total time: 37.93 minutes
total words: 1825
total time: 2.29 minutes
total words: 188
total time: 6.43 minutes
total words: 585
[Zac Bears]: Test one, two. Medford City Council 19th regular meeting, October 28th, 2025 is called to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan. Present. Vice President Collins.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Present.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Lazzaro. Present. Councilor Leming. Present. Councilor Scapelli. Present. Councilor Tseng. Present.
[Zac Bears]: President beers present seven present none absent the meeting is called to order to drive to salute the flag. Announcements, accolades, remembrances, reports, and records. 25-166 offered by Councilor Scarpelli. Resolution in memory of Paul Matatal. Councilor Scarpelli, be it resolved, sorry, be it resolved that the City Council send our deepest condolences to the family of Paul Matatal, retired Medford High School teacher, administrator, and coach. Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Council President. Those who don't know Coach Matatal, Mr. Matatal, My friend Paul Matt at all. He was a great educator, a great leader of young teachers, and most of all. a great mentor to so many children that he coached and taught. He had a long battle and fought some issues. And unfortunately, it was his time to move on to a better place. And we know his family, his children, his wife, they're great people. It's people like I've talked about this many times when we lose legends and people that have made impact so many people in the community. When I was a young teacher when I first started, I was very fortunate to have great mentors like Lou Ruggiero and Ron Zampel. and Paul Matatal that they would take you under their wing and really educate you in how to treat others and how to work with children and have an open mind and really being a true impact from the beginning to the end of your career. And Paul had his showing the other evening and on Saturday and So many of his former players and students and colleagues showed up and really was a true testament of kind of a man he was and something that I'll do everything I can both as a resident, a former colleague and student to make sure that Paul's name is somewhere either at one of our baseball fields or one of our schools so people can remember who Paul Matatal was because He's the, that's who you want people to remember in this community. Good people that wanted nothing but greatness from people around them. And he just elevated so many. So my condolences to the Matatal family and may he rest in peace. So thank you, Mr. President.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. I'm going to take a vote and then we'll take a moment of silence on the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve, seconded by Councilor Lazzaro. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Kallion.
[Jennifer Yanko]: Yes.
[Marie Izzo]: Vice President Collins.
[Jennifer Yanko]: Yes.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Lazzaro. Councilor Leming. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Tseng. Yes.
[Zac Bears]: President Bears yes something affirmative and the negative emotion passes please rise for a moment of silence.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Records. The tabled records of the meeting of September 30th, 2025 were passed to Vice President Collins. Vice President Collins, how did you find those records?
[Emily Lazzaro]: I found them in order and I would move for approval.
[Zac Bears]: The motion of Vice President Collins to approve, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan? Vice President Collins?
[Jennifer Yanko]: Yes.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Lazzaro? Yes. Councilor Leming? Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? President Pierce?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. I have an affirmative, none in the negative. The motion passes. The records of the meeting of October 21st, 2025 were passed to Councilor Leming. Councilor Leming, how did you find those records?
[Marie Izzo]: I found the records in order and moved to approve.
[Zac Bears]: The motion of Councilor Leming to approve, seconded by. Seconded by Councilor Callahan. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan? Yes. Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro? Yes. Councilor Leming? Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. President Bears?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. I have an affirmative and a negative. The motion passes. Reports of committees 24-036 and 24-461 offered by Councilor Lazzaro, Public Health and Community Safety Committee, October 22, 2025. Report to follow. Councilor Lazzaro?
[Emily Lazzaro]: This meeting was about the overgrowth ordinance and the rodent control ordinance. Both of those papers are remaining in committee. We have more meetings to come with the city solicitor. So there's a little bit more to hammer out. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Motion of Council is our to approve the committee report seconded by Councilor Tseng Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Kelly. Yes. Vice President Collins.
[Jennifer Yanko]: Yes.
[Marie Izzo]: Council is our Council. Let me Councilor Scapelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. President Pierce?
[Zac Bears]: Yes, I have the affirmative, none the negative. The motion passes. Petitions, presentations, and similar papers. 25162, petition for a common ventures license, Iris Restaurant. This is to certify that a common victual license is hereby granted to JNA Restaurant Corp, DBA, Iris Restaurant, location 432 Salem Street, Medford, Massachusetts. In said city of Medford, and that place only expires December 31st, 2026, unless sooner suspended or revoked for the violations of the law of the Commonwealth respecting the licensing of common victualers. This license is issued in conformity with the authority granted to the licensing authorities by Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 140, and amendments thereto by order of the Medford City Council. hours of operation, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Do we have a representative from the business with us on Zoom or in person?
[Marie Izzo]: I see a Zoom user item.
[Zac Bears]: The clerk has said that the user said, the business owner said that they would be on, but, and they confirmed by email, but they're not currently present. All right, Councilor Callahan.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Can I move that we take items out of order and go to 25163? Sure.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion to table, and we'll just get there. So motion to table, Councilor Callahan, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yes.
[Marie Izzo]: Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro? Yes. Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scapelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. President Bears?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. I'm affirmative, non-negative. The motion is tabled. Do we have a representative of Twisted Tree Cafe with us either in person or on Zoom? You can raise your hand on Zoom. Councilor Scapelli?
[George Scarpelli]: Is the petitioner on?
