[Morell]: fifth regular meeting of the Medford City Council February 28 2023 is called to order Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. President seven present zero absent, please rise. Announcements, accolades, remembrances, reports, and records 23-045 offered by Councilor Caraviello. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council send its deepest and sincere condolences to the family of Paul Howard. Mr. Howard was the owner of the renowned Jim's Market on Fulton Street for over 35 years. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. For those of you who don't know, Mr. Howard started Jim's Market up in the Fulton Heights, and Mr. Howard has probably put Fulton Heights on the map throughout the country. He's been on TV shows, and people drive all over for his famous b-boy. So, Mr. Howard, he was a good community person, and his children stayed on, keeping the store going. So, I just wanna, you know, uh, condolences to his family on his passing.
[Morell]: Thank you. Councilor Scarpelli?
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor Caraviello for bringing this up. Uh, Mr. Howard wasn't just a gentleman who who created an infamous breakfast sandwich. He's someone that fought for our country, that loved Medford, and someone that really cared about his community. Living up in the heights and working on the board of Little League, we'd find ourselves as parents preparing a field at 95 degrees, and without field, Mr. Howard would be walking toward you with two gallons of water just to make sure that we're hydrated. They'll show up one day and drop off a bucket of balls that people didn't collect and make sure the kids got back went back to the kids. I love the story back in the blizzard of 78, when no one can leave their houses, and you had elderly families that couldn't find. a gallon of milk or half a loaf of bread, and Mr. Howard decided to ration off everything in his corner store to make sure everybody lasted through that difficult time in 78. I send deep condolences to the Howard family. I know Mrs. Howard is represented by a name on the corner of Fulton Street. I ask the administration to, with respect, add Mr. Howard's name along with his wife in respect of that historical corner that I think everybody should drive by, walk by, ride your bike by, look up and say, wow, I wonder who that person was. And you can know about what it means to be a true community member and what it really means to be a Medford Mustang. Because again, I've said it too many times here, who's gonna take their place? People like Mr. Howard stepping, passing on, who's gonna take their place to pass on the legacies that great people from Metro made up. Thank you.
[Morell]: Would you like it to be an amendment, please can we please thank you. Thank you. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Madam President, thank you very much. I'd like to echo the sentiments of my fellow Councilors, Paul Howard was a great man, I someone that I had the pleasure of getting to know at a very young age picture Mr. Howard. 50 plus years old, playing full court basketball at Carr Park with, you know, 20, 25 kids between the ages of 15 and 25 years old and absolutely dominating. Paul was an amazing athlete. His accolades on the basketball court for Somerville High School back in the 50s and early 60s is something that I talked about very, very fondly to this day among my father and his friends. And whenever Paul Howard's name come up, They always speak of his work ethic and the type of gentleman that he was, just a kind man that went to work, put his head down and did the right thing. He's someone that's going to be sadly missed in this community, and I'm very lucky that I had the opportunity to call him a friend.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. So on the motion of Councilor Caraviello, as amended by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Vice President Bearsar, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Yes. Yes.
[Leming]: Yes.
[Morell]: Yes. Yes. Yes. In the negative motion passes, please rise for a moment of silence.
[Caraviello]: Madam President. Motion for suspension to take papers 23063 and 23056. On the motion of Councilor Cabrera to take papers 23063 and 23056.
[Morell]: Seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So the firm is during the night of the motion passes. I'm sorry, it's 23 to 063 or 063 was the clerk has enough suspension. Oh, right. Okay. Let's take that. 23-06 offered by Councilor Caraviello and Councilor Knight, be it resolved that the Medford City Council send its deepest and sincere condolences to the family of former City Councilor Robert L. Maloney on his recent passing. Councilor Maloney served on this Council from 1976 to 2001 as a member of the City Council, as President of the City Council, and as Deputy Mayor under the Plan E form of government, his presence will be missed in our community. Be it for the resolve that the Council dedicate tonight's meeting in Councilor Maloney's memory. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. For those who don't know, Bob Maloney, he was a longtime City Councilor. He has children in this community, holding several positions in the community. But Bob, Rob was a guy who served here every week, and he's pretty strong in his convictions of what he stood for and what he won. As you can see, he served as president and vice president, and he was deputy mayor, and he was here under the old BME form of government, where actually that's where the count really through the weight arounds. I'd like to say, I've known Bob for many years, both as a friend and he's a brother member of my Kiwanian club too. So I'd just like to echo to his children, who are the athletic director and as a policeman, our condolences and thank you for holding this meeting tonight.
