ORDER-2020-36 : Establishing a Designated Parking Space at City Hall for Veterans of the United States Armed Forces

Transcript (~18 min @ 5:05)

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▶ 4:58 Michael P. Zwirko: councillor mcmaster and seconded by president ex-officio member scott forbes all those in favor any opposed that order moves forward final order this evening is 2020-36 establishing a designated parking space at city hall for veterans of the united states armed

▶ 5:19 Shawn M. MacMaster: forces mr chairman if i could make a motion to suspend the rules at this time to hear from lieutenant colonel robert driscoll from the veterans advisory board second the motion to

▶ 5:30 Michael P. Zwirko: suspend the rules thank you we have a member of not only active armed forces i believe the air

▶ 5:37 Michael P. Zwirko: force branch of the military service but also our very own fire department mr bob driscoll here all those in favor to suspend the rules any opposed the rules have been suspended mr driscoll

▶ 6:08 Speaker 4: is before us. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you for putting this order forward. I very much appreciate it. This order is actually a piece of the Brave Act, which was passed and signed by the governor last year. And the advisory board looked at the Brave Act as a whole and looked at the pieces of the Brave Act, which would be beneficial to our veterans members here and here in Melrose our veteran service officer Karen Burke intended to be here with me tonight but she had a family emergency about an hour ago so I spoke with her

▶ 6:31 Speaker 4: and she will be available tomorrow during business hours if anybody wants

▶ 6:39 Speaker 4: to reach out to her but she told me she gets about 10 veterans a day that come into her office and having a designated parking spot for a veteran that would be somewhere near the handicapped entrance would be beneficial because she gets a

▶ 6:57 Speaker 4: lot of veterans who have issues with mobility so that's part of this what the

▶ 7:04 Speaker 4: board decided to do the advisory board was to take the general law as written

▶ 7:17 Speaker 4: by the state and push that forward that being said that the the law states that a parking spot at the city of town hall for the parking of a veteran in a motor vehicle that is owned and operated by the veteran and that displays a veterans registration plate issued pursuant to section 2 of chapter 90 and we decided

▶ 7:38 Speaker 4: to keep that also because that just keeps it clean that way there's no argument is that car belong to a veteran does it not belong to a veteran a veterans plate will be clearly defined that it does belong to a veteran and that's whether it be a regular veterans plate a Purple Heart or some other veteran designated plate a disabled vet or what have you so that um that's why we decided to go

▶ 8:12 Speaker 5: exactly with the state language i also wanted to uh thank uh alderman mcmaster uh counselor

▶ 8:16 Speaker 4: mcmaster and counselor forbes for for bringing this forward for on our behalf i also want to

▶ 8:23 Speaker 4: thank the city solicitor rob van campen for the direction he gave i am not a legal person so

▶ 8:31 Speaker 4: as the chair i brought it to the city council which i assumed would have jurisdiction and he's given us some guidance that it might belong in the traffic commission and that's

▶ 8:45 Speaker 4: fine i also want to thank mayor inferner when this was on our agenda a couple of months ago

▶ 8:51 Speaker 4: and she saw it there she reached out to the veteran service officer karen burke she offered the mayor spot in front of the fire departments to be the spot but

▶ 9:05 Speaker 4: she also thought that that's it's not a level ground and with the mobility issues we're already

▶ 9:15 Speaker 4: veterans experience already and we agreed with her diagnosis that that might not be the best spot

▶ 9:24 Speaker 4: for that so if anybody has any questions on this part of the brave act I'd be

▶ 9:30 Speaker 6: open to comments suggestions thank you for that any members of the board and

▶ 9:39 Michael P. Zwirko: please madam clerk if you don't mind we've been joined by a voting member councillor Medeiros thank you council Medeiros thank you thanks very much I

▶ 9:46 Monica C. Medeiros: i appreciate this and the intent is obviously to allow veterans coming to do business at city hall to have access to city hall i we do have some veterans such as yourself working for the city of melrose and i just thought it might be wise to delineate to make some kind of reference here that this is not meant for employees during the work day but rather and i don't have language

▶ 10:21 Monica C. Medeiros: specified right now but i thought we might make some kind of um amendment to to specify that i

▶ 10:28 Speaker 6: don't know if you have suggestions i can speak on the fire side that um we have our own parking behind the fire station and to my knowledge i believe i'm the only one there that has veterans

▶ 10:39 Speaker 6: plates and I work over on Tremont Street so I had no intention of of using it during the work hours I can't speak for City Hall employees but it would be

▶ 10:56 Speaker 6: something that we could monitor and if it became an issue we could address the

▶ 11:03 Speaker 4: issue we went back and forth on the on on the board about you know what if what

▶ 11:08 Speaker 6: if and we got somewhat caught up in a discussion if somebody you know parked

▶ 11:14 Speaker 4: here and this or that and the intent wasn't how the enforcement was going to

▶ 11:22 Speaker 5: be dealt with because that's not our our responsibility we're just looking to

▶ 11:24 Speaker 6: assist the veterans that do want to come in and out of City Hall if the spot becomes clogged as we we would say that somebody's not using it for that purpose then I would recommend that we do address it at that time.