[Zac Bears]: No, we don't have anyone. That doesn't look like.
[George Scarpelli]: Can we table?
[Zac Bears]: Yep. On the motion to table by Councilor Scarapelli, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Oh, we have someone on here. Oh, there we go. All right. I'm gonna ask you to unmute, and you should be able to start your video. They're on now. All right. Well, we have Doherty here. I think that's Christine Doherty representing Twisted Tree Cafe. I'll turn it over to Councilor Sparapelle, and then we'll turn it over to the petitioner.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate our building commissioner working to streamline, I believe, with yourself and making sure that we can get the process put through a little bit quicker with an easier format. So I see everything is in order with the cafe, and I would move approval. I, the top officer operations are fine. I'm familiar with their, personally with their work in neighboring communities, and they'll be an asset to our community. So I would move approval.
[Zac Bears]: Great. Yeah, I want to thank Assistant Clerk Alicio for working hard to get our convictioners up on the CitizenServe platform. Now we are moving into the early 21st century with our permitting system here. It's been a long time coming. We've done a lot of work to try to do that. I want to give the petitioners here from Twisted Tree Cafe a chance to talk about their business and what their plans are. We're really excited to have you in our community. So go ahead.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_10]: Thank you so much. Appreciate the time ahead of the council. Yeah, we are excited to open our 3rd location in the neighborhood. I grew up in the neighborhood. We used to live in and. Yeah, I think I think the neighborhood and community. We'll find our presence. Nice and additive to the neighborhood and local commerce in general job creation all that. sure we will be open um seven to three um seven days a week and we offer um freshly made breakfast and lunch options um and fantastic brewed coffee and espresso drinks and i see you guys here at 421 high street you want to tell folks where that is sure if you are um Westbound on Route 60 entering West Medford will be on the right-hand side just as you sort of enter the village in what used to be Sincotty Funeral Homes location. So it's a newly constructed mixed-use condominium on the right-hand side as you enter West Medford between Brooks and Warren.
[Zac Bears]: Awesome. Do we have any questions for the petitioner? Seeing none on the motion to approve by Councilor Scarpelli seconded by sorry seconded by Councilor Tseng. Mr. Clerk please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Kelly.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Marie Izzo]: Vice President Collins. Yes. Councilor Lazzaro. Yes. Councilor Lemme. Councilor Scopelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. President Bears?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. I have the affirmative and the negative. The motion passes. Congratulations and good luck on your opening.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_10]: Thank you so much. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Great. Is there a motion to take 25162 from the table? Great. A motion by Councilor Tseng to take paper 25162 from the table, seconded by Councilor Lemke. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Kelly? Yes. Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro? Councilor Leming? Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. President Pierce?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. Assembly affirmative, then the negative. We will read 25162. This is the common vector license for Iris Restaurant. I see a representative here. I'll go to Councilor Scarpelli, and then I'll unmute the resident and the petitioner, and we can move from there.
[George Scarpelli]: Okay. Again, Mr. President, I see everything is in order. The officer operation on an issue and I see everything to move forward positively. So I move approval.
[Zac Bears]: Great. Um, we have our representative from iris restaurant here. Welcome. If we get your name and address for the record and could you tell us about your business?
[SPEAKER_09]: Yes. My name is Joaquin Lemos. Uh, the, the business address is 42 Salem street. So, um, This is existing restaurant. It's been over there for over 12 years already. So I'm taking over. So with the idea to keep the, serve in the community.
[Zac Bears]: Great. Yeah. We know Iris restaurant and congratulations on your new ownership.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you. No, I'm pretty, I mean, I'm good. Thank you. Okay. Great.
[Zac Bears]: Any questions from any members of the council? Seeing none on the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve seconded by seconded by Councilor Callahan. Mr. Clerk please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan. Yes. Vice President Collins.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Lazzaroro. Councilor Leming. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. Councilor Tseng. President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, none in the negative. The motion passes. Congratulations on the new ownership and best of luck.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you. Thank you very much.
[Zac Bears]: Have a good night.
[SPEAKER_09]: You too.
[Zac Bears]: All right. Motions, orders and resolutions 25-164 offered by Councilor Scarpelli. But if I just read the last paragraph. Okay, the whole thing you might just be resolved that the city council shall share a timeline to inform the residents of the area encompassing the Salem Street corridor of the process towards its ruling on the referred recommendations by the Community Development Board, and that the city council shall set a date certain for its vote to be rendered regarding the city Community Development Board supported upon recommendations and I, after receiving this agenda, forwarded the posting the advertisement to Councilor Scarpelli, and I'll turn it over to Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. I know that I appreciate taking this motion. I know we had questions. The Community Development Board did hear the Salem Street Corridor again. and to revisit, I believe, another vote. I know that, so people know that the process has to go through requirements, and one is that has to be posted for two weeks, correct, Council President?
[Zac Bears]: Yes, advertised in a newspaper for 14 days.
