ORDER-2022-69 : Permanent consolidation of polling locations to the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School Gymnasium Complex for all City of Melrose elections. (Item # 9605)

Transcript (~17 min @ 1:51:30)

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▶ 1:51:22 Christopher Cinella: 11 yes. Okay, and now to our agenda this evening.

▶ 1:51:32 Jen Grigoraitis: 2022-69 Councilor Garitas? Order 2022-69, permanent consolidation of polling locations to the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School gymnasium complex for all city of melrose elections item number 9605 this comes from the appropriations and oversight committee with a recommendation for ought not to pass so at this time i would motion

▶ 1:51:57 Christopher Cinella: for ought not to pass motion made for not to pass order 2022-69 second second by counselor stewart

▶ 1:52:14 Robb Stewart: it clear on discussion council stewart thank you mr president um there is an email that came out uh earlier today by mr james bennett um i would like to make a motion to attach uh this to the order it's in regards to a um some feedback on this particular order yeah we can um we have a

▶ 1:52:33 Christopher Cinella: Motion before us right now, we can add that after. Okay.

▶ 1:52:40 Speaker 2: All right.

▶ 1:52:41 Jen Grigoraitis: Sorry, just on discussion of that, I believe, as part of our rules, all. Communication from residents is attached to orders automatically. I don't think we have the motion to attach it. That is correct.

▶ 1:52:56 Christopher Cinella: All right on discussion and I saw. Councilor Karamcheti. Did I miss anybody else?

▶ 1:53:05 Christopher Cinella: So, Kelly, and then Williams,

▶ 1:53:09 Speaker 2: Bremski, and Eccles. Councilor Karamcheti.

▶ 1:53:18 Manjula Karamcheti: Thank you for the opportunity for the discussions. As someone who is newer to the City Councilor role, last week when we met I felt like I didn't have the information and data that I really was looking for in terms of informing my vote. I have been able since to get some information and data from the city clerk's office in regards to information regarding our elections and attendance. also was able to learn more about the accessibility issues at some of our elementary schools, and also have been able to speak with some historically marginalized Melroseans. And based on that, I'm just really looking for some more time with this order and seeing how we might revisit some of the complexities of polling and consolidating.

▶ 1:54:33 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you, Mr. President, just to build on what counselor said in the absence of, or in the need for more information, I have concerns about taking a final vote on this tonight. If we take a final vote on this tonight, the, the ability to change the polling locations is we can't do anything about it for 6 months. And that leaves us in a position of reverting to our, the old polling locations in which we know of at least 2 instances in which they're not handicapped accessible. Um, this, this to me is problematic and so I don't really think that the, you know, the choice in front of us right now is voting to consolidate to the middle school. Reverting back to the old model, and I don't think the old model is sustainable. And I don't want to wait another 6 months to address that as this would bring 6 months would bring us to, you know, sometime after right around the September primary. And then with the November election, we wouldn't have time to, you know, as quick as we might think we are. I don't think that this body is capable of pulling that together a whole new proposal in time for the November election. And I'm just very hesitant to take a final vote. I voted in favor of consolidation. I'm open to having further discussion. I do not agree with ending this motion right now and having us have to wait and take it up at least six months or after that. Thank you.

▶ 1:56:10 Ryan Williams: Councilor Williams? Thanks very much. So, much like Councilor Karamcheti, I, being a little new to the Council, wasn't present for the original series of discussions we had on this. Having passed through that vote in committee, I have been in discussion with a few more folks. I've done some of my own analysis on coverage that the poll consolidation effort would provide to the City. Um, I don't know if can I share a screen. Here is that a thing I can do? No. Okay, um, well, I, I did a little walk shed analysis. And I found that I would say under the consolidation effort, probably about 50% of the surface area of the city is covered. under a single poll within a 20 to 25 minute walk. If you think about the infrastructure that we have at City Hall in terms of the ballot box, in terms of an office where people can stop in and get advice on how to do mail-in voting, that provides coverage to actually almost all of the city as well within a 20 to 25 minute walk. I had some conversations with people at the legislature where they showed me that the proposal that's currently being considered includes the same kind of um push ballot where the state will mail ballots out to people rather than asking them to request ballots from the city i'm hopeful that that um i'm hopeful that that remains in there as well and so i you know since the committee the new information that's been provided to me makes me feel a little bit better on balance that the pros of this proposal outweigh the cons. Like my colleagues, I'm always open to more discussion, more information. However, I would not want to put us in a position that jeopardizes future elections through indecision. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Obremski.

▶ 1:58:14 Speaker 9: Thank you. I voted against consolidation and, you know, as somebody who works in schools and somebody who's worked in schools for quite a long time now it really is the greatest civics lessons you can give the children is to see voting happening in the schools it is an amazing day it's should be a day that's celebrated in elementary schools and for many years it has been you know bake sales and all the other nonsense that goes around it i know that people brought up issues of security um it's probably the six it's probably the safest place on election day you have police offices there i know the issues of coreys were brought up um in accessibility to schools um i just i want to point out to everybody just so they understand how how the corey system works for public schools the corey is set up for a volunteer it's not set up for access to the school so if there's an event in the school such as a play or let's say like a morning meeting where all of the parents come in like or all all caregivers come in not necessarily everybody in

▶ 1:59:35 Speaker 9: that group is quarried either um i i just i i really feel strongly about this that um the idea that we would pull polling out of the elementary schools where children can't see it is a mistake and it's it it's it's we're missing a lesson it's and um i think it's an important aspect of how we vote parents take their kids to voting uh when it's in the elementary school and it encourages kids to vote later that's what kids kids remember election day and they remember it because of the bake sales and all the nonsense that goes around with it but they also remember that um you know my parent took me to vote on this day um you know we make the effort to um vote together it's i i think it's great for the neighborhoods and that's really why i voted against consolidation um and i

