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 _May 20, 2026______________ at ______6:00_______P.M. for the purpose of discussing the matters(s) listed below. Notice of this meeting was posted on ___ May 7, 2026 __ at ___ 3:08 P.M.__________________ (This meeting is being recorded) ATTENDANCE A&F – Davis (Chair), King, Sydoriak, Turowski. COW – Prosniewski, Merkl and Hapworth. From the city – Mayor Pangallo, James LeBlanc, Finance Director, David Greenbaum, Health Agent, ABSENT WERE: A&F – Flynn. COW – Smith, Varela, Holappa. SUBJECT(S) FY27 Operating Budget Meetings & Capital Improvement Plans for the following departments: __________________________ Harbor Master___________________________________________________________________________________________ Police Department________________________________________________________________________________________ Health__________________________________________________________________________________________________ Capital Improvement Plans_________________________________________________________________________________ Davis - This is the second of our Administration and Finance Committee hearings for our fiscal year 2027 budget. These meetings will run through mid-June. The agendas are posted on the city calendar. The entire proposed budget, as well as the budget in brief, is posted on the city website under the Finance Department. The latter includes an overview of budget priorities, timelines, revenue sources, and where our money goes. In these budget meetings, we'll take a deep dive into what our city departments do and their vision going forward. I encourage members of the public to email questions regarding the budget hearings to kdavis@salem.com, as well as questions to all of us on the Council at citycounselors@salem.com. We're going to start out of order with the Health Department. This is on tab 16. The budget summary is on page 463, and we'll welcome Dave Greenbaum. Greenbaum – There aren’t many changes except for one position that was added. That position is currently grant funded and is going from the grant line to the full-time positions line. Otherwise, the only increases are for approved cost of living and contractual increases. Turowski – Is the position that you referred to the code enforcement officer? That position has been very helpful. Greenbaum – Yes, the code enforcement officer has been doing certificates of fitness to get people to comply with the ordinance and put them on a 3-year cycle. Turowski – Does that position cover the short-term rentals? I think that is very important now that we are looking at the registry, we need to be sure that those rentals are safe. The other thing that you do that is helpful are the vaccine clinics. We saw a lot of influenza in the Point Neighborhood, and a lot of those residents were able to get a vaccine from the health clinic on Congress St. Greenbaum – No. We have other staff that handles the short-term rentals. Merkl – Could you elaborate on the contracted services and the objectives for the opioid settlement funds? Greenbaum- The contracted service is a line item in the budget that we use for a variety of things. Some of them are around Title V (septic systems), which we don't have a great deal of in the city. We don't have a lot of expertise, so if we have a system that comes into the city, we generally hire somebody to review that system for us. That would be a contracted service that we would use that for. The pool that we have coming in, for instance, at Salem State, if it's an elaborate pool that we don't have the ability to look at some of the intricacies around the filtration and things of that nature, we may bring somebody in to give us a second look for us and Mack Park farm is also covered under the contracted services. Regarding Opioid use, we have a few grants that we are involved in. We don't hold them specifically, but we're in collaboration with the City of Lynn, the towns of Swampscott and Marblehead, and Salem, for youth prevention. We collaborate with them. We're working on a program currently called Positive Community Norms with those communities. How do we present data in a more positive light, so it's not always telling people that drugs are bad, or drinking is bad. How do we show that the data shows that 85% of the youth don't drink, how do we present that to the community more positively, as opposed to saying, just don't do it? Those are some of the things we're doing. When it comes to the opioid settlement funds, we did the community engagement last year and we're working on creating a task force that came out of that community engagement. We hope to have that by the beginning of the fiscal year, so that we can start meeting in July and August. We have the Narcan boxes downtown that have been up for about a year now, a little over a year, and they've received a lot of positive feedback around that. King – Who are the members of the task force that you are working with? Greenbaum – We are engaging different communities, the hospital, community health partners, Lifebridge. We are looking to work with members of the community who have lived or are living with experience, because we would like their feedback on how the funds should be spent. The task force should be up and running in July 2026. King – Can you tell us what is included in the trash complaints that you want more education on? Would it make sense to put more garbage cans around town? Greenbaum – We get complaints through SeeClickFix which are mostly regarding litter and illegal dumping. Harmony Grove is a hot spot right now for those complaints. As for garbage cans, it would depend on where they are