Public Comment

Transcript (~4 min @ 16:35)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 16:31 Christopher Cinella: without reading and seeing no objection our minutes are now approved and without objection like to open up for public comment seeing no objection public comment is now open if you could please have a seat and state your name for the

▶ 16:48 Speaker 5: record good evening my name is James Bennett I live at 45 Wentworth Road good evening president Sinella and counselors I thank you for your service and your willingness to hear my comments tonight. I am here to make a request that I never would have imagined making just two days ago and it pains me to do it now. I am requesting that you place a hold on sending to committee the orders for appointment of three candidates to the Historical Commission who are on the agenda tonight. I should say at the outset that this has nothing to do with the character or qualifications of the three people under consideration. They They may well be the three people who should be on the Commission, and if that is the case, I will be overjoyed in the end to see them appointed. Rather, I am here tonight to object to the process, or lack thereof, that has brought us to this point. Thanks to the order filed by Councilors Grigoraitis and Migliorelli some time ago, this Council is now quite aware of the surprising number of Board and Commission members who have served long after their terms have expired. Thanks to testimony from Director Fleischman, Clerk Foote, and Clerk Gobriel last week, You are also aware that the city does not have a process in place to advertise openings on boards and commissions. As a result of the councilor's order, the historical commission, on which I do not serve but with whom I have a very close working relationship, recently learned that it has a significant membership deficit. At the moment, the seven-member commission is down to just two or three members, depending on who you ask, serving their legally appointed terms in office, and it cannot form a quorum. Facing this dire situation, the commission took the initiative to advertise its openings over social media, in the Melrose Weekly News, and through a sign placed in the library. The commission had begun to review applications received through this work when it learned that the mayor, who was fully aware of that ongoing process, had selected his own candidates without consulting anyone on the commission itself. In fact, no one on the commission was even aware that nominations were being made tonight. the city code as it is currently written. The mayor is free to follow whatever process he would like to appoint candidates for boards and commissions. So it is important for me to tell this council that this has not always been the case here in Melrose. I was appointed to the historical commission in 2012 after I responded to an advertisement in the Melrose Free Press. I submitted a resume and a statement of interest and was interviewed by that commission. I later learned that they then ranked the candidates and established two tiers of membership. Two of us were nominated to be full appointed members and were subsequently interviewed by Mayor Rob Dolan and then were appointed by this council, then the Board of Aldermen. Other candidates who were not ranked as highly were not turned away. They instead became associate non-voting members who acted as a pool of talent from whom to draw future appointed members, which did in fact happen. This was a wonderfully collaborative system that respected the expertise and professional judgments of that commission and worked well for years. And just as an aside, I should mention that we just had Brigid Alverson here. She went through a similar process. That is a partisan appointment in case the public isn't aware. I, in my capacity as chair of the Democratic City Committee, sent out notice of that appointment. I received applications. That committee voted on it, and then we got the wonderful result you see here tonight. So in that case, that's actually how it worked. All that I am requesting here tonight is that the City Council hit pause on these nominations so that the Historical Commission and other boards and commissions in concert with this City Council can work out a modus vivendi with the Mayor and establish a procedure for appointments that is collaborative, professional, open and respects principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. more in keeping with the process that introduced me to service in city government 10 years ago for these reasons i ask that these nominations be held for 45 days thank you thank you mr bennett

▶ 20:46 Christopher Cinella: no one else in the audience do we have anybody online there is no one online mr president

▶ 20:52 Christopher Cinella: really all right without objection we will close public comment and public comment is now closed we do not have any public hearings this evening but we do have some new business