[0:01] - Good evening.
[0:03] Welcome back from April Break.
[0:04] Everybody, the parents in the room,
[0:08] fantastic to be back in school.
[0:10] Good evening. The time is 6 45 on Monday, April 27th, 2026.
[0:15] This is a meeting of the
[0:16] Appropriations and Oversight Committee.
[0:17] My name is Devin Roman. I'm the chair.
[0:20] I'm also joined this evening by Vice Chair Vandiver,
[0:23] councilors Chen, Occhio Chetty, Cowell
[0:29] Park, and President Freeman and
[0:32] - Williams.
[0:33] - Oh, and Williams, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
[0:35] Look, you know what? Unreal councilor, because
[0:38] - You were sitting back in your chair.
[0:40] - I would, my big hair - Was hiding
[0:42] - You.
[0:43] Exactly, exactly. Forgive me.
[0:45] As well as Councilor Williams
[0:47] working on my tight five for standup tonight.
[0:49] You haven't said anything. I honestly would've just,
[0:51] this serves as a believe it
[0:52] or not, a notice of quorum for the record
[0:54] and accordance with the open meeting law.
[0:56] This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on MMTV.
[1:00] At this time I'll motion by unanimous consent
[1:02] to approve without reading the minutes from our most recent
[1:05] meeting on April 6th.
[1:06] Seeing no objection, the minutes are now approved.
[1:10] I'll now motion by unanimous consent
[1:11] to open the floor for public comment.
[1:14] Seeing no objection, the floor is open for public comment.
[1:17] This is the portion of the meeting where members
[1:19] of the public may speak on any item on tonight's agenda.
[1:22] Comments expressing any viewpoints on
[1:24] other matters are also welcome.
[1:26] Do we have any members of the public who would like
[1:28] to have a chat?
[1:31] No. Do we have anybody online? No
[1:33] - One online.
[1:34] - Alright. If there's no objection, I will motion
[1:36] by unanimous consent to close public comment.
[1:38] Seeing none, we are now closed for public comment.
[1:42] First item on our agenda tonight is ID number 20 26 7 7 5
[1:47] Acceptance of a Climate Leaders Technical Assistance Grant
[1:50] and the amount of $139,000.
[1:53] Joining us this evening is Lori Maso. Good evening.
[1:56] Thank you for coming. Hello,
[1:58] - Good evening.
[1:59] Thank you for having me. So I'm here tonight
[2:02] to request acceptance of the $139,000
[2:06] of the Climate Leaders Technical Assistance Grant.
[2:09] This is from the Department of Energy Resources,
[2:12] and this money would go towards technical assistance
[2:15] for the design for placing solar panels on the salt shed in
[2:19] the DPW yard, and also the design
[2:22] for installing heat pumps at the middle school auditorium
[2:25] and the high school, the administrative offices there.
[2:31] So both of these projects would advance our climate goals
[2:34] of electrifying our buildings,
[2:37] and then also with the, the heat pumps for the,
[2:40] the middle school and the high school.
[2:41] Those portions of the building would be able to be,
[2:45] you know, heated and cooled in a separate from the rest
[2:49] of the school, which would have big energy savings.
[2:53] And also with this project, with the design of the project,
[2:58] we would then have the construction ready plans
[3:02] to be eligible to apply
[3:03] for climate Leaders Community Decarbonization Accelerator
[3:07] grant for implementation.
[3:09] And we are a climate leader, and so
[3:13] therefore we have the ability to apply for these grants
[3:17] and their, the number
[3:19] of applicants is fairly low at this point.
[3:21] We are pretty progressive in our energy sustainability
[3:25] e efforts in Melrose.
[3:26] So we're, it, will we hear it?
[3:29] We'll likely get that the grant to implement these projects.
[3:33] Thank you. Wonderful.
[3:34] - Thank you so much. We're also joined by Councillor Jamine.
[3:37] Good evening. Thanks. Up first I have Councillor Ro Thank
[3:41] - You.
[3:42] Thank you for being here. So
[3:44] you sort of answered the question.
[3:45] I I think I was premature with my, my asking a question.
[3:48] But you, so the grant is for the design of both items,
[3:54] and then once the design is done, you'll know approximately
[3:57] what the cost would be to get them implemented?
[4:00] - Yes. Yes. That would be part
[4:01] - Of it.
[4:02] And then you'd go back to request another grant, right?
[4:04] - Yes. - Okay. And you think
[4:05] that the 139,000 will cover the design,
[4:08] or do you think 48 like being more than that?
[4:11] - We've gotten estimates, so are confident with,
[4:16] you know, that number. Okay.
[4:18] - All right. Thank you. - Next I have Councillor Williams.
[4:22] - Thank you. It's great to see
[4:24] that we're continuing melrose's very strong history
[4:26] of sustainability and energy innovation.
[4:28] I know Martha would be happy to see the work that she sort
[4:32] of kicked off moved forward.
[4:35] And I want to make a motion
[4:36] to recommend this to the full counsel.
[4:38] - Second, we have a motion to recommend
[4:40] by Councilor Williams, seconded
[4:41] by Councilor Karen Chetty on discussion up,
[4:44] first I have Councillor Chen.
[4:47] - Are we putting this out to bid
[4:48] for two different contractors?
[4:49] One for an HVAC designer
[4:51] and then another one for a solar architect?
[4:53] - We, we actually have the contractors in place already
[4:57] through the proper procurement we were able to use.
[5:02] So Elena Pro Ellis is a partner in this project,
[5:07] and so she would have more detail on exactly
[5:09] who those people are, but we have checked that we are able
[5:13] to use those contractors to continue the design.
[5:17] So for like the Salt Shed, it was originally designed
[5:21] with the intention that we would put solar panels on that.
[5:26] So we were able to use, I believe it's Weston
[5:28] and Samson, to continue the design with within the law of,
[5:34] you know, being able to use the, the grant
[5:38] and also the state procurement laws.
[5:41] And then the, the same for the middle school
[5:43] and high school project.
[5:48] - Thank you. Up next I Councillor Park.
[5:50] - Thank you Lori, thank you for, for presenting this.
[5:53] As, as you know, through our previous meetings
[5:56] during the capital improvement project, I'm a big fan
[5:59] of trying to decrease costs anywhere we can have.
[6:03] I'm curious, have you done any cost analysis, savings
[6:08] and potentially what we could be gaining in terms
[6:10] of installing these solar panels on the shed as well
[6:13] as the heat pumps on in the schools?
[6:16] - I don't have that information,
[6:18] but we do work with engineers that
[6:21] come up with those calculations.
[6:22] So that is a,
[6:24] a big advantage not only advancing our climate goals,
[6:28] but reducing the utility costs.
[6:31] - Absolutely. It'd be a great thing for us to broadcast that
[6:34] in addition to just using it from funds outside
[6:37] of the revenue that we,
[6:39] or the levies that we get from the city,
[6:40] but, you know, just a way that we're proactively trying
[6:43] to save money for this, for the city itself.
[6:45] So yes, I would love to see those numbers at some point.
[6:48] Thank you.
[6:50] - Any other questions for my colleagues?
[6:52] Oh, I'm sorry President Friedman. It's
[6:54] - Alright.
[6:55] Ms. Masa, thanks so much for being here.
[6:56] I think this is, this is a great project
[6:57] and exciting for the city.
[6:59] Can you just talk a little bit about timing here in terms of
[7:01] how long will this technical assistance study take?
[7:04] And then when will we be looking to apply for the next step
[7:07] of the, of any available grants?
[7:09] - So we have the contractors in place
[7:13] and I believe that they will be working through the summer.
[7:18] I don't know the exact deadline,
[7:20] but this is a kind of a quick turnaround
[7:23] for getting the study done.
[7:25] And then we would apply, you know,
[7:29] I don't, sorry, I don't remember the date
[7:31] of when the acceptance for the, the
[7:34] Decarbonization Accelerator grant is happening,
[7:37] but we'll apply for the next round.
[7:39] - Awesome. Now that's good to hear that.
[7:40] Just that it's a quick study recognizing that we're one
[7:43] of the few communities that have this designation right now.
[7:45] It's great to hear. We'll be in the queue for
[7:47] that grant shortly, so thank you.
[7:51] - Wonderful. If that is the last, the commentary,
[7:54] Madam Clerk, will you please call the role?
[7:56] - Yes. Vice Chair Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Chen? Yes.
[8:01] Councilor Occhio? Yes. Counselor Jamine? Yes.
[8:04] Councilor Karen Chaney? Yes. Councillor Cole? Yes.
[8:08] Councillor Park? Yes. Councillor Williams? Yes.
[8:11] President Freeman? Yes. Chair Romano? Yes. Motion passes.
[8:16] - Alright, wonderful. That will be presented at
[8:18] our next full council meeting.
[8:19] Thank you very much. Up next, I know that we have
[8:24] some overlapping meetings tonight.
[8:26] We're doing a little, everyone's dance card is full.
[8:28] So as a professional courtesy, I wanted to make a, a motion
[8:31] by unanimous consent
[8:33] to take item number 20 26 7 4 9 in informational order
[8:38] on the Affordable housing trust.
[8:39] Out of order, seeing no objection,
[8:43] we'll take these items out of order.
[8:45] So up next we have ID number 20 26 7 49,
[8:48] the information order on the Affordable Housing Trust
[8:50] Fund board update.
[8:51] And we have assorted members of the board here before us.
[8:56] Feel free to introduce yourself. Yes.
[9:02] - Hi, good evening.
[9:05] Thank you Chair Romano
[9:06] and City Council for the opportunity to speak tonight.
[9:09] We're excited to talk to you about the work
[9:12] of the Affordable Housing Trust, some
[9:15] of the housing challenges that we see in Melrose
[9:18] and how we can partner moving forward.
[9:20] And we'll do brief introductions.
[9:23] My name's Amy Tierney and I am the chair of the trust.
[9:27] And joining me tonight, or my colleagues,
[9:29] I'm the Trust Vice Chair, Jerman and Treasurer Joe Viola.
[9:34] Our clerk, Helina Feld had
[9:36] to go away on a unexpected business trip,
[9:39] so she sends her regrets and is not here tonight.
[9:42] We just wanted to, I know you have the presentation,
[9:44] you have our guidelines, so we just wanna run through it
[9:46] and leave, have some time if you have any questions.
[9:49] But we just wanted to start with
[9:51] what the trust is and why it exists.
[9:55] Whoops. I can, okay, so here we are.
[9:59] So the trust is a statutory body that was established
[10:03] by the council in 2020 in accordance
[10:05] with the Mass General laws section.
[10:09] There's over 100 communities in Massachusetts
[10:12] that have affordable housing trusts.
[10:15] The trust is a volunteer board appointed by the mayor
[10:19] and confirmed by the council.
[10:21] We have four board members that are volunteers,
[10:24] and then a designee of the mayor's office,
[10:26] which is currently Ms.
