor Collins proposed. That's a tremendous four-year deal. So, and then one last comment which really caught my attention. I heard about renters. Well, I'm a homeowner in this city, so go easy on me when you wanna raise my taxes. I got three kids I'm paying college tuitions on. So, go easy, thank you.
[Bears]: Thank you for your comment. Name and address for the record, please.
[O'Hare]: Doreen O'Hare, 325 Malden Street in Medford. I am appalled that this snuck under the radar, the last meeting in December, when city councilors were leaving conveniently, new members join. I think you need to take a look and educate everyone, because these motions flying around don't make any sense to anyone. on this side of the fence, OK? And I'll tell you, to sit there and say you want to file a motion for every year incremental increases is absurd. You don't know what the budget's going to be. So how can you just say, we're going to just automatically do this, blindfolded? And the main thing that I heard tonight, and this is really what got me up here, is the fact that somebody reported that a paraprofessional that came to this meeting and brought facts to the table were tried to be silenced, are you kidding me? Every single one of you on this panel needs to look in the mirror every day and realize we have some serious fiscal concerns in this community. We are severely underfunded across the board. It's not like anybody's got huge amounts of money flying around. You know, to Councilor Scarpelli's point, the ARPA money, right? It's gone. You know, we need to look at that and be fiscally responsible. I have never been so passionate about this community as I am right now. Because I'm talking to the people of the community of Medford right now. Wake up, show up, and pay attention. Because these people were voted in on a platform, okay? So you can sit there and vote on your platform, But the people here are the ones that are gonna vote you in next time. So think of it and really please do right by our community because we need you. We need your vote on common sense. Thank you.
[James O'Leary]: Good evening, James Chippell Larry 30 Norwich Circle, Medford, lifelong resident, and a Medford taxpayer. a couple things brought up tonight. Mr. Scarpelli asked for a meeting with the school committee to sit down and talk about this. I was surprised this was not brought in as a motion. And I think that issue has been brought up for years. The school committee and the city council need to sit down and talk about what's going on budget-wise. It's important so the people who have children in our schools know what's taking place. The other problem that's going on, we were promised a new firehouse. Haven't seen that yet, have we? Okay, so we're gonna give the school committee members a raise and still not have a firehouse. Last time I spoke, I think I talked about everybody coming together. There's a lot of empty storefronts in Medford, but you go to Winchester, Stoneham, Malden, Somerville, Arlington, not a lot of empty storefronts, a lot of businesses doing a great job. You can go to Winchester on a Friday night, five restaurants all within walking distance, always packed. Go to Malden, same thing, five restaurants, always packed. And I see you shaking your head because you agree with me, Mr. Beals, correct? We could have a stronger business district, I agree. So why are we worried about that? Again, no school committee members here tonight. The people who wanted this are not here. The person- There's one school committee member here. I'm sorry. But she didn't bring this up. She did not bring this up and she spoke at that last meeting saying she was not in favor of this. And the person who brought this up is not here either to reinforce it. You know, this is what I talk about. This city is so split right now, okay? So many different sides against each other. We need to come together. It starts right here. The seven of you, bring this city together. Don't pass this. People are still without contracts. I'm a custodian of the school system. I was out there at five o'clock this morning, getting the school ready. And I still haven't had a contract in two and a half years. All right, let's do the right thing. And I'm gonna close by saying one thing. My wife spoke earlier, 33 years as a teacher. This is her last year. So next year when they hire somebody to take her job, that job's only gonna be a $60,000 job, okay? If that, thank you.
[Bears]: And an address for the record, please.
