ORDER-2019-80 : Petition to the Great and General Court to enact a Special Act to authorize the City of Melrose to amend the Melrose City Charter to replace the term “Board of Aldermen” with “City Council”

Transcript (~31 min @ 40:12)

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

▶ 40:15 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: the full board thank you for being here tonight the third item on our agenda is uh order number 2019-80 petition to the great and general court to enact a special act to authorize the city of melrose to amend the melrose city charter to replace the term board of aldermen with city council this is sponsored by president Lemmerman thank you madam chair um first i want to just take

▶ 40:42 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: a moment and thank very loud um and thank my colleagues here in the chamber who have opted to join me in co-sponsoring this order so alderman Tramontozzi alderman Bewtra alderman's worko alderman Letter garabedian alderman Medeiros alderman wright and alderman mortimer i appreciate them joining me in this effort i also want to take a moment and thank every member of the public who took time out of their busy schedules to join us whether in this chamber to speak we've had a couple tonight had several earlier this week as well i know that's not easy to do but it's very important for anything that we do here and also the many who wrote to us and many of those emails that we received over the past several days were very personal and very impassioned and we appreciate that input so before i go any further at this time i would like to make a motion to attach all of those email correspondence i believe the clerk of committee said there were 58 um that we received and she also invites any other members who may have seen individual emails sent to them that they'd like in the record to to add those as well so i make that motion now

▶ 41:52 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: to attach those to the order second you have a motion to attach the order 58 emails plus or minus that's in duly seconded all in favor aye aye opposed so that those are attached thank you

▶ 42:04 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Thank you. So, many of you have heard my reasons for proposing this back when I did it three years ago, and because nothing has changed, my reasons have not changed. So, I'm not going to spend a great deal of time rehashing it and making an impassioned plea. I will give a brief recap of what many of those reasons are. You know, the issue of using language that accurately reflects the potential and the accomplishments of all people regardless of their gender is important to me and it might not be the number one reason for everyone but we have heard over and over again over the past week that it is important to many people and in fact I would point out that it's so important to many people that over the past 30 years every other community in Massachusetts that uses the term Board of Aldermen has decided not to use it anymore. And in addition, 39 towns, although they are a different form of government, have chosen the gender-neutral title in favor of the Board of Selectmen. And I would point out that among those, all four towns in the 5th Middlesex District, Redding, Stoneham, Wakefield, and Winchester, have done so, leaving us as the very last. The gender-neutral term, it's more inclusive. it more accurately reflects a makeup of a body that had its first female member

▶ 43:29 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: join in 1926 it's a very long time ago I would also argue as I have in the past that this brings more clarity and more accessibility to our board and the work that we do as local elected officials the policy decisions we make impact our constituents everyday life and through regular open dialogue between the board and citizens is the only way that we're going to accurately understand the potential of the potential consequences of the policies that we put in place in this chamber the term alderman is no longer used anywhere else in Massachusetts I will keep hammering that point and as a result it's not widely recognized so this creates an unnecessary barrier for residents who may otherwise be engaged in local government we have over the years taken steps over and over again to try to make what we do more available to the people that we work for. We made sure that our meetings are on MMTV, that they're livestreamed online for people who don't have cable. So many of us have social media accounts that we use exclusively to communicate about the work that we're doing. And to me, this really is just another step in that direction, just making our work more accessible more open to the people that we work for and who elect us so i would say that whether you prefer a term that is clearer whether you prefer a term that accurately reflects the inclusion and equity that we strive for or whether it's both like me or probably many many other reasons this is an issue that has left us we're we're the last to do it we are a community that has been recognized in many ways as being a leader you know whether it's smart growth sustainability efforts civil Rita protections we have led the way while others followed us and this is an area where everyone else has left us behind and i just strongly feel that it's an easy fix it's something we can do quickly and that we can send a strong message about how we want to present ourselves so a couple of housekeeping things i will say this is as you all know proposed to be a home rule petition which would go to the state legislature for them to allow us to make this change to the charter I will mention that I have spoken to both Representatives Broder and Senator Lewis. We have Representatives Broder here this evening who has been vocal on his support for a change. Senator Lewis also is one of the 58 letters that we are attaching to the order who wrote in support. Both have indicated that they would be willing to see this way, see its way through the Statehouse. A lot of times when we do home rule petitions, we include a preamble that indicates when we send it up, it indicates that it would be going to effect immediately upon passage i did have a chance to speak with the city clerk about what it would take to implement this should it pass she feels that 30 days is plenty of time for anything that needs to be updated to to be updated and so i would actually make a motion this evening to not include the emergency preamble to have it go into effect immediately upon passage and in fact instead have it go into effect 30 days after it is signed by

