City Council

City of Salem, Massachusetts “Know Your Rights Under the Open Meeting Law, M.G.L. c. 30A ss. 18-25 and City Ordinance Sections 2-2028 through 2-2033.” The City Council Committee on Administration and Finance co-posted with the Committee of the Whole met in the Council Chamber on _June 4, 2025______________ at ______6:00_______P.M. for the purpose of discussing the matters(s) listed below. Notice of this meeting was posted on ___ May 8, 2025__ at ___ 2:39 P.M.__________________ (This meeting is being recorded) ATTENDANCE A&F – Merkl (chair), Harvey, Stott, and Davis (zoom). COW – Prosniewski, Cohen, Morsillo and Varela. From the city - Ray Jordan, Director of Public Services, Deborah Duhamel, the city engineer, Mayor Pangallo. chief of staff, Lisa Peterson, and Anna Freedman, our finance director, ABSENT WERE: A&F – Watson-Felt. COW – Jerzylo, Hapworth. SUBJECT(S) Public Services Public Services (Admin., Snow & Ice, Enterprise Funds, Water and Sewer) Engineering (Admin., Enterprise Funds, Water, Sewer, Trash and Recycling) Capital Improvement Plans Merkl - Administration Finance Budget Committee hearings for the 2026 proposed budget. These meetings will run through mid-June. The agendas are posted on the city calendar, which include a link to the fiscal year 2026 proposed budget, and the budget. In brief, an overview of budget priorities, timelines, breakdown of revenue sources, and where your money goes. These budget hearings are a great opportunity to learn about what each of our city departments do, and their vision for their departments moving forward. If anyone in the public has questions about the budget hearings, please email me at amerkl@salem.com, and as always, I want to thank Anna Freedman, our finance director, and the city's finance team for all their hard work on the proposed budget. Tonight, we are starting with Ray Jordan in public services, and we will be going through the budget first and after we will vote on the items. Then we will discuss the capital improvement plans looking at the 5 Year Capital Plan all funds. We will be starting with public services, general administration and that is in section 20, page 495, and the budget summaries on 498. Jodoin - The department's cores responsibilities recently achieved strategic and our growing role in public safety and emergency response proposed budget in FY26 is a 5.5% increase from our previous year. This funding supports essential services, and infrastructure improvements in the expansion of our public safety role. Our staff regularly coordinates with city public safety teams and supports planned operations and prepares for unplanned events, reinforcing Salem's readiness and Resiliency Department of Public Works is responsible for maintaining the city's infrastructure and enhancing the quality of life for all Salem residents. Key responsibilities are sidewalk and street maintenance, stormwater management, urban forestry, trash and litter collection from over 240 barrels, maintenance of 34 parks, 48 common spaces, 28 playgrounds and 5 cemeteries. Traffic calming supports, signage, installation and partnerships with the transportation department. street signage installation and updates to include efforts to add permanent street sweeping signage and support for public safety operations for emergency managers. Major FY25 accomplishments during this year include street and sidewalk repairs. The city has reset 190 lineal feet of granite, curving 26 lineal feet of new curving. 40,000 square yards of asphalt sidewalk repaired, 26,000 square yards of concrete that were repaired, and 22,000 square yards of brick sidewalk that was repaired. We'd also like to announce Chicken Nugget, our newest member of our DPW cleaning crew. This was named by a school kid over in Saltonstall. It will maintain 240 barrels across the city. Some of them get emptied daily. some of them multiple times a day. Implement of stormwater improvements at Greenlawn Cemetery, dredging one of the ponds. DPW was also awarded 2 State grants for tree planting and green infrastructure. We plan on planting 240 trees in the spring this year to expand Salem's canopy and mitigate urban heat index. and always ongoing support of traffic counting projects across the city in 2026. Our priorities are going to be focusing on 15% of the C-click. Fix sidewalk repairs. Also continued stormwater system upgrades and green infrastructure installation at Green Lawn. Expanding tree planting to combat urban cooling and improved park maintenance, installing permanent street sweeping signage across the city. evaluating new internment options at Greenlawn Cemetery, conducting a market rate study for burial services at Greenlawn Cemetery to support a sustainable fee schedule to support perpetual care funds for the ongoing needs of Greenlawn cemetery, supporting citywide public safety and emergency response, planning for implementation and enhancing the delivery of