[Jessica Taddeo]: Hi, I'm Jessica Taddeo. I live at 50 Fellsview Ave in Medford. I want to first acknowledge before I begin speaking that I'm not necessarily coming up here in support of one side or the other. I just want to, you know, offer some thoughts about what I've been hearing. I appreciate the teachers showing up in full force. I'm sorry I have my back to you. It feels wrong, but I appreciate the discourse tonight. I appreciate the openness of the council to hear. the public debate, but I do want to encourage all of you on both sides of this debate that there is a moral responsibility to have this argument with all of the facts and all of the understanding. From my understanding, this would not come at the direct cost of teachers. I don't believe that this council is sitting here and saying we either give money to these teachers now or give it to the elected officials. And it's also my understanding that you don't necessarily have jurisdiction over the contracts if they're not up for debate. So let's also be mindful of that because people who are listening to this debate and may not be participating in the same capacity as we are, are gonna hear that and they're gonna walk away with an incorrect impression of how this issue plays out. And that is not to disagree with the teachers because I come from a family of teachers. My mother is a teacher, my grandmother is a teacher. Um, I substitute teach in Lynn public schools, one, because my mother is an assistant principal there, but also because my free doesn't pay the subs enough. And so I have to make that decision for my well being in my economic situation. But there are also people who want to hold office and do hold office that are making those same calculations based on their economic decisions. And we should be able to have a conversation about pay increases without devaluing the work of teachers, but also not devaluing the work of elected officials. It's hard to do both of those jobs. It's hard to do them in conditions where you feel like people don't understand what you go through on a day-to-day basis. And so when you're having this debate, please be mindful of what you want to see reflected in your elected office holders. You probably want teachers to run for office so you know that somebody's there that understands what the school looks like on a day to day basis. But teachers aren't going to go run for office if the pay isn't there because they know what it's like to have to stretch to make ends meet. And also, I understand that many of you have multiple sources of income and have multiple jobs, but we shouldn't accept that as like normal. Nobody should have to work three jobs. Nobody should have to be a school teacher and pay your student loans and go to grad school, but also wait tables and also babysit and also do a million other things. We shouldn't accept that from anybody. And we also have to be mindful of when we're having these conversations about resolutions and pay cuts, is that not everyone is an established individual that owns property that can afford to take a pay cut. I lost my job earlier this year and it was a very difficult time for me and I'm still going through that. And people rent and that costs money and people lose their jobs all the time. So I just encourage everybody to be mindful about making false equivalencies, about devaluing any form of labor. and continue to have this discussion in good faith, but recognize the work of both sides, of our teachers, of our elected officials, and what's setting a standard of decorum, a standard of work, a standard of living. What are you going to establish when you pass this law, when you pass this ordinance? What does that mean? And I encourage you all to keep an open mind and understand that, you know, I voted for most of you up here and I would not have voted if I thought you were going to screw teachers and schools over. And I don't think that's the case. And they're not going to screw teachers and schools over because that's not what I voted you all in to do. And so I trust that you will be mindful and the optics are bad. And maybe if there's a way to have this vote later, have it later. But I also encourage the schools, please do not devalue the elected officials that fight for you every day in their personal and their professional lives. Because a different city council probably wouldn't support you in the way that you would want. So I encourage you to think about that as well. And thank you for your time, everyone.
[Bears]: Thank you.
[O'Hare]: name and address for the record. It's Dorino here, 325 Malden Street, Medford. Just two points that I forgot in my passionate discussion, and I didn't have any notes, so bear with me. Two things I'd like you to consider. We are expecting an increased volume of students, possibly due to migrants as well. And are we prepared if you voted to file this, let's say, an increase, are you prepared for a walkout from your teachers? Something to consider, because you know what? If they're not making a lot of money, I'd walk. And, you know, that's all. And it is definitely coming out of the budget of the school, because it could be used for the school. That was already discussed earlier. So this approval would impact the community, bottom line.
[Bears]: Thank you. Anyone else like to speak? Anyone on public participation, anyone on Zoom? that. If I may, Councilor Tseng just before, and this will be pretty much all I have to say, and then I'll try to go through the motions, and I did also try to given the feedback of the audience tried to put these proposals into a graphical representation, which I'll show, which should make it easier for us to understand and compare them. I appreciate everything that's been said. I mean, we're going through the deliberative process. Something that I said in December was that it was an initial proposal that would be considered and further vetted by the council, which we're doing this evening and may continue. We'll see what happens with the motions that pass. I just wanna say very simply that I do not think that any union or bargaining unit in the city would go for 23 years without a compensation increase. I don't think anyone would accept that, right? Is there anyone who would say that's, you know, we'll go for 23 years and then after 23 years we'll come back and we'll ask for 2%. So, excuse me? All right, thank you, thank you. I'm gonna continue now. So as I was saying, I don't think there's, Mr. McGilvery, if you could just let me speak. I don't think there's anyone in this community who would accept that. Any union leader, any union member who would say, oh, after 23 years, we'll start at two, we'll start 2% for the next four years. So it's a false equivalence to compare, oh, let's address 23 years of no adjustment to compensation and say, oh, we're starting down to 23 years, we'll let that go. Zeroes for 23 years, we'll start 2% now. No one would accept that. So it's a false equivalence to say that we would. And that's the only thing I'm gonna say to this. There's something that has happened for 25 years. For whatever reason, the council here for 23 years, sorry, never chose to take action on this. If a mayor held out on a union for 23 years or a school committee held out on a contract for 23 years, I mean, we all know that would never happen. right, the union would take action to stop that from happening. So I just want to put that out there. It's just a false equivalency. And that's the one piece of the discussion tonight that that stuck with me and kind of I didn't feel was a fair representation of the facts. But beyond that, I appreciate the discussion from everyone tonight. I appreciate the further proposals, I think, as the motions have been made to look at longer times of phase in and lesser amounts. And we'll see those motions are considered going forward. And I will go now to the podium, Mr. Mayor.
