ORDER-2022-38 : Appointment of Alicia McNeil, 490 Lebanon St., to the Melrose Commission on Women for a three-year term; said term to end on the last day of February 2024.

Transcript (~13 min @ 2:00)

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▶ 1:58 Maya Jamaleddine: and public comment is now closed. Just I would like to mention that we have Councilor Eccles joining us now. And we have before us Order 2022-38, Appointment of Elisha McNeil, 490 Lebanon Street, to the Mayor's Commission on Women for a three-year term, set term to end on the last day of February 2024. And this order is offered by Mayor Broder.

▶ 2:36 Maya Jamaleddine: Do we have Mayor Broder and Mrs. McNeil?

▶ 2:45 Speaker 1: Yes, suspend the rules.

▶ 2:48 Speaker 3: I would like to suspend the rules.

▶ 2:51 Maya Jamaleddine: I just want to make sure that we have them.

▶ 2:59 Speaker 1: Chair, I'll make a motion to suspend the rules.

▶ 3:03 Maya Jamaleddine: Second. Motion to suspend the rules made by Councillor Stewart, seconded by Vice-Chair McDiarelli.

▶ 3:13 Speaker 1: Secular. Chair Jamaleddine?

▶ 3:14 Speaker 2: Yes. Vice Chair Migliorelli?

▶ 3:21 Speaker 1: Yes. Councillor Eccles? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Thomas? Yes.

▶ 3:36 Speaker 1: And President Sinella? President Sinella? Yes.

▶ 3:40 Speaker 3: So we have six yes. Okay, the rules are now suspended.

▶ 3:53 Paul Brodeur: Good evening, Mr. Mayor Brother. Good evening, everyone. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to be with you again this evening and to bring two outstanding nominees forward for your consideration. The first is Alicia McNeil. I actually first learned about Ms. McNeil's interest in helping out in the City when we started talking about diversity, equity and inclusion. And in there was certainly a great deal of interest in that, and there continues to be, and we're excited about the work we're doing. That the Commission on Women is down a few members and in talking to the members and talking to Ms. McNeil, very excited to put her name before you for consideration. She is an attorney of over 20 years. uh i know she's a good one because she went to suffolk university law school and graduated a couple years after me uh to her credit she stuck with the practice where i'm you've heard me say i'm a recovering lawyer uh in the past um she's also a parent and um that served if memory serves in the pto with norris high school but also um between her professional qualification and her commitment to the community, particularly recognizing, as you'll see from her cover letter, the need to lift up women and girls and to give them the confidence to self-advocate in what can sometimes be a challenging society. I look forward to your questions for her. I know So, Ms. Grigoraitis knows she's a proud resident of Ward 6, and with that, I will turn it over to Ms. McNeil for her comments, and I think you'll find her to be an outstanding candidate.

▶ 5:46 Speaker 4: Thank you, Mayor. I'm sorry I had trouble getting on at the beginning, but I am here, and I am excited actually to be before this committee today. When I first moved to Melrose, I was on the Human Rights Commission and I served two terms on the Human Rights Commission and enjoyed doing that. After that, my daughter was in school and I got consumed with that and got on the PTO and then life just happened and I really wasn't involved in Melrose for a while. Subsequently, I started looking around, particularly around COVID time, when things started, you know, slowing down, I started looking around to see what, how I could get more involved into the community. And I did send the mayor my resume and a cover letter for the inclusion committee, and I was not accepted to that committee, which turned out to be a benefit because now this committee has come up and I'm very interested in women's rights. I feel that women, you know, we're a unique human being and we have different issues than men have. And I feel that with my background also in mentoring and teaching that I would be a great addition to this committee. One of the last things that I'll say is after submitting my resume, I ended up getting a position, part-time position in Malden in the City Solicitor's Office. So I do work part-time for the City of Malden. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

▶ 7:38 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you, Mrs. McNeil. Any counselor would like to ask any questions?

▶ 7:47 Speaker 3: Counselor McGeary.

▶ 7:51 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you, Madam Chair. Sharon, thank you, Ms. McNeil for joining us tonight. Just curious, I know that you had mentioned that you had worked with mentoring young women and women of various ages and things like that. So I wonder if you could tell a little bit about your experience with that with the committee and what you hope to accomplish as being part of the Commission on Women.