[Knight]: Madam President, thank you very much. Again, Bob Maloney Sr. was a gentleman that I had the opportunity of developing a great friendship with. I remember fondly the summer of 2005 after the passing of Senator Shannon and I was working on the Callahan campaign for State Senate and Bob Maloney Sr. was in the office every single day making phone calls and we'd go out knocking on doors and he had such a way about him, you know, he was great. He'd walk up to the door, he'd knock knock on the door and he'd say, Hey, I'm Bob Maloney. I'm the city councilor from down here in this neighborhood. And this is the guy we're supporting for city council. So we're going to, for our state Senate. So we're going to put a sign on your front lawn and we're going to get you to vote for him. All right. Okay, Bob, no problem. And they'd walk away. The guy was amazing on the street. He was one of the best campaigners I've ever seen in my life. And he raised a great family of public servants that are following in his footsteps. To Gordon, to Sean and to Bobby, my deepest condolences. You're all great friends and it's very sad to lose a man of your father's stature, but he's in a better place now. And I thank the Lord and I thank you guys for your friendship and for the opportunity to have stood beside your father during a period of time where we were able to have a lot of fun.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilman. Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Madam President. And I blame my passion and my outburst sometimes on Council Maloney because I learned from the best. He would wear his emotions on his sleeve and he wouldn't be afraid to say what he thought he needed to say for what was best for the city of Medford. And maybe from time to time, the rumors that he might have jumped over the rail a couple times. but he had so much passion to make sure that the city of Medford was represented in such a positive light. And he was a person that would take care and work for anyone in this community, whether it was in the Wellington area, West Medford, South Medford, even though he grew up, he was over at Charter Nav. he really fought for everybody. And, um, it's a sad day that Mr. Moody's passed. But I know that he's left a legacy with Gordon and Sean and Bobby. Um, three Children that following his footsteps and giving back to their communities and, um, someone I'm very proud to have known and learn from. So, um, condolences to his family. Thank you, Madam President.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. Kelly. So on the motion of Councilor Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Knight, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. We do have one more paper under suspension, but so we have 22, sorry, 23-056 petition for a common bit. So 23-056 petition for a common bit letters license by V. Samanth Vong and Thaliphon, 9 West Green Street, apartment 2, Lynn, Massachusetts, 01902 for King Bobiti at 464B Salem Street, Metro Mass, 02155. I know we have the petitioner here. If you want to come up to the mic, and I'm going to pass it over to our licensing chair, Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you for being here. First, business, everything looks like it's in order. Personally, I'm going to be very upset because I'm going to be spending a lot of money. My daughter loves the establishment, so now that it's in our backyard, I think the family money will be spent at Boba Tea. So just take it easy on us, but- Thank you. No, I look, I see everything in order, Madam President, and I move approval.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Any further discussion from the council? Second. On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli, it's seconded by Councilor Caraviello. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative, the motion passes. The license is approved. Thank you. Congratulations. All right. So while we're under suspension taking 23-025 offered by Councilor Scarpelli be it resolved the city council and buddy member of the city administration Neil Osborne and a representative from the Medford fire department to discuss issues and concerns dealing with fire trucks and human resource questions. Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Madam President. I know that I appreciate Chief being here this evening. I know that we just had a few concerns. One that I know that as we're looking at our budget coming forward and understanding that we might have some issues with the fleet and seeing what we need to do, we can do as a council to try to help move things along if we need to need to. to make sure that you get all the apparatus you need for the safety of your men and women. So that'll be the first thing. And then I know that there were some concerns about benefits for new hirees, that we can shed some light.