▶ 11:40 Speaker 4: According to the regulation though, the wording on the sign will say veteran parking only. This space is reserved for those who have served.

▶ 11:49 Speaker 6: Unauthorized vehicles may be removed at the vehicle owner's expense.

▶ 11:55 Speaker 4: So hopefully it will be in my mind similar to a handicap spot.

▶ 11:57 Speaker 6: If you don't have a handicap placard, you wouldn't park in that spot and it would be the same for this.

▶ 12:08 Speaker 4: I'm sure the Veteran Service Officer, Karen Burke, as the veterans come in and out of the office, they'll give her feedback also as, hey, I keep coming

▶ 12:15 Speaker 6: and there's always the same car. And if that becomes an issue, we can, we definitely should address it.

▶ 12:23 Monica C. Medeiros: And, you know, I thought when I read it myself, I thought it could be used also to reward an employee who is a veteran and to recognize their service as well. So just depending on what the intent of the ordinance, without having it specified, I thought it might be a little bit confusing to somebody who may be.

▶ 12:44 Speaker 6: I agree. I think the intent at the state level through the BRAVE Act was to assist veterans that try and get in and out of city halls across the state

▶ 12:56 Speaker 6: who were not unique as far as parking.

▶ 13:04 Speaker 6: so this would help them get into their business and move out so I think that's the intent and I hope that's how it will play out here thank you thank you

▶ 13:18 Shawn M. MacMaster: councilman jurors councillor McMaster thank you mr. chairman I would like to first thank lieutenant Colonel Driscoll and members of the Melrose veterans advisory board for working with me and president forbes on this order i'd also like to thank president forbes for co-sponsoring it as further background this order would accept a provision of the brave act which was signed by governor baker back on august 28 2018 the brave act is a comprehensive piece of legislation providing a number of benefits and services to veterans in their families this specific provision for this order is codified by the brave act would as lieutenant colonel driscoll said designate a parking space in the municipal parking lot at city hall for veterans this allowance is made possible through an amendment to chapter 40 of the general laws which gives municipalities the ability should they wish to establish a designated parking space for veterans. This would provide veterans with easy access to City Hall, particularly when needing to meet with our veteran services officer. As Lieutenant Colonel Driscoll said, on any given day, Lieutenant Colonel Burke meets with approximately 10 veterans. I would suspect that with our servicemen and women continuing to return home from Afghanistan in Syria, that number is likely to increase. And I think we all know, as city councilors and longtime residents of the city, that finding parking in the municipal lots can be challenging. So to me, this is just one small but important way to accommodate our veterans and to make it easier for them to access the benefits and the services to which they're entitled from the city. And since filing this order, the city solicitor has offered some guidance suggesting that the traffic commission has appropriate jurisdiction to enact the order. As such, in my consultation with Mr. Van Campen, after reviewing the enabling act of the legislature for the traffic commission and consulting with President Forbes, I will move later, not right now to make a slight amendment to the order recommending that the city council pass it in the form of a recommendation to the traffic commission and then i would move to place it on file but i will hold those motions for now uh to allow um other members of the committee uh to speak uh to the order thank you mr chairman thank you council mcmaster any other

▶ 16:04 Scott M. Forbes: members here uh council president scott forbes thank you um you know i also want to thank uh council mcmaster and also uh colonel driscoll for your work on this i do want to thank the city solicitor too and and that's why we have people in these positions to provide us with the appropriate legal guidance that we need in order to steer the ship in the right direction you know obviously being a veteran and looking at the order i consider this to be low-hanging fruit working in veteran services now more than ever vso's and local municipalities have relied upon more and more to handle walk-in traffic that are attempting to come in to find out what services are available to them and also how they can how they can benefit from those services particularly with chapter 115 financial benefits I deal with homeless veteran housing issues on a daily basis and the rising rents in the community and the low-income veterans that are here in the community basically everyone's being priced out so they want to be able to come in here and get baseline and determine what services are available for them and that's why VSOs like Karen Burke is so critical to the community so to be able to have a designated parking space specifically for a veteran to come in and inquire what services are available to them to me is a common sense solution to a growing problem that we have not just in Melrose but throughout the Commonwealth so that being said you know I fully support the recommendation of having this go over to the traffic commission and again I just want to thank all parties involved especially from a legal standpoint so we can move this in an appropriate fashion and one more thing the good thing about this it doesn't really interrupt the timing of it we wouldn't have recommended the go before the previous traffic commission with the parking ban in effect it really would have sucked the oxygen out of the room and taken time away from this order to be discussed appropriately so now we can move forward and not delay the course of doing business so thank you very much