[McGilvey]: Thank you. Harry McGilvey for Piedmont Road. You're right. Nobody would accept 23 years without a pay raise. You're 100% right. And I said, there's not a union member probably here that would be against someone getting a pay raise. But a false equivalency is what you just said. We work under three-year bargaining, bargain contracts. The school committee and the city council are not bargaining units. They don't work under contracts. There's no collective bargaining here. You folks run for office at a salary that has been established. Everybody who puts their hat in the ring, and I give you credit for putting your hat in the ring and seeking public office, I do. But you know what you're getting into. And then to get elected after the election is over and the dust settles, it's a bad look. to then go to the taxpayers and say, we're going to give ourselves a pay raise.
[Bears]: Well, we're not going to give ourselves a pay raise.
[McGilvey]: I understand. Let's not get. What I'm trying to say, what we what I think what's trying to what we're trying to say here tonight is. We're not treated. We're not treated fairly most of the time during contract negotiations, and it's frustrating to see something like this happen. You saw the teachers and the firefighters outside this building all last year. You saw them at different events throughout the city. We should not have to get to that to get a 2% pay raise. And everybody works. It's a fact of life. Everybody works one, two jobs. It depends on where you wanna be. That's gonna gauge how hard you work, okay? So I appreciate what you were saying, but to say 23 years, we wouldn't stand for that. We're under collective bargaining agreements that by law go every three years. Chapter 150E is a very strong union chapter in mass general law for bargaining units, and we appreciate it. Thank you.
[Bears]: I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. McGilvery. I certainly would not negotiate the way that previous contract negotiations were negotiated.
[Tseng]: I believe Councilor Tseng. Councilor Tseng. Thank you, President Bears, and thank you for all the feedback, for the public participation, even if we don't see eye to eye with the proposals I put forward on the floor. I do think it's really important to clarify some things for the audience watching, and the audience online as well, which I should note, which is just to clarify the proposal, at least that I put forward on the floor, and to really get a better grasp of it. So the first thing is, My proposal follows the rates of the increases over the years. It doesn't follow the amount increase over the years. And because the school committee pay starts at a lower amount, this is actually a smaller total amount than what we would see for the average teacher. But this is the same percentage rate. And I keep hearing I mean, maybe it's not about this proposal, but the percentage change figures of things in the hundreds, which is not true. This proposal that I put forward is a 2.48% annual increase, or a percentage annual increase, which I've heard 3% be standard for some unions. I've heard other percentages. This is the MTA, what's standard for the MTA over that period of time, which tracks very, closely to inflation. I also took a second to calculate the actual dollar impact of this proposal as well by fiscal 2026. And so in fiscal 26, the proposal I've laid on the floor will cost taxpayers $35,472.40, which is not that much. And to be completely clear, we can't fill empty positions at that rate. I think we should be careful of false equivalencies we're taking. from some people and giving to others because that's number one, not how the budget works. And number two, we're talking about $35,472.40. And I think the conversations that we're having tonight that we've had over the last month really underscores a bigger question of underfunding in the terms of millions. not thousands of dollars or thousand dollars. We need to have a conversation about business districts and about ballot measures and about zoning, right? We need to have a conversation about those things. For example, the council recently passed, or the last council passed at the end of the year, a Medford Square ordinance change that would redevelop Medford Square and bring business and investment money in, right? That's stuff over the longer term that we can use for our schools. I think it's also really important to note that we also can't legally break a contract to give a raise as much as I personally would want to. And sadly, $35,000 probably doesn't split great over the amount of staff that we have. I think, you know, to the point that about the living wage. I am sympathetic to the point from the fellow Councilor. I think the living wage is an ideal, and I want to be very clear that neither the proposal I've laid out on the floor or the proposal that Councilor Collins has on the floor would make this job necessarily a living wage. It would just make it more justifiable to take. So I think it's important to clarify all those points as well. There's one more point that I wanted to bring up, and it's one point that I'm particularly sympathetic towards, that of the paraprofessionals. And the way that we have it phased in would almost definitely ensure in either proposal, given contract negotiations, that school committee members do not make more than the lowest paid paraprofessionals. I have the paraprofessional salary chart in front of me. And if the lowest paid pair of professionals being paid $17,000, then we should definitely have a connect them with human resources, because that is not what the contract says. And they're being mispaid. And so we should work on that if that's if that's the case, because the lowest figure I have is $20,500. um, for for kindergarten needs, which is again definitely way too low. It's unjustifiable. But in my opinion, voting for an increase, um, a reasonable increase, a compromise proposal, um, would basically allow us to lift all boats and to give us a reason to lift all boats as well. Thank you. I think that's they're saying Councilor living.