▶ 8:11 Speaker 4: Sure, so during my entire adult life, women were just, particularly younger women, were attracted to me and in the church that I attended growing up I mentored many young women and after that when I started teaching the same thing happened I became friendly with some of my I let me just back up and say I taught adult learners and so I became friendly with some of those adult learners and one in particular that I'd like to highlight is a woman who was in my business law class she had some issues she started writing a book and i was able to mentor her through that process she's older than i am however she always says that i mentor her and some of the things that i do in mentoring women that i would like to implement with this committee is doing a vision board every year a group of us get together me and my mentees and other people we get together we do a vision board where we look to see where we're going to be in a year from that day whether it be january or the end of the year and along the way quarterly we get together and we basically as a marker figure out where we are how we can get to where we're going and that has been really effective and i think that would be something that would be helpful for the city and the women's committee thank you thank you um i do actually

▶ 9:53 Maya Jamaleddine: have a question for you uh you mentioned about um some of the rights that you feel that um are very important for the women and you wanted to um bring it you know in our uh community what is one of the think that you would like to work on and you feel that it's not the women's are not getting their

▶ 10:19 Speaker 4: rights one of the things that um is important to me is health care for women i feel that um health care is really important and as a woman and a woman of color i honestly believe that health care is not the same and uh for women or women of color and i would like to try to bring some equity in that area so that women know that they have a voice in terms of their health care that they don't have to just listen to what one person says if they're not satisfied they know how their body feels they can go to maybe get a second opinion but health

▶ 10:59 Speaker 3: care is something that is important to me right and how about on um local level um

▶ 11:10 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, what can you expand upon what you mean? My, my question was, you know, on a health care, it's I feel that it's it's a national level, which I would support anytime, you know, with any effort that we can bring it on. But on a local level, what is the main thing that you feel that we can work on to improve women's rights in our community?

▶ 11:36 Speaker 4: Well, one of the things is, I guess it's still a major issue, but another thing that really is important to me is bullying. And that can be either for young women or older women. And for older women, it's more like a confidence issue. So I really would like to build the confidence in young and older women so that they know that their voices, again, can be heard, that they don't have to cower to bullies and that they can stand up for themselves and I hope I answered your question I feel that's a national issue as well but I think it is it is

▶ 12:13 Maya Jamaleddine: but definitely something that we can work together and you know on an in our community and a local level you know we have MAVE we have the commission on women and you can extend it to us anyone would love to work with you on improving that. Definitely. So thank you so much for putting your name forward and for service in advance. Anyone else would like to ask any question? Councilor

▶ 12:49 Speaker 3: Grigoraitis?

▶ 12:51 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Chair Jamaleddine, and thank you, Ms. McNeil, for being here tonight and Mayor Broder for putting such a stellar Ward 6 candidate before us. I am not a voting member of this committee but i had the opportunity to speak with ms mcneil a few weeks ago and i'm really excited for the depth of expertise and passion that i think she'll bring to this commission and i'm really pleased to see a nominee who's going to help um have our boards and commissions be more reflective of what our community looks like i think we all know that we still have a long way to go on that so i'm thrilled to have you here and really look forward to seeing your work on

▶ 13:35 Cory Thomas: On the commission Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Chair. Jamal. Dean. Mr. McNeil welcomes the mayor. Welcome. Thank you again for putting. Such a qualified, passionate candidate that will bring nothing but good. I'm sure the Melrose community. Thank you for volunteering and make a motion to recommend for passage.

▶ 13:55 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Second, we have a motion made by counselor Thomas, seconded by counselor echoes. Mr. Clerk? Chair Gimaldi?

▶ 14:06 Speaker 1: Yes. Vice Chair Migliorelli?

▶ 14:11 Speaker 1: Yes. Councillor Eccles? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Thomas? Yes. And President Cinella? Yes. That's six yes.

▶ 14:28 Maya Jamaleddine: Congratulations now, your, your nomination will go into full console. You know, and to not this time, the following time, the following meetings, and we'll let, you know, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Mayor.