Town Council - Ways & Means Committee

Braintree Town Council MEMBERS Meredith Boericke, Chairwoman Committee of Ways & Means Peter Morin, Vice-Chairman One JFK Memorial Drive Joseph Reynolds, Member Braintree, Massachusetts 02184 Julia Flaherty, Member Elizabeth Maglio, Member MINUTES Wednesday, May 15, 2024 A meeting of the Committee of Ways & Means was held in Cahill Auditorium on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 6:00pm. Councilor Boericke was in the Chair. Clerk of the Council, Susan Cimino conducted the roll call. Present: Meredith Boericke, Chairwoman Peter Morin, Vice-Chairman Joseph Reynolds, Member Julia Flaherty, Member Elizabeth Maglio, Member Also Present: Erin V. Joyce, Mayor Kara Nyman, Chief of Staff/Director of Operations Michael Esmond, Director of Municipal Finance Shawn McGoldrick, CLA – Town Auditor Timothy Cohoon, Police Chief Fred Viola, Acting Fire Chief Maryanne Bosse, Finance Coordinator - Fire Mary Kenney, Staff Executive Jeanne Connolly, Staff Assistant Fire Department staff Ann Quilty, District 4 Councilor Approval of Minutes • None Old Business • None May 15, 2024 Ways & Means Committee 1 of 9 New Business A Public Hearing on the Town Budget, allowing public comment, will be held on Wednesday, May 29 at 7pm. Please email written statements or your questions to towncouncil@braintreema.gov These meetings will be televised by BCAM TV cable/YouTube. • 24 020 Mayor: FY2025 Operating Budget or take up any action relative thereto Motion: by Councilor Morin to Take off the Table Order 24 020 Second: by Councilor Flaherty Vote: For (5–Boericke, Morin, Flaherty, Maglio, Reynolds), Against (0), Absent (0), Abstain (0) 210 Police 220 Fire Police Department Overview The Braintree Police Department’s primary responsibility is for the public safety and security of the Town of Braintree’s residents, business owners/employees, commuters, visitors, and property. Each member of the Department strives to fulfill this mission with the highest levels of integrity, respect, professionalism, and compassion. As of April 2023, there are 85 sworn members of the Braintree Police Department (with a FY24 budgeted headcount of 89), 9 dispatchers, and 4 civilian employees. The Department also employs 3 full-time clinicians which are fully funded by grants from the Department of Mental Health. In 2023, the Department responded to 25,389 unique calls for service ranging from property crimes and theft offenses to violent crimes and assaults, motor vehicle accidents and complaints, and more. The Department is organized into three Bureaus, each led by a Deputy Chief of Police. The Operations Bureau consists of Patrol, Communications, Emergency Management, Traffic Unit and Parking Enforcement, Motorcycle and Bicycle Units, K9 Unit, Marine Unit, and Metro-LEC. The Bureau of Administration consists of Records, Licensing, Details and Special Police Officers, Information Technology, Fleet and Facilities, Animal Control, Training and Equipment, Internal Affairs, Hiring, Accreditation, and Compliance. Finally, the Bureau of Investigative Services is comprised of the Bureau of Criminal Investigations, Drug Control Unit, Family Services Unit, Property and Evidence, Peer Support, Crime Analysis, Grants, Court Prosecution and Sex Offender Registration. The Braintree Police Family Services Unit (FSU) has become one of the most important components of the Department and serves as a model to other law enforcement agencies across the Commonwealth. FSU is staffed by FSU Officers and Supervisors, School Resource Officers, and grant-funded mental health clinicians and social workers. The unit provides advanced mental health response and follow-up support, crisis intervention, and regional training. As part of the nationwide “One Mind Campaign,” 100% of Braintree Police Officers are trained in Mental Health First Aid and more than half of the Department is trained in Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) response. Numerous members of the Department also have more specialized mental health response training or have been trained in ICAT (Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics) that provides an innovative and evidence-based approach to incident de-escalation May 15, 2024 Ways & Means Committee 2 of 9 FY2025 Highlights • Although the FY25 proposed budget reflects new collective bargaining agreements and more current operating expense projections, it does not provide funding to maintain existing services provided by the Braintree Police Department • Based on the proposed budget, key changes in FY25 include: • Overtime mitigation measures that aggressively reduce projected overtime by 49%, accomplished through: • Redeployment of the Traffic Unit (3), School Resource Officers (2), and Administrative Officers (2) to Patrol • Rotating Detectives, Family Services Unit Officers, and other Administrative personnel to Patrol for two- month rotations • Shifting