[George Scarpelli]: So Council Biaz did send me the advertising that has gone out, and I believe it's both the Herald and the Transcript Journal. We hope to have that meeting on the 12th, if everything goes right. So I appreciate that. And hopefully that's the residents of Salem street understand the process. So thank you. Great.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion of councilor Scarpelli seconded by we have a one public comment. We'll go to the podium, name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes. One second, Andy, here you go.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Thank you, Councilor Bears, appreciate it. I am very much dismayed and shocked if Salem Street is going to relax their zoning to a point that, as I stated many times before, it's already congested and it's going to become like Somerville. And we're going to have the summable hassles along with that. In my opinion, the only best place is Mystic Avenue for development. End of story.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Is there any other comment on this item, either in person or on Zoom? We'll go to Robert Carney on Zoom. Name and address for the record, and you'll have three minutes.
[Robert Carney]: Robert Carney, 50 Hicks Ave, Unit 6. Just want to thank George for bringing this up. I want to say I don't live in the Salem Street corridor, but that for the record, I just want to share that I support reverting the designation from MX2 to MX1. Recognize and respect that many residents of this corridor support MX2, but as someone affiliated with the CDB, I think Daniel Evans had previously mentioned, our zoning is dynamic and can be modified over time. Many Salem Street corridor residents of the area are uncomfortable with this jump to MX2. So offering maybe a compromise here, why not try MX1, see how it goes. And if you want to do MX2 really badly later on, talk about it later if you still feel strongly about it. Just also want to share concerns about the lack of what I think should be citywide comprehensive traffic studies. I understand that developers are responsible for doing traffic studies when appropriate and I have heard assurances at council meetings that the appropriate parties will take that into consideration so as not to overload our infrastructure but I respectfully offer just my skepticism about that based on a recent example of a new business that has brought a lot of new activity to South Medford, Great American Beer Hall. Abutting residents were assured in this case that they would not hear music from it. Residents suffered from loud music, rowdy neighbors for over a year, as you all know, and vocalized their concerns at the September 9th city council meeting as this business was asking to extend its hours. situation was so bad. As you know, we had a group of abutting residents petitioning not to allow the owners to extend hours. And so just asking the question here, especially when that establishment waited until a week and a half prior to petitioning the council before taking mitigation. If this happened with the Great American Beer Hall, how can we know that we won't see promises by developers that there will be sufficient parking only for residents in those adjacent properties to turn around and find that they have a hard time parking on the street? Will residents suddenly find themselves without sufficient street parking for traffic backlogs? for extended periods of time, you know, before the city addresses their concerns. So I'm just saying, you know, with all this, let's slow down and take a deep breath and not so not move so fast zoning. So just my thoughts there. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Andy, we'll come back to you. But we have also can grow on zoom. And I'm gonna request that you unmute. And then you'll have three minutes, name and address for the record, please.
[Ken Gareau]: All right, thanks. Ken Garrow, 52 Lambert Street. I am 100 feet away from Salem Street. I live right behind Haines. Just wanted to say that I'm excited to see the zoning continue forward. I think it was about a year ago when the Salem Street rezoning was actually in the last city council meeting before the zoning. So, Seeing this after a year long process, as much as I'm in favor of the MX2, if it's going to help the mayor along to continue the rezoning process, I am excited to see this brought back in front of the council. If we have to compromise on an MX one for that, I think that's a perfectly fine thing to, you know, hopefully push the mayor to get even better communication than was going out previously, which I know on a shoestring budget was was tricky for people and Councilor Collins in particular. Um, so that's that's all it was great. I look forward to contributing more as a Salem Street resident. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Is there anyone else who hasn't spoken yet who would like to speak on this issue? Seeing none, we'll go back to the podium to Andrew Castanedi for one minute.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. I've neglected to say that Salem Street is very, very congested as is. I live one block away. I avoid that and go through the square because it's easier to deal with Medford Square than it is with Salem Street at times. And don't forget, we on the east side of Route 93 have been suffering with the noise pollution 24 hours a day, which really hurts at three o'clock in the morning when you have a motorcycle revving up It's not fun, and the pollution is not good either. Even the people that say, oh, the noise doesn't bother me, but I have to wash my boat at the Riverside Yacht Club on a daily basis. It's like insult to injury. For 65 years, they've been suffering since they built Route 93 in 1960. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli receiving place on file, is that fine? On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to receive in place on file, seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan? Yes. Vice President Collins?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Lazzaro? Councilor Leming? One second. Try it now. Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Councilor Tseng. Yes. President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Yes. I have an affirmative, none negative. The motion is received and placed on file. Communications from the Mayor. Supplemental appropriation for the fiscal year 2026. Dear President Bears and members of the City Council, I respect the request and recommend that your honorable body approves the following supplemental appropriation for fiscal year 2026. $1,300,000 for the acquisition and implementation of an updated accounting software, including but not limited to funding for up to one full time temporary staff member to assist the city's transition. associated employee benefit costs, and third-party consulting and implementation services. To meet this appropriation, the sum of $1,300,000.00 be raised and appropriated from the fiscal year 2026 tax levy. The proposed supplemental appropriation utilizes one-time funds to support the transition to a new accounting software system. This initiative is the result of months of productive discussions and successful negotiations With the mystic Valley Development Commission related to the rivers edge project as the council was aware the properties at 100 and 200 rivers edge will no longer be exempt under Massachusetts general law chapter 59 for fiscal 26 with both properties now taxable. The resulting increase in the city's new growth will be sufficient to sustain this appropriation. As part of the ultimate MVDC negotiation, Medford has tentatively agreed to commit annual payments for the next five years, fiscal 26 to fiscal 30, ranging from $31,683 in fiscal 26 to $47,848 in fiscal 30, which would be deducted from the amount owed to Medford by the MVDC and redirected to Malden. This arrangement will require future City Council approval as it involves a payment not mandated by the district's enabling legislation, but it would simplify the process by eliminating the need for Medford to issue a separate payment. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Sincerely, Brianna Lugo Kern, Mayor. And we have the Assessor and the Finance Director with us. So I'll give them a second to explain this to us a little bit more, and then we'll ask them any questions, and then we'll take it from there. So Thank you for being here, Jared and Bob.