[10:28] Mesa from the Office of Planning and Community Development.
[10:33] We spent a lot of time in the last year since we've all been
[10:36] kind of up and running, thinking about what our mission is
[10:40] and trying to be transparent
[10:42] and thoughtful about guidelines and next steps.
[10:44] So I just wanna kind of take a moment
[10:46] and think about what the mission of the trust is.
[10:51] We are, we wanna work to create, preserve,
[10:55] and support diverse affordable housing to meet the needs
[10:59] of low and moderate income households in Melrose
[11:02] over the span of their entire lifespan in collaboration
[11:07] with both municipal and community partners.
[11:10] So that's kind of our o overall mission.
[11:14] And so why is this work so important right now?
[11:18] I think you can't read a newspaper
[11:20] or turn on the news we're we have a housing crisis in the US
[11:24] and in Massachusetts you see that at, in the,
[11:27] at the state level with a lot of state priorities along
[11:32] with, it's been clear in our last housing production plan
[11:36] that affordable housing is an
[11:37] issue that's important to the city.
[11:40] So we look to, we look at Melrose
[11:45] and we're not immune to all of that.
[11:49] Housing affordability in Melrose is becoming increasingly
[11:52] outta reach for many residents
[11:54] or people who would wanna move here.
[11:56] Particularly young families that either wanna move here or,
[12:02] or stay or stay our local workforce
[12:06] and our seniors who are looking for continuity
[12:09] of housing over their lifetime,
[12:10] whether they wanna stay in their house
[12:13] or we don't have enough housing stock if they want
[12:17] to stay in Melrose, in, in an an age in place.
[12:22] So I just, I thought we just ground it in, like
[12:26] affordable housing gets thrown around a lot.
[12:28] And what we're talking about as affordable housing
[12:32] with like a capital A for our trust purposes is
[12:37] in Massachusetts, affordable housing is generally defined
[12:41] as housing, where a household spends no more than 30%
[12:47] of the income of the household on housing costs.
[12:52] Let's see, I don't know why this keeps doing that,
[12:54] but in Melrose, the occlusion units
[12:58] that are de restricted, they serve households earning up
[13:02] to 80% of the area median income.
[13:05] And you'll see in the chart, you know,
[13:07] HUD sets the Boston Metro area
[13:12] and these are the 2025 income limits.
[13:16] And so what this really means is, in Melrose for a family
[13:19] of four people earning up to $132,000,
[13:24] they would generally qualify for affordable housing
[13:27] based on that, their income.
[13:30] So just to look at a little bit of what's happening locally,
[13:37] you know, it's been more than since 2020,
[13:41] but from 2020 the past few years,
[13:44] you can see we have a sharp increase in both
[13:46] home prices and rents.
[13:48] Single, single family homes are approaching $101 million
[13:53] and rents are nearing 3000 a month on average.
[13:59] So this is creating real pressure for, as we said,
[14:02] for our seniors that are trying to age in place
[14:05] for families, for people who work in our community.
[14:08] And you know, for people who may have grown up in Melrose
[14:11] and wanna come back, we're hearing like they,
[14:14] that's not possible.
[14:17] Just as an example, the Melrose Emergency Fund,
[14:20] this year it dispersed over $11,000
[14:24] in one time rental or mortgage assistance.
[14:26] And that's, I mean, that's a lot of money for people
[14:30] e each individual, you know, up to 11 grand.
[14:33] So it's really, it's a real issue here
[14:35] and I think we just want to bring light to it
[14:39] and try to help collaborate to
[14:42] have some better solutions.
[14:47] These is kind of, obviously these
[14:49] numbers change all the time.
[14:50] I mean, there's, they're dynamic numbers,
[14:52] but these are the numbers from the, the census website,
[14:56] the la the latest census.
[14:58] And as you can see, the medium home value is at $970,000.
[15:03] Yet the medium household income's 133, which is not much
[15:07] above the 80% of the a MI.
[15:11] So it's a real issue. And that's borne out by the data.
[15:16] I think this is an interesting slide.
[15:18] It was taken right from our housing production plan,
[15:21] and it, I think it just shows that over 30%
[15:24] of Mel's households, our cost burden,
[15:27] which means they're spending more than 30% of their income
[15:32] on housing and nearly 14% of that are severely cost burden,
[15:37] which means they're spending more than 50%
[15:39] of their income on housing costs.
[15:43] And if you look to the right, the right hand column,
[15:46] that's the light, the light green, I guess blue that is,
[15:50] it's hard to read, but that's the renters.
[15:53] And this affects renters.
[15:59] We have 33, over 30% of residents are renters here,
[16:02] and 50% of renters are severely cost burdened,
[16:07] meaning they're spending over half of their
[16:10] income on housing costs.
[16:12] We also see large numbers of older homeowners.
[16:15] Over 3000 homes are owned by households of over 60
[16:19] who may be, you know, house rich because they're housing,
[16:24] 'cause their housing, their, their, you know, has,
[16:27] their houses are worth more, but they're cash constrained
[16:31] because they're hard to keep up
[16:33] and their income has is maybe, you know,
[16:37] is set or static.
[16:40] So this is just shows that it, this is across the community.
[16:43] This is a broad community issue.
[16:44] It's not just about seniors,
[16:45] it's not just about commuters into the city.
[16:48] It's really everybody.
[16:52] And no,
[16:53] no single group can do it alone, solve it alone either.
[16:57] It's really, this work is about collaboration, the trust,
[17:02] obviously we wanna be a mover on this,
[17:06] but we need to collaborate across city government
[17:08] with the housing authority.
[17:10] I see Mr. Corona here tonight through non-profit,
[17:14] profit partners, developers, as well
[17:16] as state and fellow programs.
[17:20] So where does Melrose stand today? This is, oops.
[17:26] Oh, how do I go back here? Am I back?
[17:30] Oh shoot, what did I do here? Lemme see.
[17:37] I don't know how to, here we go. Here we go. Sorry.
[17:41] So this is today, this is,
[17:43] we have just over 12,000 housing units
[17:47] and 941 of them are affordable.
[17:52] So that's just about 7.5%.
[17:56] So the next slide, what is this? There we go.
[18:02] This just kind of shows those, those 940 units, you see
[18:05] that 731 of them are senior housing.
[18:09] So it's a, you know, disproportionate in terms
[18:12] of the type of housing stock.
[18:13] There's not a lot of family or units for single people.
[18:18] And, and the on the side just talks about which
[18:21] monitoring organizations are responsible
[18:24] for monitoring those
[18:28] and then enter wise, sorry.
[18:33] Okay. And they're all affordable.
[18:36] Housing is all across the city in different,
[18:39] located in multiple neighborhoods
[18:41] and housing types, which is important
[18:43] for creating an inclusive community.
[18:46] They should be in our views,
[18:48] spread out throughout the community.
[18:50] And this is a heat map of where they are now
[18:54] to support this work, we need
[18:56] to rely on many tools.
[19:02] These in, this includes chapter 40 B, inclusionary zoning,
[19:06] state and federal subsidies along with tax credits.
[19:10] And, and the trust itself is a
[19:14] flexible local funding tool.
[19:17] So that brings us to what is the role of the trust, right?
[19:22] You see in our, in the guidelines in our application,
[19:25] there's different types of funding we can provide.
[19:29] And through application you could,
[19:30] we can provide gap financing, enable acquisitions,
[19:34] rehabilitation that create or preserve affordable housing.
[19:38] There's an opportunity to support pre-development costs,
[19:41] to unlock, unlock potential projects
[19:45] and really to leverage other private and public financing.
[19:49] A lot of these types
[19:50] of deals have many different facets of financing.
[19:54] Mr. Villa is more adept in, in,
[19:58] in those types of issues.
[19:59] But a lot of the state funding
[20:01] or federal funding requires local, you know,
[20:05] they want the local community to have some skin in the game.
[20:08] And that's our hope to be able to kind of be bridge,
[20:12] bridge the gap on some of those.
[20:14] We can do grants loans, forgivable loans, types
[20:19] of funding from, from the trust.
[20:22] And we do have, in our guidelines, we've tried
[20:25] to create pretty transparent guidelines with
[20:30] clear selection criteria
[20:31] that would emphasize the feasibility of the project,
[20:34] the affordability of the project,
[20:36] and also to align with the city goals.
[20:40] So, so this is what we've been up to.
[20:45] We all came together only about a year ago,
[20:48] a little bit over a year ago, and we were lucky enough
[20:50] to hit the ground running.
[20:51] We got a technical assistance grant
[20:53] and we worked for about six months with MHP,
[20:57] which is a housing partner, housing partnership to kind
[21:02] of thoughtfully develop our, you know, our state,
[21:05] our mission statement as well as our goals.
[21:08] And I just, I wanna stop here.
[21:10] I don't, we don't wanna spend a lot of time on the slides,
[21:12] but I really wanna let, let Jim talk a little bit about,
[21:17] we've done one, we've grant, we've,
[21:19] we've made one grant since we've been in existence
[21:23] and I think it's a good example of what we can do.
[21:27] - Yeah, so let me talk a little bit about that.
[21:29] So I was a founding member
[21:30] of the Melrose Affordable Housing Corporation,
[21:33] and we were founded a number of years ago by citizens
[21:36] of Melrose who just really wanted to make a difference.
[21:38] So that is a private nonprofit organization run
[21:43] by its own board of directors, not affiliated with the city
[21:46] or in any way they contract with
[21:48] nor housing authority to be the management agent.
[21:51] But that's the connection with Housing authority.
[21:54] And so properties that would come up available for sale,
[21:57] that the Affordable Housing Corporation would think about
[21:59] buying and then
[22:02] use federal funds from the North Suburban consortium
[22:05] to hold those properties on the city's housing inventory.
[22:10] So those would be in perpetuity listed
[22:13] as affordable housing rentals.
[22:16] And so an opportunity came up
[22:17] for the Affordable Housing Corporation
[22:19] to acquire a three family building in Melrose.
[22:21] So it happened to be adjacent to one
[22:23] that they already owned, but you know, through their years
[22:27] of being in business, they didn't have a lot of money.
[22:30] So they were able to leverage the properties
[22:32] that they had along with some traditional bank financing
[22:35] and getting fin and got financing from the North Suburban
[22:38] consortium using home funds grants.
[22:40] But they were still short
[22:42] and they were very anxious to be able
[22:44] to tap into the motors affordable housing trust fund money.
[22:48] And for many years that money had been sort
[22:50] of lingering out there, that it was there,
[22:52] but there was no trust established.
[22:54] And so when we got the trust established, we sort of knew
[22:58] that this organization was gonna be waiting for something.
[23:01] And so we were really happy that we were able to put some
[23:04] guidelines together with the assistance of MHP
[23:07] and came up with a, a very formal plan to be able
[23:11] to fund them and be able to give them $140,000
[23:14] of our limited funds, which enabled them to be able
[23:18] to finalize that purchase.
