Public Comment

Transcript (~48 min @ 1:53:10)

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

▶ 1:53:35 Speaker 3: It's like 200 feet. Yep. Just in case you need the points on it.

▶ 1:53:45 Michael P. Zwirko: evening the full board alderman for the city of melrose is now back in order from our earlier process uh at this time we did not yet convene the public comment portion of our full board meeting

▶ 1:54:00 Peter D. Mortimer: um chairman motion over the floor for public comment mr president Thorp been a motion made

▶ 1:54:03 Michael P. Zwirko: by alderman mortimer to open up the floor for public comment has been seconded by alderman Boisselle all those in favor aye aye opposed this is the portion of our meeting where any member

▶ 1:54:14 Michael P. Zwirko: of the public who is with us this evening may come before us with their name and address speak on the orders that are before us this evening anyone force willing to speak hello again hello

▶ 1:54:30 Speaker 2: again just to clarify the uh order that was just passed or recommended for passage in the uh committee is going to be taken up at this meeting now that correct um so again i'm lee schlanger from ward 1 or street uh the comment i wanted to add before uh was that the i listened carefully the words of the gentleman from dpw engineering department as well as some of the pictures that were sent around and things online they seem largely to be commercial areas uh which are are covered by our current ordinance or the church qualifies that commercial area certainly mixed-use areas if there are residents multi-dwelling residences another what's not one or two families owner-occupied but rather apartment buildings senior citizen places and so on those in my mind should be covered by our current commercial ordinance or if not we certainly I think should amend so that all those areas on Main Street and everywhere else are covered those are problem areas and and the areas on the corners that are cloud over those are the problem areas but not something that uh is naturally fall in snow and that that someone could a resident could be responsible for themselves and the comment about it maybe depends what part of the city you're from that's sort of the same thing i'm saying the mixed use and commercial areas have a problem here and we should make sure that oak grove is covered and everything else that's the area that the city has sidewalk uh routes and if they don't we should um but the the residential areas that are not like that um again i go back to my comments before about what if you're away on vacation or any of those other things um so i understand uh i'm kind of lost as to where we are with the audience right now frankly with the the amendments that were proposed and then not adopted and so on and i strongly suggest you you table this uh for this meeting uh issue a a brand new text for people to look at for yourselves to look at for all of us in the community to look at and then come forward at the next meeting with clear comments um i understand the intent of what was said to get rid of the fine for residents but the i don't think the text is clear and Thorp several paragraphs that still refer to residences in the ordinance that was there both in the enforcement portion and the proposed ordinance changes that are earlier in I think it's section C and it's not clear that those are being adopted now or not if we're just trying to have the outreach then we should just have something that says outreach and not all these other things about fines or not so I'd suggest having a clear ordinance that that everyone could look at with a republished text but certainly the intent of having an ordinance without a fine that allows people to understand that you know they should be getting to to their sidewalks as I do and as most people do is less objectionable but I don't think we have a clear ordinance right now and all the problem cases that people are bringing up or the vast majority aren't actually covered by the changes that are being proposed here that we need better enforcement of our commercial ordinance as it stands now and maybe inclusion of some things that are not included in the commercial ordinance

▶ 1:58:03 Speaker 1: but should be as i said before thank you thank you sir any other members motion to close oh sorry

▶ 1:58:10 Speaker 1: uh julie de lillo circuit street uh so i'm gonna change the topic i'm gonna go to override um and I spoke before you last week and sent you a little bit of information and just a couple of things to add to it when I looked at the 1 million 850 as a percentage of the 28 million in school salaries that's a 6.58 increase that means you could increase every single person on the school side by 6.58 percent seems a little high when I looked at all the teacher contracts to do that comparison kohlers are about two percent they're anywhere from one to two and a half so to put out there a 6.58 increase seems a little high i've asked you to to push back on this to slow this down to make sure that this is reasonable and with all due respect president work out it's not simple you are our elected officials it is your obligation to put on a ballot an override that is necessary not a want not a wish list but something that is necessary and to make sure that it is responsible and reasonable we rely on you to do that we rely on you to make sure you have the

▶ 1:59:38 Speaker 1: data i've gone and pulled some data um it was surprising to me to see that the bb school can be renovated for 2.2 million dollars when just two years ago we had a mayor tell us that it was so costly we could not recapture that school it would be way too costly it is half of what we paid for those modular classrooms half so now we're gonna we're gonna recapture it we're gonna lose the revenue we're gonna pay 2.2 just to do the basic renovations that doesn't include getting it up and running plus

▶ 2:00:19 Speaker 1: the over five million dollars for the modules doesn't seem responsible and I'll go back to it's hard to believe because the story keeps changing so I am asking again that you carefully carefully consider this and it doesn't have to be now there can be a further election or you can decide this at a different time but you have to get some data I gave you the masters five and the masters 10 for teachers to show you that our teacher salaries are in line with what the superintendent uses as comparables which is the Middlesex League but half of those schools are not comparable but if you looked at that we're not that far off from Lexington we're not that far off from Belmont so