all in-service training to online and on-duty • Eliminating non-mandatory training opportunities • Eliminating the Parking Enforcement program • Carrying four vacancies over the prior year, reducing budgeted sworn headcount from 89 FTEs to 85 FTEs • Reduced capacity for Detectives, resulting in fewer cases being able to be assigned, investigated, and cleared • Reduced capacity for FSU, resulting in fewer mental health and drug overdose follow-ups • No dedicated School Resource Officers in Braintree Public Schools or private schools • Limited capacity to individually address traffic and parking concerns throughout the Town • The Department will continue to maintain and aggressively pursue outside funding sources such as the Municipal Road Safety Grant, Sex Offender Enforcement Grant, Shannon Grant, JAG-Byrne Grant, State 911 Support & Incentive Grant, State 911 Training Grant, Safe Drug Disposal Grant, Body Armor Grants, Port Security Grants, the Jail Diversion Program, and CIT-TTAC Grants. We will also seek public safety earmark funding from the State Legislature and when feasible and permissible, utilize equitable sharing programs. Councilor Maglio asked who does the grant writing? Chief Cohoon stated several police officers and supervisors along with Lorraine See from the Mayor’s staff. Councilor Flaherty stated I understand officers who work in special units will be rotated into patrol to try to combat overtime. How will that impact the specialized departments. Chief Cohoon stated these assignments are hopefully temporary and hope we don’t have to continue any longer than through the fiscal year. It will minimize our ability to respond to non-violent crimes. We won’t have the ability to mitigate the traffic troubled areas. We need enough bodies for the calls we need to handle immediately. May 15, 2024 Ways & Means Committee 3 of 9 Councilor Reynolds applauds the effort the Police Department has made reducing your overtime. Chief Cohoon stated whenever there is a significant incident many times we have to rely on our surrounding communities. June 4th we lost about 8-12 officers for several weeks after that. You can’t plan for that. What 47 patrol officers will give us is a little bit of continuity of operations if something were to happen because it will give us a couple of extra officers per shift. Councilor Morin stated I want to mention your Family Services. Its cutting edge, its saving lives, its reducing crime. Every department should be moving in this direction. Allowing those in patrol to do what they do best but bring other resources that aren’t necessarily law enforcement but mental health and crisis counseling. It is important and needs to continue. I am going to be an advocate for that. Chief Cohoon said thank you we are very proud of Family Services. Chairwoman Boericke asked about minimum staffing. Chief Cohoon stated it is a departmental policy. Chairwoman Boericke asked if the override passes how do you restore the numbers to the various department/units. Chief Cohoon stated we still want to responsible with our overtime. It would probably be on a rolling basis. We want to see where we are going to land before we bring it all back. Members took a 5-minute recess returning at 7:09pm. Fire Department Overview • The Fire Department provides residents & visitors with highly skilled emergency services 24 hours daily, including but not limited to, extinguishing fires (structural/brush), responding to motor vehicle accidents and medical calls, water rescue, and mutual aid. We work in conjunction with the School Department to ensure early education through our Fire Prevention Program. • The Department has two branches comprising of Fire Administration and Fire Suppression and consists of: • The Fire Chief oversees the daily operations, staffing levels, budget issues and adherence to policies and procedures. • The Financial Coordinator monitors the operating budget and creates annual budget. The Financial Coordinator generates financial reports, processes payroll, overtime and details worked by the Suppression and records time used. Manages all accounts payable and receivable. • The Fire Marshall enforces Fire Codes prevalent to the State of Massachusetts and performs smoke/carbon monoxide inspections for multi-family residents. • The Hazmat Officer issues fire permits, inspects businesses for compliance with Fire codes pertaining to hazardous materials. The Hazmat Officer responds to hazardous spills and records pertinent data collected. The Hazmat Officer conducts arson investigations. May 15, 2024 Ways & Means Committee 4 of 9 • The Fire Alarm Superintendent manages the maintenance of fire alarm connections above and below ground that feed all master box alarms and street box alarms. The FA Superintendent assists the Chief and Suppression in daily operations. • The Training Officer confirms all training is complete and current for all members and keeps all