ORDER-2021-1 : An order to accept Massachusetts General Law c.44, §55C for the purpose of establishing an Affordable Housing Trust Fund in the City of Melrose.

Transcript (~7 min @ 24:53)

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

▶ 24:55 Jeff McNaught: Yeah, yes. Okay. Now, I believe you may have Adam clerk, some folks from the administration that may want to speak this evening. Is that correct?

▶ 25:05 Speaker 1: We do, I'm going to bring in the planning.

▶ 25:11 John N. Tramontozzi: I put a point of order around the chairman. Can you just read the order?

▶ 25:22 Jeff McNaught: the first order before us tonight is 2021-1 in order to accept Massachusetts general law chapter 44 section 55 C for the purpose of establishing an affordable housing trust fund in the city of Melrose the rules to hear from

▶ 25:49 John N. Tramontozzi: the appropriate city personnel second motion to spend by vice chair Tramontozzi

▶ 25:57 Jeff McNaught: Matozzi, seconded by Councilor Migliorelli. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

▶ 26:04 Speaker 1: Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor Cinella? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Migliorelli? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Okay. Ms. Gaffey, thank you

▶ 26:23 Jeff McNaught: for being here this evening, and the floor is yours. I think you're muted. There we go.

▶ 26:33 Speaker 4: That took me a second. Good evening. I'm very pleased to be here to speak regarding these orders this evening. I did want to point out my presentation is a little bit more geared towards 2021-02 and I had expected that Robert VanCampen, City Solicitor VanCampen made the speech specifically to this first or procedural order. So, if he's out there somewhere, there he is.

▶ 27:03 Speaker 8: uh and can you hear me yes yes okay um and before i begin i'd like to yield some of my time to mayor broder for a brief introduction on this piece

▶ 27:16 Paul Brodeur: if i could yield some of my time no i'm of course i'm mindful of if it's convention night the celtics are starting their playoff games i very much appreciate um the opportunity to speak uh just briefly this is a an issue that's very important to me it was a big part of of my campaign committing to move forward to establish the trust and get these dollars working for people Melrose quite frankly to the reason we created this in the 1st place to make sure that we can create more opportunities for housing for a more diverse group of people here in the city. the experts that you already heard from, Ms. Lewenter and Ms. Tierney really hit the nail on the head, so I don't think we really need to belabor, but this really is another tool in the toolbox to assist folks. We know we have some other resources that we use to support people in need here in Elrose, but this is really an opportunity to put dollars to work, as Ms. Lewenter said, in any number of ways, being it from purchase of property, maybe closing cost assistance, down payment assistance, whatever the case may be, but to broaden the ways that we can help people. I don't have to tell anyone on this council, as you all have been supportive of this work, and I very much appreciate it, that we're going into a very uncertain time in terms of the housing market. Rates are terrific, but we know what people are going through, and the challenges that they're going to have to either enter or maintain housing in community and again this is this is an important tool that we can offer and it's an important first step to put these dollars in the hands of people that can really use them so i very much appreciate uh your consideration and your hard work on this and with that i will turn it over to the city

▶ 29:05 Speaker 8: solicitor thank you uh thank you mayor broder um chairman members of the committee just very briefly um order 2021-1 is a as denise mentioned is a procedural order requesting that the city council accept chapter 44 section 55c of the general law that is the statute that authorizes municipalities to establish affordable housing trust funds which is our intention this evening so this this particular order is procedurally the first threshold we have to cross before we can have a discussion about the uh establishment of an affordable housing trust so we request your favorable action on on this item initially thank you mr solicitor i don't have any questions for

▶ 30:03 Jeff McNaught: the city solicitor to the uh uh vice chair tram and tozy uh uh thank you uh mr chairman uh if

▶ 30:08 John N. Tramontozzi: there's no further questions uh my thought is that uh and i would make a motion to recommend uh as um the city solicitor suggested this is the procedural matter uh importantly uh it's uh order 2021-2 which i think most uh members of the administration of the public who are going to speak on a relative to the trust itself so this is just for purposes of accepting the general laws uh and then we move on to the next order uh procedurally in that order to uh to actually um establish the trust fund so uh with that in mind i will make a motion to recommend order 2021-1 um and then we can move on to the other order um next second recommend by vice chair Tramontozzi

▶ 30:56 Jeff McNaught: seconded by councillor sanella adam clark will you please call the role chair mcnaught yes vice

▶ 31:02 Speaker 1: chair Tramontozzi yes councillor sanella yes councillor eccles yes councillor Migliorelli

▶ 31:21 Jeff McNaught: yes president Grigoraitis yes moving on to the next order is 2021-2 in order amending chapter a article 2 of the administrative code of the city of melrose by inserting a new section