[Bob Dickinson]: Just the overview.
[Zac Bears]: We might need you to move it up a little bit, sorry.
[Bob Dickinson]: I'm too tall for the mic. Oh, it's totally cordless. The overview on this, I mean, I think anybody who's been at the conference since I started here knowing that I've been pushing to actually upgrade the accounting system that we have. It's overdue to do. It's a very big project. It's going to be expensive. It's going to take years to do it properly. Finding the funding for it, of course, is one of the big issues in this. So this year, when we came before you for the 2026 budget, we were operating on the information we had back in the beginning of May, basically. So we do conservative estimates for what our revenues will be. In this case, what happened was that due to Jared's work and the work of the mayor, we finally settled this 101-102 Rivers Edge. Those properties are now in the Medford tax rolls. That means my estimate for certified new growth, which was between $2 million and $2.2 million, is now over $3.5 million. This gives us room on the tax levy to actually appropriate these funds to, I won't say do this whole project because this is going to take years and probably more funding, but we can actually use this money, reserve it in a capital project fund to, probably this winter, we will be hiring consultant, look at the general ledger, decide what things we need to do before we do the upgrade, figure out what we're going to do with the chart of accounts, how to set the thing up correctly from the get-go. I wouldn't want to minimize how much work this is going to take or how long it will take. If we try to not do the work and we try to do it fast, it's not going to work. It won't give us what we want. But at this point, I think we're ready to actually make a good plan to do this and get it done. And we have this opportunity now because of this. I won't say it's a windfall. It's a very good thing for the city because, of course, Now we have this on the tax rolls, their taxes will be subject to proposition two and a half. They'll go into our levy limit for the rest of, for years and years and years. So I think at this time, it's an appropriate use of this money. So that's the overview.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Jared, is there anything you want to add before we go to questions?
[Jared Yagjian]: So just to touch on his point, he pretty much covered it. But the difference between that estimate and what we actually gained with that 2.2 to 3.45, I believe it is, is the roll off of 100 and 200 Rivers Edge. So it's called what's exempt to taxable. And that brings in new growth that stays in the levy limit in perpetuity. Bob's point. So that is, was, we didn't know if that was going to happen. Now we can say with certainty that it has happened and therefore we have the extra funds.
[Zac Bears]: Great. And I just want to note that this was one of our budget priorities at the Council the last two years to move to fund a transition to a new system. So I'm glad to see some progress on this. I'll go to Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: Mr. President, and thank you for your hard work. I know that this is something we've talked about for many, many years with getting the information that we need. One thing that I want the community to understand is by finally having this type of system, people don't realize how much money we're gonna be saving just because what we're using right now is archaic. And the hours we're spending trying to gather data, and it must be very difficult. Is that true or not?
[Bob Dickinson]: Yeah, it's very difficult. There are synergies we could have by having one system. Currently, we have technically four. If you include Vision, Harper's for the payroll service, SoftRight for the treasurer and payroll, and admins for the general ledger. We've had problems. Well, I mean, we've had problems in the last few months because uploads from SoftWrite for cash receipts aren't actually processing correctly. So now I have to spend time looking at why this is happening. It's just one example of how having disparate systems causes problems. And then I can't stress enough about how, I mean, just to put it bluntly, The chart of accounts, which is how we record revenues, expenses, liabilities, all of that stuff has been set up piecemeal since we got admins back in 1998. And it doesn't make sense. This is a common problem. I won't say that other communities don't have this problem, but basically we've outgrown it. And that's the thing. The accounts that we can use in that are limited. We have a limited number of them. So at some point, something's got to be up. And there's stuff that the current system does not. It can't be cloud-based, for instance. Everybody's going to cloud-based solutions for accounting systems. Admins doesn't do that. I don't know what we'd have to do to upgrade admins to be able to do that. They will definitely be included in the conversation about what software we're going to go to. But this, and I also want to stress when we're doing this, this is why I'm saying it's going to take money and take a lot of time, because I want to go through a proper procurement process, identify vendors using our consultants, identify vendors who are capable of having a system that will support a city of this size. So that we're picking the right software, we're closing down admins the way it should be, and moving that data into an upgraded software system where the account setup actually makes sense and works and is logical. So it's going to take a long time.
[George Scarpelli]: No, like I said, it'd be nice to You know, I know we've been asking for quarterly monthly, you know, breakdowns and we get them some months we don't get them some months and I know that's a lot of work to be done. So these are things that are going to be streamlined for one person that worked in municipality who turned over. their system to Munis. We use Munis in Somerville and most communities use this software. I think that it's such an important piece because it ties every city entity together, whether it's a police department, DPW, different offices, and you'll see payroll being done, you'll see You know procurement process go through Munis so everything but you're right, it does take a lot of time and my question to you is what we did. What was important in the community I work in was the training. Would that be part of the funds or just the software? Absolutely.