▶ 46:52 Peter D. Mortimer: the governor second the motion to make that amendment we have a motion to amend the order to

▶ 46:54 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: replace the emergency provision with an effective date 30 days after the governor's signature seconded by alderman mortimer on discussion all in favor aye aye opposed okay so we are we've

▶ 47:12 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: amended it thank you thank you um i do anticipate that there will be discussion among the board um as we as we move forward on this order um but as we prepare for that i would like to make a motion for passage to recommend for passage second there's a motion to recommend for passage made

▶ 47:26 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: by president Lemmerman and seconded by alderman mortar on discussion uh i'm not sure if we would

▶ 47:34 Peter D. Mortimer: And I will defer to Waldemar Butro, just a point of procedure. I see we have State Representatives Broda in the gallery, and I would like to hear from him. We are under suspension still as we are for the night if he wants to speak about the process that will occur at the state level or not. Just as a courtesy, we might want to let him speak in case he wants to get home to his family. But I will yield to Alderman Bewtra, who's first in queue, as you see fit.

▶ 48:08 Speaker 2: Okay. I don't have a strong—

▶ 48:10 Manisha Bewtra: Any way is fine with me. I just want to be on the record to say I support changing the name and wanted to thank everyone who took the time to weigh in, who engaged in respectful dialogue, both those who support the change as well as those who don't. But in particular, I really wanted to thank you, President Lemmerman. you were the you brought this up in 2016 and you were ahead of the curve at that time I trust that tonight we're going to be moving Melrose forward and thank you

▶ 48:44 Monica C. Medeiros: for your leadership thank you thank you very much as many of you know and this is a change in position a reversal for me and so I wanted to address that back in 2016 and before I was very hopeful that the term alderman could be considered as on its own as a gender-neutral term just like we consider human or woman or history person so many of these words that have the masculine embedded in them and over time since 2016 we've seen so many communities change their names that now we are the last Board of Aldermen in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and as I sit in the Mass Municipal Counselors Association as its president and we consider changing our own bylaws for various reasons you know it's I'm a I find myself acutely aware that we are the last board of aldermen and as I stand in front of rooms and I introduce myself and I talk to people about being you know part of this organization again it's just at this point it sticks out like a sore thumb that we are the last ones but more so than that much because we've seen so much change since 2016 I I am increasingly confronted and maybe perhaps because I'm a woman and I identify as female that I have people come up to me and I find them sort of

▶ 50:33 Monica C. Medeiros: falling and tripping all over themselves trying to figure out what to call me do they call me all the person do they call me all their woman do they call me all their man do they call me counselor and they don't know what to do and so often it's a conversation that instead of getting to the point of what they've come to discuss with me it's trying to figure out how to address me and that's

▶ 51:01 Monica C. Medeiros: something that I never wanted I wanted to be personally called alderman that's the name of the title that I was elected to that's something that I again I had

▶ 51:16 Monica C. Medeiros: hoped that it could be considered and thought of just like any other word but it's clear to me that that's honestly just not possible we're not going to get there with that word and the only way I think to move past this is to take it away and go to the gender-neutral counselor and really not have it be a distraction and not have it be an impediment to the communication that we're trying to have on a particular issue which is largely more important than than the word and so that's in one of the reasons why I had asked all them in Leatherman to be sign on as a co-sponsor on this I think it is something that we should pass and move on to other business and not let it be a a distraction to the work that we have to do and I know we will we will lose a little bit of something it's been nice to be an alderman rather than just a counselor that has that you know big city impersonal kind of connotation and