▶ 2:01:15 Speaker 1: for someone to sit and say that our teachers are paid significantly less I want you to look at data it's easy to pull those teach all you have to do is put in Belmont teacher contract Arlington you can pick towns and put the teacher contracts and you can see what those salaries are at every level so it

▶ 2:01:39 Speaker 1: isn't simple it isn't I'm asking you to think about it make sure it is

▶ 2:01:51 Speaker 6: responsible thank you any other member of the public wishing to speak it's nice

▶ 2:02:18 Jessica Dugan: to see you all I'm Jessica Dugan I live at 58 Crescent Avenue I'm here to speak to the override proposal as well and to ask for your support for four years I sat on the other side of this table as a member of the school committee and in In that time and in the years ahead of that, as I engage, and in the years since then, as I tune in and follow very closely what's happening, I've gained complete confidence in two things. The first is that this city is doing everything it can to find cost savings and efficiencies and to maximize revenue sources available to us. I'm completely 100% confident in that. The second thing is that from a budget perspective, Thorp nothing left to give. To maintain the status quo, the level of service that we expect, we just need more revenue. It's actually just quite simple. This should come as no surprise to any one of you. This has been years in the making. For years, we have considered budgets that are less than adequate. For years, we have been extremely creative to make things work. For years, we have made cuts that have had the least impact but are now starting to hurt. And for years, other department needs have gone unmet to fund our schools. At this point, especially after last year's budget process, to need more time to decide on a way forward is irresponsible. The time is now. We have a proposal from Mayor Inferna to consider. This proposal addresses our most urgent and defined needs, and it was created by a team of people, not just the mayor, who are wholly invested in the success of our city. with feedback from this community in a way I have never seen before. Thank you Mayor Inferno for presenting a responsible solution to this looming crisis. There have been concerns raised about this proposal that I feel are off base. It's been implied that our teachers salaries are competitive enough and that the investment proposed in this override is not needed. I cannot understand this. We can compare steps and lanes and colas all day long. The simple fact is that we have one of the lowest average teacher salaries in the state ask any one of our teachers if they could make more money elsewhere and they will say yes not only is this shameful but it presents a huge problem as we try to recruit retain teaching talent one driver of average teacher salary is our contract every three years Melrose invests in a new teacher contract the last contract was a smart investment and the best we could do if you remember our community had just rejected an override and our revenue remained extremely limited the new teacher contract took everything we had and it was targeted at the steps and lanes with the most critical salary discrepancies but to imply that that investment we made three years ago was enough and that we can sit back now and let it ride out is just plain wrong each negotiation with every one of our unions represents an important opportunity to move forward and now after three years years our teacher contract negotiation begins again another driver of our low average teacher salary is that we hire teachers with limited years of experience this places them on the inexpensive side of our steps and lanes and provides an opportunity to save money when more experienced teachers leave at first glance one might think this is a good thing it's a common practice across many school districts but Melrose has used this practice to the extreme to continue to maintain level of service in our schools at times it is strategic and smart to hire new teachers not only do they provide a cost savings but they bring a wealth of energy and progressive practice to our classrooms but at the same time to build the staff solely on that practice sets a dangerous precedent our school leadership needs to be more able to hire experience where it matters and to ensure a balance of expertise across our staff that maintains a diverse level of collective teaching practice this is why this override before us is so smart not only will it address these teacher salary concerns but it will provide needed classroom materials space staffing levels and a stabilized school budget together this has a dramatic impact on the working environment of our educators and the learning environment for our students so with that I'd say it's time to get on board we can't sit back pass blame be victims of prop two and a half and ask for more time to study the details we have been studying and working for years the override mechanism is a part of this law for just this reason it was built for cities like ours to be used strategically and at times that make the most sense to us to our community to Melrose so please give this community the opportunity to vote for this initiative and because there has been no alternate solution presented and because we cannot wait please give your full support to this override initiative as we work to educate the community on this smart solution the time is now thank you always for your service every one of you I'm confident that you all want what's best for Melrose I look forward to your vote tonight and I look forward to your support of this override in the months

▶ 2:07:46 Speaker 1: to come thank you thank you good evening I spoke last week I emailed President Zwirko as well as Medeiros earlier this weekend I appreciate them getting back to me we've heard a lot of emotion and passionate speeches about the override you know talking points now I'd like to talk about the facts teacher Sally yes

▶ 2:08:09 Speaker 1: it is it is very low but I think when they look at the teachers salary I don't know if it includes that we pay 84 percent towards the health insurance I don't know anyone in the private sector that gets that if you look at the surrounding communities Wakefield Woburn Stoneham they pay anywhere between 70

▶ 2:08:32 Speaker 1: 80 percent so that's a significant savings for them something that we're not even considering i mean if we just went down from let's say 84 to 80 percent looking at the total payroll for the um the total health insurance cost for the city of melrose uh you're looking at easily a half a million dollars worth of savings per year perhaps people don't like talking about that it doesn't fit the narrative for this override to pass um the second re the thing i'd like to talk about is again the salaries are low and i think something should be done there no doubt about it but is that 1.8 million um i think someone spoke earlier a six percent salary increase um you know i don't know what the plan is as far as the superintendent allocating any raises but to say it's for retention i'm not sure if that's necessarily accurate according to the state department of education for the most recent school year that ended our retention rate for teachers is 87 state average is 85 so teachers are staying in melrose for something other than salary and i think that's something we need to take into consideration um so i i say you know let the