[Bob Dickinson]: And we'd be doing this in stages so that we get one stage. The first thing is to do the general ledger, get everybody trained on that. And that involves procurement, contract module, accounts payable. That's what admins does right now. we would replace it with a new system and make sure that it's running concurrently. We'd also have to, there's a fair amount of cleanup for old accounts in admins that we simply don't, I'm working on that, I've been working on that for two years now, to clean up old capital project accounts, because once we move to a new system, we won't have that data without going back to the old system. So I want to have those all cleaned up as much as possible so we keep the data, we know where the money came from, what it's for. That type of stuff is going to take a lot of extra work on the part of the finance department. Again, this is going to be a long process because, as you're saying, I want to do this right. I want people to be trained. I want the system to be set up correctly. I want to make sure that we're doing it right so we don't cause more problems than we have right now. But in the end, we'll have a system that's built for Medford that will work correctly.
[George Scarpelli]: Well, I appreciate it. I know that Rich put us into this century with some data entry and making sure that we can streamline some processes. And this is something that we've talked to for many, many years and trying to find a way. So sometimes when you look at a funding mechanism, the end result will benefit far greater than what that cost will be. So, again, like I said, I've seen it firsthand. I've worked with it firsthand. So you see the benefits to the community I work in. because of just hours saved and money saved because things are, data is collected a lot easier and a lot more streamlined and shared very easily. So I would move approval if that's what's needed, Mr. President, so.
[Zac Bears]: Great, we have a motion to approve from Councilor Serapelli. Do we have, seconded by Councilor Townsend, do we have other questions? Almost thought you were out. I have questions and I always have questions on this stuff. It's been too long, Bob. We haven't had you before us in a few months. My questions are actually really easy. I just had one. Is this going to make it easier for us to take online payments eventually if we move to this digital payments?
[Bob Dickinson]: Certainly.
[Zac Bears]: Certainly. Great.
[Bob Dickinson]: That's another interface problem that we'll have to be looking into, how online payments will be connecting to the treasurer and the general ledger. Probably right now, that's a treasurer problem. So that would probably be something we'd be attacking in year two or year three when we move the treasurer's cash receipt process. As you can tell, I've thought about this way too much. We would move the treasurer's. Once we've got the general ledger working, we're going to go to the treasurer's cash receipt process and the billing. And we have to make sure that we've transferred all billing balances to the new system correctly. But newer systems are used to all this stuff. you know, back in 1998, it was taking online payments. So yeah, having a more modern system would, whatever it turns out to be, would clearly make a difference with that.
[Zac Bears]: Great, yeah, that's a huge piece, I think, of the resident experience with City Hall, that we could make an improvement on online and digital payments would, I think, be a game changer for a lot of folks. My other question is, you know, you mentioned chart of accounts, and I know it needs to be cleaned up. You know, we had a bicycle commission donation at our last meeting last week, and they were like, you know, they've had some times in the past where they've had a donation and it's gone into a, you know, different thing in the chart of accounts. And just wondering, is this going to like make it easier for us to see on a more regular basis? where things like a donation, making sure that it goes to the right account, giving commissions the ability to see what their balances are more easily and take that workload off of your plate and the people in your office.
[Bob Dickinson]: If I could, an example, the way we use this, there's a certain segment in the chart of accounts, in the accounts and admins, and it's called project code or program code. It has three digits. coming from Nantucket, we had five. So setting up a new piece of the accounting system, I had 10,000 things. We're running out of program codes just because that drives all the, that's how we keep track of all the grants. That's how we keep track of all the capital projects. That's how we keep track of the CPC. The program codes drive that. That's how that system is set up. I only have 1,000 of them. Yeah. Yeah, with 10,000 of them, that means we can be much more precise in all of these things. It's easy to set up a new program, what we would call a program. In Munis, it would be called an organization code, an org code, for a specific thing. They gave us $500. It's for making sure everybody has dog collars. Right, and you have that set up, then you can make sure that all those donations go there and the money coming out is set up correctly so that the POs get put there and then you buy all the dog collars. Through the years, program codes have been used for many different purposes or many different appropriations. So that becomes a big problem when you're trying to go back into an actual program and see where the money came from and how it was supposed to be spent. I mean, Rich knows this. I asked for some dusty old papers that he had to go to the basement for because I got a query from somebody about the borrowings we had for the school pool. We don't have those papers. They're in the basement. I don't have a copy of them. I don't know exactly what they said. What else went into that account? This is the kind of stuff that I'm trying to clean up. And it would be part of this whole project is to make sure that we cleaned up those old accounts and got them properly set up with the proper balances in the new system with their own specific codes. We know where the money came from. we know precisely what authorization had that money, appropriated that money, how it was funded, et cetera. So, yes.
[Zac Bears]: Right now, you're going to the basement to figure that out.
