Public Comment

Transcript (~5 min @ 2:20)

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

▶ 2:19 Christopher Cinella: meeting objections without objection i'd like to open the floor for public comment

▶ 2:24 Speaker 2: got a couple people that wish to speak this evening okay um colonel driscoll has notified us that he wishes to speak so i'm going to try and unmute him now colonel driscoll can you hear us

▶ 2:37 Speaker 4: i can hear you can you hear me yes yes everybody yes

▶ 2:44 Speaker 4: okay thank you good evening my name is bob driscoll i live at 33 thurston road in melrose i am a melrose firefighter and the secretary treasurer of local 1617 for the past 14 years the contract you'll be voting to fund is very simple included are two items negotiated for the city and two items negotiated for our members. The two items for our members were requested at the first bargaining session 18 months ago. They are items the city had already given to other city bargaining units. The fact it took 18 months and a week away from an arbitration hearing to agree to these terms is not lost on our members. The past 19 months battling COVID has been challenging and difficult for our membership. When a COVID positive citizen needs to go to the hospital, we are the ones who provide the initial care and take them to the emergency room. Many of our members themselves have become COVID positive carrying out their duties. Yet every day, every call, the members of Local 1617 have been there for the citizens of Melrose. The 8.2 million federal dollars provided to the City via the American Rescue Plan spells out how the City may spend the money. One of the options is an allowance of premium pay for first responders. The City has informed us they would not be doing such. This also is not lost on our members. For too many years, the members of Local 1617 have lived in decrepit and dilapidated firehouses. I have taken many of you on the council on tours of our facilities. This past summer, one of the hottest on record, we did not have air conditioning for the better part of a month. While we support the construction of a new library, nothing has been done to the houses we live in 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Until recently, a new committee was announced the day before the library funding vote. This also is not lost on our members. I hope you support this fair contract and I hope the city soon comes to realization that their employees are their greatest asset. I thank you for

▶ 5:15 Speaker 2: your time. Thank you. We do have Mr. McSweeney. I'm going to make him unmute him now. Mr. McSweeney can you hear us? Hi everybody.

▶ 5:21 Speaker 5: I'm Mr. McSweeney, 160 West Wyoming Avenue. I just wanted to very briefly speak tonight on order 2022-41, which is the Signs and Lines program. I know a lot of these grants often get immediate consideration. So on behalf of the Ped Bike Committee, just wanted to thank Councilor McMaster for his advocacy on behalf of this grant for the Lincoln School and to say that we support it. It's a small amount of money and it's not gonna be transformative for street safety at the Lincoln School, but it's great for our city to participate in this grant program when the state offers it. In particular, I thought that Councilman McMaster's work, I thought that Councilman McMaster's work, you know, a couple of years ago at this point, he put together a parent community survey to collect feedback from the Lincoln School community on what they saw as challenges and opportunities around street safety. at the Lincoln School. He spoke with multiple members of our committee about feedback on that survey, trying to solicit our ideas. He did the same thing. He heard of this grant opportunity, which was recently presented by Judy Crocker, who is our city's Safe Routes rep at the school committee. So I think it's just a great example of community collaboration between elected officials, School communities advocates, and we just wanted to fake counselor master for his efforts and to say that we support the great. Thank you.

▶ 7:04 Christopher Cinella: Thank you anybody else.