ORDER-2021-120 : Appointment of Shannon Phillips to serve as City Solicitor for the City of Melrose

Transcript (~9 min @ 3:29)

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▶ 3:31 Jeff McNaught: rules are now suspended and our first order of business is order 2021-120 the appointment of Shannon Phillips to serve as the city solicitor for the city of Melrose. I believe we have Mayor Broder and I believe City Solicitor Van Kampen here. Are they

▶ 3:53 Speaker 2: both coming into the room? I'm going to make the Mayor a panelist right now. And Ms. Phillips.

▶ 4:04 Paul Brodeur: Good morning. Sorry, guys. Good evening, Mr. Chairman. It is good to see everyone again this evening. As you all know, this is not a budgetary matter. This is, I am proud to say, the appointment of the first um female city solicitor in the history of the city um shannon phillips shannon has um roughly shannon will correct me if i'm wrong about 12 years of experience as a lawyer and more in the in the field of law her entire legal career has been in municipal law beginning as a paralegal in the City of Boston upon her graduation from Suffolk Law School, which is my alma mater, though she obviously graduated way after me. She became Corporation Counsel for the City of Boston, part of the City of Boston's legal department, and then moved on to the City of Somerville's legal department where she participated in really a full array of legal matters affecting municipalities with a particular focus on labor and employment and she comes highly recommended and her resume I think speaks for itself and with that I am pleased to present miss Phillips for her statement of your

▶ 5:29 Speaker 1: consideration thank you thank you mr. mayor miss Phillips the floor is yours

▶ 5:32 Speaker 3: through the chair thank you mayor Broder so much for those nice remarks good evening to all the honorable council members I just want to thank you all for taking the time to meet me tonight and providing me with this great opportunity. Just echoing what Mayor Broder had said, I started my career with the city of Boston after passing the bar in 2012. Before that, I was a litigation paralegal in their litigation department. So I've worked in municipal law even before I passed the bar. In Boston, I did a lot of general civil rights cases in federal state court uh district court did a lot of uh did a lot of um subrogation cases negligence actions employment actions etc i moved over to uh the city of somerville in 2016 it presented a greater opportunity to to work on a wider variety of municipal matters uh and in working with uh the city of somerville probably about 50 of what i worked on i would say was labor and employment law uh so i've i've had more than 20 cases at the department of labor relations for unfair labor practice charges more than 10 cases at civil service commission for discipline bypass promotional bypass original appointments etc um i've also been involved in negotiating memorandum of agreements uh that were incorporated into various collective bargaining agreements uh for the city of somerville i'm involved i was involved on a day-to-day basis uh advising department heads on any labor and employment issues that might come up um aside from that i handled grievances and arbitrations on behalf of the city i think i've had about four or five arbitrations since i've been with the city of somerville that have been assigned to me um so aside from that the other 50 of what i did for somerville you know involved providing legal advisory opinions to city councillors drafting ordinances working with departments and various city councillors on various ordinances they wish to see passed in the city of somerville um a few examples of that i think in the boston globe yesterday actually there was mentioned the native species planting ordinance that I assisted the president of the city council with along with the urban forestry planner. And Somerville was the first in the nation to determine percentages for native planting within the city of Somerville limits. So that was actually mentioned yesterday. I also crafted and worked extensively with the city council, ISD engineering on the small cell wireless ordinance, which I understand is an interest to this city council and something that's ongoing for you as well. And the short-term rental ordinance on behalf of the city of Somerville. So those are just a few ideas of different ordinances I've worked on over the years. I've regularly appeared before City Council and the Legislative Matters Committee on a variety of issues. I'd say maybe two times a month for at least the past two years, I've been present at these meetings providing legal advice and opinions. And aside from that, I mean, general municipal defense and municipal matters. Melrose is such a great community. I was very excited when I saw this opportunity open up um it's i've worked obviously on the outskirts of melrose for a long time uh it really is a city with a small town feel is my impression of it um i think it's a very incredible community um and this opportunity it seems like such a great step in my career you know having been an assistant city solicitor for so long having had great mentorship with the city solicitor frank right that i i know worked for melrose for a while on the city council um so i really feel i'm ready to tackle you know all the all the issues and challenges you might face in Melrose and provide the best legal advice to the council department heads and the mayor as needed. I'm very excited again for this opportunity. Thank you.

▶ 8:59 Jeff McNaught: Thank you, Ms. Phillips. I just want to give the councillors anyone a chance who may have questions for you to do so.

▶ 9:11 Speaker 1: Councillor Stewart.

▶ 9:14 Robb Stewart: Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Ms. Phillips for coming before us this evening. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for providing her this opportunity. I have no questions for you. I just wanted to give feedback to the chair that in context with some of the folks I know in Somerville, I've heard nothing but outstanding news regarding Ms. Phillips, and I look forward to wholeheartedly supporting her in this nomination. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

▶ 9:43 Jeff McNaught: Thank you, Councillor Stewart. Do any other councillors have? Councillor McMaster, and I have Councillor Garofalo next.

▶ 9:53 Shawn M. MacMaster: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Phillips, for being here tonight. I don't have any questions. I'm not going to ask you to elaborate on anything just for the sake of doing it. As you know, you and I had a very good conversation earlier today where I just asked you some questions to learn a little bit more about your experience. Learned a little bit at that time about how you interact with the Somerville City Council. I'm very impressed with your resume and all of your municipal law and labor law experience. And I think we're very fortunate to have you before us tonight. And I'm looking forward to voting to support your nomination. Thank you. Again.

▶ 10:30 Jeff McNaught: Thank you. Council McMaster Council.

▶ 10:34 Mark Garipay: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Ms. Phil to being here. Like, everyone else here, resume is very extensive and I just don't want to say welcome to Melrose and I look forward to.

▶ 10:50 Speaker 1: Councillor Sinella.

▶ 10:53 Jeff McNaught: President Sinella, sorry.

▶ 10:55 Christopher Cinella: Thank you, Chair McNaught. I just wanted to echo all the sentiments we've heard so far and welcome you to the city. I, too, have heard a lot of great things about you, and I look forward to working with you. And I think for purposes of the discussion, I'd like to make a motion to recommend Attorney Phillips to the full council.

▶ 11:16 Speaker 3: Second.

▶ 11:20 Jeff McNaught: Motion by President Cinella to recommend Ms. Phillips to the full council, seconded by Councillor Grigoraitis. On discussion, seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

▶ 11:33 Speaker 2: Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councillor McMaster? Yes. Councillor Garipay? Yes. Councillor Grigoraitis? Yes. Councillor Migliorelli? Yes. Consular Stewart? Yes. Yes. Consular Thomas? Yes. Yes. Consular Jamaleddine? Yes. President Cinella?

▶ 12:02 Jeff McNaught: Yes. Yes. 10 yes. That motion passes. Welcome to Melrose. I think you can tell we all look forward to working with you.

▶ 12:08 Speaker 3: Thank you very much for working with all of you and meeting you in person sometime soon.

▶ 12:13 Speaker 4: Amen. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Appreciate your consideration.

▶ 12:19 Jeff McNaught: Okay, next up on the agenda begins our Night 2 of the budget season, the assistance order 2021-122, City of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2022 in the amount of $91,522.33. First up this evening, we have the Department 545 Commission on Disability.