[Freedman]: Okay, the benefits for the new hires, that's human resources. So I'll have to have Mr. Osborne address you on that. I do know I have three members, two that were hired in February of 22 and the other one hired in September of 22. that there's some sort of issue with the healthcare and human resources takes care of that end of it. So you'd have to ask Mr. Rogers what's going on there.
[Scarpelli]: Someone's here tonight, so I appreciate that. So if you can shed some light on our fleet, that would be.
[Freedman]: Okay, so the fleet, I'll just give you a brief summary of what's going on with the fleet. Obviously, we have two new ladder trucks that we've experienced some warranty issues with them. I have negotiated with Seagrave to extend the warranty another year. They have been really good standing behind me with repairing it. The problem is, you know, the repairs sometimes take time. So luckily we have two spares, so I've been able to juggle the spares. And one of the aerials is in Jersey right now, getting everything finished up on it. The other one's currently in service, and then the other two spares are, one of them's operating, the other one's in the shop also. Okay, so as far as the pumps go, when trucks get to a certain age and a certain number of hours and mileage, they're at the end of their usable life. So we have two pumps that were purchased in 2000. So that's kind of self-explanatory, they're 23 years old. They got pushed into the front line because of a premature frame failure on engine six, which is a 2008 PS Sabre. So that was something nobody could really foresee. It just, you know, we had it in for some maintenance and, you know, we examined the frame and we discovered that the frame was, you know, unsafe. So we were forced to put it out of service. So what that did was it brought these spare apparatus to the frontline. And then we experienced a couple of, you know, major mechanical failures in those, which I was able to absorb in my budget it took up over half my maintenance budget but I was able to repair those and they're back from repairs and those are going to be run in the foreseeable future till we can get something new. As far as like what we're going to purchase when we're going to purchase it the mayor and I are working on that on a purchase plan to figure out what we can buy and how many and that's something that's like a in progress that I really can't tell you you know we're not there yet but we're working diligently to figure out how we can get out of this problem. The other issue that's come into play is, and it's part of the sort of a result of the pandemic and the supply chain interruption is these trucks to build them now, it's up to 820 days from the time you complete the order to the time the truck arrives. So that's a little over two years. And then if you add in the time it takes to put radios in them, tablets, letter them, train the personnel. You're talking two and a half years before you're gonna see them. And that keeps going up. Every time we wait, if we don't get it done, another month goes by, it's another month, and then we end up having to wait longer. So that's why we were forced to kind of repair these older trucks to kind of keep the fleet operational. And that's where we're at with the fleet.
[Scarpelli]: If you have any questions, I'll yeah, so I know that one of some of the residents are asking that why is there a Boston truck and I don't know if we said maybe there was a fire and they were covering and then someone said what happened with the Boston truck was.
[Freedman]: When we experienced the two major component failures on the other two trucks, I was forced to borrow a truck from Boston. And they were gracious enough to give it to us for a period of time. And they do that for other departments in the metro fire area. I have a good relationship with the chief and the mechanics in Boston, and they support us if I call them for something like that. As long as they have something available, they'll lend it with the idea that they may need it back. If I get that phone call, I have to give it back. So it saved us from browning anything out. We basically were running that Boston truck for a period of time.
[Scarpelli]: So this, I'll say it, Chief, this seems dire. This should have been something that this administration should have asked for two years ago. And this is something that is, do we have a representative from the administration?
[Morell]: We have Neil Osborne, but I'm not seeing anyone.
[Scarpelli]: Okay, so that's a problem. So I look at that because usually when you present a capital plan like this, it's in the capital projects. We haven't seen, have we got an update? So I know that, you know, I know that the mayor put out that the station, Main Street stations now going under this, that, and the other thing, and that's great, but these are the things that frighten me. This is great if we have a brand new fire station, but, you know, are we gonna be, you know, rent in a U-Haul truck and throwing some ladders on the top, because we don't have fire engines. So that's what I fear right now, because as you're saying, two and a half years away, and we're in discussions about ordering them, I think this council needs to play a bigger role in this, Chief. I think that we need to make a motion that we need to have an emergency meeting, as committee of the whole, with procurement office, with the mayor, And really, let's try to figure out a way to get this audit sooner than later. I mean, I don't, I know it's not It's not a popular thing, it's tough to be up there. I know it is, but from here, I know how dangerous your jobs are, and not to have the proper equipment that you need, whether it's turnout gear, whether it's fire trucks.