▶ 18:06 Michael P. Zwirko: Thank You mr. president it's parking week here in the city of Melrose so any other members non-voting members here wish to speak on this order I see we

▶ 18:15 Speaker 6: have a question from our guest it's not a question it's a I request some personal

▶ 18:18 Speaker 4: privilege to just do an announcement public service announcement on some of

▶ 18:22 Speaker 6: veterans events that are coming up if that's okay on November 6th Wednesday

▶ 18:30 Speaker 4: it's veterans in the classroom it'll take place next door at Memorial Hall beginning at 9 a.m. where local veterans will talk with ninth grade students from

▶ 18:39 Speaker 5: the high school about their military experience on the 8th will be the

▶ 18:41 Speaker 4: assembly at the middle school that starts I believe at 8 o'clock with a

▶ 18:48 Speaker 4: breakfast and then goes right into the assembly following the breakfast on the

▶ 18:56 Speaker 4: 11th we will have our Veterans Day services beginning at Memorial Hall at 9 a.m. with coffee and donuts and we'll proceed across the street and hit the

▶ 19:04 Speaker 5: memorials that night we will cap off Veterans Day with the the Bill Forbes

▶ 19:14 Speaker 4: scholarship comedy night and this year it will be held at the VFW the Prince

▶ 19:20 Speaker 5: Post on Main Street and then on the 13th the operation group who will be honoring

▶ 19:24 Speaker 4: Iraqi vets this year will have their first fundraiser at Liberty Bell from

▶ 19:33 Speaker 4: 5 to 8 o'clock on the 13th if you are interested in any of those events you

▶ 19:38 Speaker 6: can reach out to Karen Burke here at her office at City Hall so thank you thank

▶ 19:41 Michael P. Zwirko: for that a lot of uh events coming up so hopefully uh we'll see many members of the community there supporting them and thank you for that so at this time um we do have the order before us

▶ 19:54 Shawn M. MacMaster: if mcmaster would like to move yes uh mr chairman thank you uh at this time i would make a motion to amend the order that order of course being order number 2020-36 A copy of the amendment has been provided to committee members and to non-voting members and the amendment would modify the first sentence which would now read, be it hereby recommended by the Melrose City Council that the Traffic Commission establish a designated parking space at City Hall, so on and so forth. So I would make a motion to adopt that modified language.

▶ 20:38 Monica C. Medeiros: Councilor Medeiros point of order I don't believe Alderman McMaster is voting member of this committee according to my agenda he's not on the agenda he's on

▶ 20:45 Michael P. Zwirko: the city website he is a he is a voting member of this committee we have a thank

▶ 20:53 Michael P. Zwirko: you for that so we do have a motion to amend the language as stated herein by councillor McMaster that motion to amend has been seconded by councillor Medeiros on further discussion of said motion hearing none all those in favor aye aye any opposed motion to amend has been approved it is still before you at this time councillor mcmaster

▶ 21:19 Shawn M. MacMaster: mr chairman before i move to place the order on file i would move to attach the letter that we received from jim keen legislative liaison to the melrose veterans advisory board which committee members and non-voting members should have in front of them i would move at this time to make

▶ 21:45 Michael P. Zwirko: this latter part of the record second it's been a motion made by councillor mcmaster to append a piece of correspondence we received in hard copy this evening from mr jim keen to the order. It has been seconded by Councillor Medeiros. On discussion? Hearing none, all in

▶ 21:59 Michael P. Zwirko: favor? Aye. Any opposed? That piece of communication has been attached to said order. The order still

▶ 22:08 Shawn M. MacMaster: sits before the committee. Mr. Chairman, I would make a motion at this time to recommend that this order be adopted as amended by the Traffic Commission. Second. Councillor McMaster has

▶ 22:20 Michael P. Zwirko: made a motion to recommend that this order go forth to the uh recommended to the traffic commission but first needs to go forth to the full board um as amended that has been seconded by councillor medeiros on further discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye any opposed that order has been recommended to the full board to further recommend to the traffic commission