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 Tuesday, March 18, 2025 A meeting of the Committee of Ways & Means was held in Johnson Chambers on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 at 7:00pm. Councilor Boericke was in the Chair. Clerk of the Council, Susan Cimino conducted the roll call. Present: Meredith Boericke, Chairwoman Peter Morin, Vice-Chairman Julia Flaherty, Member Elizabeth Maglio, Member Joseph Reynolds, Member arrived @7:02pm Also Present: Erin V. Joyce, Mayor Kara Nyman, Chief of Staff Mike Esmond, Director of Finance Freddie Viola, Fire Chief Hilary Lawless, Finance Coordinator Approval of Minutes • None Old Business • None March 18, 2025 Ways & Means Committee 1 of 3 New Business • 25 006 Mayor: FY2025 Supplemental Appropriation #2 or take up any action relative thereto (Motion #1) Chairwoman Boericke asked to take off the table Order 25 006 Motion #1. Motion by Councilor Morin to Take off the Table Order 25 006 Motion #1 Motion: by Councilor Morin to Take off the Table Order 25 006 Motion #1 Second: by Councilor Flaherty Vote: For (4 – Boericke, Flaherty, Maglio, Morin), Against (0), Absent (1 - Reynolds), Abstain (0) Councilor Reynolds arrived at 7:02pm. Chairwoman Boericke stated just a reminder the committee voted in favor of Order 25 006 Motions 2 through 8 last week and we tabled Motion #1 pending legal opinion. Motion #1 reads: 1. Fire Details Motion: That the sum of $895,725 be transferred from Fiscal Year 2024 Certified Free Cash to the Fire Department Details Fund (Fund 8910). At the last meeting we asked for a legal opinion on the following Motion by Councilor Morin: MOTION: I move that Fire Detail Motion 1 be Tabled and Pursuant to Councils authority under Section 2-7 I would ask that the question of whether or not the authorization of details at Clean Harbors once the emergency situation had been declared over by the state led to a violation of Section 6-9 of the Charter. I would ask for Town Solicitors opinion on that. Kara Nyman stated I reached out to our legal counsel as requested. We are working through emails internally between Clean Harbors and representatives of the town. Chief of Staff Nyman read a letter from July 14, 2023 from Clean Harbors to the town thanking them for their services of the Braintree Fire Department and stating the details are no longer necessary and Clean Harbors will no longer fund an on- sight fire detail after July 17, 2023. We are looking for a response from the town to Clean Harbors. We do not have an official opinion tonight. Chairwoman Boericke asked if any committee members have any questions. Councilor Reynolds asked where the direction to continue the fire details came from. Are there records of details continuing after July 17, 2023? Mayor Joyce explained the fire details were stopped by Chief Viola once he took over in May 2024. Councilor Flaherty asked how difficult is it to prove firefighters showed up for the details at Clean Harbors and the Plaza. Can you ascertain that they arrived for their detail? It would be wise to confirm that. Chief Viola stated we can look back at the invoices generated and personnel records for that day if you give me a section of dates. Councilor Maglio stated she recalls a letter from legal counsel in response to the Clean Harbors letter. March 18, 2025 Ways & Means Committee 2 of 3 Chairwoman Boericke stated this isn’t just Clean Harbors. You have another almost $600,000 of miss- billed/un-billed monies. For Motion #1 we are looking at almost $900,000. We discussed whether or not that should come out of Free Cash. Director Esmond stated this is an agency fund. At the end of the year when we close the books, we file our free cash certification. DLS guidance would have us hold a portion of free cash for a negative balance in an agency fund. You can offset it somewhat with receivables. What would happen is some of your free cash would be held in reserve. The thinking was if we use free cash now to clear this deficiency and then re-pay the general fund as we are successfully able to collect some of this back, we are dealing with a problem we have to deal with anyways. I think we will have to pay this. That is what we are trying to do is get it out of the way now and have a strategy to restore the free cash that is used to deal with this issue. Chief Viola stated last week we recouped $10,000. This week we are up to $30,000 thanks to Hilary’s work chasing this down. We are still trying to get at least 2024 outstanding invoices back and paid. Councilor Morin stated we can all agree we are not getting $300,000 of this back. What bothers me is the magnitude of this amount. It is 40% of all of our free cash that we have this year. I think we would be in a better position to pay it next year, at least the $300,000 if we wrote that off. I am going to move to table. I have concerns about what we are doing so we are not in this position again. I would like to see more. What changes and processes are we taking. How can we verify that these details were worked. I want to make sure we are doing a good job at tracking the assignments, that they were worked, the bill is going out, and getting paid. If we get all that and we get the legal opinion, then I can come back. Chief Viola stated since I started there is a process in place. The deputy chiefs check on details each day to make sure there is a person there. Since May 6th we are collecting higher than 90% of invoices. Motion by Councilor Morin to Table Order 25 006 Motion #1 Motion: by Councilor Morin to Table Order 25 006 Motion #1 Second: by Councilor Maglio Vote: For (5 – Boericke, Flaherty, Maglio, Morin, Reynolds), Against (0), Absent (0), Abstain (0) It was unanimously voted to adjourn the meeting at 7:23p.m. Respectfully submitted, Susan M. Cimino Clerk of the Council Documents provided for Meeting • 25 006 Mayor: FY2025 Supplemental Appropriation #2 or take up any action relative thereto (Motion #1) March 18, 2025 Ways & Means Committee 3 of 3