[Freedman]: I literally, just so I can stop you for a second. Maybe I wasn't clear. Okay, so when we, the mayor and I discussed this, It takes a period of time for manufacturers to quote that price, you know, the price of the apparatus and that lead time that I was just telling you about that constantly changes. And now they're only guaranteeing that for 30 days. So every time, if we go beyond the 30 days, it has to be recorded and then that takes time. So I recently, like two days ago, handed the mayor all the updated information on the price quote, the lead time. And we are in discussions, like I said, on figuring out how we're going to fund that. And that comes from her staff and her, not me. I just give her the information. you know, she has to make that commitment where that's gonna be done. And then once I get that, I can actually order the truck and get that clock ticking.
[Scarpelli]: Chief, I appreciate everything you do. I know this is nothing on you. What I'm saying, sitting here, we've ordered fire trucks in the past with Chief Gilberti and this administration, the administration prior to that. So originally this council was involved. That's what I'm trying to say. If we're waiting for the 30 days and you're sitting with the mayor and she's putting something together with other different departments, Guess who they have to come to to ask for the money? They have to come here and we know nothing about it.
[Freedman]: I'm sure there's other department heads that are all asking for their stuff. So she's looking at an entire city. I'm just looking at one.
[Scarpelli]: As a city councilor, what I'm saying, this is what I'm telling you. You don't have to. I'm telling you what I see. is that I don't care what other departments don't have paperclips. Our firemen, firewomen don't have the equipment they need to succeed and be safe. So I know it's not it's not popular for you to say it, but I can say it chief and it's okay. But I will tell you we need to have an emergency meeting with the mayor to see where this council falls in to make sure we're in the loop to make sure that we can hold meetings to clear any funding that we have to approve to make sure this happens within 30 days. That's all I'm trying to say. And I'm only saying this because I'm in your corner. I want to support your people. This is something that working here for 16 years, whether on the school committee, city council, we've been directly involved when we talked about the previous fire trucks or different, different, uh, you know, uh, expenditures that we put out, whether it was for police cars or a new station or whatnot, but we were involved. This council has yet to see updated financials. So we're, we're, we're nervous chief. I'm nervous that we're going to get to me and we're going to come here. I'm going to say, forget the fire trucks, George. We might have to cut firemen or firewomen, and I don't want that. This is what I'm saying. We need to get together with the chief, with the mayor's office, and really start, because they've gone publicly to different arenas, and they publicly mentioned how awful the budget's gonna be this year. And listen, I'm publicly saying this. I've said it a thousand times. I'm sounding redundant to everybody, and I sound like a crybaby at times, but I'm frightened. I'm nervous, because I don't know what we're doing here. This council hasn't talked to anybody about what's going on. So thank you for coming. Thank you for the update. My recommendation is that we make motion that we call for an emergency meeting with the mayor's office to get an update on the capital plan dealing specifically with ordering the fire trucks within this 30-day window so the clock can start now. Does 2020 code that, Chief? 2020 trucks? And the possibility is we have to make them last for at least another two and a half years if the clock started today. So that's why we need to get the clock started. We need to do whatever we need to do as a council to jump ahead of anything needed that this council needs. So whatever we can do, that's all I'm asking, Chief, is to get the administration to sit down with us and say, whatever we need, let's get this done. Let's understand if we can use our money. Let's see if we can, you know, what other funding mechanisms we can use. to make sure this happens right away. That's that's all I'm saying. I mean, I'll give you an example. Sounds pretty dire. We're down a few a few trucks. We have a we have a motion later on resolution today for another $1.5 million in sidewalks. What? I don't we haven't even know we don't know where the last 1.5 went last year. So before I these are the issues that we don't know about. That's why I asked you to come up and I know it's I know and I don't make I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable in any way chief. Yeah, you're doing an amazing job. Yeah, you have one of the best departments in the city. I know and I speak firsthand for the way they treated my mom and my dad when they when they were leaving the service. So I can't say enough about them. So but We know, we can see the issues, but we haven't heard anything. That's why having you come up and just shed some light, I appreciate it. So thank you. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. Chief. I know in the past, I think our last one, didn't we do a lease to own on our last two fire trucks?
