ORDER-2019-44 : Appointment of Allan I. Alpert to the position of Emergency Management Director.

Transcript (~12 min @ 1:57)

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▶ 1:54 Speaker 3: comment is now closed there a motion to open the floor suspend the rules I think

▶ 1:57 Peter D. Mortimer: Read the order, please, Mr. Chairman. Oh, yes, my apologies.

▶ 2:01 Shawn M. MacMaster: We have one item on our agenda this evening. It is Order No. 201944, appointment of Allen I. Albert to the position of Emergency Management Director.

▶ 2:13 Peter D. Mortimer: Motion to suspend the rules that we may hear from the applicant and the mayor. Second.

▶ 2:17 Shawn M. MacMaster: There is a motion to suspend the rules made by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Good evening, Madam Mayor. good evening good evening mr albert good evening thank you both for being here always a pleasure

▶ 2:31 Gail Infurna: to be here this evening um and to come back it's getting taking me a little bit to not see scott over here even when i watch it on tv i'm like scott you know so um anyways um tonight i'm here to introduce um our new uh hopefully our new uh emergency management um director um i came before you when I first got into office with a plan that we was using Ruth Clay as our emergency management director experience has shown that having an existing department head fulfill this role to be really overwhelming most of our employees are already doing the job of two people so the emergency management director has always kind of taken a little less of a priority but in today's world this is not so and I as the mayor feel that it's a priority so in talking with chief O'Leary and health director Ruth clay they also have recommend that this position be a position of its own they served as both of them have served as the emergency management director and both of them gave it their all gave a complete effort and did make some accomplishments but it really needs to be a job on its own we're fortunate to have funding available and I believe you have a memo that came into your IQ m2 Monica were you able to access that I know sometimes timing maybe and so I have hard copies did everybody get to

▶ 4:18 Gail Infurna: see it great so so Patrick put memo together to state that the funding is available in the FY 19 budget because they had budget in an emergency management a stipend from Ruth Clay and since you know she stopped doing this I think the beginning of December I think the timeline was there are funds available so tonight I am here to present Alan Alpert we're very fortunate to have someone of Alan's caliber as he worked for the city of Chelsea as an emergency manager for many many years just recently retired I believe but is looking for a nice 18-hour job to do what he knows best and that is to be an emergency management director so I think we're fortunate with that and I will open it up to questions or an opening statement from mr. Albert I just want to

▶ 5:15 Speaker 4: thank you for the opportunity to to be here tonight and to answer any questions you have and also to thank the mayor for her confidence in asking me to come on

▶ 5:32 Speaker 3: board of the emergency management director yes thank you good evening and

▶ 5:34 John N. Tramontozzi: Thank you, Mr. Alpert. It's a very extensive resume that we have attached to the order. Seeing that you have the experience, it's a very welcome addition to the city. So, I'm correct, this is 18 hours a week? Correct. It does not come with benefits? Correct. Also, when we funded this position through Ruth Clay, we increased her salary accordingly. I assume then that money is now-

▶ 6:14 Speaker 5: That money has come back, yes. All right, good.

▶ 6:17 John N. Tramontozzi: Okay, well, thank you. Welcome. Thank you. I certainly look forward to voting in favor of your application. I look forward to working with you. Thank you.

▶ 6:28 Speaker 3: Alderman Lipper-Garabedian.

▶ 6:29 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Yes. Thank you so much, Madam Mayor, for being here, and Mr. Alpert, thank you for your interest in this position. I'm just wondering what the job search was like. Was there a posting, and how did you search, Mr. Alpert?

▶ 6:40 Gail Infurna: It was posted in Undeed.com. It was posted in the MMA website and various public safety organizations. Then Mary Ann Long, our human resource director, spearheaded a search committee consisting of herself, Chief Kalina and Chief Lyle and Ruth Clay. Great and is the I recall that when

▶ 7:05 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: we met with Ruth Clay in March of last year we added twelve thousand five hundred dollars to her salary to compensate is that what this position is posted for for the year? Correct yeah. Okay Mr. Alpert as my colleague Alderman Tramontozzi mentioned you have a very extensive impressive resume and have done a lot of work in Chelsea I'm wondering when you've considered the the efforts that you under you led there and you've looked sort of at the status of our work in emergency management in Melrose if you have any particular priorities for the coming year that you think um it would be worth it was funny