services to all Salem through more efficient responsive methods, utilizing data- driven approach like See Click Fix. I want to acknowledge a lot of the tireless efforts of my team members. They're professional. They're skilled laborers. They're really 1st responders. They show up in snowstorms. They show up in windstorms. I really can't do that without them. Personally, I want to thank them publicly for that. Cohen – Can you update us on your staffing levels and any challenges you have on staffing? Jodoin – We have had some new hires this year but always have open positions. Part of the difficulty is the licensing. We were able to partner with MassHire, and we were able to send 2 people to CDL training. We are still looking for more seasonal full-time people. Cohen – I get a lot of questions about the trash bins near the parks. Can you talk a little about the carry-in, carry-out approach which didn’t eliminate litter, but seems to have made things better. Jodoin – The city took that approach in 2 parks, The Willows and Forest River Park. It cut down on waste and the time spent in the parks. Varela – My question is about ground maintenance and supplies. Are you trying to get those costs down by how we plant the grounds and utilize them? Jodoin – We always want to do sustainable plantings to use less water with low maintenance. Those costs are increasing due to the increased cost of trash bags. Morsillo – There was a charge in last year’s budget for Halloween bathroom cleaning and nothing carried over. Is that changing? And the weekend staffing for the transfer station increased almost 100%? Jodoin- We re-negotiated our contract for the bathroom cleaning and got a lower price, so those funds were re-allocated. The staffing on weekends at the transfer station are not city employees, they are contracted and that contract doubled this year. It is contracted because it used to be cheaper, and I don’t know what it would cost to staff it internally. Morsillo – Has the street lining painting started and is there a list of what streets will be lined? Is there a way to make the list public so residents will know? Same with sidewalks. And make it so you can look to see what is coming up in the future? Jodoin- Yes, we have started. We are working on crosswalks on the school routes and then out, but I don’t have a list of streets yet. I can work with the engineering dept to get and ongoing list of streets and work on making it public. Stott – Sharing the street and crosswalk painting with the Ward councilors, even if it is not made public, would be helpful. On the street signs, that budget line is flat. Have you been able to build up a stock of the signs because I think there are times when there is a delay getting a street sign? And how does your staff handle the sign replacements? And is there a plan to make the orange street sweeping signs permanent? Jodoin – If the signs are in the MTCDU library, we can fabricate them in house. We have our own sign making equipment so regular signs we can make but if it is a more complicated sign, then we must sub that out. We only have one sign maker, and he is the same guy that is putting the signs up along with many other tasks. Permanent street sweeping signs is in our capital plan. Davis – My question is on the 15% goal from See Click Fix requests, how is that going and can you explain that goal? Jodoin – That is regarding sidewalk repairs. At the beginning of FY25, we had 571 open sidewalk repairs and received an additional 194 in FY25. Our hope is to tackle the top 15% of those in FY26 which would be about 78 locations. We have done a lot of brick work along with the concrete. We have been doing larger stretches on sidewalks, and we are slowly catching up. Morsillo – Are the curb cut requests in See Click Fix yours or engineering? And if they are yours, can you track those numbers and make those numbers public? Jodoin – Those are combined between our department, and I will work on tracking them. Stott - Motion to approve the public services general administration personnel budget in the amount of $2,233,067 and expenditures total of $1,721,600 for a department total of $3,954,667. Seconded by Harvey. Roll call vote Stott, Harvey, Davis, Merkl. Motion carries 4-0. Merkl – Next, we have Snow and Ice in section 20, page 505. Varela – How much brine did you use on roadways this year and is it expensive? Jodoin – I don’t know the totals, but we do have a brine station, and we do use it. It is not expensive because we use our own road salt to make it. Freedman – Just a reminder, that under Mass Law, snow and ice is the only line item that can go into deficit because it is completely unpredictable on how much we will need from year to year. Last year it was $1,000,000 and this year it is $400,000. Stott - Motion to recommend approval of the snow and ice budget personnel line item of $50,000 and expenditure line item of $408,935 for department total of $458,935. Seconded by Harvey. Roll call vote – Stott, Harvey, Davis, Merkl. Motion carries 4-0. Merkl – Next, we have Water Enterprise Funds for Public Service in section 29, page 609. Jodoin – The Water Dept budget has a 5.4% increase for FY26. This is for the delivery of safe, high quality drinking water and ensures compliance with the evolving regulations. The highlights are training for licensed water operators and led service inventory, complying with Mass DEP and EPZ regulations and copper rules. We also handle hydrant flushing, water leak detection. Improved efficiency, infrastructure and maintenance. We had about 35 water main breaks last year which was less than the previous and it is because of our preventative maintenance. Goals for the department is to complete lead service line inventory and begin removals, expand leak detection program. hydrant flushing programs. Optimizations will build climate resiliency, especially around access vulnerabilities in our water system and work with the engineering department to schedule their repair and then continue to implement water asset management system. Stott- Communication has improved. It is helpful to get the notices of the water main breaks. Prosniewski – I appreciate your response and knowledge. Is it true that one of our large water mains that comes from Beverly is inoperative? And is that our water main or Beverly’s? Jodoin – Yes, it is currently out of service. It is a 20-inch water main. We also have another 20-inch water main and a 36-inch water main that are currently working and we are in talks to get that working again. And that is our water main not Beverly’s. Varela – I know that our pipes continue to deteriorate, and we use an epoxy liner for our drainage. Is there a creative way to use something like the epoxy resin so we wouldn’t have to dig up every line? Jodoin – We are always looking for inventive ways to lessen digging and we are in discussion to use liners to restore distribution main. Stott – Motion to recommend approval for the public service water enterprise budget, personnel line item of $616,575 expenditure line item of $209,686. This is for a department total of $826,261. Seconded by Harvey. Roll call vote – Stott, Davis, Harvey, Merkl. Motion carries 4-0. Merkl – Next, we have Sewer Enterprise Funds for Public Service in section 28, page 589. Jodoin – There is a 5.5% increase in the budget for FY26. This is due to rising utility costs and an increased demand for system maintenance. We had less sewer backups last year which shows the importance of preventative maintenance, infrastructure upgrades and rapid response and it minimizes property damage. The sewer division is focused on the following strategic goals, expanding our asset management tool system to implement GIS integrated tracking, attempts to reduce the inflow and infiltration of our current system and green infrastructure initiatives to explore opportunities to incorporate green stormwater solutions, such as rain gardens and permeable pavements in accordance with larger capital projects. Harvey – Do the generators at the sewer pumps stations fall under this budget? Jodoin – That is not part of DPS; it is engineering. Morsillo – Can you explain what happens in engineering and what happens in DPS and how you split the work? Jodoin - Engineering is the long-term planning and the general direction of where the city should be going. DPS is the emergency response team that handles the emergencies, the critical infrastructures. It's broken. Stott - Motion to recommend approval for the Public Services Sewer Enterprise Fund personnel department budget, personnel line item of $553,600 expenditure line item of $210,794 for department total of $764,394. Seconded by Harvey. Roll call vote – Stott, Harvey, Davis, Merkl. Motion carries 4-0. Merkl – Moving on to the capital improvement plans in tab 7, page 231. Jodoin - The DPW sidewalk implementation project is one of our larger projects that we are trying to tackle 15% of the See Click Fix sidewalk repair list. These funds are crucial to catching up with the backlog of the sidewalks across the city. We're targeting about 78 different locations this year. That would equal out to be about 15%. Also, sewer upgrades at Greenlawn Cemetery. Putting up the permanent streets sweeping signage. Also, Szetela Lane cleanup for the soil remediation and the piles located at Stella Lane Storage Yard. Try to get in compliance and the purchase of a new dump truck for the park department. Morsillo – How much lead pipe do we have? And do you know how much $100k will replace? Also, why is this in your CIP and not engineering? Jodoin – I don’t know how much lead pipe we have so I will have to get back to you on that. We are working on getting information on how much we will be able to replace. And I think phase 1 and 2 on this project are with DPS. Varela – You are looking for $43,000 to repair a front-end loader? Jodoin – Yes, our front-end loader (CAT high lift) is aging and needs repair to keep it in service. Cohen – I have had 3 long stretches of sidewalk replace which I appreciate. Can you talk about why concrete is longer lasting and better for people with mobility issues? Jodoin – Concrete is longer lasting and needs less maintenance over its lifetime. It sheds water better and has better traction. Brick has spaces in between it where growth can happen, and it can shift. Prosniewski – There is $80,000 for replacing the lift and $10,000 for ADA improvements but there is also talk of a new DPW building. What is the status of the new building, and should we replace the lift if we are planning to replace the building? Jodoin – The lift is a portable lift. The lift in our DPW building is aging out, so we are looking to secure a portable lift that can be taken anywhere. The $10,000 for ADA improvements is for our bathrooms in our DPW building to bring them in compliance to service the public. We are investigating capping off the transfer station and looking at ideas for reuse and how much that would cost. Prosniewski – What is a gate turning trailer for $122,000? Jodoin – We have a few gates that require 232 turns to shut off the water. The trailer attaches to the gate and opens and closes it. They are also part of the preventative maintenance of the gates and exercise the valves to extend valve life. Our trailer is aging out at 15 years old. Varela – I know if is not in the budget now, but is there a plan to move the DPW building to the transfer station property in the next decade? Mayor Pangallo – We are currently doing a study on the DPW building and capping off the transfer station. It is not included in this year’s budget because those are funds that were dedicated to the study in years’ past. Unfortunately, there isn’t state funding for this like there is for school buildings. Merkl – We are moving on to Engineering and starting out with the general administration in section 21, page 511. Duhamel - We have 12 full-time positions, including administrative, billing, meter technician, engineers, and GIS staff. All the positions were filled as of mid-October of 2024. I am grateful for the employees in the engineering department, managing very heavy workloads as a matter of course, as well as accommodating some extended leaves that we had this fall and this spring we restructured the engineering specific staff. There are 5 engineers. I'm optimistic that the restructure will position engineering for prompt responses in FY26. That restructure involved eliminating the position for the assistant city engineer and adding a junior engineering staff. Additionally, the role of the construction inspector was expanded to be a senior project manager as well as a construction inspector. The restructure includes some shifting of responsibilities. Some have already happened and some are in transition, and we are working to improve response times on all permits and residential and business inquiries. Another goal of the engineers is to improve communications with city officials and community. Hopefully, you have been receiving emails from Diane Alvarez, our junior engineering staff, which, as I mentioned, is a new position. You've probably been getting a flurry of messages about completing some ARPA funded projects as well as spend down a grant fund that we received for work in the B 5 district to meet deadlines. We want to extend a big thanks to the planning department for obtaining the MBTA Communities catalyst fund for that work in the B 5 district. I also want to thank our friends in the other city departments for the continued coordination on tasks and projects that originate in the engineering department with extra appreciation to DPS, for their responsiveness and collaborative approach in solving all the infrastructure related projects. As you mentioned, we are very, very intertwined. The pump was replaced at Ravina. Regarding the lead and copper, we need to submit a final inventory by 2027. After that we need to have a replacement program. The deadline to replace all the services on the city side is 2037. Some highlights from FY25, the Mass Works grant for Congress Street Neighborhood improvements was completed. We received a housing choice grant for Franklin Street improvements that includes a study and 30% design. The sidewalks on Broadway were replaced. Traders’ Way, and First St. were repaved and striped. There was a slight drainage issue that was also resolved in that area and several of the other local streets were paved in November, and some have been completed in May. There is a list online at the city engineering page, under that you would find FY25 roadway paving plan. That includes information about what has been done and what is in the works and Giselle has also submitted an application for the construction of the Leggs Hill Bridge replacement. We're waiting to hear whether we got that