and who is responsible for them. King – There was an uptick in permits issued and certificates of fitness. Is that because you have the code enforcement officer now? Are you just getting through the backlog? Greenbaum – Yes, he has been working with us for 2 years. He is not getting through the backlog, he started at the beginning of the alphabet of street listings and worked his way through. He sent out 5,000 – 6,000 letters and got responses from about 1/3. Now that he is through it once, he will go back and send a second notice to those that did not reply. We are giving everyone 2 notices and if they don’t reply, then we will issue a fine and we will work with the legal department on the best way to do that. Sydoriak – I see trash bags hanging up at Riley Plaza. Is that a city effort? Greenbaum – I am not aware of any complaints received by the health department regarding trash bags being hung in Riley Plaza. If it is on city property, then we would be responsible for cleaning that up. Sydoriak – I would imagine that there is intent when it comes to dumping. I don’t think education will help with that. Is there anything else that you are doing to combat that? Do you collaborate with other departments? Greenbaum – We would collaborate with the police department. If we can identify the offender, then we will act against that person. If it is private property, then we deal with the property owner. If we have a hot spot, then we put signage up and video cameras. Sydoriak – How much is Salem contributing towards the youth substance use project? Greenbaum – It is a youth prevention grant that is 100% funded by the department of public health. No community benefits financially or contributes. King – Motion to recommend approval of the Health Department personnel budget in the amount of $745,767. Seconded by Sydoriak. Motion carries 4-0. Motion of the Health Dept. expenditures budget in the amount of $127,139. Seconded by Sydoriak. Motion carries 4-0. Davis – That is a department total of $872,906. Moving on to the Harbormaster in tab 14, with summary on page 439. McHugh - No major changes to the budget for fiscal year 2027. I did move some money around several years ago regarding fuel. The big variables in my budget are when I start the routine patrols. We're going right through October and into November. The season is pretty much a given that it's going to last past Halloween in Salem. It's when we start the season that changes from year to year. Memorial Day is early this year, and obviously the weather has brought everybody out onto the water, or as many people that could get their boats commissioned in time. The personnel that are put on watch at different times is dependent largely on weather. We have had no changes in FTEs. We are looking to get some more part-time help, but that is a challenge, due to the qualifications necessary to operate a boat and stay compliant with Mass General Law. We have good equipment, thanks to the participation in federal grant programs, as well as the Harbormaster Winter Storage Revolving Account. That alleviates a lot of pressure on the general fund. Turowski – There was a significant fire in Pickering Wharf last year. Do you know what the financial impact was on the city for the incident? McHugh – The fire chief would be better to answer that question. The waterway was completely frozen. We couldn't get a vessel up there, or that vessel out for about a month. It was fortunate there were no injuries because there was nobody aboard, but the exact dollar amount would be better placed with the fire chief. The removal of the vessel, including any of the cleanup, was covered by the vessel's insurance. All the vessels are required to have insurance, so the city only paid for the emergency response. Turowski – Do we have a mutual aid Coast Guard affiliated scuba response unit? McHugh - The Salem Police Underwater Search and Recovery Team is the NEMLEC dive team. We have done work for the Coast Guard, but it's not responding or doing mutual aid for the Coast Guard. My department probably does more mutual aid for the Coast Guard on day-to-day operations, just because we are underway. The Coast Guard has more of an administrative posture, and they do have response vessels, but the closest station to us is Station Gloucester. We are usually underway during the season. Sydoriak – Do you anticipate any additional costs or need for resources when the wind farm comes online? McHugh - The wind terminal is under the purview of the Salem Harbor Port Authority. In my budget, there is a section in there for a stipend for me to serve as Port Director. We routinely, whether it's to do with that port, any large vessel, arrival and departure, we have always escorted, so that's reflected already in the budget. However, the Salem Harbor Port Authority adopted a harbor usage fee for vessels that come in, that do not already pay for waterway services. All your recreational boaters, anybody that's tying up to the commercial marina, they already pay a fee. We've captured some additional monies in a harbor usage fee, specifically for the offshore wind terminal, and that's held with the Port Authority. King – Motion to recommend the approval of the Harbormaster personnel budget in the amount of $414,000 and seconded by Sydoriak. Motion carries 4-0. Motion to recommend the approval of the Harbormaster expenditure budget in the amount of $60,299 and seconded by Sydoriak. Motion carries 4-0. Davis – That is a department total of $474,299. We are moving on to the police department on tab 13 with budget summary on page 426. Miller - The financial year 2027 Salem Police Budget represents our best efforts