▶ 7:45 Speaker 4: that was brought up in one of the interviews that Ruth actually asked me what my first priority is and I said that my first priority is to do an overview of what Melrose has and based upon that make my recommendations to the mayor of what her priorities are within that range and then I would start addressing those those programs in terms of in Chelsea in the last five years

▶ 8:10 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: what would you say are some things that you were focused on there or any particular you know accomplishments at the city well I actually under emergency

▶ 8:19 Speaker 4: management wore two other hats one I was a superintendent of fire alarm which meant I was responsible for all fire and police dispatch plus I was the 9-1-1 director so I was very big into infrastructure communication we built a very nice emergency operating center and a lot of the the efforts that that that worked around is community involvement as you know Chelsea has a very highly minority population and those people it's very difficult if they're burnt out of their houses are during a cold spell so we entered into an agreement that we actually have a working shelter and working very closely with the police department the public health department the fire department and Health and Human services we developed a team over the years so again that's one of the areas that we work very closely on is constituent services great that's really

▶ 9:24 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: great to hear one thing that I'd mentioned last year that I think would be helpful is the webpage for management director or group is pretty sparse and I noticed Chelsea you have a number of different resources there and links to places where you know residents can go if they have an issue so I'd encourage you to consider that in the coming year yes yes and I also noticed that you are incredibly involved in the city even outside of your professional responsibilities and I encourage you to also be involved here in Melrose I am a

▶ 10:05 Speaker 4: community person that's great thank you very much and a 45 year Rotarian which I

▶ 10:12 Speaker 3: plan to make some meetings here in Melrose Alderman Medeiros thank you

▶ 10:14 Monica C. Medeiros: thank you very much thank you thank you mr. Alpert I have to echo the sentiments that have already been said you have a very impressive resume I just want to thank you and thank the mayor for making this a priority I really I think this is so important and I'm glad to see that this position is getting the attention that I believe it deserves and it will yeah I think the attendance for

▶ 10:40 Gail Infurna: him to start in February 25th and we really felt you know the winter the cold weather this is when we really need someone on board so we you know unfortunately the holidays kind of got in the way a little bit and whatnot but we're all set now to you know begin on February 25th I say you you have

▶ 10:57 Monica C. Medeiros: definitely very considerable well-rounded experience I'm also happy to of your experience working with mystic valley elder services and um know that you know we do

▶ 11:12 Speaker 4: have a rather large uh yes well i i sit on the board and and they're part of my evacuation team that when there is a fire and we have to evacuate or even even relocate people uh from some of the high-rise buildings that that are even housing authority buildings due to heat or other issues we have a team that comes to the facility and prior to Mystic Valley it was Chelsea we've been with her poem care but since the merger it's the

▶ 11:40 Monica C. Medeiros: Mystic Valley elder services and I hope it's it's been some time since we've had to do this but in the past we have had to certainly evacuate some of our buildings and in fingers crossed yeah fingers crossed and times for flooding and other areas and you know obviously that's something that's very important do you have any one of the things that's sort of near and dear to my heart and I would love to see return of the Auxiliary Police which we had a great group for a while of volunteers and I think they certainly helped in this

▶ 12:18 Monica C. Medeiros: department and I guess maybe you know through you to the mayor I'd well in

▶ 12:22 Speaker 4: years we noted thank you yes in years past it was funded through emergency management but it was greatly under the auspices of the police department and they basically took the lead on it in all the communities thank you thank you

▶ 12:42 Shawn M. MacMaster: motion to recommend for passage second Thorp a motion to recommend for passage made by alderman mortimer oops i'm sorry on discussion i'm sorry Alderman Zwirko.

▶ 12:52 Michael P. Zwirko: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not a member of this committee, so I just had a point of inquiry. It does say in Mr. De La Russo's letter here from the city auditor that we do have the funds available for transfer to address this within the existing budget. It just doesn't say where the funds are available from. So if we could just get that clarification by the time this comes to the full board, I'd appreciate it.

▶ 13:17 Shawn M. MacMaster: Thank you, Alderman Zwirko. so Thorp a motion to recommend for passage made by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman

▶ 13:27 Shawn M. MacMaster: boisselle on discussion seeing no discussion all in favor aye any opposed hey sir um so this uh this carries sir uh you do not need to come to our next meeting this will be recommended for or is recommended for passage it will go before the full board um again not necessary to attend unless you would like to thank you thank you for being here thank you madam mayor thank you thank