[Freedman]: We did lease purchase on both ladders. Right. And tied them with the casino money. Okay. So they did a 10-year lease on each truck, and that money each year pays for the lease purchase. It's a 10-year lease purchase.
[Caraviello]: So I'm assuming we're going to look to do the same thing going forward?
[Freedman]: That's a question you have to ask the administration. It all depends on how they want to fund it. There's many different ways they could choose to fund it.
[Caraviello]: And I know between you and the former chief how long it takes to get these trucks. Say that again. I said I know between yourself and the former chief how long it takes to get a fire truck. I know it takes almost.
[Freedman]: So that's what I was trying to explain earlier was that that time frame keeps changing. So at the end of 30 days, say a bunch of departments order 50 trucks, that could turn into 900. It could just keep going up because you get behind in the line.
[Caraviello]: And I thank Councilor Scott for bringing that up. And what does she mean? Because the three workhorses in the community are the police, fire, and DPW. And what about those three departments?
[Freedman]: So like for example, the ladder trucks, they took 400 days back then. But since the pandemic and the supply chain interruption and material shortages, all the departments are in the same kind of problem. They're trying to get trucks. And what happens is that lead time just keeps going up and up and up as more and more departments order. And like I said, that supply chain interruption, we're still seeing the effects of that.
[Caraviello]: market? I don't know.
[Freedman]: Right now, we looked around, there's nothing around. I mean, I don't know.
[Caraviello]: I don't know.
[Freedman]: Obviously, obviously entertain that. Yeah, like, we borrow from Boston, I even tried to buy one of those. Just too precious. They're not letting go of them. Yeah. So and then there's nothing around. We just we looked around. There really isn't. Everyone's in the same. It's not just Medford. It's not a whole metro fire community. You know, we try to see if we could, you know, like, work on a purchase for some of those used trucks. And even though they're not ideal, when we have a component failure on the two older 23-year-old trucks, that's not something ideal. I didn't want to fix those, but I had to because I couldn't find anything better used. We knew exactly what those were. And it was, it was a lot of money, but you know, I had enough in the budget that I could absorb it, but it took up over half my maintenance budget. So what's going to happen in the summer when we got a maintenance stuff, we're going to get, it's going to be very tight this year because of those failures. So, um, You know, that's, and the other issue that happens is if you don't have spares, you can't maintenance the fleet.
[Caraviello]: That's right.
[Freedman]: So it's not like I'm, you know, adding an extra truck so I can have extra trucks. It's, you know, if engine one needs maintenance, you gotta have something to back it up.
[Caraviello]: Yeah, no, and I understand, you know, when they go off for repairs, they're out there for a couple of months.
[Freedman]: So the other issue that's happening is we're running, our run totals went way up. So we went from, say, under 10,000 to over 12. We're almost 13,000 runs a year. So now engine one, for example, 73,000 miles on it already. So, you know, it's a 2018. So think about that, you know, those trucks are in two and a half years, they're going to have almost 100,000 miles on them. So that's the other issue. We're trying to get them ordered so we can rotate the fleet. Like in the past, we'd get them in before they got, like say they get to 40,000, then we rotate them and the new stuff comes in. But because of this huge two and a half year delay, engine one and engine four, they're gonna run to the point where they're gonna have almost 100,000 on them when we go to rotate.
[Caraviello]: And you know, I would hope that, you know, going forward that, you know, the plan would be to, As soon as we buy one and get it delivered, we order another one just to keep rotating.
