Communications from His Honor, The Mayor And Other City Officials

Transcript (~8 min @ 17:07)

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▶ 16:58 Jen Grigoraitis: second give a motion to close public comment by councillor senella seconded by councillor McLeorelli all in favor any opposed the motion carries my understanding that you

▶ 17:07 Christopher Cinella: have asked that the mayor join us tonight to provide an update on the coronavirus so I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules we have a motion to

▶ 17:16 Jen Grigoraitis: suspend the rules by we have a motion to send the rules by councillor Sinella seconded by councillor Stewart all in favor any opposed mayor Broder thank you

▶ 17:32 Paul Brodeur: for being here thank you all very much for let me take the time I want to say a quick congratulations to counselor Jamala Dean you look great sitting there congratulations long and happy career with us here in the city so I'm gonna I want to talk a little bit about the coronavirus and in covert 19 recognizing that something you already all know that it is a rapidly changing situation and something that the city is going to end the state and the country are gonna have to adapt to on the fly. I just want folks to know that the city, the major department heads, the school department, and myself are meeting now every day to survey recent developments. We take for our information the best sources we think we can find, mostly the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, and the State Department of Public Health. We use the most current information they provide to us then make the best decisions that we can based on that information again recognizing that that is very likely to change over time to the extent that we can make information available the the superintendent and i both intend to use both the mayor's blog and connect ed as the uh as a source you can essentially count on regularly we're in the process of building a website that we hope will have many of the sources that we refer to on the web, like CDC and DPH, so that folks can understand where we're coming from. One thing that I want folks to understand, I think is really important, is there might be times where we do something differently, or we make a decision that is different than another community might do, or that you might hear about a private workplace or some other organization doing. That does not mean, quite frankly, that either side or either position is right or wrong. We are very much trying to tailor our decisions to our community and our information based on, you know, the way our schools are structured, the way our businesses are structured, the fact that there is a hospital in the district. All those things go into the think, and all those people, as you might imagine, need to be brought into the loop, and we're doing that consistently. You should also know that the federal government just had a press conference that was really wrapping up as I was on my way here. It sounds like there should be some good information coming out today or tomorrow, the way it was described at the press conference was that it'll essentially be presenting a lot of things that will be relevant to every resident of the United States in three buckets, in terms of home life, school life, and in the workplace. And I suspect we'll be hearing more about that and that too will change over time. I do want to remind people that while information will change and be updated, y'all got to keep in mind that there are certain common sense things that work all the time, that work before this and will work after that in terms of things like washing your hands, coughing into your shoulder, not show if you feel like you are symptomatic or think you may have been exposed to someone who is symptomatic that should inform your judgment check in with work before you go check in with your medical professional before you go to their office to seek guidance from them because if you just show up you may be doing more harm than good and the last thing I guess I'd say is I think of this and I hope you do too as a community problem and that it means we all need to be professional respectful of the facts empathetic and compassionate about the way we're going to deal with this because it will hit different people differently we're aware of that and doing our best to react to it as best we can and be proactive about it and we certainly welcome your partnership and your leadership as we address this thank you all for listening madam president thank you very much thank you mayor broder we appreciate

▶ 21:36 Jen Grigoraitis: that and i know on the council we will push out your updates and alerts through our social media to ensure that we're reaching as many members of the public as we can um i wanted to take one more moment while the rules are suspended to acknowledge state representative elect libra garabedian who's here with us tonight while it's exciting that we're able to welcome a new counselor that's obviously because we have a counselor moving on to the state house so i wanted to thank her for her service to this body and i know that she is going to bring her tenacity and dedication to beacon hill on our behalf and she'll be sworn in by the speaker of the house on march 18th at 11 30 downtown in boston for anyone who wants to be there and if you'd like to come up and say something

▶ 22:27 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: there's some orange in it. Thank you. They're beautiful. Thank you. Thank you very much, President Grigoraitis, and it's nice to see you all here. When I was driving over here tonight, Monday night, which I've been doing every Monday or most Mondays or Thursdays for the last two and a half years, it was sort of bittersweet, and then I realized how fortunate it is to feel like something's bittersweet. What that means is I've really appreciated and enjoyed what I've been doing over the last you know two plus years including with all of you here and with your predecessors and speaking of them it was often directly behind first alderman Forbes then counselor Forbes and then president Forbes who is my neighbor just down the block so we were often in tandem driving over here together I loved the work that we've done together the relationships that I've built with each of you individually and then the collective spirit of the council I think that we play such an important role in instilling faith in the governance of the community as a body I've seen how eager you all have been in your new roles to really engage in the deliberation of the policies that are coming before us and feel really confident in the work you're going to continue to do it's certainly not criticism to be critical it's just an important part of the process and I think we play an important role in carefully vetting the proposals from the mayor's administration as well as each other's suggestions and I've been thrilled to get to play a part in that with you all and also with those who came before. I've also really enjoyed getting to work with the Mayor Broder administration and the Mayor Infern administration before that and to be supported and learn from our clerk and our clerk of committees who do such a great job keeping us on track. It's also though bittersweet because I'm very excited about what's next and the ability to continue to get to work with you all as the state representative. As President Grigoraitis mentioned I would be happy to see any and all of you next Wednesday at the State House 1130 March 18th so I look forward to building on the work that we've done here together taking the lessons that I've learned and the conversations we've had as we think about ways in which the state can be a good partner to Melrose and I can be an advocate for you there except on days when we're competing against each other in chili cook-offs and trivia challenges I intend to be a strong partner so thank all very much for the chance to get to work with you and i look forward to continuing to work with