Read on for my lightly-edited recap of our budget meeting on 6/11/24, and a bullet-point list of highlights from our final meeting before the end of the fiscal year.
City Council Highlights, 6/11/2024 (Budget approval meeting)
I tried to keep this one succinct, with the knowledge that by publishing time, most folks had already heard the headlines from last Tuesday. There will be much more info coming out about the override and debt exclusion proposals and ballot campaigns in coming weeks and months. [For example: https://investinmedford.com/]
We passed several resolutions of a congratulatory or celebratory nature, including to a Medford couple who recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary; to this year’s graduates of Medford High School; to this year’s organizers of Medford Porchfest; and to acknowledge Caribbean-American Heritage Month.
We opened the hearing for “petition for a grant of location” by National Grid to add an additional utility pole on Park Street, jointly owned between Verizon and Nat Grid, and to locate the wires as necessary across the street. This is in order to install a new transformer, “to offload existing overloaded transformers on Park Street.” We approved it pending the public comment period and incorporating the conditions required by the City’s Chief Engineer.
The first package of Zoning amendments that we referred to the Community Development Board (CDB) at our last regular meeting were referred back to us by the CDB, and we unanimously voted to adopt these changes.
We approved a common victualler’s license for Dave’s Hot Chicken.
Councilor Scarpelli withdrew his Medford Public Schools budget-related resolution from the last meeting, which had been tabled until this meeting.
Then we shifted to discussion of the Mayor’s FY25 proposed budget, $1.75 million in additional one-time ARPA funding for Medford Public Schools for FY25 (bringing the total MPS allocation to $77.75 million), and three proposed ballot questions for November: (1) a $3.5 million override proposed by the Mayor to stabilize school funding and hire a permanent street and sidewalk repair crew in DPW, (2) a $4 million override proposed by me and Council President Bears to make major investments in our schools, and (3) a debt exclusion to fund the bonds needed for the construction of a new Medford Fire Department Headquarters.
I motioned to join all of these papers together so we could consider them as a package and to temporarily suspend a Council Rule (Rule 21) that would have allowed a two-week delay in consideration of these papers, pushing the city and schools well past the state-mandated June 15th “pink slip” date for teachers and very close to the June 30th deadline to pass a budget.
With this joined motion, we considered the proposals recommended by the City’s Financial Task Force, created by a budget agreement in 2023. Quick notes on the Task Force:
When was it convened?
Last year, as part of an agreement brokered between the Mayor and Council leadership and School Committee leadership during FY24 budget season.
Who’s on it?
The Mayor, her Chief of Staff, School Committee leadership (Vice Chair Graham), City Council leadership (President and VP – last term Morell and Bears, now Bears and me)
Why does the Task Force exist?
To create a structure for the City’s multiple branches of government to work together to solve the City’s financial challenges. To involve the School Committee and the City Council in this process and make it more collaborative.
What did the Task Force recommend?
Three ballot questions for voters to consider in November:
Two overrides to invest in schools and streets
One debt exclusion to build a new Fire Headquarters
Total estimated cost is $9.5 million, which would increase the property tax levy for individual properties by $4.83 per month for each $100,000 in assessed value (about $37 per month for the average single family assessed at $769,000 or about $44 per month for the average two family assessed at $902,000)
With these papers joined, we were able to consider these proposals as a package, rather than presenting, debating, and having public participation on each one separately. I think this was a big advantage: to me, these proposals could only be considered in the context of one another; the approval of this budget, with the constraints we were operating under this year, was conditioned on using other tools and mechanisms to increase our capacity short- and long-term. Namely, the infusion of one-time funds (ARPA) to supplement the Schools Department budget at the start of the fiscal year*; and the City’s first-ever override proposals to sustainably raise our revenue starting in Quarters 3 and 4 of this fiscal year, should the overrides pass.
*A standard reminder that the City Council doesn’t have any jurisdiction over how Medford Public Schools allocates its funding.
We had a long discussion, a long and meaningful public participation session; my thanks to everyone who spoke. Then, we separated the 5 papers out (budget, ARPA appropriation, 3 ballot questions) and voted on them each separately. Each passed 6–1.
So, what’s next?
The overrides and the debt exclusion will go on the November ballot. Voters will vote on each one separately. It’s not an Olympics podium scenario – rather, any question that receives more “yes” votes than “no” votes will pass.
The School Committee will hold a special meeting to finalize the Medford Public Schools budget, now that the City Council has approved the appropriation. I believe this is slated for 6/24.
There’s still some standard end-of-year financial loose ends to tie up, like budgeted transfers between City departments, etc., so more financial papers are likely on the next Council agenda.
With those major items dispensed with, we resumed the remaining items on the agenda. We approved a food truck permit for Circle the Square. Then we took up a paper offered by Councilor Lazzaro, “Resolution to Recognize and Discuss the Stop the Stigma Campaign in Relation to our Neighbors with Substance Use Disorder”:
“Whereas substance use disorder is recognized as a disease by the medical community, and whereas in 2023, Medford was home to 403 individuals with active prescriptions for buprenorphine, a medication assisted treatment for opioid recovery, and whereas buprenorphine and methadone are life-saving medications to treat substance use disorder and are effective at treating opioid dependence, and whereas between July 2022 and June 2023, Medford was home to 22 individuals who died for reasons related to substance use disorder, and whereas in 2018, 16 percent of individuals with a substance use disorder did not seek treatment because they worried that it would have a negative impact on their employment; and approximately 15 percent felt it would impact their community’s view of them, and whereas a disease is not a moral failing, now, therefore;
Be it hereby resolved that the Medford City Council recognize that all Medford residents are deserving of our care and respect, regardless of their medical or disability status.