[Freedman]: Some cities have, like I put some stuff into the CIP. If you look at it, it's there. You know, to buy one a year till we get three of them or buy three up front. There's different options you can do. But with the delay, if you buy one a year, so we would get the first one in 25, and then the second one would come in 26, and then 27, you'd start to see some relief. But in other cities, what they do is they don't keep trucks this long. They have city ordinances where they, every so many years you buy a pump, and every so many years you buy a ladder. Before they get to that age where they're having those major component failures that I was talking about.
[Caraviello]: Maybe that's an ordinance that we look to put in going forward.
[Freedman]: I thank you for- Yeah, maybe going forward we can present those kind of ideas, look into what other cities do and come up with a plan. But right now we're kind of in an emergency mode. We've got to kind of correct what's wrong here first.
[Caraviello]: And let me say, your department, lives matter in your department. You save lives. So I would hope that we can get this emergency meeting in so you can get your 30 days and get it off and going because they say, two years.
[Freedman]: I do have to say this is that we were literally talking today. We're going to work on it. So I think what we just need to do is guys, if you want to be involved, we'll just stop talking.
[Caraviello]: We can do a little more work and a little more action. I'm going to say also, I'm going to support councilor Scott's motion to have an emergency meeting. So, you know, you can get that order up there as quick as possible. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.
[Morell]: Any further discussion from the councilors on this part of the resolution? And back to you, Councilor Scott Peli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you. Is Mr. Osborne present?
[Morell]: He is.
[Scarpelli]: He is online.
[Osborne]: Good evening, Council President Morell and other members of the City Council. I know back in early February, I was asked to summarize the issue with a few firefighters. I don't know if Councilor Scott Peli has a specific question or any other. Members of the Council have questions. I know since then when the issue was brought to my attention, we have improved our communication with new hires. Initially back in February we were asking them to come to City Council, come to Human Resources to make an appointment to make sure the paperwork got done. done timely. We have now set specific time frames when a new person is hired, it doesn't matter whether it's fire, DPW or police, there's a specific time frame where they're going to come, meet with the benefits coordinator so that anyone who actually wants the city insurance can sign up for it and have it be filed with GIC in a timely manner so that they can actually have coverage. Again, I don't know if there's any specific question that you would like to have answered, available to answer anything that I can.
[Scarpelli]: Okay, thank you. I appreciate the response. And I think probably my biggest question is that, I know the fire was first brought up, but since then, I was told that there might be some concerns with new hires at DPW, and new hires with the police department, and the lack of truly, lack of true communication with going back and forth. that you sent us a clarifying email, and I appreciate that, but I have a question on that. It seems that the comment that when open enrollment is closed, there's no way to get anybody on, correct? Is that correct?
[Osborne]: It's extremely difficult. Again, we are a member of GIC. They are the gatekeepers, and we do our best to try and make sure that any employee who is new to us has the opportunity to sign up.
[Scarpelli]: So just so you know, Mr. Osborne, I did contact a couple of neighboring communities and talked with the benefits managers, and I know that they have different systems set up that it's a 60-day waiting period once they are hired, no matter what month of the year it is, that if they were hired in January and February, they would then be, you know, added on to the insurance for GIC on April 1st. That's for example. Another example is February to March. They would then be hired May 1st. They would have the GIC. I've talked to a few people in a few HI departments that have also told me that it's not uncommon for a relationship with the members of GIC and I have a call with them tomorrow to just give them a call and say, hey, listen, be a little persistent. I believe one benefits person told me that all she really needs to do is call them three times in a day and they'll get somebody on if it's really needed. So I think that's that, I'm a little confused with what you sent and then what I've heard from GIC itself. And then the other piece is, are all the firefighters that were hired. I know back in February that wants insurance. Have they been given their insurance or are they still waiting for the insurance? Second question is, do there's still issues with the police that had some concerns and some issues and with DPW? If you can answer that, that'd be great.
[Osborne]: I guess I can only answer for those who brought that issue to my attention. So the key component of getting someone insurance is for them to sign up for it. There's no automatic way for us in human resources to decide what an individual will want. So if they come to us, we can figure out exactly what their needs are and then try and work with them if they don't have insurance to try and get them insurance. Right now, I don't know of anyone on the fire that wanted insurance and it's without insurance, doesn't have it.