▶ 52:34 Monica C. Medeiros: and I I appreciated its uniqueness I appreciated the opportunity that when somebody asked me what is an alderman that I got to explain to them really what we do and there's an easy answer to say oh we're just like a city councilor but the truth of the matter is is so many people still don't know what a city councilor does so I think that opportunity may be lost in this and so I just hope that we remind ourselves to make sure that we're explaining as much as we can you know to people what it is we really do because i think sometimes that that gets lost and it's a great time in america i think where people are a lot more interested in government and in what happens so i think we do have an opportunity to do that but i am happy to call myself a co-sponsor on this order and to move it forward and will get a little a little bit of uh getting used to to not call ourselves a board and an alderman and but i think it's sometimes you have to know when to let go and i think this is it thank you

▶ 53:51 Speaker 2: thank you alderman trim and tozy thank you i told i too want to thank president lemmerman

▶ 53:56 John N. Tramontozzi: for the opportunity to become a co-sponsor of your bill i'm proud to be that co-sponsor as well and to support this water I was looking back at the history when this first was presented in 2016 we had them in August and September of 2016 had spirited debates and discussing about it and I saw that one of the issues that was raised at that time was procedural procedurally because there was a discussion about us going into a Charter Commission review and whether or not it was appropriate at that time to to vote in isolation to the name change or beat be part of the entire Charter review and I felt at that time well we're gonna go into the Charter review let's change it then and we can move it on to the legislature and I was proud to with Alderman Zwerchel to be a member the alderman Representatives of the charter view commission and at that time um i don't want to speak for alderman's work well i think we both supported the name change then as well but here we are today making it through the home rule petition process and i fully support the name change as i did during the charter review committee hearings and and i hope that everybody will appreciate the name change as an attorney i'm used to being called the counselor so it's not going to change too much for me but i think for the public as a whole and as eloquently represented here this evening to the public a comment in the letters we received it's the right thing to do it's right time so I strongly urge the the board to us to establish this in rule in favor of this order and thank you again thank you

▶ 56:10 Scott M. Forbes: thank you I'm gonna approach this at a different angle I have not supported the name change during the past votes and just to bring that into perspective you know everyone has their reasons of why they do what they do based on personal experiences and as a 22 year veteran and retired mass sergeant United States Air Force we are all considered airmen my sister who served eight years of active duty is considered an airman that to us is a universal term so when I always looked at the term alderman I always said that it was a gender-neutral term now I understand that that's my opinion and there's other people that are going to disagree with me and you know what that's okay you know we live in a world where we can have a spirited debate but as long as we remain respectful then you can have the debates the votes will be cast and then we move on to the next door in other discussions I've always said that I would be more in favor of in calling myself an alderman a woman can call herself an alderwoman collectively we are a board of aldermen people did not like that term either because the term alderman does not feel gender inclusive so I understand that so I'm looking on the city of Woburn's website the Woburn is called the City Council there are nine members of the City Council divided into seven wards each ward is represented by a ward alderman and is elected by the residents of the ward there are two aldermen at large elected by the residents of the entire city so there is a city council where you can call yourself an alderman or in our case we can call ourselves alderman and alderwoman i would like to see something like that and as in at least in discussion to see if anybody would entertain something like that i think it represents a common sense solution that brings us into 2019 while still being able to recognize our past and our story and how we got here um that's where i stand i think that we could do something like that for those reasons i will not be supporting the order because i think that there's another solution out there that is better and is still inclusive so thank you alderman mortimer

▶ 58:27 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you very much chairman Letter garabedian um i am supporting this order

▶ 58:35 Peter D. Mortimer: because from what I've heard so far the four ladies who are on this board are in favor of it and if the four ladies on this board wish this board to be called the city council I will support that of course of course I would support that if that's what they want that's what they want to be called I like people to call me what I like to be called somebody has a name that I've never seen before Or I say, how do you pronounce this? And they tell me how they pronounce their name, and that's how I pronounce it. So people should be called what they want to be called, especially with ladies. As a man, I can imagine what it might be like to grow up in a world with these terms. But I can never really know to the core what this might mean to some women and maybe not to others. And the times are changing, as has been mentioned. In 2016, Alderman Infurna and Alderman McAteer Margolis were against this. And they said, tradition. And I was surprised, because I've known them for a long, long time.