[Leming]: Just first off, I would like to thank MTA President Gehan for bringing up the issue about the paraprofessional receiving disciplinary action. I know that Ms. Cherry also commented on it, but any information that you're free to email about that to me, I would very much appreciate just to learn more about that particular situation. This is just a broader point that echoes a lot of what's been said. For a long time Medford's been penny smart and dollar stupid. So we're talking about the, when we're talking about the total operating budget of Medford, it's just above about $200 million. Somerville's is between seven and 800 million. Cambridge's is about a billion. If you're considering the sort of per capita operating budget, so the amount of money spent per person in a municipality, Medford's is one of the lowest for a substantially sized city in the state of Massachusetts. Basically, We have been trying to cut costs here and there for a very long period of time, and that's the reason that right now we can't pay teachers what they deserve to be paid when we're talking about when we're talking about exchanging. in the grand scheme of things, relatively small amounts of money here and there when we're talking about cutting staff costs, that can save money in a given fiscal year. It does not save money in the long term. We need to start thinking about fiscal responsibility in terms of investing in ourselves in the long term, not saving money in the very short term. I would, but yes, I, Once again, I very much sympathize with the teacher's views on this. The optics are terrible, and I appreciate your presence here tonight. Thank you very much for your time.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Lemme. There is one more hand on Zoom. I just saw a raise. I will go to Brianna Martinetti on Zoom. You should be unmuted. Name and address for the record, please. And if not, I'll press the button again. It's going to give you a pop-up. We still can't hear you. Let me try that again. I'm going to press a button, and it should pop up and ask you to unmute. I can't actually make it unmute you, and I apologize for that. And maybe it's on the phone. It should be kind of a dialog box with a blue button in it. I see you looking for it. I'm really sorry. If I could just unmute you, I would, but it doesn't let me.
[Scarpelli]: Council President Washington is searching, can I just make a comment?
[Bears]: Uh, sure.
[Scarpelli]: There was something that was passed by. And I think that as a, as a former coach of 32 years, I didn't realize that coaches haven't been paid, haven't got an increase in 20 years as well. So that might be something that, um, we should remember just for the budget process, because I think all of us realize the importance that they, they play in our lives. So I know it's great. A lot of those coaches have been there for 20 years, you know, a coach like Louis Jerry.
[Bears]: But thank you. Thank you, Councilor Skowale. Do you wanna do that in the form of a motion or? No. Okay. Here, let's try this one. I'm gonna ask you to unmute again. There we go. Is it working now? Can you address for the record, please?
[SPEAKER_26]: Hey, yeah, this is Grant Marnetti, 188 Washington Street in Medford. I heard, Justin, you had just mentioned that 35,000 was not much for taxpayers. As a taxpayer, that's really insulting to hear. I'm going to be honest, like, I don't hold it against renters being here, but to spend someone else's money and just say it so blatant is insulting. You know, I heard Councilor Scarpelli mention that he was willing to give up some of his pay for that. I think to put this on a level playing field, For you to say that, I think you should be willing to pay the average tax and the average rate that Medford citizens pay. And if you do that, I think it would be a lot easier to sit there and spend my money. That's all I have to say.