[23:20] And now there are three rental units,
[23:22] family rental units in Melrose
[23:24] that are now deed restricted in perpetuity
[23:26] as affordable capital a affordable units.
[23:30] And so us being able to be nimble
[23:34] and be able to provide that financing relatively quickly
[23:38] is still not as quick as what
[23:41] cash paying investors would buy in the open market,
[23:44] but it was really important that we,
[23:46] that we'd be there for them.
[23:47] But you might see that that's not a big amount.
[23:50] That's, we don't have a lot of money.
[23:51] We never had a lot of money to start.
[23:53] We, I think we had about $650,000,
[23:57] which was a combination of payment in lieu
[24:00] of units the developers had paid in.
[24:01] I think there was some old free cash money
[24:04] that was in there, but not a lot of money.
[24:06] And so to give $140,000 out
[24:09] depletes almost 20% of our, of our assets.
[24:13] So we can't do that very frequently,
[24:15] but we were glad that we were able to do it, at least
[24:18] for the affordable housing corporation to start.
[24:19] So it's an example of sort of where we've worked
[24:22] with a local organization
[24:24] to collaborate on creating more affordable units.
[24:28] - Thank you. I'm in a good value too.
[24:31] We have three for, you know, 140,000 of our,
[24:35] of our money that we now have three units in perpetuity.
[24:40] The, this is just, you know, our goals
[24:43] for the next five years.
[24:44] They're detailed in our guidelines,
[24:46] but, you know, we wanna aim to expand community outreach.
[24:49] We think it's an important issue
[24:50] that sometimes isn't talked about or understood.
[24:54] And so we really want to be out in the community
[24:58] and we've started to do that in different ways.
[25:02] We've had listening sessions
[25:03] with the Affordable housing trust, I mean the,
[25:06] the housing authority and the corporation
[25:09] to try to get their input.
[25:10] So we look forward to engaging the community.
[25:14] Probably our most important goal is to find sustainable
[25:19] and diverse funding and,
[25:23] and to create in five years.
[25:26] We, it's a big number, but we hope to, you know, to create
[25:29] or support the creation of over 150 homes
[25:32] or more for rent or for ownership.
[25:36] And so how are we doing this today?
[25:41] It it's all, it's has to be collaboration.
[25:44] I've, in this last year have lucky, I've done a lot
[25:47] of research and listened to a lot of
[25:48] how this happens across the state.
[25:50] And these are kind of complicated financial packages.
[25:54] It's hard for affordable housing to compete in this market.
[25:59] And so you have to be nimble
[26:00] and you have to be willing to collaborate
[26:04] with whoever you can to get things done.
[26:08] You say today you can see, I think
[26:10] that's our current balance,
[26:11] just over half a million dollars.
[26:14] And so we see, and,
[26:18] and as Jim said so far, I think we've just had one.
[26:22] I think when Mayor Broder established the trust,
[26:24] he had one free cash
[26:26] and then we've the, the balances from
[26:29] payment, payment and lose.
[26:31] So we look to see, I went forward,
[26:34] but I just, I wanted quickly, one of the opportunities,
[26:38] the biggest opportunity we see in terms of creating our,
[26:41] our pipeline of financing is a CPA.
[26:45] So Joe has more experience in that.
[26:48] So I just wanted him to high level
[26:50] and we're happy to take some questions
[26:51] after just kind of what the CPA could do for the trust.
[26:56] - Sure. And you know, we've had this discussion
[26:59] at the committee level talking about sustainability
[27:02] and now that we have a housing trust
[27:04] and we want to fund these programs going forward,
[27:06] how do we capitalize it?
[27:08] And essentially the hous, the CPA allows communities
[27:11] to enact a surcharge against your tax levy
[27:14] of no greater than 3%.
[27:16] That funding is able to be used for affordable housing.
[27:20] It's able to be used for open space and recreation
[27:24] and historic preservation if we would have to work
[27:29] with the council to get it on ballot to see if the citizens
[27:33] of Melrose would be in favor of adopting the CPA.
[27:38] But you know, again, one project
[27:43] using, you know, a reasonable amount, amount of funding
[27:47] to deed restrict housing into the future.
[27:50] It's a great use of the funding.
[27:51] But how, how are we going to be able to fund those
[27:54] kinds of projects in the future?
[27:56] And just to, just to do a very back of the envelope
[27:59] and rudimentary calculation here, using the assessed value
[28:05] of the average tax assessment at 1%,
[28:11] the average household would pay, the average
[28:15] household at the average assessment would pay
[28:18] $97 a year in surcharge funds,
[28:23] you know, broken down by quarter, that's about $24.
[28:26] So that's at 1%.
[28:28] And again, I'll, I'll caution it's very rudimentary back at
[28:30] the envelope, but you could see that,
[28:35] you know, trying to extrapolate and,
[28:37] and say what that means to the, to the community.
[28:42] You know, we, we would add, sorry,
[28:44] I'm consulting my notes here,
[28:46] but we could add upwards of
[28:52] $600,000 a year in CPA funds.
[28:57] And again, there's CPA is, there's 10% for housing, 10%
[29:01] for open space and preservation
[29:04] and 10% for historic preservation.
[29:07] But you could see that any portion of that could help us
[29:10] to come up with a, a fundable sustaining mechanism for
[29:14] the housing trust and didn't want
[29:18] to do too much of a deep dive.
[29:19] I, I know you probably have all these facts at your
[29:22] fingertips, but it, it could mean a lot to be able
[29:26] to capitalize the affordable housing trust
[29:29] with CPA funds going forward in the future
[29:31] and the many programs that it allows you to, to fund.
[29:35] - Well, thank you very much for
[29:37] this encyclopedic information.
[29:38] I'm sure we're just scratching the surface,
[29:40] but I, I want to entertain any
[29:42] questions from my colleagues up
[29:44] first I have Councilor Jamal.
[29:46] - Thank you. Thank you so much for this.
[29:48] It's amazing not to mention the amazing work
[29:51] that you guys are doing.
[29:53] So thank you for all the work
[29:56] and our that you franked to make this happen.
[30:00] How many families are we currently are
[30:05] or currently is benefiting
[30:07] from if we if you have that.
[30:11] - Yeah, I mean we don't run the affordable housing.
[30:14] All of those in that chart, those partners,
[30:18] so right now there's 941 units, so that's households.
[30:23] Some are, some are seniors, some are that are either the,
[30:28] the housing authority and, and such.
[30:30] So it's 941 units right now.
[30:32] We didn't, yeah, we can't take credit for any of that.
[30:36] Yeah, we helped with three, we helped with three,
[30:40] but we hope to, in the, I think we just wanted
[30:43] to level set where we are here.
[30:46] It's a, you know, there's a lot of work to be done and,
[30:50] and housing's expensive.
[30:51] So we get that. But we think we need to, to try, you know,
[30:56] as a, as a community
[30:57] - And if we're, you know, reviewing our numbers,
[31:02] we see that it's increasing the people that are impacted by
[31:09] the burden and that are joining this population.
[31:13] It's increasing over the years, especially the last year
[31:16] with everything
[31:20] that our country is going through.
[31:22] Now my, my question is, you mentioned about the CPA
[31:27] and how and to put it on the ballot, have we explored
[31:32] or have we proposed it or how do we go by that?
[31:36] - Well, I believe from my, from my research
[31:41] and there's two ways petition, people can petition
[31:44] to put it on the ballot residents
[31:46] or the city council by a
[31:47] simple majority can put it on the ballot.
[31:49] Okay, so not come
[31:50] - From you guys.
[31:51] - No. Obviously there would need to be some, you know,
[31:55] support from the community.
[31:56] And you know, our hope is that other parts of, you know,
[32:01] it's not just affordable housing, it's parks
[32:03] and rec, it's the people in, in historical,
[32:08] you know, there's a lot
[32:09] of different things the CPA a can be used for.
[32:13] So we would be happy to support it,
[32:15] but it's not, I don't,
[32:17] I don't think procedurally like we need to put it on. Yes.
[32:20] - And I, I'm sorry, my, my last question is do we know
[32:25] how many city or neighboring cities are
[32:29] adopted already and joined this program?
[32:32] - The CPA? I did have that. How many,
[32:33] - How many cities have adopted CPA?
[32:35] I think statewide it's over 200. It's over 200.
[32:37] It's like 50. Well I don't have
[32:39] - These.
[32:40] Yeah, I have 200, over 200.
[32:41] Yeah, I have 201 municipalities in the state
[32:45] and nearly 73% of the communities that have trusts have CPA.
[32:50] It is by far because it's, it's sustainable.
[32:53] You can, it's hard to,
[32:55] it know these projects take a long time to, to design
[32:59] and build and put financing before,
[33:01] and if you don't have a sustainable pipeline, it's hard to,
[33:06] to count on that.
[33:07] So that is by far the biggest revenue
[33:12] for most of these trusts.
[33:13] But it's not only for the
[33:15] trust is I guess what we're saying. Yes,
[33:17] - Absolutely. Thank you.
[33:18] - Yep. Up next I have Councilor Williams.
[33:20] - Thanks. Thank you for an informative presentation
[33:23] that laid a good amount of groundwork
[33:25] and also got into what the trust does.
[33:28] 'cause I think that's really important and I,
[33:29] I really appreciate the amount of work you've put into this.
[33:33] So I wanted to talk just for a moment on CPA,
[33:38] I'm super excited.
[33:40] I mean, we talked about this, I'm super excited to hear
[33:41] that you guys are, are bringing this up.
[33:46] I think whenever we mention CPAI like to call out that
[33:51] CPA has different ways you can exclude certain
[33:55] groups of people at the ballot.
[33:56] Yes. So one of those groups is low income families
[33:59] and one of those groups is seniors.
[34:00] And that's a great tool to balance the additional cost,
[34:04] which is modest as you said,
[34:06] but some people, you know,
[34:07] they don't like any additional cost.
[34:08] It's a good way to balance that
[34:09] with the benefits that we get.
[34:13] Interestingly, of the 200
[34:14] and some communities that have adopted CPA, we live in a bit
[34:17] of a drought bubble like the,
[34:20] the immediate northern communities of like Stoneham, sga,
[34:23] Melrose don't have it.
[34:26] Boston and a lot of the metro west
[34:28] and south communities all have it too.
[34:30] So it would be, it would be great
[34:31] to see Boston be a leader, be a leader in that.
[34:35] I'm all in, I would be excited to do something like this.
[34:39] I'm excited that the affordable housing folks are on board.
[34:43] I know this is the historic preservation folks are on board.
[34:45] So I think it's a conversation that we can,
[34:47] we can have for sure.
[34:49] Even though the, the state,
[34:52] I don't know if we mentioned this, the fact
[34:53] that the state provides a matching grant for all
[34:55] of our CPA contributions, it's, it used
[34:57] to be quite generous.