▶ 59:52 Peter D. Mortimer: And they are feminist in their thinking. But they wanted to stick to tradition. But to me, a tradition is something you do, not a term, like playing the Thanksgiving Day football game against Wakefield. That's a tradition, something you do, not something you say. And words do matter. Words do matter. I voted for this in 2016, obviously on the losing side at that time. And my views are the same. People should be called what they want to be called. And this is an important term. As Karen Smolin spoke at public participation, she brought up the point that for a long time, about 20 or 30 years ago, we started saying police officer, not policeman. We started saying police officer. And firefighters wish to be called firefighters. They don't want to be called firemen. And that includes the men, too. So we call them what they want to be called. and the ladies on this board want to be called city councillors, so we'll call them what they want to be called. I'm sorry I'm going to get into a little bit of controversial conversation here, but I think it needs to be said. There's some people who say it doesn't matter, and it doesn't matter. Well, if it doesn't matter, they're coming up with arguments why we shouldn't do it. They say it doesn't matter, and then people I approach on the street, we've had all 58 The emails that we got were in support of it, and I think the community is overwhelmingly in support of it. But some of the people who are against it say it doesn't matter. Well, I said, well, if it doesn't matter to you, then let the ladies who are on this board have the name by which they wish to be called. Let that occur, but they say it doesn't matter. And then I've heard the incorrect argument, in my opinion, that well, you have more important things to do. Waldman have more important things to do well you know what we do whatever we need to do we've had two orders before this tonight and we didn't say we have to hurry up and get to this order we have to all right forced all the conversation let's leave let the conversation go we got to get to this order no we gave both these previous orders a full and thorough vetting and that's what we do we're not on the clock like workers at some construction company where they say cut down these 20 trees and the boss comes around at 3 o'clock quitting time and says you only cut down 15 trees well boss we had a problem with the chainsaw well we'll have to cut down the rest tomorrow we do our work we take care of our agenda we're not wasting our time here because twice in the past two months we've stayed here till midnight because we had serious work to do and this is serious work to do it's important to some people but we don't give any other serious work that we have to do short shrift because we're addressing this serious work it's first of all it's not a waste of time and even for those people who do think it's a waste of time it's our time that we're wasting we're not wasting their time if If we have to stay here till midnight, as was proven in the last two months, to get our work done, we stay here till midnight. But this is important, and even if we weren't, the order's before us, it is important. And we take the time to deal with each and every order to the full extent necessary to achieve the best possible results for the city of Melrose. Thank you very much.

▶ 1:03:34 Speaker 2: Thank you. Alderman Zwirko.

▶ 1:03:36 Speaker 7: Thank you, Madam Chair.

▶ 1:03:39 Michael P. Zwirko: Peter, we almost will be here till midnight. No, I think you made some great comments, and I wanted to just add that this certainly is not a distraction. You know, 2019, the ability to be able to pass this order is not only in due time, but there's some historical significance. A hundred years ago, 1919, suffrage movement took hold. Women finally are afforded the right to vote. It's time now that we move forward on this order. I'd also like to say thank you to President Lemmerman for her work on this. When I think of her, I think of the word fortitude, to continue at this and to go forward knowing of its previous failure, but knowing that elections matter, and that in 2017 this board changed significantly, and for her to continue to push this was not only the right thing to do, but it stands to her character. I've been waiting a long time to say this, so basically what I said, it is an old word in Danish that needs to be retired. Tonight we can retire that word.