▶ 2:00:37 Jack Eccles: will again thank you echoes thank you as president um since it seems like we likely uh won't have we'll have more discussion on this. I will avoid restating why I'm in favor of consolidation. If people need more time, I'm totally happy to vote to allow that. I'll just say six months feels like a long time, but as we've heard quite a few times, planning an election is a pretty complicated process, so I would just caution that we don't have forever to to kick this around um so i'm i think that you know if we end up saying this back to committee and discussing it further i think that's fine um i do have concerns about it you know lasting longer than it needs to um but i think that if people need more time that is totally reasonable so i'm i'm happy to support that counselor i've constantly already missed

▶ 2:01:31 Christopher Cinella: anybody else can go up or also mcmaster after okay that's over your eyes thank you mr president um

▶ 2:01:40 Jen Grigoraitis: i agree i i would like i don't feel comfortable with the dichotomy that is before us partly because um the windrup school which is the polling location for six two and four two was deemed inaccessible from an ada perspective by the secretary of state's office and while i think there have been possible fixes for that discuss none of those have been presented to this body as definitive so if we revert back to the way it was before it is unclear to me that we are able to make that a legally accessible polling location for those residents um i agree with the importance of civics and schools i think that applies k through 12 so whether people vote in an elementary school or middle school or high school i think it's a great lesson i will underscore that not everyone in milrose votes in a school both um 6141 we vote at city hall i take my kids to vote with me um so i just want to be mindful that when we talk about the schools that is not where all of our polling locations are located and also part of board one currently votes at the steel house and there were issues raised there as well so i don't think we can just make the decision that's before us tonight or walk away from it i think there are unresolved issues that were raised by the secretary of state's office that we have a legal ethical and moral obligation to address and not just hope that they can be addressed i do just want to underscore we have a state primary scheduled in september where we'll elect a governor you know candidates for governor and all of our state offices that primary i believe will occur on a day when school is in session our election day is historically a day when schools are closed um so there are many factors we need to consider but i want to make sure we make a decision in a timely manner so that the city clerk's office and dpw and the police department and all of those folks can come up with an effective plan that makes voting accessible for everyone so i too would be in favor of having more time to really understand what are the options before us particularly as

▶ 2:03:47 Shawn M. MacMaster: it relates to the winthrop school councilman mcmaster thank you mr president i think we have two options before us tonight we can either as a full council vote this up or down or if Councilor Grigoraitis is going to withdraw her motion and whoever seconded can you hear me I'm having a little trouble hearing but I could just restate what you're saying someone wants if Councilor Grigoraitis wanted to withdraw her motion that this ought not pass and whoever made the second withdrew the second um then what we could do if the if somebody wanted to move to uh remand this to committee we could send it back to committee um what i would just caution us is to counselor echo's point is that six months will be here before we know it and i do think that we should make a recommendation uh as a council um that the board of registrar and the city clerk perhaps come up with some recommendations that we can consider. I'm not sure we need to formally make that request. Perhaps that could be done through the President if he agrees with that, or we could file an order asking that the Board of Registrar and or the city clerk come up with some recommendations. I am not against the idea of consolidation. I just want to know that we've taken some steps to mitigate uh the the chances that we're going to leave people behind but without without knowing uh what uh what we might be able to do to mitigate uh those chances i'm just not ready to vote to support it but i have no problem uh with us having some more time so uh thank you mr president

▶ 2:05:32 Mark Garipay: thank you um i've been pretty uh vocal about um not consolidating and it's not that i don't disagree that it's more efficient. My concerns are more around the size of the middle school and the size of the parking lot. I probably could support holding it in committee to look at maybe a couple, maybe going with a couple different voting locations as a plan, but one consolidated one, I don't think, I just don't think the middle school or the parking lot is big enough, but I think we may be able to come up with a plan that works for everyone that is probably a little bit more efficient, maybe a couple polling locations instead of the multiple ones that we have. I just struggle with the middle school and the parking lot and the accessibility with the hill. So, yeah, I, I, I necessarily wouldn't be opposed to, uh, hold on this tonight.

▶ 2:06:38 Speaker 2: Sending it back to committees, do it.

▶ 2:06:48 Jen Grigoraitis: Excuse me, Councilor Greger, I understand Councilor Stewart. Sorry. I just, I just, I feel like I've now represented what was the will of the Appropriations and Oversight Committee and I'm happy to withdraw that motion.

▶ 2:06:56 Christopher Cinella: So you're withdrawing your motion.

▶ 2:07:02 Robb Stewart: Councilor Stewart, I will withdraw my 2nd.

▶ 2:07:05 Speaker 2: All right, and Councilor.

▶ 2:07:09 Jen Grigoraitis: I would make a motion to remand order 2022 dash 69 to the appropriations and oversight committee.

▶ 2:07:15 Christopher Cinella: Okay, thank you. She made to remand this order back to committee a, by Councilor to write a 2nd about any other discussion around this. Seeing none, Madam clerk, please call the roll.

▶ 2:07:31 Speaker 8: Councilor Eccles. Yes. Councilor Garipay.

▶ 2:07:33 Speaker 2: Yes. Councilor Grigoraitis.

▶ 2:07:37 Speaker 8: Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. Councilor Karamcheti. Yes. Councilor McMaster.

▶ 2:07:48 Speaker 8: Yes. Councilor Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Obremski.

▶ 2:07:55 Speaker 2: Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes.

▶ 2:07:56 Speaker 8: Councilor Williams? Yes. President Sinella?

▶ 2:08:00 Speaker 2: 11 yes. Okay, next up, Councilor Grigoraitis.