[34:59] It's a little bit less generous these days, like 20%,
[35:01] 23% now instead of like 30% in the past.
[35:04] But it's still great money
[35:07] and it's free money that we can put towards our parks,
[35:09] our playing fields, historic preservation,
[35:12] purchasing properties,
[35:13] purchasing conservation land, et cetera, et cetera.
[35:16] So, so thank you. Thank you.
[35:18] Appreciate your, your presentation
[35:20] and your comments on the,
[35:21] on the matter. Up next I have Councillor
[35:24] - Graham shady, - I didn't think
[35:25] it would be my turn already.
[35:27] Thank you so much for your presentation.
[35:29] I really appreciate it.
[35:30] I am so happy that you exist
[35:33] and appreciate the level setting
[35:35] that you've been doing over the past year,
[35:37] thinking about goals, present tense,
[35:40] but also how we might move forward in partnership together.
[35:43] So I'm just curious about,
[35:46] and if you haven't, like, again, you've been around a year,
[35:48] so this is not like, it's just, I'm curious
[35:51] what you're thinking about in terms of like big picture
[35:55] and strategy, particularly around
[36:00] being proactive when properties are coming on the market
[36:04] before they get to the private developers.
[36:07] Like are you thinking about a strategy with that
[36:09] and how might you think about working with the city
[36:14] and sort of rallying folks so
[36:17] that we can be proactive in our housing production plan
[36:21] but not have to wait for, for proposals
[36:24] where we're very reactionary, which I think we've fallen
[36:30] into in our current situation.
[36:32] So I'm just curious how you're thinking about that big
[36:34] - Picture.
[36:35] Sure. So because we are not developers,
[36:38] we are not in the market for acquiring properties,
[36:41] but we are interested in finding those opportunities
[36:44] and helping those developers for profit
[36:46] and not-for-profit developers find those
[36:48] and perhaps navigate a system.
[36:50] Part of our funding could be used for pre-development costs
[36:54] for expenses incurred with finding out how can I,
[36:58] how can I put units in here that, that I can set aside
[37:02] as affordable and still be if I'm a for-profit developer,
[37:05] still make a profitable business decision.
[37:08] So we can do that. So we think
[37:09] we can help with some of that.
[37:12] Again, our funds are limited,
[37:14] but you know, we, some people have asked us if we're going
[37:16] to do rental assistance, you know,
[37:18] down payment assistance for first time home buyers.
[37:20] Well that's a great lofty goal,
[37:22] which we think we'd be fantastic for low
[37:24] and moderate income first time home buyers.
[37:28] Those units that they purchase are not
[37:30] necessarily deed restricted.
[37:32] And so while the buyer may initially buyer may be low
[37:36] or moderate income means that doesn't add a unit to the,
[37:39] the the housing inventory that, that we'd like to have,
[37:43] we'd love to get to that point.
[37:45] And, and, and one of the things
[37:47] that our technical assistance consultant pointed out
[37:50] to us early on was, you know, we should set a goal as a,
[37:52] as a trust fund of having five to $6 million, you know,
[37:57] and wow, you know, where do we get that?
[38:00] But when we get to that point, those funds
[38:03] invested the right place can be sustainable
[38:05] to provide rental assistance down payment assistance.
[38:10] I think right now our, our larger long-term goals,
[38:13] which is probably in the next three years is help,
[38:15] is having enough funds to support developers
[38:19] navigate a system where we can provide some funding
[38:21] and we can provide some resources so that we can get units,
[38:24] actual units on the ground.
[38:26] So we've got, I I think there's some big long-term
[38:28] goals that we'd love to get to.
[38:31] I think we're really feeling like right now that we're sort
[38:33] of a bit hamstrung on funding
[38:35] and so let's not go to that down that path yet
[38:39] when we get there, we'll love to have,
[38:40] when we've got $10 million in our affordable housing trust
[38:42] fund raised from a number of resources.
[38:46] Yeah. Then I think that we can be, do all kinds of stuff.
[38:48] - But I think what I'm hearing you say to build
[38:50] that foundation and that ability to be proactive,
[38:55] proactive and really plan the investment
[38:59] that the city makes will allow for that to happen.
[39:03] So us thinking about how city council partners with you,
[39:06] how the mayor's office partners with you, how we try
[39:09] to move forward with something like the CPA really matters
[39:13] in terms of us kind of having control of our approach
[39:17] to affordable housing in a way that is planned
[39:20] and purposeful and,
[39:21] and does what it's supposed to do, allows people to move to
[39:24] and stay in Melrose. Right?
[39:25] - Right. I think there's a lot of
[39:28] nonprofit community affordable housing developers,
[39:33] but you have to, for them to come, it has to be worth it
[39:36] and they have to see that the city is right supportive
[39:40] and has, you know, has supported the city
[39:42] and can help with some local funding
[39:44] because like I said, a lot of these fundings are, you know,
[39:48] we obviously aren't gonna fund an entire, it depends on it.
[39:51] If it's a smaller, some trusts do,
[39:53] they can help purchase a single family home or a duplex,
[39:58] but you know, how much a single family home
[39:59] costs here on the market.
[40:01] And so it's all about being nimble,
[40:03] but we need to have enough capital
[40:06] and sustainable capital
[40:07] to be able to have those conversations.
[40:09] - Appreciate that. Thank you so much. Thank you.
[40:11] - Next time Councillor Vandiver.
[40:13] - Thank you. Thank you so much for your presentation.
[40:16] I really appreciate it.
[40:18] I wanted to ask, kind of drilling on a couple
[40:20] of the slides with graphs
[40:23] - If I can get back to him.
[40:24] Ooh,
[40:26] - So you, you had one graph showing the breakdown of,
[40:30] of units by household type, which I think is,
[40:35] is really striking that so much
[40:39] of our affordable housing is concentrated in the senior
[40:41] population right now.
[40:43] And so little for single single room or, or even family.
[40:48] So I, I'm really glad to hear that those three units
[40:50] that you did were family units.
[40:52] And I wonder if you could speak to where,
[40:58] if that is where you see the need
[40:59] or you know, if the need is still with the seniors
[41:01] because they're in a really tough position
[41:03] or you know, not to pit one group against the other,
[41:05] everybody's struggling with housing costs,
[41:07] but if you could speak to
[41:08] where you see the most need right now
[41:10] and how you could focus on, on that with the funds.
[41:14] - Yeah, I mean I can't, I don't wanna,
[41:16] I would be surprising, I don't know all the data on, I know
[41:19] that we've had many conversations with the housing authority
[41:23] and they have a huge backlog of, for, you know,
[41:27] government owned affordable housing
[41:31] six months to six years.
[41:34] So, and I think a lot of that is senior housing that they,
[41:39] that they have, that they monitor.
[41:42] So that certainly is still, there's just not enough.
[41:47] But I don't have the data on how, you know, the breakdown of
[41:51] who in terms of obviously if there's families,
[41:54] there's only 150 units that are restrict de restricted.
[41:59] That's not very much given we have almost 30,000 people
[42:03] here, so I don't have the data.
[42:06] - I was, I was just gonna add, you know, we talked about
[42:09] being nimble and being able to leverage funding a a lot
[42:14] of affordable housing is, is opportunity based, you know,
[42:19] as part of our our effort to make funding available
[42:23] to the development community, we could, you know, we could
[42:27] have an RFP and,
[42:28] and have developers tell us what they would do
[42:31] with the funding and, you know, make,
[42:35] make policy decisions on what kinds
[42:37] of programs we wanted to fund.
[42:39] So in, in addition to, you know, the nimbleness and,
[42:43] and allowing developers to, to leverage resources from other
[42:48] state federal sources of funding, it,
[42:53] it also would allow us to sort of
[42:57] - Control it.
[42:58] - Yeah, yeah. Control what kinds of projects we're looking
[42:59] to fund, you know, based on a,
[43:04] based on the review of a proposal.
[43:06] So let let the development community tell us
[43:09] how they would use our funding best.
[43:12] - Thank you. And this, I also was wondering about the slide
[43:16] before that, the pie chart showing
[43:20] I divided those numbers, so it looks like 7.5% of
[43:26] affordable housing units in Melrose today.
[43:28] And I know we have some things in the pipeline,
[43:29] so maybe another percentage point
[43:31] or two is kind of possibly in development to get added
[43:35] to the sustainable housing inventory.
[43:38] I know our goal for, from the perspective of chapter 40 B
[43:41] for, for that percentage would be 10% to be filled in.
[43:45] But I guess I was also thinking about what would, what would
[43:49] that chart ideally look like?
[43:51] It would probably be a lot bigger than 10%, right?
[43:53] Given, you know, we're talking about 80%
[43:56] of the median income, meaning, you know, I don't know
[43:59] what percent of the population is at
[44:01] or below 80% of median income, but like about 30%, 30%.
[44:04] So, so we would, I just wanted to a exactly ask for
[44:09] that number and, and kind of emphasize that, you know,
[44:13] how different that chart ought to look
[44:15] and how great that really shows that the need is. Yeah,
[44:19] - Let me, I guess I'll add to your comment question.
[44:22] Is it, is it, the chart can be a bit misleading as well
[44:25] because one of the things that we are charged with is
[44:29] building, building affordable housing, capital A,
[44:32] capital H there's naturally occurring
[44:35] affordable housing in the city.
[44:36] We know that there are people who rent below market,
[44:40] you know, there are people who have low housing costs
[44:43] because they paid off their mortgage many years ago,
[44:45] so their expenses aren't that high.
[44:46] So there, there are people that live in the city
[44:48] that have naturally occurring affordable housing.
[44:52] So we're focused only on the portion
[44:54] that is deed restricted part of that inventory.
[44:57] The other part is, we talked a little bit about 40 B is
[45:00] that, that I think collectively our,
[45:03] our committee talk has talked a lot about 40 B
[45:05] and about this 10%, this magic number of 10%.
[45:09] Keeping in mind that, that when a, when the city reaches
[45:12] that safe harbor goal for a project that's a 40 B project,
[45:17] not all of those units are at an afford
[45:20] might be at an affordable level.
[45:22] And so we gain units to the inventory to get to reach
[45:26] that safe harbor, but we're not necessarily gaining units
[45:29] that are satisfying the needs of those people
[45:31] who are making 80% or less of the median income.
[45:34] And so, so we look at this, at this chart
[45:37] and say, you know, do these numbers really mean a a lot?
[45:40] Where is the numbers? Is it greater, is it less than,
[45:42] I think what we keep going back to is, wow,
[45:45] this is really not enough and that,
[45:47] and that's our goal is to get more
[45:49] And is is 20% the magic number?
[45:52] I'm, I'm, I'm not sure I don't,
[45:53] we haven't talked about that.
[45:56] - Terrific. - Thank you. And last comment is, thank you
[45:58] so much for, for bringing up the importance
[46:00] of the Community Preservation Act
[46:02] and to my colleague for including some details about
[46:04] that I think really important.