to contain costs and limit increases to what is necessary to maintain, and in some cases, enhance, our share of the responsibility for public safety in our city. We've kept our operations expenses level-funded from last year, actually down $708. We've confined increases to personnel expenses, to contractual obligations, with three exceptions, which I will detail in a minute. Those personnel expenses climbed 3.88%, or $530,429. Those two sections, personnel and operations combined, represent a 3.59% increase, or $529,721. City ordinance specifies a complement of 95 sworn police officers of all ranks, including myself. Right now, the department boasts 91 officers. I have one recruit currently attending the police academy, and another one on deck waiting to go. I also have one officer who has indicated his intention to retire this summer. Two others who are eligible to retire at full benefits. And one who applied for another job. My budget this year includes provisions for hiring 3 more officers over the course of the year. We were fortunate of the last 4 recruits, 2 were transfers from other departments, and they came already academy trained. In thinking about the size of Salem's police department, there's a minimum standard, so we must come when called. When you call the police with an emergency, we need to be able to send an officer right away. We divide Salem into 6 beats, along with the Essex Street corridor. There are 7 or 8 patrol officers on duty, along with a house officer, a patrol supervisor, and a lieutenant in charge, Fielding those officers 3 shifts a day, 7 days a week, with vacation and sick days requires over 60 officers in and of itself. Beyond that, we field detectives, traffic officers, and community impact officers. I also have victim service personnel, administrative personnel, my executive staff, and a training officer. When personnel dip, those extra jobs I just mentioned go unfilled. Those positions are the real problem solvers of the police department. I mentioned earlier 3 increases to my personnel budget that are not contractual. At this point, we have only a part-time animal control officer in Salem. There is more work than one part-time ACO can handle, and I've added a full-time ACO position in addition to the part-time position. The other new hire that I aspire to is our domestic violence coordinator. As I'm sure you know, domestic violence is one of our most vexing problems. It faces both society and us as the police. On the one hand, I believe firmly that the first and most effective way to interrupt domestic violence, as it happens, is an arrest. On the other hand, obviously, the issue goes far beyond the moment the police are called, and we need solutions and support for victims that go beyond a separation of the parties and a short stint in my lockup. To that end, we have a part-time civilian position to act as a criminal justice coordinator, an advocate, and a connector to social services. That position was covered until last year by a grant that's no longer available. The city took over paying it, but I believe it is warranted to convert that position to full-time. Those two positions, the ACO and the DV coordinator represent approximately a $115,000 increase, or 0.08% increase to my overall personnel budget. The third increase is a $1,500 annual stipend, to be awarded to each of the three sergeants who do ancillary duty as internal affairs investigators. I believe that is warranted based on the added responsibility and the importance of those positions. One of the many ways that being police chief in Salem is an excellent job is the robust partnership that I receive from other officials. The DPS director, the fire chief, transportation director, the harbormaster, the health agent and the mayor. In the last 5 years in which I have been chief, I've experienced the same commitment to public safety from the Salem City Council, and I very much look forward to continuing that partnership. Merkl – I think adding a position to assist with domestic violence and a full-time animal control officer are needed and appreciated. Can you update us on Derby’s role (canine officer) now that he has been around for a few years? Miller - I understand Derby remains the most popular member of my department. I should have brought him. It might have, might have soothed you all. But the way in which Derby's role has changed has been specific. Derby had a lot of downtime when his handler was assigned to the Community Impact Unit. And she had other duties that didn't involve Derby, so Derby spent a lot of time at the station, or in some cases, in the vehicle. Because he's been so popular, and I think is so welcome, we shifted his role a little bit, and his handler is now a school resource officer. That downtime that Derby would spend elsewhere, he now spends in the schools. The feedback from the school superintendent has been that both handler and Derby have been welcome additions to the school. That assignment was made with the proviso that he and she, the handler and dog, would still perform community impact functions when they arose. To further answer, where Derby has been a big asset, has been in tragedies in other communities. We have sent Derby as mutual aid, and where there's been some kind of comfort necessary. The other communities are very thankful. King – We are closing the Carlton School, but the crossing guard budget is flat. Is that because we are using those crossing guards at different schools? Miller – Yes, we need more crossing guards. We are limited much less by the budget and more by recruitment. It takes a special kind of person to be a crossing guard, and they are few