[Bob Dickinson]: Yeah. And that's going to happen for a while. I mean, we've done... Actually, it's the work-off program. Last fall, I had a wonderful work-off person who knew a lot about Old Benford and was bothering the clerk's office all the time to find old papers and say, OK, this is exactly what this funding was for. So we could actually say, OK, we've got the paper. We've got it on a spreadsheet. This is all of the funding, where it came from, et cetera, what its account number in admins is. And that's the kind of thing is when we set up a new system, We'll have all that information. We'll make sure that all of that information is recorded in an easily accessible way. So when somebody comes in and says, hey, I donated $500 to the dog fund, we'll know where the dog fund is. We'll see the $500 coming in. We'll see the PO for the dog collars, et cetera. That's how it should work.
[Zac Bears]: Great. Last two questions. At the end of an implementation period, I know something that, you know, I've really been focused on and I know a lot of residents would like to see is kind of a more interactive and available way to view the city budget and view the actual spending and things like that. Is that going to be part of this? Something that we could have a link to on our website where residents could kind of have a budget browser of some kind.
[Bob Dickinson]: Well, I know other communities do have this. And again, with a more modern system, having that, we'd have to work on that because we don't currently do that very well. We have the budget book in there, but day-to-day actuals.
[Zac Bears]: That's only day to day.
[Bob Dickinson]: Well, not day to day, but yes, more accessible reports for the community. That's certainly something that if you get a more modern system, you can have that system just do an upload in real time, say at the end of the month, something like that. You can tell it how to get the data into the website without actually having somebody right now. What we'd have to do is we'd have to do an Excel spreadsheet from admins and then group it correctly so it matches the actual budget votes. And then we'd have to give it to ClearGov so that they can put it on the website. We can't do that ourselves. with the current system. So yeah, this is something that we definitely discuss. And if it was advisable, we should be able to do it. Yes.
[Zac Bears]: Great. That would be awesome. I think that would be something a lot of folks are looking for. Last thing is just the timeline. You know, I know, over the past couple years, we've talked, I can tell you've thought about it, because I've watched in stages, the implementation kind of idea, you put it together. And you mentioned year two, year three. So are we looking at about a three year implementation timeframe for this?
[Bob Dickinson]: I would guess that the total conversion would take more like five. That's what I've heard from other communities. Okay. But we would look to be trying to, we would look to be getting things in place to replace the general ledger. We'd be looking to do that probably this winter with the consultants, make sure that we have all our ducks in the row and everything we need. If it worked the way I would like to, and obviously things happen. But I would think that in the winter of 2027, we'd be looking to put in the general ledger module and run that concurrently with admins to make sure everything's working correctly, everybody's trained correctly. And that just works out. I'm thinking of a project where we're going to do another module every winter for probably five winters. Because that way, for the finance department, the budget can be done without worrying about the system too much. All the downloads for the budget have already been done. I certainly wouldn't want to do it in September when we're trying to get the recap done, when we're trying to get the state reporting done, get the audit done. But hopefully, In the wintertime, we would have more resources to concentrate on this. When you get around to June, you're trying to close the fiscal year. You're trying to make sure that everything's buttoned up for the end of the fiscal year. And then in the summertime, you're going through all of the year-end closing and making sure all the POs have been encumbered properly, that we've closed them out if they need to be. There's an awful lot of detail work there. computer heavy with the accounting system. We really need the accounting system to do that. When we're doing the budget, that's more of a spreadsheet work and looking at tables to see whose payroll has to go up because of contractual obligations. That's spreadsheet work. We can not focus so much on data that we need from the accounting system during that period of time. It's not that we won't be busy, we will, but it's not something that will put a lot of demands on the accounting system itself. So that's how I see it working. That's why I'm saying a five-year timeline, because once we put something in, we're going to use it for the whole summer and make sure it's working correctly before we try to put another module in there. So yes, I've thought about this too much.
[Zac Bears]: Great. I mean, I think, you know, it's important. It's an important project, and I'm glad we're moving on it.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: All right. Any further questions from members of the council? Seeing none, do we have any comment from members of the public on this paper? I see one. I will ask for your name and address for the record, and you'll have three minutes.
[Micah Kesselman]: Micah Kesselman, 499 Main Street. I would just like some clarity on like the total windfall and how much spending is happening here. I hate that I'm in a position where I'm like potentially arguing against taking action against the increasing technical debt that our city continues to accrue. But that sounds like a pretty large windfall and we're literally days away from a from a snap crisis from a health insurance crisis and knows what new crisis will turn out next week. And I think it's I just think it needs to be part of the calculus for using surprise money and windfall funds right now. When we have these actual crises that, you know, as much as I would like to attack that, believe me, I want the technical debt of this city to be fixed. And I've worked with CPC code so I understand like the nightmare that you're dealing with. But people, you know, residents eating is more important at the end of the day. So yeah, it could just be some sort of explanation, like what the sort of spending outlay looks like and how that sort of like stepped or if it's basically taking all of this windfall cash and putting it into this project, potentially at the expense of using it for something that might be, unfortunately, more critical at the moment.
[Zac Bears]: Yeah, thank you for your comment. The paper before us is a one-time appropriation of $1.3 million, which is on the tax levy because of the River's Edge, but I don't know, Jared, if you could talk a little bit more about maybe where the money came from, and then maybe, Bob, if you could talk about what this looks like going forward in some way.