grant. Boston Street is at 100% design, and we have completed the soils, inspection, investigations, and the utilities explorations. Harvey – I have a question regarding the pipe work that was done on Ober St. I haven’t seen it on the list for repaving. Is that something that the city is responsible for or is that on the contractor? Duhamel – The city will be repaving it. We must wait until National Grid is done with their work and then we wait 90 days so the trenches settle before we will repave. I don’t know what National Grid’s schedule is, but if they are out there now, then it probably won’t be repaved until next year. Harvey – I know that in other cities the contractors must put a seal on the pavement so you can tell who did it and when it was done, so if it wasn’t done properly, you know who to reach out to. Is there an amount of time that the contractors are liable that we have in case the paving fails because they didn’t pave the trenches properly so we can go back to the contractor and get them to fix it? Is there a compaction testing requirement for private contractors? Duhamel – If a private developer or contractor is digging a trench, they are responsible for completing whatever is required by the engineering department. If the road was paved within the last 5 years, then we require them to do a curb to curb for the location of the trench. The only one that uses a medallion is National Grid. Their trenches can only settle so much, and they are supposed to be inspecting them regularly. If there is an issue with paving, you can contact us, and we can look at the contract to see what the conditions were for them repairing the trench. There is no compaction testing because we are waiting 90 days for settling. Cohen – I am concerned about the lack of trees that are being planted when sidewalks are repaved. For example, on Clifton Ave., there were no trees put in and I worry about more heat zones in those areas as the climate changes. Also, in 2023, it was reported that only 10 miles of the 24 miles of water mains were surveyed. That seems very low and other communities have surveyed 80%. Our unaccounted for water is at 30% which is very high compared to other communities. That is an environmental issue as well as a financial issue. Will there be future surveying of the mains and will you be trying to address unaccounted for water? Also sending out estimated water bills is a problem, especially if it is a lot more than the homeowner usually pays. Duhamel – On the tree issue, I will coordinate with Ray because they have a budget for trees, and they have a grant too. On the unaccounted for water, the state and federal goal is 10%, so we are certainly higher than that. We are working tirelessly with DPS to develop application to work with DPS relative to street flushing to better account for it so we will be more accurate. We had a significant leak that happened on private property off Highland Ave. and the water was draining into a drainpipe, so we didn’t know it was there because the water wasn’t showing up on the surface. We are doing some more work out on Highland Ave. because we suspect that there are other leaks that we aren’t aware of. We are working on a leak detection program to help with that in the future. Also, the meters aren’t as accurate as you want them to be especially if they are old and there is more water flowing through them. The estimated water bills are usually about a glitch between the systems and if you are getting an estimated water bill, then you should call us so we can troubleshoot the problem. Cohen – I want to ask about the Canal St. project. I understand that it is on hold, but can you speak to the status and if there is any plan to finish the project in the next year or two. Duhamel – I know that there was a ponding issue in front of McDonalds. The material that was used there was very mossy and not very dense and there is a leak as well which was difficult to find. We are working with DPS to fix that issue. I am not sure if the other two spots on Canal are related to the ponding issue, but I will reach out to Ray to get a plan together. Cohen – Can you talk about the Willow Ave. sewer project? I see that you have a request for $5,000,000 in the CIP. Will that cover the whole project? Duhamel – The $5,000,000 is a combination of a match associated with a grant application that we have in with FEMA as well as the engineering services because FEMA won’t pay for the engineering services for the design. We have been working with MEMA to coordinate with FEMA. We just found out that FEMA has more questions, so we are in the process of responding to their questions. There is also money that we are working to get from the EPA to shore up some of the pilings because they didn’t do all of them. Morsillo – Last year we talked about buying new water meters. Are we doing that? Duhamel – We have a pilot program with a new brand, and they have been installed