and far between. King – What software are you planning to use for the remote license plate readers in 2027? And what is the timeline for a decision? Miller – It’s no secret that there has been a lot of objections to the flock plate readers that we are currently using. While I think the readers are particularly effective, I understand the objections to them. We are reviewing at least 4 other companies, but it will come at a cost because we will have to install new equipment. If we install our own equipment, then we would own the data that the readers track. I have a meeting with some concerned community members next week and we will be presenting an audit that was done that will probably satisfy one of the concerns but there are others. The thing that I like about the flock reader is the ubiquity. That has helped us solve a lot of crimes in Salem so I want to preserve that ability as much as I can. If we were to do that and change companies, then the next most popular product is also one that has many community members concerned. So, this is something that will be an ongoing conversation with that group as well as other police departments and my boss. King – What is the increased cost for booking room software? Can you explain the cell phone tracking analysis for $10,000? And what is the analog to digital that went from $0 to $12,000? Miller – The courts in MA have changed the discovery rules. Previously, the video that is done in the booking room wasn’t shared with the court, but now they want to see that video so the upgrade to the software allows us to send that video footage right to the DA’s office. The cell phone software allows us to track a person cell phone which is mostly used when there’s exigent circumstances or a warrant has been obtained. The vast majority is used on missing persons cases. We were doing it piecemeal before or borrowing state police software. The analog to digital is the fiber system to back up the new radio system. Turowski – I agree that we need full time ACO officer in addition to the part time one we currently have. There was a time not so long ago that I felt like I was getting calls about an off-leash dog bite every other week. We have a ton of dog owners and there’s often interactions with wildlife, so I think it is an incredibly important job from a public health perspective because some of these interactions result in treatable injuries. Can you explain what the Base Rate x 9% is on page 428? Miller – That is the AFSCME contract. Turowski – How many members do you have on the dive team? $6,000 seems low to maintain equipment. Do you do some of that work in house? Can you explain what is covered under contracted services? Miller – We recently had a CIP for dive equipment, so that is mostly repairs on the equipment that we have. The contracted services cover a gamut of things, but we hired a contractor to do a property audit this year and next year we are planning to expand that audit to a full inventory so that will probably take up most of that line item. Sydoriak - I know that the police department is moving more towards reliance on technology which I think is a good thing. Can you explain how the data storage and data sharing is eating away at the budget? I am not sure if the cost is shared with the IT department. Miller – Some of the cost is shared by the IT department. There is a constant debate on whether the data that we keep should be kept in house or in the cloud. It’s more secure in house but its more vulnerable. It is more available to officers in the field if it is in the cloud so there is a constant evaluation being done on whether data is best in house or on the cloud. Sydoriak – I know that we are trying to set up the bus arm camera. Will that be handled by a third party and will we have to take on additional data storage and sharing? Miller – We are still working on how to implement the bus arm camera, and no other communities have started it yet either. There are a few that have signed contracts. The questions we have are regarding appeals for motorists. The problem is that the law requires that the police officer be the administrator. He would obtain the video, observe the violation, write the ticket and then adjudicate the ticket if the motorist complains. That isn’t right, because we are the agency that wrote the ticket then another agency should be responsible for appeals and that is the way it is with moving violations, but not with the bus law. The legislature is currently considering a red-light camera law, and my sense is that is more of a complete system working more like a moving violation which I am in favor of. Sydoriak – You have been replacing police cruisers with the capital plan. Some are hybrid and some are electric vehicles. How does the current supply constraints and the geopolitical environment affect your ability to replace those vehicles? Miller – We have been replacing the cruisers mostly with hybrid vehicles, but we do have some electric vehicles too. We did install a level 3 charger and that is the reason for the increase in the electricity budget. I want a mixture of those vehicles so if there is some disaster that prevents us from being able to charge, then we will be in trouble but relying less on fossil fuel is a benefit, so I am trying to keep a balance of both. King – There is data that is kept in house that is not backed up so if there is a fire it will be lost? Miller – It is backed up in house and kept in a separate building but there is some sensitive data that we do not keep on the cloud or back up to the cloud. Davis – Can you walk us through the overall 4.7% increase in the budget? It looks like most of it