ORDER-2021-98 : Appointment of Jennifer Strasburger, 88 E Foster St, Melrose MA., to the Human Rights Commission for her first full term, said term to expire on the last day of February 2024.

Transcript (~8 min @ 22:50)

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▶ 22:54 Jeff McNaught: We have before us tonight order 2021 dash 98 appointment of Jennifer, Jennifer Strasberger, 88 East Foster Street, Melrose mass to the human rights commission for her 1st, full term. said term to expire on the last day of February 2024. I believe we will have the Mayor coming in with Ms. Strasburger.

▶ 23:21 Speaker 1: Coming in now.

▶ 23:27 Paul Brodeur: Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I want to start off by thanking Councilor Jamaleddine and all of you for recognizing what happened in Atlanta when the pandemic started and we saw evidence of bias, hate crimes attacks against asian americans in our communities um the city stood strong and the city continues to stand strong and i appreciate you taking the time to recognize that and have a moment of silence is appropriate i i'm excited to bring before you the nomination of jennifer strassberger uh jennifer has been active with the human rights commission in the past and expressed and interest uh quite frankly uh uh probably about a year ago in uh interest in in signing up she is as you can see from the resume uh that has been submitted uh outstanding academic credentials and uh really a very quite frankly intimidating um athletic career and while um as a member of it's an alum of a rival patriot league school off your college i have minor qualms about advancing a competitor but i hope you will take a look at a resume and i do want to point you to something that will be a bit of a quite frankly i think a unique perspective on the on the hrc and that is if you look at her professional credentials and awards you'll note that she served on BU's athletic social justice and inclusion committee as an ad hoc member that is really something we haven't had an opportunity I think as a community to talk about with any depth and Jennifer's experience and in that in that world both as a student from high school to college, and now in the coaching world at BU, I think will be a tremendous asset and bring a new perspective to the HRC that will be welcomed by the members. I appreciate your consideration of her candidacy and hope you will move to recommend.

▶ 25:51 Jeff McNaught: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Ms. Strasburg, if you would like to say a few words, the floor is yours.

▶ 25:59 Speaker 6: Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here and I'm just really honored for the opportunity to be even considered for this position to serve the city since I've moved to Melrose. I felt so. Welcomes and just such a great sense of community and in this town, and I want to do anything I can to help continue that and expand that. So that anyone who comes here as opportunity to be here. Can feel similarly, I don't pretend in any way to be an expert on these topics, but I do think. They're important, no matter how uncomfortable and. Challenging they can be, and I think I'm hoping that this will help me in both places of the work that I'm doing with my team and within the athletic department. And kind of the synergy that that can create, but.

▶ 27:00 Jeff McNaught: Again, I just, I appreciate your time. Thank you. Mr. and I'm just looking around now to see if anyone has any questions.

▶ 27:12 Leila Migliorelli: For you, thank you. Mr. chairman and thank you. Mr. for appearing tonight and for your application to the human rights commission. I was a former member of the commission, so it's always nice to see folks in the community stepping up to take on this responsibility. What would you say some of the, you know, since being in Melrose, maybe taking from some of your experiences would be some of the initiatives or plans that you might have, particularly around reaching some of the, you know, bringing more people into the fold and the Human Rights Commission. I think part of the issues we all have with organizations is that you start to talk with your similar groups and the same people over and over again and kind of, you know, I think what we're always trying to do is trying to kind of broaden that reach. So wondered if you had any thoughts on that.

▶ 28:01 Speaker 6: One thing that immediately comes to mind is just listening to Erin Henneman, I'm sorry, I'm not sure, earlier when she was talking about her nomination is just that those are some of the issues she's talking about kind of coalesce with the things I think the Human Rights Commission can work with. And that similarly, the Women's Commission has reached out to the Human Rights Commission about a vigil possibly this weekend around the attack in Atlanta. I think it's probably in coordinating amongst ourselves first, because I feel like there's a lot of great commissions that are doing overlapping work. That's the thing that comes to mind at the moment, but I feel like if I keep talking, I'm just going to make stuff up.

▶ 28:52 Speaker 7: No, thank you for your answer.

▶ 28:57 Speaker 5: Any other counselors have any questions for Ms. Strasburg?

▶ 29:02 Jeff McNaught: Seeing none, Ms. Strasburg, I would just say, thank you for stepping up to help out on the HRC. I am meeting a lot of BU people in Melrose lately, and I grew up in a BC family, so. But we can still be friends, so don't worry about that. Thank you very much. I think mayor broder i don't know if he's come back on now but um what is the will of the committee

▶ 29:34 Jeff McNaught: motion to recommend second motion to recommend by council Grigoraitis seconded by councillor gemology

▶ 29:43 Speaker 2: madam clerk will you please call the role chair mcnaught yes yes vice chair eccles yes councillor traymond tozy yes yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor Garipay yes councillor

▶ 29:59 Speaker 1: Grigoraitis yes councillor Migliorelli yes councillor stewart yes yes councillor thomas yes

▶ 30:11 Speaker 1: Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. President Sinella? Yes.

▶ 30:17 Jeff McNaught: 11 yes. The motion passes. Ms. Strasburger, your candidacy will move forward to the next City Council meeting, which you will not have to appear at. Thank you for your time this evening. Thank you, Mayor Broderick. Thank you.