EMT and Para certificates current. The Training Officer performs smoke and carbon monoxide detectors for single family homes. • The positions with dual functionality within Fire Suppression are: One Deputy Chief is a Mechanic liaison to ensure our apparatus is current with State Inspections and all preventative maintenance is current. • One Captain holds the position of Master Marine Pilot responsible for Marine Unit 1 guaranteeing the readiness to respond to incidents. One Lieutenant is an EMS Coordinator who monitors supplies and equipment needed as well as tracks the use of Narcan and its effectiveness. And one Firefighter is the Grant Writer who has been integral in securing countless grants for equipment and supplies vital to our daily operations. • The Suppression branch at full complement is 4 working groups of 21 members. The breakdown is: 4 Deputy Chiefs, 4 Captains in Suppression, 4 Captains in Administration, 20 Lieutenants (-1 long term injury), 56 Firefighters (-1 long term Injury) and -1 open position. The Suppression branch operates from three stations; Headquarters, East Braintree and the Highlands. FY2025 Highlights • Total Department appropriations are $9.9 million, a 6.2% reduction from the current projected FY24 budget. • In preparing the FY25 budget recommendation, the Department has sought to avoid a reduction in force of its current staffing level. • The overtime budget was reduced to only $133,000 across the Department through the following changes: • Reduce the minimum contractual manning plan to 13 firefighters per shift from 17 hours. This change is expected to cut overtime spending by over $1 million. It is important to note that each shift calls for 21 firefighters. Savings are achieved because the frequency of asking firefighters to work on OT is substantially reduced. • Additionally, the Department would eliminate the monitoring position at the Fire Dispatch which is often filled with staff at overtime rates. Mayor Joyce stated we started the FY25 Operating Budget plans with a $18million deficit that was forecast going into fiscal year 25. This was even before having a conversation with our department heads on where they want to go or need to be to service the Town of Braintree. Our revenue growth is not reliably more than 2 or 3%. With the Fire Department and others that typically came back for Supplemental requests, we wanted to understand the true costs for our departments. We wanted the all in true costs. We took that number and reduced it with a target for departments. Fire was asked to come up with a budget of $9.87 million. May 15, 2024 Ways & Means Committee 5 of 9 Councilor Morin stated the overarching goal of Chief O’Brien when he presented this budget was to prevent layoffs and preserve the workforce that is 95% of his budget and is the most valuable asset in the budget. The importance of retaining personnel can’t be understated. There is coming at a near date folks who are aging into retirement. No one wants to see any shift filled by only 13 people. It is important to note this budget funds 21 per shift. It would only be in a dire and unusual circumstance that we would go down to 13. Passing the override avoids chaos. Chief Viola stated I have had meetings to discuss options. I have cancelled a detail that was being paid out of overtime. I reduced a shift to 16 which is a management tool in the contract allowed after someone is out for 60 shifts or more. Councilor Flaherty stated it is my understanding that 17 man minimum is a contractually negotiated standard. Whether the union would agree to this sounds like it is still being negotiated. Chief Viola stated not at this time. It hasn’t been discussed yet. We are formulating a plan and we will try to execute something very soon. Councilor Maglio stated I understand 21 people are scheduled for the shift. If enough call out or are sick and it drops down to 16 then the 17th person that gets added back on is paid overtime for that shift. With this change 21 people will still be scheduled for the shift but the overtime wouldn’t kick in until it would go down to 12 and then that 13th person would be overtime on that shift. Chief Viola stated yes. A lot of people would lose their jobs if we don’t do something about it. Councilor Maglio asked about the overtime for the detail at Clean Harbors. There were a number of requirements Clean Harbors had to fulfill. At the time of resuming full operations it meant that DEP had signed off on everything. I was told the detail at Clean Harbors was their request. To their credit they were paying for this detail to be there. They had requested no more detail because they had met all the requirements. Yet we were still sending 2 firefighters and an engine to Clean Harbors everyday. Now today we are told we have to pay $500,000. How does that happen. Who is checking that the invoices are being paid. How can it be prevented in the future? Chief Viola