[46:06] I'm also in favor and hope that we can move on that soon.
[46:08] Thank you.
[46:10] - Thank you so much Councillor Vandiver.
[46:12] I just wanna note we've got a couple
[46:13] of other items on our agenda
[46:14] and we got about 10 minutes until our scheduled full council
[46:17] meeting just for P purposes.
[46:19] But up next I've got Councillor fro. Thank
[46:22] - You.
[46:23] Thank you so much for the presentation.
[46:25] It was very helpful for me to kinda understand
[46:27] what you guys do and how it, you know, interacts
[46:31] with the city and affordable housing.
[46:33] So sounds like the CPA is really kind of an important piece
[46:37] of this and that, so I'm just kind of trying to think if
[46:41] that wasn't say that we brought that to a ballot,
[46:43] it didn't get passed, so, which you know, it's like alright,
[46:47] you don't wanna think that about that, but I'm just saying
[46:49] like what, are there other housing trusts
[46:53] or I don't know if other cities around us have them.
[46:56] I'm not really Yeah, no aware of them,
[46:58] but what do, do they use CPAs?
[47:01] Do they, how do they fund themselves or?
[47:03] - Yeah, I mean I think, you know,
[47:05] o over 73% do have the cpa.
[47:08] I, but I do over 73%, 73% of the communities
[47:12] that have affordable housing just have CPA.
[47:15] But I mean, if we don't get it, we'll continue, we'll try
[47:18] to continue to support projects that come up.
[47:22] We'll look for other ways of,
[47:25] another ways city owned parcels, I know
[47:29] I participated in the, they have are having a,
[47:32] a study on the, the two parcels that are becoming online
[47:37] that is a, a way to
[47:40] move affordable housing along.
[47:43] So I mean, we will continue to push
[47:46] and I know that, you know, the CPA
[47:47] and bringing something to ballot is not, you know,
[47:49] done without, you know, some thought and some risk.
[47:54] But I think it outweighs the benefits are so clear.
[47:59] I think it would be really important to get out
[48:01] to the community what that is.
[48:03] But yeah, we'll continue to try to do our work
[48:05] and educate people and work where we can
[48:09] and so we have enough money to do more.
[48:13] - And as far as the CPA a
[48:14] and this might be something that I have to look into,
[48:16] is there, is it a fixed percentage that lives kind of,
[48:20] is it 1% for the life of
[48:22] - More than 3%?
[48:23] Okay. You can elect as a community to do 1%,
[48:27] 2%, one point half percent
[48:29] - And that stays like that?
[48:30] Or does it have it, you know,
[48:32] - You can, you can change it.
[48:34] I think you probably have to put it back
[48:35] to about to change the percent. Yeah, yeah.
[48:39] - More of like informational if people
[48:40] - Yeah, no, it's important.
[48:42] Yeah.
[48:44] - Okay. Thank you. - You are welcome.
[48:46] - I'm next. I have Councilor
[48:47] Chen questions already been answered.
[48:49] Thank you. All right, fantastic.
[48:50] And a second time we're on, have Councillor Williams. Have
[48:53] - You guys talked to the Community Preservation Coalition?
[48:57] - I have not talked to them yet, but I have,
[49:00] - They were very, when I was researching this several years
[49:03] ago, the staff was very helpful.
[49:04] They only have a few staff, but they're very responsive
[49:07] and they have a ton of information on how
[49:08] to create a committee, et cetera, et
[49:09] - Cetera.
[49:10] Yes, I, I have seen their information online. Yeah,
[49:12] - Same.
[49:13] It's like you first source for doing it, getting it done.
[49:16] Yes.
[49:18] - What is the will of the committee?
[49:21] - That motion to place on file
[49:22] - Second motion made it place on file
[49:24] by Councillor Williams, seconded
[49:25] by Councillor Karen Chetty on discussion,
[49:30] do we require a roll call or this can just be Alright.
[49:34] All those in favor? Aye.
[49:36] All those opposed the ayes have it
[49:38] and this will be reported out to the full council meeting.
[49:40] Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.
[49:42] Appreciate your time and thank you for all that you do
[49:44] for our community
[49:45] and for taking the time to volunteer
[49:47] for our city being here tonight.
[49:49] Alright, up next on our agenda
[49:53] ID number 20 26 7 7 3 acceptance
[49:55] of FY 26 Firefighter Safety Equipment grant
[49:58] and the amount of $12,375 and 87 cents.
[50:03] Joining us this evening is Chief White. Thank you Chief.
[50:06] Good evening. Good to see you.
[50:15] - Hi Mills Fire department has been awarded a grant from
[50:20] the Executive Office of Public Safety
[50:22] and Security Department of Fire Services in the amount
[50:25] of $12,375 and 87 cents.
[50:29] And we propose to utilize these funds
[50:31] to support the purchase
[50:32] of some critical life safety equipment,
[50:34] mainly seven SCBA cylinders.
[50:37] Those are the self-contained breath apparatus, cylinders,
[50:40] and three multi gas detection meters.
[50:44] I just came here to ask you to consider to accept this
[50:48] and approve this award.
[50:50] I'd be happy to answer any questions.
[50:52] These are very, they're things
[50:54] that we use almost every day at the fire department.
[50:58] Naturally cylinders, we always need supply
[51:00] of air when we respond to fires
[51:03] and the multi gas meters, they always come in handy.
[51:07] Most homes luckily in Merose have co detectors
[51:11] and when they go off, we get called,
[51:13] we can verify if it really is CO
[51:15] or maybe their meter is not working properly.
[51:18] And also for natural gas detection,
[51:21] we use those all the time.
[51:23] They're pretty sophisticated devices
[51:26] and actually they get used fairly a lot.
[51:28] So it's time we have to kind of replace them when they get
[51:31] to the end of their life and we can't get any more parts
[51:33] or census for them and take any questions. It's,
[51:37] - Thank you very much.
[51:38] First I have counselor for Noro. Thank you.
[51:41] - Thank you for being here. I just have a quick question.
[51:46] It's great that we received this grant to cover the,
[51:49] the safety equipment is the will do.
[51:52] Do you foresee there's any additional funds from the city to
[51:57] go towards this equipment?
[51:58] - We have put in for,
[52:00] in the capital improvement project we put in for
[52:04] also SCBA harnesses the whole pack,
[52:08] but also more spare bottles coming very handy when
[52:13] we had a fire last in January one night
[52:17] and we used up all our spare
[52:19] bottles and putting the fire out.
[52:21] Fortunately we had mutual aid covering the city,
[52:23] but we rolled back into the station
[52:25] to refill all our bottles.
[52:27] We had another call from the house fire.
[52:29] Fortunately the mutual aid companies were able to respond,
[52:32] but we were caught flatfooted,
[52:34] we didn't have any bottles filled with air.
[52:36] We had to fill out the bottles we had up.
[52:38] And so these bottles will be used as our spare bottles.
[52:41] We'll keep the station to just swap in
[52:44] and out as we need to, to get back in service
[52:46] as fast as possible.
[52:48] - Okay, so this amount will
[52:50] cover a certain amount of equipment?
[52:51] Yes. Yes. But then you have another request on the capital.
[52:53] Okay. Thank you.
[52:56] - Terrific. Up next I Councillor Williams. Yeah.
[52:58] - Motion to recommend to the full council Second. Second.
[53:01] - Motion to recommend by Councillor Williams.
[53:03] Seconded by Councillor Vandiver. On discussion.
[53:07] Madam Clerk, will you please call the role
[53:10] - Vice Chair Vandiver?
[53:11] Yes. Councillor Chen? Yes. Councilor Occhio? Yes.
[53:15] Counselor Jamine? Yes. Counselor Rum Chee? Yes.
[53:18] Counselor Cole? Yes. Counselor Park? Yes.
[53:21] Counselor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Chair
[53:25] - Romano?
[53:26] Yes. Motion passes.
[53:27] Alright, the motion passes and will be brought
[53:28] before the next full council meeting
[53:30] with a recommendation for passage.
[53:31] Thank you Chief, appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
[53:33] Thank you folks. Alright, last
[53:36] and not least, ID number 2026.
[53:39] Seven. Seven four. That the city authorized the mayor
[53:42] to enter into an inter municipal agreement
[53:44] for establishing a regional animal control officer position
[53:47] in partnership with the towns of Wakefield and Stoneham.
[53:50] Joining us this evening, Mr. Anthony Chu,
[53:51] thank you so much for joining us.
[53:54] - Thank you. Floor is yours. Yes. Thank you.
[53:56] And thank you to the council for having us tonight.
[53:59] I'm excited to ask for the support of the council
[54:02] to establish a regional animal control officer position.
[54:06] This would be in partnership with the towns
[54:07] of Wakefield and Stoneham.
[54:09] As you guys might know, we already have a very
[54:11] strong partnership with them.
[54:13] There are three shared staff members.
[54:14] We have been working with Wakefield for over 20 years,
[54:17] and Stoneham joined us in 2023 in a regional format.
[54:22] It has both been a cost effective way for us
[54:24] to deliver services and also address issues
[54:27] that have been similar across all these communities.
[54:30] This position, while I have enjoyed my time serving
[54:33] as animal control officer on the side,
[54:36] I believe this position will give us more capacity
[54:39] to help deal with some of the issues that are,
[54:41] are constituents are seeing.
[54:43] We want to be able to provide more education opportunities
[54:45] as well, and also work on enforcement.
[54:48] So this position would be a shared position.
[54:51] This would fall under our department.
[54:53] And we've also budgeted for education.
[54:56] So we've, we're gonna have events that might include
[55:00] rabies shots, clinics at a discounted price.
[55:02] We're gonna try and provide those.
[55:04] We'll also be able to help the clerk's office in kind
[55:06] of increasing enforcement as well for permitting.
[55:10] Happy to answer any questions council may have.
[55:12] - Thank you very much. First I have Councillor Jamal ine.
[55:16] - Thank you. Thank you.
[55:22] Are all cities sharing equally this position?
[55:26] Meaning days schedule wise and hours?
[55:31] - Yes. So we will have a 33% share cost sharing
[55:35] between each community in terms of time
[55:37] and resources similar to our positions.
[55:40] We, you know, we spend some more hours in certain
[55:43] communities during each week depending on the need.
[55:45] But it, it works out about even across
[55:48] the, the span of a year.
[55:50] So, you know, when we have,
[55:51] when we have continued issues in one area, we'll try
[55:54] to address them and then move on to another.
[55:55] So, you know, it may not be exactly equal every week,
[55:58] but it'll, it'll shake out to about the same.
[56:00] - And where would be the person
[56:04] holding this position located?
[56:06] Is it in all the three towns or cities
[56:09] or specific days in Melrose? Yeah,
[56:12] - So we, we hope to have space for them here.
[56:15] Space is a little tight here at City Hall,
[56:17] but we are going to provide space for, for equipment
[56:20] and services in each community.