is personnel. The $1.5 M for overtime is kind of a sticker shock. Is there anything we can do to bring that down? Miller – Most of the increase comes from the contract that we settled last year with the patrolman and supervisors. While it is an expensive contract, it contains an educational stipend increase which I think is good for the officers. Better educated officers perform better, and it rewards the officers that improve their education. That money is being phased in, and I think that is most of the increase. I am okay with the amount of overtime, and it is flat from last year. I think that some overtime is good because even though an officer is working more and getting paid more, we don’t have to hire an additional officer and pay them benefits. The detail work that the officers do does not affect the overtime. There is also a built-in amount in case something terrible happens, like when the Satanic Temple was bombed. We had about $40,000 in overtime so the police officers and detectives could work the case. King – Motion to recommend approval for the police personnel budget in the amount of $14,204,513. Seconded by Sydoriak. Motion carries 4-0. Motion to recommend approval for the police expenditures budget in the amount of $1,081,866. Seconded by Sydoriak. Motion carries 4-0. Davis – The total department budget is $15,286,379. Moving on to the capital improvements budget. King - What is the drone as a first responder? Miller - We received a grant from FEMA to implement a program called Drones as First Responders. The department already has a small drone program, but this would expand it and automate it, where, for instance, an emergency call comes in. That call is geolocated using the department software, and the dispatcher simply presses a button. A drone is launched from a nearby rooftop and hovers over the location of that emergency call, giving us that bird's-eye view that we sometimes get from city cameras, but this would be available to any outdoor incident. King - We've got 3 items. The evidence room upgrade for $150,000 this year, officer locker room replacement for $100,000 this year, and then the general repairs, upgrades for $200,000 this year. I'm just curious if you could talk a little bit about the state of the police building and why those upgrades are needed? Miller - The police department building is adequate for our purposes. It's not the newest building in Salem, but there are those areas which need upgrading, and you mentioned some of them. We're currently working on the HVAC system on the roof. The locker room is sort of a perennial issue. It gets the most wear and tear out of any of the rooms. And then, I mentioned earlier about the evidence audit. Keeping track of the property in our possession is a constant effort, and, where we can use, better software, better hardware, for evidence lockers and evidence storage. It's badly needed. Turowski – Are any of the upgrades going to address energy efficiency measures or energy improvement to the building? Miller - We don't have any currently. We have spoken with Resiliency. We got an estimate on the windows. It was very expensive, but it is like some of my other comments, it is something on our minds, but a lot of those improvements are very expensive. Merkl – Can we get an update on the drones? I know we received a donation, so I am curious about how they are being used. Miller - We have right now two operational drones. One is very small, useful for kind of indoors. The other is larger and has a heat signature camera on it. Specifically for those purposes, you mentioned looking for missing persons, and it was helpful during the brush fires last year. The new system would be slightly different in that it would be more automated, but I know that can be thought of as invasive. These drones can't go anywhere that police officers can't go. Obviously, it has a vantage point up in the air that's a little different from a police officer, but it's not like we could fly these drones in somebody's house that we couldn't already enter. There might be a situation, for instance, in a building that we did need to enter, where we could fly a drone in that would be both less obtrusive than a police officer, but in less jeopardy than a police officer, we might choose to do that. Generally, we don't run audio on it, because that would be considered eavesdropping. Many of the drones do have the ability, so we could turn it on, but we don't run with it on for that reason. Sydoriak - This is more of a comment. I appreciate the opportunity that I've had to be able to tour the police station, and that is extended to everyone. I think it's important to see the conditions of the building, the constraints that the officers are working with, and doing phenomenal work despite that. And understanding the technology that has been able to be embedded at that. The cameras that we're able to tap in is so important, and this will go into the drone piece, but as someone who's worked in first responder work, the most important thing is to have that situational awareness, and to be able to have that before going into it and understanding the threats that are involved, or the safety hazards that has caused the situation, so important for an officer, fire, paramedics that are going into it, and then be able to expand on that with drones, I think is a really incredible opportunity, and I know it can be done safely and securely, and I hope that you're able to get the funding to do that further, so we can ensure that people are safe while we're keeping them safe. On the motion of C. King the meeting adjourned at 7:22 P.M. Kyle Davis__________________MBC (Chairperson)