stated I assure you going forward those things will be watched and understood and paid for by the people that are supposed to pay for that. Councilor Reynolds asked about attrition. Chief Viola stated 31 in the next 7 years. Councilor Reynolds re-stated 31 experienced firefighters and 42 in 10 years will be retiring. Chief Viola stated it is tough to get fire academy space. Its about 6-8 month out to get the space to put a new hire in. Our academy is 13 weeks. Chairwoman Boericke asked how the override money would be divided should it pass. Mayor Joyce stated $4 million would go to the schools, $1.5 million would be to establish a stabilization account to be used in following years to close anticipated gaps. $2.5 million to the general fund is slated to buy back programs in DPW and Police that were specifically identified and targeted. Chairwoman Boericke stated specific funding was not slated for the Fire Department but if the override were to pass with the increased funds overall, that could help the Fire Department. Mayor Joyce stated to work this the best it will take some time and trial and error. May 15, 2024 Ways & Means Committee 6 of 9 Chairwoman Boericke stated a takeaway is even though there’s not a line item per se dedicated to the override for the fire department, by increasing our reserves that provides us a cushion for catastrophes that we hope will never happen. Chairwoman Boericke stated I would like to follow up on the staffing component at a later date. Shawn McGoldrick asked for invoices who bills and tracks and who is following up on those outstanding payments? Chief Viola stated we have a system. The Finance Coordinator and the oversight from the office of the Chief. Chairwoman Boericke stated I feel a call back would be appropriate for this department. Chief Viola stated I want to assure the residents that they will receive professional, prompt service from dedicated individuals when they call. We are here for those emergencies when you need them. Motion: by Councilor Morin to Table Order 24 020 to the next Committee of Ways & Means meeting Second: by Councilor Flaherty Vote: For (5–Boericke, Morin, Flaherty, Maglio, Reynolds), Against (0), Absent (0), Abstain (0) • 24 021 Mayor: FY2025 Budget – Community Preservation Committee or take up any action relative thereto (Presented by Planning Director Melissa SantucciRozzi on May 20) No action this evening. Tabled to May 20, 2024. May 15, 2024 Ways & Means Committee 7 of 9 • 24 022 Mayor: FY2025 Budget - Continuation of Revolving Funds or take up any action relative thereto Motion: by Councilor Morin to Take off the Table Order 24 022 Second: by Councilor Flaherty Vote: For (5–Boericke, Morin, Flaherty, Maglio, Reynolds), Against (0), Absent (0), Abstain (0) (Revolving Accounts on the date Department Head presents Budget) 5/6 Library® 5/13 Department of Public Works® - Recycling 5/14 Golf® 5/20 Dept. of Elder Affairs® 5/20 Municipal Licenses & Inspections® 5/21 Education® Committee members had no questions on the Revolving Funds. MOTION FOR FISCAL YEAR 2025 CONTINUATION OF REVOLVING FUNDS R1. That, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 44, Section 53E1/2 of the General Laws, the Town of Braintree hereby sets the maximum amount that may be spent during Fiscal Year 2025 beginning on July 1, 2024 for the revolving funds established by ordinance for certain departments, boards, committees, agencies or officers, as follows: Revolving Fund Department, Board, Committee, FY2025 Spending Limit Agency or Officer Elder Affairs Services and Department of Elder Affairs $30,000 Activities Immunization Board of Health $50,000 Library Materials Library Trustees $45,000 Library Room Rental Library Trustees $5,000 Recycling Materials Mayor, in conjunction with $4,800 Recycling Coordinator Household Hazardous Mayor, in conjunction with $50,000 Waste Recycling Coordinator Full Day Kindergarten School Committee $1,100,000 Pro Shop Mayor, in conjunction with Director $300,000 of Golf Operations Food and Beverage Mayor, in conjunction with Director $550,000 of Golf Operations School Bus School Committee $500,00 May 15, 2024 Ways & Means Committee 8 of 9  Motion: by Councilor Morin to Table Order 24 022 to the next Committee of Ways & Means meeting Second: by Councilor Flaherty Vote: For (5–Boericke, Morin, Flaherty, Maglio, Reynolds), Against (0), Absent (0), Abstain (0) It was unanimously voted to adjourn the meeting at 8:31p.m. by Roll Call Vote. Respectfully submitted, Susan M. Cimino Clerk of the Council Documents provided for Meeting • 24 020 Mayor: FY2025 Operating Budget or take up any action relative thereto (Public Hearing) • 24 021 Mayor: FY2025 Budget – Community Preservation Committee or take up any action relative thereto (Public Hearing) • 24 022 Mayor: FY2025 Budget - Continuation of Revolving Funds or take up any action relative thereto (Public Hearing) May 15, 2024 Ways & Means Committee 9 of 9