[56:22] We'll try to establish a schedule,
[56:24] but I think part
[56:25] of it is gonna be dictated by what comes up.
[56:27] So bite reports and responding to bite incidents are one
[56:31] of the main, one of the main jobs.
[56:32] And so, you know, should there be more incidents in one
[56:35] community that, you know, that day,
[56:36] we would prioritize those and, and have them go there first.
[56:39] - And historically speaking, do we know if, you know,
[56:43] Melrose has been equally, you know, requiring
[56:48] that support as the other neighbors as well? Or is it,
[56:53] - Yeah, so I think it's, it's hard to say for sure.
[56:56] So I've been doing, I've been doing the Melrose response
[56:58] for a while, so I have a pretty good idea of
[57:00] how many responses we get.
[57:02] Recently, Wakefield actually parted ways
[57:03] with their animal patrol officer position,
[57:05] so I've also been filling in there as well.
[57:07] So I have a general idea of
[57:08] how much we've been seeing over there.
[57:10] It's very similar in capacity
[57:12] and then also Stoneham as well.
[57:13] I, I was not serving as that role,
[57:15] but we have someone doing that part-time
[57:17] and there's, they've been doing a really good job,
[57:20] but they're also very limited in their hours.
[57:22] And so I think
[57:24] by increasing their hours we'll be able to meet that need as well.
[57:26] So no, no community I don't,
[57:28] I think has a much larger need than
[57:30] - The others.
[57:31] Okay. My last question, I promise.
[57:34] Do you think that this amount
[57:37] of hours is enough cornrow?
[57:40] - Yeah, I think we're splitting 40 hours
[57:41] across three communities.
[57:43] I, I think this will be enough.
[57:45] I think part of the, part of the beginning stages will be
[57:48] to establish expectations.
[57:50] So one of the things that we've been hearing
[57:51] about is off leash dogs.
[57:53] We want to send a message to communities.
[57:54] So we'll both be there with presence as well
[57:57] as sending out informational flyers
[58:00] and other ways of communication through the city.
[58:03] I think once we ex kind of set expectations,
[58:06] I think people will respond better
[58:08] and we'll see less of those incidents
[58:09] and then they'll come down to enforcement.
[58:11] - Awesome. Thank you. Terrific. Up next I have
[58:13] - Councilor Park.
[58:14] Thank you Anthony.
[58:17] You and I, as you may recall, when we,
[58:19] when I first came on board, you
[58:21] and I had a discussion about what can I do, city council do
[58:26] to, to help your, your position and your department.
[58:30] We talked about this position among other ones that you're,
[58:34] you would have on your wishlist.
[58:36] And my question to you, I have two questions.
[58:38] My first question is, is this particular role
[58:43] the most pressing in terms of your needs right now?
[58:48] Meaning, you know, since we do have limited funds in,
[58:51] in free cash, is this something that you think is the,
[58:54] the best spent or use of our money?
[58:57] - I think, I think there are other priorities
[58:59] that we also do value.
[59:00] I think just this part of it is one of our, is one
[59:03] of our main priorities only because we wanna be able
[59:05] to meet all the statutory requirements.
[59:07] And so, you know, by law we do have to respond
[59:09] to every single bite bite report
[59:11] and, you know, those come and go.
[59:12] I think in, in the colder seasons we see less of them,
[59:14] but overall we do need to address all of them.
[59:16] I wanna make sure we're in compliance as well as being able
[59:19] to address any concerns that the citizens have.
[59:22] So I think this is one of our, one of our bigger priorities.
[59:24] - Okay. And, and this is the second part of my question,
[59:28] is does this overlap you, Al you
[59:30] and I also have had discussions
[59:32] with a very ambitious high school student with regards
[59:35] to roading control with
[59:36] that overlap in this person's responsibility as well as,
[59:39] you know, pet control as well.
[59:42] - I, I don't know that this would overlap
[59:43] with the rodent control issue.
[59:45] Our inspectors have been working with the,
[59:48] with the construction here
[59:49] and developers here in the city on more of an IPM approach,
[59:52] an integrated pest management approach rather than,
[59:54] rather than a bait box and poison based system.
[59:58] We've been really working with them to try to establish more
[1:00:01] of a cleaning up of the property, storing of trash properly,
[1:00:05] removing trash in off hours.
[1:00:07] We've been trying to work with them on that to try
[1:00:09] and limit rodents, kind of a holistic approach,
[1:00:11] rather than just poisoning is more successful.
[1:00:14] So I think to answer your question, this,
[1:00:16] this position wouldn't really address that,
[1:00:18] but our, our inspectors have been trying
[1:00:20] to work with them on that. So,
[1:00:22] - Yeah.
[1:00:23] Thank you
[1:00:23] - Councilor Chen.
[1:00:25] - Thanks. Do we know what the bottom line
[1:00:27] cost of Melrose would be? Sure. For this position,
[1:00:29] - So based on some of the projections,
[1:00:35] both the lower and the higher range are about
[1:00:37] $30,000 a year.
[1:00:39] So that's including for, for including the position as well
[1:00:42] as a budget for supplies and sheltering
[1:00:44] and a thousand dollars split across three
[1:00:47] communities for our education as
[1:00:48] - Well.
[1:00:49] - And then would we let go of the stone,
[1:00:51] the stone animal control person
[1:00:54] - Now?
[1:00:55] Yes. So there would be a transition period with them?
[1:00:57] They are, they're solely in Stoneham
[1:00:59] and they, they work part-time
[1:01:00] as dispatch right now in police.
[1:01:04] - Terrific. Any other questions? Councillor Ro? I
[1:01:08] - Just wanna say I'm very excited to see this
[1:01:11] and I think the city really needs an animal control officer.
[1:01:15] You've been doing a great job, but it's not your job.
[1:01:18] And we, we've had one for years.
[1:01:20] I know this is split role,
[1:01:21] but I think it's really important.
[1:01:23] So with that, I'd like to make a motion to recommend
[1:01:25] - Second - Motion to recommend by Councillor fia, seconded
[1:01:29] by councilor Karen Shady.
[1:01:30] On discussion,
[1:01:32] - Just quickly, I wanted to say thank you for thinking
[1:01:35] of a way to be able to bring this position back,
[1:01:38] but also be cost effective in terms of
[1:01:42] what we had available for this resource.
[1:01:44] So I just appreciate the way you approached this
[1:01:46] and psych just support it.
[1:01:48] - Thank you. - Terrific. Absent any other questions?
[1:01:51] All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.
[1:01:53] All those opposed the ayes have it.
[1:01:55] The motion passes and will be brought
[1:01:57] before the next full council meeting.
[1:02:00] Thank you Mr. Chu. Thank you.
[1:02:01] With that being our last agenda item, I'll now motion
[1:02:04] by unanimous consent to adjourn.
[1:02:06] Seeing no objections, we are now adjourned. Good evening.
[1:02:11] - Good evening. The time is 7:53 PM on Monday,
[1:02:16] April 27th, 2026.
[1:02:18] I am Council President Freeman.
[1:02:20] This meeting, the Melrose City Council is called to order
[1:02:23] in accordance with the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law.
[1:02:25] This meeting is being broadcast
[1:02:26] and recorded by the Melrose Cable Access tv
[1:02:29] and will be available for viewing in its entirety on MMTV
[1:02:32] and through the city website.
[1:02:34] Madam Clerk, will you please call the role? Yes.
[1:02:36] - Councilor Chen. Here. Councilor fro? Here.
[1:02:39] Councilor Jamine? Here. Councilor Karen Chetty. Here.
[1:02:42] Councilor Cowell? Here. Councilor Reky? Here.
[1:02:45] Councilor Park. Here. Councilor Romano? Here.
[1:02:48] Councilor Vandiver? Here. Councilor Williams. Here.
[1:02:51] President Freeman here makes for quorum.
[1:02:53] - Thank you. At this time, please rise.
[1:02:55] If you're able to join in the Pledge of Allegiance,
[1:02:59] - I pledge allegiance to the flag
[1:03:01] of the United States of America
[1:03:03] and to the republic for which it stands,
[1:03:06] one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
[1:03:10] and justice for all.
[1:03:13] - Thank you. At this time I'll motion by unanimous consent
[1:03:17] to approve without reading the minutes from the April 26th.
[1:03:20] April 6th, 2026 meeting. Excuse me.
[1:03:23] Seeing no objection, those meetings,
[1:03:25] those minutes are now approved.
[1:03:27] I'll now motion by unanimous consent
[1:03:29] to open the floor for public comment.
[1:03:32] Seeing no objection, we are open for public comment
[1:03:35] per rule 33 A of the Melrose City Council rules.
[1:03:38] This is the portion of the meeting
[1:03:39] where the public may speak on any item on tonight's agenda.
[1:03:42] Comments expressing any viewpoint on any other
[1:03:45] matters are also welcome.
[1:03:46] I see we have people in the audience tonight,
[1:03:48] so please feel free to come up to the table.
[1:03:51] Just a reminder, the public comment period is an opportunity
[1:03:54] for the public to share comments.
[1:03:55] Counselors will not respond.
[1:03:57] The public has up to five minutes for comments.
[1:03:59] I'll notify you when you have 30 seconds remaining.
[1:04:04] Is anyone here for public comment tonight? Oh
[1:04:06] - Yeah.
[1:04:07] Just giving her a little overview.
[1:04:08] - And if you can just say your name and your address.
[1:04:11] - Yes. Alright. So my name is Billy.
[1:04:15] I live on Ashland Street in the Highlands.
[1:04:18] I don't know if I have enough for those.
[1:04:19] - So Billy, what's your last name?
[1:04:21] - Blo. Thank you very much. Yep. Hi again.
[1:04:24] So I was actually here back when I had a three month old.
[1:04:28] Now she's five. Sorry, now she's nine months old.
[1:04:31] Three nine. Yeah.
[1:04:33] I have three children, ages four, two and nine months.
[1:04:38] And I'm here to speak again on the behalf
[1:04:41] of the Melrose Parents Committee
[1:04:43] regarding the Melrose Public Library Children's Room.
[1:04:46] The Melrose Parents Committee is a recently formed group
[1:04:49] of people who wanna drive progress towards a welcoming,
[1:04:53] engaging, and fun children's room here in Melrose.
[1:04:58] We al and also wanna think more broadly about the experience
[1:05:02] in Melrose at playgrounds and other spaces.
[1:05:06] The children's room survey was concluded
[1:05:08] nearly five months ago.
[1:05:10] We're happy to see a snack table, three wall art hangings,
[1:05:13] and a couple of play items added to the space since then.
[1:05:17] But there's still so much room for improvement.
[1:05:20] We have really appreciated the city.
[1:05:23] We would really appreciate the city council
[1:05:25] and the mayor's support to urge the library
[1:05:28] to create an environment
[1:05:29] that the community is truly excited about.