[Jared Yagjian]: All right, so the money came from what's called the MVDC, if you're familiar with it. It was the tri-city development over on the Malden River. And after 15 years, the properties roll off or come out of the pilot to their respective cities. It wasn't very well put. It was vague in the original legislation. So we went through what turned out to be a roughly two-year negotiation with Malden. to where they finally agreed to say, yes, once the 15 years are up, we all agree that it reads the city, the properties fall to their respective cities. And I think 98% of the properties in the MBDC are on Medford land. So as they fall off, we will get those properties to come on to our tax rolls, resulting in the same new growth. Well, not the same number, but it'd be the same process.
[Zac Bears]: And this is the money that's in this year's levy, but we're not appropriating this money in future fiscal years to this project.
[Bob Dickinson]: Only in so much, well, not appropriating the money. Once it's on the tax rolls, it goes into the tax levy. Right.
[Zac Bears]: I mean more to say that this $1.3 million that is being appropriated in fiscal 26, it's not like the $1.3 million in the next budget is going to this as well?
[Bob Dickinson]: No. Depending on how the Council wants. I mean, it'll be another appropriation which will come before the Council when we need more funding. I won't say if because I know we will, but when the time is when we need the funding, we will come before the council with a funding source and say we need to do this because we need more funding because this is the next step of this project, just like any other capital appropriation.
[Zac Bears]: And I know you might not have the exact figure in front of you, but you know, the resident was talking about some emergency, potential emergency needs and obviously some of the really worrying and dangerous things that are happening in the federal government. this wouldn't impact the stabilization fund or any funds that we would need that could be put towards.
[Bob Dickinson]: We still have $6 million, I believe it is, in the general stabilization fund that could be used for emergency spending. And once I get all the state reporting in, we'll have this year's free cash number. I don't have an estimate on what that will be this year.
[Zac Bears]: Yeah. And just, you know, I know that there's a lot of residents who are worried about the Trump administration not providing SNAP benefits starting November 1st, food stamps. and other items that are happening. The food security task force, I believe, is meeting tomorrow to bring together the city with some of the other agencies and folks who work on food security in the city to see, you know, figure out the mayor's team is putting that together. We didn't really receive any communication about it directly as a city council, but we have been made aware that they're meeting to put together an emergency response in some way. All right, do we have other comments on this? All right, we'll take you to the podium, name and address the record, you'll have three minutes.
[Jennifer Yanko]: Thank you. My name is Jennifer Yanko. I live at 16 Monument Street, and I just wanted to underline the importance of this. I mean, there have been lots of complaints about lack of transparency, people wanting to know more about the budgeting process, more about where funds are going, and having updated and clear accounting systems are critical for this. So if we want to know how the money is being spent, and where it's going and how it's allocated. Having these systems in place is really important. So I just think that we should be in support of this. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Do you have any other public comments on this paper? Name and address for the record, please. Yes, quickly.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Castagnetti, Andrew, Cushman Street, East Method. I just have one question for these two individual department heads. What was our new growth value last year, and what is it projected to be this year?
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. I don't know if the assessor
[Jared Yagjian]: The approximate on the exact number. Approximate was 2.5, I believe, last year. And this year we're at 3.45, I believe. There you go. OK. OK. So that's that.
[Zac Bears]: And when we say this year, last year, which are we talking calendar year?
[Jared Yagjian]: Fiscal year.
[Zac Bears]: Fiscal year. So last year would be fiscal 25, and this year would be fiscal 26.
[Jared Yagjian]: That's correct.
[Zac Bears]: Great.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: With the extra million dollars new growth this year, can for a change, can we eliminate the prop two and a half increase and use this new growth to offset our increases?
[Zac Bears]: Thank you for the comment. Any further public comments on this paper? On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve, seconded by Councilor Callahan. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Kelly. Yes. Vice President Collins. Yes. Council is our council. Councilor Scott fell. Councilor Tseng President beers.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, 70 affirmative and negative. The motion passes. Thanks, you guys. Public participation. We have general public participation on any topic that someone might want to discuss. You will have three minutes. We will have folks in person and on Zoom, and we will alternate between in-person and on Zoom. Please raise your hands on Zoom. We'll start at the podium. Name and address for the record, please. And you'll have three minutes.