Be it further resolved that when we speak of the services we can offer our residents, we do so while always offering the utmost dignity to all people at all times.”
While I really do believe that no one in our community would contest any of this, it feels important to remind ourselves of these facts when treatment for substance use disorder is a particularly hot topic of discussion. A meaningful discussion by Councilors and community members followed. Many shared about friends, family members or acquaintances that they know who have tragically died of overdoses, and spoke of the need for accessible treatment without judgment. People also took this opportunity to share their thoughts around the Habit Opco LLC petition to open on Salem St., from a variety of perspectives, including concern not around the business/activity but about the precise location, and of the need for robust community support in order for the clinic to be most successful.
A reminder that the decision-makers on this matter – of whether to allow this use of the site as requested by the petitioner – are the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Community Development Board, not the City Council.
Thanks to all for a very productive and substantive meeting. From my first term, I am accustomed to budget meetings getting out well past midnight, and I take it as a very positive indicator that we finished this one in less than 5 hours. Not to mention, this year the budget process was pitched earlier overall, due to the Budget Ordinance recently developed and passed by the City Council, and the Administration’s partnership in implementing that timeline at the beginning of this budget season.
Happy Flag Day, Father’s Day, Bunker Hill Day, Eid-al-Adha, Juneteenth, etc.
June 25, 2024
We congratulated Tom Lincoln on his decades of incredible service to the Medford Brooks Estate Land Trust (M-BELT) on the occasion of his retirement from the M-BELT Presidency.
We congratulated Sylvia and Janice on their retirement from the Clerk's Office and Ms. Laskey on her retirement from Medford Public Schools.
We referred to the Public Works & Facilities Committee a resolution by Councilor Lazzaro to have a multi-jurisdictional conversation on Mass DOT's plans for the Main Street x South Street intersection, with special focus on impacts on pedestrian and cyclist safety.
The methadone clinic special permit application by Habit OpCo was withdrawn earlier this week – this didn't change the work of our meeting, because the City Council was not the approving authority for that type of permit anyway; but it was on our agenda regardless because of a resolution put forward by Councilor Scarpelli. We read the update from Habit OpCo into the record – that they will look for a different, more suitable, more supported location elsewhere in Medford – and I suggested we refer Councilor Scarpelli's paper into the Planning & Permitting Committee, where we are already considering zoning updates to the Salem Street corridor and can consider this issue in the scope of that work. Councilor Scarpelli's original paper was for a moratorium on methadone dispensaries; the City's legal representation counseled us against considering "the blunt instrument" of a moratorium, because a moratorium on a specific medical usage involving a protected class could open the City up to a civil rights violation; we amended the paper and referred it into Committee.
We approved six Trustee appointees to the new Medford Affordable Housing Trust. Hooray!! We also approved appointments to the Community Preservation Committee, Licensing Commission, and Medford Housing Authority.
We approved a special permit for hours for the Great American Beer Hall and a conditional common victualler's license for Raising Cane's.
We approved the Annual Budget Request for the Community Preservation Committee. As part of the presentation we were also told the CPC has voluntarily raised the proportion of CPC monies allocated to Community Housing, which is one of its eligible spending areas.
We approved, in a 5-2 vote, the first reading of an ordinance creating a South Street Historic District.
We approved, on a 6-1 vote, the appropriation of $3M in free cash to go towards a Medford High School MSBA Feasibility Study. This is a crucial, unskippable first step that the City must do to remain eligible for MSBA grant funding for a new Medford High School. Councilor Scarpelli sought to use Rule 21 delay a vote on this paper, calling this use of free cash "financial mismanagement." In fact, the City has a clear record of how free cash has accrued in past years to the amount that was certified this year; and the Administration has been assembling a spending plan to detail how all of the free cash is budgeted and will be spend and/or vetted into targeted Stabilization Funds where it can be used throughout the fiscal year. Councilor Scarpelli left the meeting. We continued our conversation about free cash, what it is, and why it is not a sustainable revenue source, and approved the appropriation.
An exciting one: we approved a first-time appropriation of $6M from our free cash reserves into our new (as of 6/11/24) General Stabilization Fund, taking us out of the extremely minority of cities & towns in MA that don't have a stabilization fund!
We also voted to establish a Capital Stabilization Fund and vote to appropriate $5M of free cash to this fund; and to establish a Water & Sewer Capital Stabilization Fund and vote to appropriate $2M of Retained Earnings to this fund. From the Mayor's letter on this paper: "As you are aware, Free Cash and Retained Earnings are only available after certification through June 30th of each year. Each year without a stabilization fund, the City could face significant challenges in addressing emergencies or capital needs from July 1st until certified." By transferring free cash into these new Funds, it means the City can actually have access to these dollars throughout the year and spend them in service of projects that will improve roads, water and sewer infrastructure, and other projects that we don't have the capital for in our annual operating budget.
We approved some fiscal EOY budgeted transfers.
We approved, for first reading, a standard Cost of Living Adjustment for all non-union City employees.
Comentarios