[1:05:32] This isn't just a couple eager parents urging change
[1:05:36] and a, an actual library consultant came and did a report.
[1:05:41] It's on their website if you'd like
[1:05:43] to see what the report was.
[1:05:44] But basically it actually was a lot of
[1:05:48] what we had been saying in our report
[1:05:50] that we did when we visited the 15 libraries.
[1:05:52] And we handed that to council with photos
[1:05:56] overviewing the Noble Network.
[1:06:00] So an example of
[1:06:01] how easy these upgrades can be comes from our neighbors
[1:06:05] over at the Stoneham Library.
[1:06:06] They also had a recent renovation
[1:06:09] and they reopened their children's room in mid-January.
[1:06:11] This year. Their children's room opened
[1:06:14] with just a dollhouse
[1:06:15] and a Lego table with one within one month
[1:06:19] of hearing feedback from their community,
[1:06:21] they added the following to their space bin of crayons
[1:06:24] and paper to their new tables.
[1:06:26] Six bins of play items such as Dinos, fake food figures,
[1:06:30] vehicles, a puppet stand, and wooden puzzles.
[1:06:34] This happened without a survey
[1:06:35] and it happened without an official
[1:06:37] library consultant coming.
[1:06:39] It happened without parents nagging
[1:06:42] and a parent committee putting a presentation in front
[1:06:46] of the director's table.
[1:06:50] This happened just from patrons coming to the checkout
[1:06:54] and saying, Hey, like, we kind
[1:06:56] of expected more from you guys.
[1:06:58] And the librarian, I talked to her, she's
[1:07:01] always asking like, feedback, do you have any feedback?
[1:07:04] That doesn't, that is not like in our librarian's
[1:07:08] vocabulary, the word feedback.
[1:07:11] And you know, we've been working really hard to try
[1:07:14] and work with the librarians and doing whatever we can.
[1:07:18] I think I've like called a couple of you just
[1:07:20] to be like, what else can I do?
[1:07:22] And I really don't wanna come off as like a negative person.
[1:07:25] Like, we just want the best from our library.
[1:07:28] We want our kids to grow up enjoying our library
[1:07:31] and wanting to go there.
[1:07:33] We want them to like be 10 years old
[1:07:35] and like prefer to go there than Dunking Donuts
[1:07:38] because their friends will be there and they get puzzles
[1:07:40] and yeah, this is very near and dear to me.
[1:07:45] So anyways, I would really appreciate anyone's support
[1:07:48] to help urge the library staff to work on this.
[1:07:54] In my last correspondence with the library, I asked
[1:07:56] what the timeline was for future additions
[1:07:58] and I was told that there is no timeline.
[1:08:01] And that's really unfortunate
[1:08:02] because no timeline essentially means there is no plan.
[1:08:06] I asked if anything else was on order
[1:08:09] and there is a delayed farm stand for the last two months.
[1:08:12] But besides that, there's nothing else on order.
[1:08:17] You know, we had 500 people take this survey
[1:08:20] in our community, so clearly a lot of people care
[1:08:23] and wanna see more from our library.
[1:08:27] But anyways, I, they've been open a year now,
[1:08:29] so I think a full year worth of, you know,
[1:08:33] having the renovation and being open is more than enough
[1:08:36] time where now we have all these additional elements
[1:08:41] that have came in that it's, it's like, we're ready,
[1:08:45] we're ready for our library to just make some moves.
[1:08:48] I, so I handed out this
[1:08:52] Meadows Parents committee chart
[1:08:55] that you have about 30 seconds left Okay.
[1:08:58] That we're gonna continue to work on and push
[1:09:00] and hope to see more from our library. Thanks.
[1:09:03] - Thank you very much. - My name is Nancy Wu.
[1:09:07] I live at Richardson Road in the Highlands.
[1:09:10] I'm also part of the committee with Billy
[1:09:13] and I, I'm actually relatively new to Melrose.
[1:09:16] I've been here for two years and moved here
[1:09:18] because I heard it's a great community.
[1:09:20] It's a great city to raise my children.
[1:09:21] And obviously I've left Boston
[1:09:23] and since then I've had two kids here.
[1:09:25] So I have a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old.
[1:09:27] And I absolutely love Melrose
[1:09:30] and I was very excited when the library finally finished
[1:09:32] to bring my children to the library.
[1:09:34] But I was actually very disappointed in the amount
[1:09:37] of toys there were and amount of like a safe place
[1:09:40] where the kids can play and be stimulated with visual toys
[1:09:44] or puzzles or pictures.
[1:09:46] And it was, it was not until I have met more parents in,
[1:09:50] in the city because I, I'm so new
[1:09:52] and I work full time, so it has
[1:09:53] been really hard to meet people.
[1:09:55] But I have discovered there are other libraries in, in the
[1:10:00] kind of north shore, metro west.
[1:10:02] So because of the lack of programs that are available
[1:10:05] for like the toddlers
[1:10:06] or even the slightly older children, like
[1:10:09] after school programs, I actually have to take my children
[1:10:12] to Wilburn and reading and Medford and Cambridge
[1:10:17] and even Boston where I used to live, just so
[1:10:21] that they can attend this music event
[1:10:24] or that they can do a open play area where people have the,
[1:10:28] the library just set like a one hour
[1:10:31] or even 45 minutes where they bring out mats
[1:10:34] with different types of toys for different age groups.
[1:10:37] And some of these toys are donated by the residents
[1:10:41] of the community.
[1:10:43] And some of them I think the library has a certain funding
[1:10:46] to, to kind of purchase these toys.
[1:10:49] And, and I thought that maybe
[1:10:50] after a few months that it's open,
[1:10:52] there will be some new programs
[1:10:54] or improvements to the marrows library,
[1:10:57] but there has not been any,
[1:10:59] or there will be like a, you know, kind of like a newborn
[1:11:03] or toddler, like a event,
[1:11:06] but it would be literally during nap time.
[1:11:10] So it, it's like I, I'm not sure
[1:11:13] how the programs are being organized or who, who's doing it,
[1:11:17] but I just wish there was more programs
[1:11:19] where I didn't have to leave the city.
[1:11:21] And it's, it's making me question did I do the right thing
[1:11:25] by moving into Melrose Am I'm constantly going to Uber and,
[1:11:27] or I'm constantly going to reading so that
[1:11:30] now my kids are playing with the kids from this city
[1:11:32] and I have, they're never gonna see them in kindergarten.
[1:11:35] Right. They're never gonna grow up
[1:11:36] with them in elementary school.
[1:11:38] And like what Billy said, we have kids
[1:11:39] that are also getting older every day
[1:11:42] and we want them to be able to go to the library
[1:11:44] and get excited to go there and meet with their friends
[1:11:46] and play with something or join a music event
[1:11:49] or just even have more things that they,
[1:11:52] that could, can stimulate them.
[1:11:54] Because oftentimes they just wanna play with Lego
[1:11:56] or they just wanna have like a, a play kitchen
[1:11:58] where they can pretend to cook
[1:12:00] because you know, not everybody has the money to have
[1:12:03] that set in their own home
[1:12:05] or have a big enough home to actually support big toys
[1:12:09] and even like little robots
[1:12:10] or things that like stem where they have numbers or puzzles
[1:12:14] or balls and,
[1:12:15] and you know, we don't really have a lot of that
[1:12:18] and you know, and I would want my kids to grow up
[1:12:20] to be exposed to these kind of activities
[1:12:23] and things rather than be on the streets doing other things.
[1:12:27] Yeah.
[1:12:29] - Wonderful. Thank you very much.
[1:12:32] - All right. Thank you. - We
[1:12:32] appreciate you coming in tonight.
[1:12:35] And clerk, is there anyone online? No one online?
[1:12:39] There is no objection. I'd like to close public comment.
[1:12:42] Seeing none, we are now closed for public comment.
[1:12:45] Moving on with the agenda.
[1:12:47] There are no communications tonight.
[1:12:48] So we'll move on to new business filings
[1:12:51] by the Honorable Mayor.
[1:12:52] Appointments and Reappointments
[1:12:55] - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash 8 2 4 reappointment
[1:12:58] of Peter Bowman, 24 Arlington Road to the library board
[1:13:01] of trustees for three year term.
[1:13:03] Said term to expire the last day of February, 2029.
[1:13:07] - This will go to boards and commissions
[1:13:09] - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash 1 1 46.
[1:13:13] Appointment of Mark McKinnon, 5 85 Franklin Street
[1:13:17] to the Melrose Housing Authority.
[1:13:18] Four five year term said term to expire First Monday
[1:13:21] of March, 2029.
[1:13:23] Mr. McKinnon is completing the term
[1:13:25] of Ellen Conley who has stepped down.
[1:13:27] - This will go to boards of commissions appropriations
[1:13:30] - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash 1 4 7
[1:13:34] appropriation from free cash account zero one dash
[1:13:36] 3 2 4 0 0 1
[1:13:38] and the amount of $170,000 to capital outlay.
[1:13:42] Number 9 3 1 to purchase a sidewalk plow.
[1:13:45] - This will go to appropriations and oversight
[1:13:47] - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash 1 48 appropriation from free cash
[1:13:51] account zero one dash 3 24 0 0 1 in the amount
[1:13:55] of 880,000 to the capital outlay.
[1:13:58] Number 9 3 1 to purchase DPW vehicles.
[1:14:02] - This will go to appropriations and oversight
[1:14:05] - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash 1 49 appropriation
[1:14:08] for free cash account zero one dash 3 2 4 0 0 1 in the
[1:14:12] amount of 865,000 to DPW Snow
[1:14:16] 4 3 1 to close the snow in ice deficit for fiscal year 26.
[1:14:21] - This will go to appropriations and oversight
[1:14:23] - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash 15 zero
[1:14:26] appropriation from free cash account zero one dash
[1:14:28] 3 24 0 0 1 in the amount
[1:14:31] of $244,944 to the school department.
[1:14:35] Number 1 6 2 0
[1:14:37] for Medicaid reimbursement received in fiscal year 25
[1:14:42] - Appropriations and oversight - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash
[1:14:45] 1 15 1 appropriation from free cash account zero one dash
[1:14:49] 3 24 0 0 1 in the amount of $10,000
[1:14:53] to the DPW highway.
[1:14:55] Number 4, 2, 2 to purchase bike racks
[1:14:57] - And this will go to appropriations and oversight.
[1:15:00] Moving on to filings by members
[1:15:02] of the Honorable City Council and resolutions
[1:15:06] - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash 8 35 a resolution, recognizing
[1:15:10] and supporting a LS, often known
[1:15:12] as the Lou Gehrig's Disease in Melrose for the month
[1:15:15] of May, 2026.
[1:15:19] - Council Aldi,
[1:15:22] - Mr.
[1:15:23] President, I would like to request this
[1:15:26] as immediate consideration.
[1:15:28] - There's a motion for immediate consideration
[1:15:30] made by Council Aldine.