[Micah Kesselman]: 499 Main Street, Micah Kesselman. I sort of alluded to this earlier. The reason I came to the City Council meeting tonight was that I you're all aware, literally just talked about it, SNAP benefits are expiring or not being funded in November. Health insurance premiums are gonna devastate people starting in at the same time effectively. And these are also basically people who are like, this is a cross section, like these are the same groups that are being impacted. By both of these things simultaneously and we're in a city that has, like the rest of the country ongoing and growing issues with on an underemployment, so I, what is I so I wanted to ask what are. Yeah, like, is there a plan? It sounds like there is an emergency meeting being convened tomorrow, though, if I understand correctly, the mayor didn't tell the city council about it, which is wild, but whatever. I'll refrain from ranting about her incompetence today. And is there anything that is, are there any thoughts of plans or anything that you know, any ideas that you have to deal with also the healthcare and health insurance stuff as well, because both of these things are gonna like really, really impact people in a really terrible, horrible way, and they need to be addressed ASAP. And on top of that, you know, do you have any advice or any guidance for residents who are interested or wanting to help with the situation? Would you direct them anywhere? Because I think that like, you know, It's unfortunate that's happening in the middle of your guys election election campaigns, you got a lot on your plate. But this is more important than moaning about Salem Street being mixed use to versus mixed use one. So, yeah, thanks for any answer you give.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you for the comment. As I noted, super concerning. We're very worried about the impact that this retrenchment is going to have on residents. I am not sure what the city response will be out of tomorrow's meeting. I do know that the mystic community market is a resource on mystic Avenue. We have some mutual aid organizations in the city looking at direct rapid response, especially the Mutual Aid Bedford-Somerville folks. In terms of how is the city going to try to address certainly if this is a long-term issue with SNAP and then what seems to be a long-term issue on the health insurance premiums and the ACA markets, I do not know. I think, you know, even before the last 11 months or 10 months or feels like 10 years. municipalities were being asked to do too much things that should be done by the state and federal government. And now we're being asked to do even more. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything, but it just means that our capacity is limited. For me as one Councilor, you know, we have advocated to state delegation, federal delegation for them to respond to what's happening at the federal level. I think in some ways, it's a hard situation because the clearly like the Trump administration doesn't listen to Massachusetts as federal elected officials. But we definitely need to have a response. Something I have been advocating for in an individual capacity is the corporate fair share law, which is at the state level, which would kind of backfill some of the funding cuts that we're seeing at the state level. So that's just some things that I have been looking at, and I hope that the city can kind of pretty soon after whatever meeting is happening tomorrow, point people, people who wanna help, people who wanna support in the direction of either city resources or private nonprofit resources in our community to make sure that people have food next week. And I'll go to Councilor Lazzaro, who I know is pretty in tune with a lot of the organizations who work on this.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I just want to mention that there I haven't been in touch with the city. Um, food access resources community connector, but not since knowing that they're cutting snap benefits very soon, but Libby Lazar is our city. connector in charge of that and actually emailed her just very recently to ask what the plan is, if there is a plan. But Mystic Market is one spot. There's a food pantry at the UU Church on High Street every Thursday. People can donate to these places as well. Bread of Life in Malden, Food Link in Arlington. there are a lot of places that continue have been and continue to have food resources. But also, um Uh, I'm interested in hearing what the city is planning to put together in anticipation of there being more people with fewer resources coming up. So, um Especially the people that continue to have resources being interested in participating in that side of things is still I mean something we sometimes talk about in Medford, but maybe not frequently enough is that there is a lot of income disparity here, so there will continue to be people who are doing fine. And it's incumbent upon those of us who are doing okay to maybe step up and offer those resources to the people that may be especially suffering right now by donating and offering those resources to the people that don't have them. So maybe we'll find ourselves with some more food drives in the future.
[Zac Bears]: I am not sure. I don't know when it's happening. I don't know who's attending. I just know that there's some sort of meeting because somebody emailed someone who told me that. Yeah. All right. We'll stay at the podium. Name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: I just wanted to chime in on this. Going hungry is no fun. And it seems like one in five Massachusetts residents are getting whatever they call it, snap, eight, food cards. And it's not fun, especially if they're used to getting the food. However, if I'm not mistaken, didn't the governor Haley come up with a billion dollars somehow to help with these hotels, with the immigration situation? I would think if she can come up with a billion dollars, maybe she could do something for all the 351 cities and towns.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Any further public comment on anything? Yes. Well, you have two minutes left. All right. You have two minutes left on your timer.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: No, this is...
[Zac Bears]: This is in general, so we're already in the general public participation. Yes.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. I have a question that's very unusual. First, your Prop 2.5 double override that we passed costs me about $1,000 extra on my real estate tax bill. Now I'm pushing up to $10,000 on a year real estate tax bill. And that doesn't take into account the $1,000 extra from the increase. It is going to be a 2.5% added thanks to Barbara Anderson. It won't be any more unless we do another override. But that's going to be in perpetuity along with the $9,000 I'm already paying. Some of us are having trouble paying our real estate tax bills, especially our seniors on a fixed income. My question is, if you all city councilors are reelected next week, will you please repeal this unfair prop two and a half override and help all the method real estate taxpayers? Yes, no or no comments.
[Zac Bears]: Thanks Andy, it's.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Okay. Yeah. Now, number two. I also have a question for Mr. Beers and another Councilor. What the heck happened with my $100 check I gave to you in the city to install the memorial lights on the Mystic River footbridge? Are you gonna give it to the mayor?
[Zac Bears]: I did give it to the mayor, yes.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: And there's no lights, it's over a year now.
[Zac Bears]: I have actually asked her about it, but the money's with them.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: It's a lousy hundred foot of lights. And one of the Councilors checked on the internet and a dollar light that would cover a hundred lights. And it should face the Craddock Bridge, the first bridge in North America built in 1638. it will look wicked pisser, and it will be glowing on the mystic river. It's so sad. I would say, may the good Lord shine a light for all method people. It's a memorial, living and deceased, amen.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak in the public comment section of our agenda? Seeing none, I'm going to close public comment. Is there a motion on the floor? Motion to adjourn by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by. Seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Kelly. Yes. Vice President Collins.
[Jennifer Yanko]: Yes.
[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Lazzaro. Yes. Councilor Leming. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Tseng. Yes. President Pierce.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, none in the negative. The motion passes and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you.
|
total time: 37.93 minutes total words: 1825 |
total time: 2.29 minutes total words: 188 |
total time: 6.43 minutes total words: 585 |
|