Beverly Council Approves Naloxone Grant, Retirement COLA Hike, and Solicitor Expansion

BEVERLY — September 13, 2021 — Beverly City Council unanimously approved a retirement COLA base increase, a naloxone grant acceptance, and a conversion of a part-time solicitor role to full-time at its September 13 meeting. The council voted 9-0 to raise the base amount used to calculate cost-of-living adjustments for the city's 482 retirees from $12,000 to $13,000 effective July 1, 2022, a change the Beverly Contributory Retirement Board had sought twice before without success; Finance Director Brian Ailes and Budget Analyst Jerry Perry both endorsed the move, citing an estimated improvement in the system's funding ratio from 61 percent to above 70 percent, though Perry warned any future increase must await independent PERAC verification that the ratio has reached 75 percent. The council also accepted a $10,000 state Department of Public Health naloxone grant — the first of two installments totaling $20,000 — and approved converting a vacant 25-hour assistant solicitor post to a 35-hour full-time position, with City Solicitor Lisa Williams estimating Assistant Solicitor David Dole's in-house labor work had saved the city roughly $90,000 in outside counsel costs. A vote on formally accepting $12,606,097 in American Rescue Plan Act funds was held to the September 28 meeting at Councilor Tom Copeland's request, with a public input session on ARPA priorities scheduled for the following evening.