[1:15:31] Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Council Romano.
[1:15:34] All in favor? A aye.
[1:15:36] Any opposed That meeting is or that motion passes
[1:15:40] and the item is available for immediate consideration.
[1:15:43] - Thank you. And I would like to turn it back to
[1:15:47] my co-sponsor or one of my co-sponsors, counselor Romano,
[1:15:51] to read the resolution.
[1:15:53] - Good evening. Thank you so much.
[1:15:55] I wanna thank my colleagues for your co-sponsorship.
[1:15:58] Whereas Atrophic Lateral Sclerosis co, also commonly known
[1:16:02] as Lou Gehrig's disease
[1:16:03] or a LS as a progressive fatal neurodegenerative disease in
[1:16:07] which a person's brain loses connection
[1:16:08] with their muscles slowly reducing the person's ability
[1:16:11] to walk, talk, eat, and eventually breathe.
[1:16:13] And whereas thousands
[1:16:14] of new a LS cases are reported every single year
[1:16:17] and estimates show that every 90 minutes someone is
[1:16:19] diagnosed with a LS and someone passes away from a LS.
[1:16:22] And whereas on average, patients diagnosed
[1:16:24] with a LS survive only two to five years time
[1:16:28] after diagnosis.
[1:16:29] Whereas the exact causes of a LS are unknown
[1:16:31] and there is no known cure for a LS.
[1:16:34] Whereas people who have served in the military are more
[1:16:36] likely to develop a LS
[1:16:38] and die from the disease than those
[1:16:40] with no family history or military service.
[1:16:42] And whereas securing access to new therapies,
[1:16:44] durable medical equipment
[1:16:46] and communication technologies is of vital importance
[1:16:48] to those living with a LS.
[1:16:49] Whereas clinical trials play a pivotal role in evaluating
[1:16:53] new treatments, enhancing quality of life
[1:16:55] and fostering assistive technologies
[1:16:56] for those living with a LS.
[1:16:58] And whereas the a LS Association is the largest
[1:17:01] philanthropic funder of a LS research globally
[1:17:03] and has committed more than $154 million
[1:17:06] to support more than 550 projects across the United States
[1:17:09] and 18 other countries.
[1:17:11] And whereas the a LS Association is committed
[1:17:13] to making a LS livable and a cure for everyone everywhere.
[1:17:16] And whereas a LS Awareness Month provides an opportunity
[1:17:20] to increase public awareness of the dire circumstances
[1:17:23] of people living with a LS acknowledge the terrible impact
[1:17:25] that this disease have on those individuals
[1:17:28] and their families and support research
[1:17:30] to eradicate this disease.
[1:17:31] And whereas the Melrose City Council do hereby proclaim the
[1:17:35] month of May, 2026 is a LS whereas this month we call upon
[1:17:39] Americans to join in supporting a LS research, advocating
[1:17:42] for increased funding and standing in solidarity
[1:17:44] with those affected by this relentless disease.
[1:17:47] And I'll just mention, I won't go on long, I'll just say
[1:17:51] I'm grateful for your consideration
[1:17:53] for my colleagues' co-sponsorship.
[1:17:56] You know, this is a very personal issue for me.
[1:17:59] My mother-in-law died two years ago from a LS
[1:18:01] and anyone who is a front row seat
[1:18:04] to a family member diagnosed with this
[1:18:06] or a family dealing with this, it changes you forever.
[1:18:09] We have, you know, and
[1:18:11] and several members
[1:18:14] of my ward have either a LS
[1:18:17] or family members who are
[1:18:18] dealing with this or have dealt with this.
[1:18:19] And I know that there must be true in other
[1:18:21] neighborhoods in our city.
[1:18:22] So for those who are watching tonight, I'm wondering,
[1:18:25] you know, why we consider this?
[1:18:26] There is no cure. There are almost no known treatments
[1:18:29] and the average family out
[1:18:31] of pack pocket causes over a quarter
[1:18:33] of a million dollars if even that's if you have insurance.
[1:18:35] And so this just changes the trajectory of your life.
[1:18:39] And so even little bits
[1:18:40] of visibility can change its trajectory.
[1:18:43] See, the life, the Ice bucket challenge.
[1:18:45] What a big difference. That made hundreds of millions
[1:18:47] of dollars of research and assistance
[1:18:49] and that just take it from me as someone who was along
[1:18:52] for the ride for a couple of years and this
[1:18:54] and a family dealing with this,
[1:18:55] it just makes such a big difference.
[1:18:57] So I'm so appreciative of your consideration.
[1:19:00] Thank you for, thank you for your support.
[1:19:03] - Thank you Chairman Model. What is the will of council?
[1:19:06] - I'd like to make motion to recommend.
[1:19:09] - Motion to recommend to place on file made
[1:19:11] by Councilor Aldine, seconded by Councillor
[1:19:14] fro on discussion.
[1:19:16] All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed?
[1:19:19] That motion is passed and that item is placed on file.
[1:19:23] Moving on to licenses
[1:19:25] - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash 8 31.
[1:19:28] Renewal of live license, renewal
[1:19:32] of Liberty license for 2026. This will
[1:19:34] - Go to protection license - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash 8 61.
[1:19:38] Renewal of Junk Dealer and secondhand dealer
[1:19:40] license for 2026.
[1:19:42] - This will go to Protection and license
[1:19:44] - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash 8 71.
[1:19:46] Renewal of Gasoline and Storage licenses for 2026.
[1:19:49] - This will go to protection and license.
[1:19:52] Okay, moving on to unfinished business and grants
[1:19:57] - ID number 2 0 2 6 7 7 3.
[1:20:00] Acceptance of a fiscal year 26 Firefighter Safety Equipment
[1:20:04] Grant and the amount of $12,375 and 87 cents.
[1:20:10] - Mr. President, this comes to us from the Appropriations
[1:20:12] and Oversight Committee with a recommendation for passage.
[1:20:14] And at this time I'll make a motion for passage. Second.
[1:20:17] - Motion for passage made by Chair Mano, seconded
[1:20:19] by Councilor for Ichiro.
[1:20:21] Is this, this requires a roll call.
[1:20:24] - I was it who just made that motion, wasn't it, Devin?
[1:20:27] Oh, excuse me. Okay. Is that what you said? Yeah.
[1:20:29] Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry.
[1:20:31] - Point of clarification. Is this
[1:20:32] required call? Yes. Yes. Yes it does.
[1:20:33] - Yes. Yes, - Yes. Madam Clerk please. The roll.
[1:20:37] - Councilor Chen? Yes. Council F? Yes. Council Jamine? Yes.
[1:20:41] Council Rum Chetty. Councilor Cowell? Yes. Councilor Reky.
[1:20:45] Yes. Councilor Park. Yes. Councilor Arm Mano. Yes.
[1:20:48] Councilor Vander? Yes. Council Williams? Yes.
[1:20:50] President Freeman? Yes.
[1:20:52] Motion passes ID number 2 0 2 6
[1:20:56] dash 7 7 5.
[1:20:57] Acceptance of a Climate Leaders Technical Assistance grant
[1:21:01] in the amount of $139,000.
[1:21:03] - Mr. President, this also comes
[1:21:05] to us from the Appropriations
[1:21:06] and Oversight Committee with a recommendation for passage.
[1:21:08] And at this time I'll make a motion for passage. Second
[1:21:11] - Motion passage made by Councilor Romano, seconded
[1:21:14] by Councillor Aldine.
[1:21:16] On discussion Mad clerk
[1:21:23] - Councillor Chen?
[1:21:24] Yes. Councilor fro? Yes. Councilor Jamal? Yes.
[1:21:27] Councilor Karen Chetty. Yes. Councilor Cowell. Yes.
[1:21:32] Cremsky? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councillor Romano. Yes.
[1:21:36] Councilor Vandiver. Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes.
[1:21:38] Present Freeman? Yes. That motion passes. Thank
[1:21:41] - You. Moving on to orders
[1:21:43] - ID number 2 0 2 6 dash 7 74.
[1:21:46] That the city council authorized the mayor
[1:21:48] to enter into an inter municipal agreement
[1:21:50] for establishing a regional animal control officer
[1:21:54] position in partnership with the towns
[1:21:55] of Wakefield and Stoneham.
[1:21:59] - Mr. President, this comes from
[1:22:00] to us from the Appropriations
[1:22:01] and Oversight Committee with a recommendation for passage.
[1:22:04] And at this time, I'd actually like to make a motion
[1:22:07] to postpone consideration of this item
[1:22:09] until our next meeting on Monday, May 4th to allow
[1:22:12] for additional public testimony.
[1:22:14] I've gotten some feedback from constituents
[1:22:15] and had spoken with members of the administration
[1:22:18] to confirm they just wanted to make sure that
[1:22:21] the public got a chance to weigh in
[1:22:22] with their experiences on animal control.
[1:22:24] The administration confirmed that it was not pressing
[1:22:27] for passage in the next seven days
[1:22:30] and the public was looking
[1:22:32] for just an opportunity to weigh in.
[1:22:33] So at this time I'll make a motion to postpone consideration
[1:22:36] until Monday, May 4th. Second.
[1:22:38] - Motion to postpone until Monday, May 4th.
[1:22:40] Made by Councillor Armo, seconded
[1:22:42] by Councillor Williams on discussion.
[1:22:44] All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes
[1:22:50] - ID number 2 0 2 6 7 4 9 Informational order,
[1:22:54] affordable Housing Trust Fund Board update
[1:22:57] - Mr.
[1:22:58] President, this comes to us from the appropriations,
[1:22:59] an oversight committee with a
[1:23:00] recommendation to place on file.
[1:23:02] And at this time I'll make a motion
[1:23:03] to place on file. Second.
[1:23:05] - Motion to place on file made by Councillor Armo,
[1:23:07] seconded by Councillor F.
[1:23:08] Chiro on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?
[1:23:14] That passes. Are there any reports from committees?
[1:23:19] Seeing none, there are no expires. Any rule.
[1:23:22] 36 reports Seeing none.
[1:23:26] Just by way of update, just so the public knows,
[1:23:28] our next meeting will be on Monday,
[1:23:29] May 4th at 7:45 PM And then on Monday, May 11th,
[1:23:33] the mayor has called a joint meeting
[1:23:35] of the Melrose City Council on the School Committee to
[1:23:38] unveil her FY 27 budget at 7:15 PM That'll be followed
[1:23:43] by a special meeting the city council to receive that budget
[1:23:46] and initiate the process for the next two months
[1:23:49] of budget hearings and appropriations and oversight.
[1:23:52] At this time, I will entertain a motion to adjourn.
[1:23:54] So moved. Second.
[1:23:55] Motion to adjourn, made by Councillor Williams.
[1:23:58] Second by Councillor Ro. All in favor? Aye. Opposed?
[1:24:02] The ayes Have it. And we adjourned at 8:15 PM.