[Scarpelli]: Okay, so that's alarming to me because I think that when I hire a new person in my position, I work with my HR benefits coordinator in the HR. As they go on to the onboarding process, the, this is part of their process. Are you telling us that when they're going through the onboarding process, when they're hired for the city of Medford, that that's not the job of the HR department to follow through to make sure they're doing that? Because you're making it sound that they have to come to you separately and ask for it.
[Osborne]: So that was back in February, the offer letter specifically said, hey, come make an appointment so that we have the opportunity to figure out what you need, get the paperwork signed and get it in. Unfortunately, back in February, there was a lack of staff that happened that reduced the ability to respond quickly. But once the issue was brought to our attention, we began to work with any firefighter that didn't have it. and sort of make that request to GIC to see what could be done. And again, from the group that started in February, I don't know of anyone of that group who has come to Human Resources and said, hey, we need help. And again, we remain open and available. Come talk to us. It's easier if you make an appointment, then we can give you the dedicated time. I know folks, no matter what department you work in, you can stop in at HR, but you can get better service if you just give us a little heads up.
[Scarpelli]: And I'm not just putting blame, I know that you seem to be a team of one, Mr. Osborne. You know, we're fortunate that we have teams of six to eight that are working where we're onboarding people, at least that's what it sounds like to me, that you're alone. So that seems to be an issue in itself. So right now, you know, no firemen, that everybody has, I know that I've gotten some calls from firemen that they still haven't had their insurance applied to their benefits, but no one's reached out to you to let you know that.
[Osborne]: Right. So again, I know the union has brought it to our attention and we've asked them if a firefighter has an issue, please bring it to our attention. We can meet with them, figure it out. I know I've written one of the employees from February saying just to make sure that there was no miscommunication. If you have an issue, come talk to us. We can figure it out. That's what our role is. We're there to try and provide that service. to the employees and also assist department heads when they get new employees. So we're there. Come talk to us. We'll gladly do whatever we can to try and help folks out.
[Scarpelli]: If I can, I know that representatives Buckley and Jones have reached out and mentioned that they would like to come to the meeting and maybe if you can, if there's any way, gentlemen, if you can, just enlighten me. I was told, I was led to believe that there were firemen and women that were hired back in February that have yet to be granted insurance. or offered other avenues to get their own insurance. So I just want to make sure that if this is a wrong that we fix it, that We look at the departments that need to get on board to make sure this happens. And I know that the police reached out as well, and representatives from DPW had some same concerns. And I guess that since they're not specific to this, I'll call for a separate resolution with the police to understand how that's transpired. Uh, if you could shed some light and your members appreciate just name and address for the record.
[Buckley]: Walter Buckley, president of local 1032 Medford firefighters, 347 Salem street. So we currently have three members working for the fight apartment that do not have health insurance to the city that one health insurance to the city. Um, the first one is Brian Lee. He received a letter from the city on February 2nd standing yet to meet with H. R. and set up an appointment to go over their benefits. And I believe the GIC requires you to sign up for insurance within 60 days of your first day of getting paid. So he was not, he never made the appointment apparently. He got the letter, you have a lot of things running through your head when you're going to the fire academy. You gotta get your shit together, you have to resign probably from your former job. Ship together. Ship, yes. One of them was a sailor. I know, I apologize. It's not fun being up here for this. You have to buy equipment, clothing. You have to get your life together because you're going away for a couple of months at the academy. So yeah, maybe it slipped someone's mind that when he got the letter, he didn't sign up for the insurance, but you would think it's the HR department's job to reach out to those members and say, hey, you don't have insurance. We need to get your insurance. They do require you, the city HR department requires you to provide proof of insurance when you opt out of our insurance, but they don't require proof of insurance in the initial. So if you want to opt in, you opt in. If you don't want the insurance, they don't say, where's your proof? We need proof of insurance. So to us, it means that they only require proof of insurance when it's gonna cost the city money. They don't care that you don't have insurance. They're not gonna ask you if you have proof of insurance because we have three guys that don't have insurance right now and they never called them and said, hey, you don't have insurance, you need to sign up.