at 10 locations so we can check how they interact with our billing software. Then we will get an RFP for the meters. I don’t know the time frame to get the new ones. We looked at several brands, then decided on one. They have been installed, and we needed to get through a couple billing cycles to make sure they were working well with our software. Morsillo – I didn’t think that the current meters had the capability to track your water usage, so how does that work? Is there a fee and who is paying for it? And do you know when you are going to have the FY26 paving list? The communication lately has been phenomenal. Duhamel – There is a fee for the app that the city is paying. It is $2300 for water and the same for sewer. And we are waiting for new road evaluation and some updates on water/sewer work. Once we have that, we will put together the FY26 paving list. Harvey – Is the new app, a smart app that the homeowner can use? Will the new meters use a smart app? Duhamel – Yes. The app that we are currently using is an app that the homeowner can go on and see the usage for their home and the new meters will use a similar app. The name of the company with the app that we are using is Neptune but the new meters are a different brand but they have a similar app but there isn’t a separate charge for it; it would be included. The meters will not require the box on the outside of the house, it is all internal. Stott – In the future, can you share any information on the Franklin St. corridor project and the grant money that was received? Motion to recommend department approval of the engineering budget personnel line item of $123,734 and expenditure line item of $16,000 for department total of $139,734. Seconded by Harvey. Roll call vote – Stott, Harvey, Davis, Merkl. Motion carries 4-0. Merkl – We are moving on to the Water Enterprise Funds for Engineering in section 29, page 616. Duhamel - I’m going to talk about water, sewer and drain, even though I understand that water and sewer are separate. In addition to our regulatory compliance, I think we've already talked about some of that when we're talking about the lead and copper stuff and the annual Statistical Report, which is where the unaccounted for water shows up, and coordination with the city's pump stations. We already talked about the replacement of the pump on Ravina and our storage tanks. I wanted to highlight a few projects, and I wanted to mention as Councilor Morsillo had mentioned, these projects are predominantly driven by Giovanna, in the engineering department. She is the water/sewer engineer, and there's a substantial amount of coordination that goes along with DPS. As we were discussing earlier these 2 departments, it's hard to necessarily separate them completely, but I wanted to mention some of the recent projects. They include drain repairs on Loring Ave near Fantasy Island. There had been a persistent ponding issue there that was funded in FY24 Capital improvement. There were challenges there because it is a MassDOT road. There was some permitting, etc. associated with that, but that has been completed. We've completed some projects using ARPA funding, including drain improvements. There was a siphon on the drain near the police station that has been repaired. We've done improvements on several streets. There's been sewer improvements at Essex Street and Summer Street. We've done water main replacement on in several areas. We recently completed some valve replacement work at Highland, Ave. and Willson. Additionally, we've completed sewer repairs on Broad Street and Flint. We replaced a section of water main on Raymond Road. We completed sewer lining. We are working on sever lining throughout the city. We're continuing to work with MEMA to obtain a grant for the relocation of the exposed sewer at the end of Willow Ave. to move that under the street, and we are continuing to work on the design and permitting of the Ocean Ave. Stormwater Pump Station. We've had a couple of challenges relative to plumbing code changes that require us to install a bathroom and coordinating with the project to meet the zoning ordinance. We're trying to estimate water use at the city parks because a lot of those aren't currently metered. We are trying to figure out how to track that better. Cohen, Morsillo and Stott agree that the communication from engineering has improved but they want better communication from all city departments and Morsillo suggested that current projects be listed on the website for easy access. Duhamel agrees and says her staff is working on something similar. Stott - Motion to approve the engineering water enterprise personnel funds in the amount of $225,310, expenditures in the amount of $935,404 for a department total of $1,160,714. Seconded by Harvey. Roll call vote – Stott, Harvey, Davis and Merkl. Motion carries 4-0. Merkl – Next, we are going to Sewer Enterprise Funds for Engineering in section 28, page 595.