[Bears]: Thank you. Any other comments from members of the public? Seeing none, I'm going to review the motions as I have them. I did try to do some of the math here. Um There's a motion from Councilor Collins, seconded by Councilor Tseng to report the following out of committee. Be it resolved that the City Council, pursuant to Chapter 7152, set the following rates of compensation effective July 1, 2024. School committee member $17,052.80, school committee vice chair $17,900, school committee secretary $19,075, school committee chair $18,750. be it resolved that the Council, pursuant to General Laws, Chapter 71, Section 52, set the following rates for July 1, 2025. School committee member, 22,105.60. I will show a chart in a minute, by the way, I know this is a lot of numbers. School committee vice chair, 23,200. School committee secretary, 23,750. School committee chair, 24,300. be resolved by the City Council that effective July 1 26 school committee members salary 25,732 70 26,920 for the vice chair, 27,775 for the secretary, 28 4 25 for the chair and then July 1 2027 effective 29 3 59 84 school committee member. 30,640 for the Vice Chair, 31,760 for the Secretary, and 32,550 for the Chair. There was a second motion by Councilor Tseng, seconded by Councilor Leming, that would just have incorporated the first two of those, the raises for effective July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2025. there was a motion to refer the following to the Governance Committee, be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the Governance Committee consider during charter review the inclusion of a mechanism within the updated city charter to trigger automatic COLA increases and or compensation review for all elected positions at regular intervals. And then there was a motion by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Lazzaro to report out of committee the following resolution, be it resolved that the Council lower its own rate of pay to the equivalent amount to to the amount, how do we phrase this, George? It was to bring the two together? To a blended salary, that is the difference between, yeah. Equal pay. Difference. It just doesn't matter, Zach. Well, I want to get it right. No, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. And then to follow the schedule proposed by Councilor Saint for increases in 2024 and 2025. I tried to put this up here. If there's a dispute by the people who made the motion, please let me know. But this is the difference between the proposals. How is that showing up? So the current rates effective, it's currently effective 12,000, 13,200, 14,400, 12,600. The initial proposal that was proposed on December 12th would have, on January 1, 2024, increased the rates to 29,359.80, 3,000 would increase to these numbers. The proposal by Councilor Tseng would, on July 1, 2024, increase the amounts to this. On July 1, 2025, increase the amounts to this. And then the proposal by Councilor Collins has the same for the first two years with a further increase July 1, 2026 and July 1, 2027. So that's the difference between the current amount, the initial proposal and the two proposals on the floor from Councilor Tseng and Councilor Collins. And if I did the math wrong, please Let me know. All right, is there any discussion on the motions? Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. I appreciate you putting this into a visual format on the fly. I think at this point in the discussion, we've all spoken and heard and listened. There's a couple ideas out on the floor. personally, I think it's time to move the question. I think that in the intervening days between this goes on, the regular meeting agenda will pay time for us to reflect and absorb what we've discussed together, what we've heard from the public, and to think about path forward that makes sense now that we have some alternative proposals for us to vote on providing different ways forward. Sorry for my halting language, I'm like a nurse. I want to again reiterate, you know, I'll probably say this the next time this comes up as well. I do what I have the jurisdiction to do. You know, last year, a couple times, we were given the opportunity to vote on cost of living adjustment increases to non-union personnel while there were still unions being negotiated, while there were still union contracts being negotiated. And that was a discussion, which makes sense. I'm glad that it was, and it was brought up for an understandable reason. And I voted yes, because when I have the opportunity to vote yes on a raise, I'll vote yes on a raise. And I intend to do that here, depending on what my fellow Councilors support and what we decide that the best path forward is. If we had the jurisdiction to vote on raises for teachers and paras and custodians and other public servants, I would do that, but I don't. I'll vote for the raises that I have the opportunity to support. Um, and I just want to note also for folks here and folks watching, um, you know, if there are people here who don't usually attend our meetings, which, you know, I know sometimes people come to some meetings and others, it's super normal. Um, this is a really unusual topic for a city council meeting. We, a lot of issues were brought up that are more of what we talked about all the time. They can store fronts, the need for commercial development the need for business development, the need to reevaluate our zoning and our housing, and all the other things that are really what we interface with as residents on a day to day basis that is the bread and butter of the city council, and that all directly feeds into. the bottom line budget that affects how much we can appropriate to the schools for the schools to then appropriate. Once it enters the schools, we don't touch it, except for this. And I just also want to, while reemphasizing the validity of everything that's been said today, I believe that that work that takes up most of our time on this council exceeds by magnitudes in terms of what we can do in terms of revenue and support that feeds into necessary services in the schools and elsewhere throughout this community. it is more impactful than what will be at maximum, a 0.05% increase over as much as four years. And I don't say that to minimize the issue, the values behind the discussion are really important, but just to frame it in the larger discussion of what this council is trying to do all year long during budget season, creating more mechanisms and ordinances to bring more clarity and reality and long-term planning to our budget process, working on our commercial tax base through zoning and licensing and business development. That is all part and parcel of this work, and it is, in terms of dollars, more impactful. With that, I would move the question to vote on these proposals tonight. Thank you.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Collins. Any further discussion? Councilor Callahan.