▶ 1:04:56 Michael P. Zwirko: It has been said also this evening that the term is unique. It is, but not in the right way, and certainly not in a way that I want to be associated with it. Sometimes being the last one isn't a good thing. As someone with the name ZW, I've experienced that from time to time. This is a pragmatic and necessary change. It's about time. I'm happy to support this change once again.

▶ 1:05:20 Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 1:05:22 Shawn M. MacMaster: Alderman McMaster. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to thank President Lemmerman for filing this order. I'd like to thank my colleagues for their comments. And I'd like to thank Alderman Forbes because I think the one thing that Alderman Forbes does is always make it very clear that we can have dialogue and discourse and we can do it in a way where we can agree to disagree and he's been a consistent and a constant voice in that regard that being said he and I also know that we approach this issue from very different perspectives and I say that knowing and as alderman for knows that he and I are very close outside of this chamber and he and I have become very close friends over the last year and this is an issue that we disagree on but we can have a debate and we can be civil and I think it's it's an example of what can be done and should be done outside of this chamber on any issue that confronts the community whether it's a controversial issue or not that being said I've received a lot of email correspondence and I was touched by much of the correspondence that we all received that shared similar experiences to the ones that I've had with my own six-year-old daughter and my daughter just a few weeks ago said to me daddy why have there been no girl presidents and I wasn't really sure how to answer that

▶ 1:06:42 Shawn M. MacMaster: and she watches these meetings to see dad even though she doesn't really want to stay tuned in and she at least from what my wife tells me after she sees me she tunes right out. But at six years old and being innocent, she doesn't quite understand the term alderman. Yet as a six-year-old, she thinks it's comical. It's somehow funny that women aldermen are called aldermen. And she doesn't understand that. So she thinks it's funny. But a few years from now, when she's not six, I can't help but wonder how she's going to feel about it and I tend to think she's not gonna think that it's funny and she's gonna question the term and she's gonna question me as her father when she looks back and maybe wonders you know why I voted a certain way or why you know so you know with with that being said and understanding the importance of this issue to my colleagues on the board to President Lemmerman to President to Alderman Bewtra to Alderman Lipper-Garabedian to Alderman Medeiros I am in full support of this I think it's time I think it's a gender-neutral term and I think the term counselor offends no one so I will be voting in support of this

▶ 1:08:12 Manisha Bewtra: tonight thank you madam chair Alderman Bewtra thank you chairwoman I wanted to with all due respect to Alderman Mortimer wanted to just sort of state for the record kind of in reiterating alderman McMaster's point regarding sort of the importance of engaging in dialogue and respecting dissent we did receive 58 emails there were at least two that I recall maybe a few more I didn't count the sort of yeses and noes the yeses were overwhelming in terms of supporting the change but we have received a couple of alternative opinions and have certainly seen some of those on social media and it's again not a critique of you but I just want to sort of state for the record that we do acknowledge and appreciate all of the feedback that we've received regardless of whether we personally agree or whether that's the way the current is

▶ 1:09:05 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: going thanks I just you know I am also in support of this name change I want to thank president Lemmerman for bringing it to us again and for offering to let folks sign on as co-sponsors as I shared with the constituents who have reached out to us and I want to thank them as well for being so engaged when I ran for the board a couple years ago and was doing door knocking and getting signatures there were any number of conversations I had where people didn't know what I was running for because they didn't know what the term alderman meant and that confusion will not exist with the term and title of City Council I I look for every opportunity to make government feel accessible to the people who live here so that people feel comfortable coming forward and know how to navigate that system maybe that's the former seventh grade teacher in me where in the very first week of school I would call every single parent and introduce myself over the phone because I wanted them to know how to find me and I think that this name is having the name counselor or City Council is intuitive it's self-explanatory and that goes a long way toward encouraging people to be part of the governance of the city so we do have a motion I believe we have a motion on the floor made by President Lemmerman and duly seconded by Alderman Mortimer is there any further discussion all right all in favor any opposed opposed that motion carries and will be recommended to the full board our final order on the agenda tonight is order 2 0 1 9 dash 81 a home rule petition to amend section 3 dash 10 of the Charter of the city of Melrose we are still