[Scarpelli]: So if I can interrupt. So I know it's a two month period. So we figured out in February, they didn't have insurance. So they didn't have that meeting. It's still a year. Have they had that meeting since then?
[Buckley]: All right, so the first one, Brian Lee. Completed the paperwork in May of 2022. Was told by HR that his paycheck would reflect it in June or July. Went back to HR in August. Was told to resubmit the paperwork. Went back to HR in October or November. Was told he never handed in the paperwork. And then was told he did hand in the paperwork, but there was a communication problem with GIC. In January of 2023, same individual met with Neil and Candace, was told paperwork was submitted to GIC but delayed. Was told he would have to wait till April 2023 for open enrollment. In the meantime, he could pay for his outside insurance and he would be reimbursed up to 85% for all costs. Candace apologized and stated it might have been their fault and Neil landed on the GIC. Candace took his information again, said she would write a letter to the GIC because she thought it was their fault. And if the paperwork is accepted in April, he won't have any insurance till July of 2023. So they're saying right now, if Mr. Lee submits his paperwork in April, he's out of that 60 day period to sign up. They're saying if it's approved, he'll have insurance in July. Now, imagine working for a year and saying, I have no insurance, I have no insurance, I have no insurance. Open enrollment comes in and they're telling them, if you get accepted, like, people have families and kids and bills and prescriptions. They have to deal with this, nevermind the job that we do. We have to deal with that. And to deal with this administration, and that's one person, Sonny Borelli. He didn't even know he didn't have insurance. So he didn't call him up and say, hey, you didn't sign up for insurance. He didn't even know until July that he didn't have insurance. He's a single guy, so he's probably not thinking, oh, I gotta get my wife and kids and whatever. So we contacted him July 1st of 2022. July 6th, he went to speak with Neil Osborne. Neil told him he couldn't help him because the benefits coordinator wasn't in the office and to come back next week. July 13th, He spoke with Candace and received the health benefits package. July 20th, he returned the package completed. Neil was in the office. He said he didn't want to take it and he was told to come back and give it to Candace. July 27th, he handed the completed package to Candace. So three times he went to the HR and twice he was turned away from the HR director. I can't help you. What's your job if you're the director of HR? If you can't help someone when they come in and need help, what's gonna happen to that person when he leaves?
[Scarpelli]: So more importantly, so July, everything was handed in. Correct. August, September, he should have been on. Is he on now? No.
[Buckley]: Jeremiah O'Brien received a letter on August 11th, 2022. He was required to meet with HR on August 24th, 2022 at 5.30. He didn't show up to that meeting. But he did get sworn in on, I believe it was 9-15 or 9-13, where he completed all the paperwork at his swearing. He graduated the academy November 28th of 2022. December 16th, he went to HR and was told they were working on the issue, and if he was paying for insurance or medical costs, to turn in the receipts and he would be reimbursed. And he filled out a second healthcare package. July 29th, he filled out his third healthcare package, was told they are doing their best to get him covered and working with GIC, and that HR would contact him regarding this issue. January 16th, 2023, he went to HR and was told that he never turned in his paperwork, or that they might have misplaced them. He was then told it was too late to enroll, but they would contact him when they get an answer from HR regarding this health insurance issue. That was January 16th, no one has contacted him since. Those are the three members that do not have health insurance right now, that want health insurance.
[Scarpelli]: So if I can, Mr. Osborne, if you're still there, I don't. Obviously, is there a way that we can, first of all, correct this by helping these three firefighters get their GIC benefits ASAP? Because I know that talking to, there's an open pipeline when you express these concerns to GIC directly with issues like this. It takes days to get them on. Is there any way, do we have that possible in Medford or no?
[Osborne]: Um, uh, through the, uh, council president, the answer to that question is no. Um, I'm not going to go, um, item for item over the misstatements made by, uh, uh, Mr. Buckley. We as a human resources department remain committed to helping employees. They may not have, uh, but the city's available insurance, but if they get to us and they talk to us about what they need. We will do our best to help them, which includes having discussions with D.I.C. If I could to the chair, please.