[Callahan]: I'm a little bothered by the fact that it looks like in both of these proposals, the final landing pay is more than the lowest paid paraprofessional that I don't feel, unless I'm incorrect about that, that's what it looked like to me. I won't be voting in favor of anything that puts them above a full-time paraprofessional.
[Bears]: Yeah, I don't have those contracts in front of me.
[Tseng]: Councilor Tseng? I don't have the contract for FY25 in front of me, but that would not be true at least for this upcoming year. And it's difficult to project out in the future because there's a contract negotiation. A new contract has to be agreed on in six months. which is partially why I proposed that phase-in. So instead of, the original proposal was to start immediately. This proposal builds in time for us to review all those contracts, to review the budget before we actually send out the money.
[Bears]: Thank you. All right, seeing no further discussion on the motion to report out of committee to the regular meeting agenda, Councilor Collins' motion, which is the four-year phase-in, with the first two years being based on the COLA changes for the MTA contract, and the second two bringing it to parity with the Council. seconded by Councilor Sagan. This is to refer to the regular meeting. The process from here on out, items will be, go to the regular meeting agenda. The final votes will happen on the regular meeting agenda. So we're just reporting items out of committee. If multiple items are reported out, multiple items will be considered on the regular meeting agenda. Since these are separate motions, they'll be considered separately. So this is not the final vote. This is just a vote to report items out of committee to our regular meeting agenda. So on the motion, Councilor Collins, seconded by Councilor Tseng, this is the first motion. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Callahan]: This is to put this to the next meeting.
[Bears]: This is to move this to the regular meeting. The final vote will be taken at the regular meeting.
[Callahan]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_18]: Yes. Yes. Yes. No.
[Bears]: Yes, six in the affirmative, one in the negative. The motion is referred to the regular meeting. On the second motion by Councilor Tseng, which would be the first, the July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2025, based on the contracts for the MTA from fiscal year 2000 to fiscal year 2023. And again, this is a report out of committee to be placed on the regular meeting agenda. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[SPEAKER_18]: Councilor Kelly. Yes.
[U1EIl_L-LWc_SPEAKER_00]: Yes. Yes.
[SPEAKER_18]: No.
[Bears]: Yes. The affirmative one of the negative the motion passes and it is referred to the regular meeting. On the third motion to refer to the Governance Committee the following resolution, be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the Governance Committee consider, during charter review, the inclusion of a mechanism within the updated city charter to trigger automatic COLA increases and or compensation review for all elected positions at regular intervals, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[SPEAKER_18]: Councilor Kellogg? Yes. Mr. Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro?
[U1EIl_L-LWc_SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_18]: Councilor Levin?
[U1EIl_L-LWc_SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_18]: Councilor Stroud? No. Councilor Tseng? Yes. Councilor Sixth?
[Bears]: Yes. 6 in the affirmative, 1 in the negative. The motion is referred to the Governance Committee. On the fourth motion by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Lazzaro. Councilor Scarpelli, I assume this is to report out of committee the following resolution, be it resolved that the council lower its own rate of pay to a blended salary, that is the difference between the rate of the city council and the school committee, and then follow the schedule proposed by Councilor Tseng for increases in 2024 and 2025. And that, again, is seconded by Councilor Lazzaro. Did I get it right?
[SPEAKER_18]: Yes.
[Bears]: Great. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[SPEAKER_18]: No. No. Yes. No. Yes. Stuck me with it. Huh?
[U1EIl_L-LWc_SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[Bears]: 4 in the affirmative, 3 in the negative. The motion passes. I will say I may rule this out of order pending legal concerns, but it is on the affirmative. I don't know if it's legal. Is there any further discussion on the paper before us or any other further comments to be made? All right, on the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to adjourn, seconded by?
[SPEAKER_18]: Second.
[Bears]: Seconded by Councilor Collins. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[SPEAKER_18]: Councilor Kelly?
[Callahan]: Yes.
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