▶ 2:09:47 Speaker 1: let the people vote um but i also think it's hypocritical for this board to say let the people vote i mean as i said uh last week when i spoke here um this board would not let these citizens vote for the net for the um the mayor because we all know dolan uh effectively pretty much resigned in december but his last day wasn't until february was stretched out until february to present the prevent a mandated uh special election under the city charter um so yeah we can say let the people vote but they never the people never got to vote for a mayor who would present um an override plan and the other issue i'd like to say about the override plan why i i think it's a fool's errand um we couldn't pass 2.25 million override last time now we're going to more than double down and go to 5 million but Thorp been no analysis on on what would what would pass i mean we look at uh look at a town like reading they had an override that that failed and then 18 months later they had one that passed the original one was 7 million but between the 18 months between the time it it was defeated the time it eventually passed they They did surveys of people. What number would you feel comfortable with? And the number they figured was four million. Thorp been no type of analysis. And I just think that we don't know what's gonna happen here. It's like the mayor's playing the lottery. The other issue I'd like to talk about is, as far as the timing of the special election.

▶ 2:11:24 Speaker 1: We had 73% voter turnout this past election. Absolutely incredible. I mean, yes, it was a midterm election, but I don't think there was any elections, really, in doubt here in Massachusetts, as far as that was concerned. And I think the last override that we had in November 2015 was 44%. So I say, let's have this in November. Yeah, I know Thorp been a lot of publicity about that, but people equate November to election day. You know, maybe the board doesn't care. Maybe if it passes, that's fine, but in my book, the end never justifies the means. Is it worth the expense for the city when they can't guarantee that this is gonna pass? No, yeah, I understand that the fiscal year starts in July 1st, but that's always been the case. It always starts in July 1st. Last time the override was in November, same situation. If we delay this vote until November, It's only going to impact one fiscal year, so that's all I wanted to say, so thank you.

▶ 2:12:34 Speaker 3: Thank you, sir.

▶ 2:12:50 Speaker 3: Good evening.

▶ 2:13:01 Speaker 3: Good evening, President and members of the board. My name is Robert Bell, I live on National Street. Thank you for giving me and the others the opportunity to speak tonight. As I understand what's on your agenda, it's merely to advance the proposed referendum to the spring ballot. I have full faith that a comfortable majority of the Board of Aldermen will vote to allow the citizens to express themselves. To those considering obstructing and delaying the proposal, I must ask why.

▶ 2:13:43 Speaker 3: With all, no, excuse me, we all respect the aldermanic tradition of diligent questioning of mayoral proposal. as one of your duties as the people's representative. However, the override aims to let the people decide. It's not a matter of representative democracy. It's a matter of direct democracy. Thorp no truer test to voters' opinions than a referendum to delay and obstruct as an insult to the voters in Melrose.

▶ 2:14:15 Speaker 3: There are those who state fair questions. Is it too much? Should it be done by special election in the spring or delayed until fall? Why doesn't it include any money for public safety buildings? Is it based on sound analysis of need? These are all more than fair questions and there are many other questions, all of which can and should be addressed during the period between now and the spring. If you're against it, you have lots of time to convince others. you have a duty to allow the people to vote. If you are against it, convince us with your logic and information, not with your obstructionism. Speaking personally, I'm solidly pro-override. Give me a notion that this city, where my wife and I grew up, went to Melrose schools, returned after our educations in military service, raised our children who went through Melrose Schools K-12, who both use their educational foundation at great colleges and have post-grad degrees, the mere notion that we can tolerate being at the statewide bottom of per-pupil spending out of 251 municipalities, that notion is just so wrong.

▶ 2:15:48 Speaker 3: I hope that those who are on this board who similarly benefited from the sacrifices of our parents, our educators, and the community at large, recognize that they have an obligation to honor the legacy left to us to continue to help Melrose progress.

▶ 2:16:16 Speaker 3: there are many Melroseans who have been as deeply involved in every aspect of our city as myself and my wife Melrose did not become the Melrose Miracle the hottest real estate market in the country by accident. The efforts of those who helped bring us to a recognized success story will all go for naught if we do not address the need for better pay for teachers and principals.

▶ 2:16:49 Speaker 3: Few have been so involved in Melrose Real Estate as I have. From representing buyers, sellers, lenders, developers large and small, from contributing to the policies and ordinances which spawned the successful downtown reinvestments, steering Oak Grove Village through the permitting processes, helping create the Washington Street Smart Growth District, in the Essex-Tremont Rail Corridor rezoning, the Affordable Housing Incentive Ordinance, the Melrose Housing Authority, the Melrose Redevelopment Authority, all these policies which helped make us successful, the great results which have benefited each and every one of us who are homeowners, all of this progress will cease if we do not adequately fund our schools. Schools are number one in creating property value. They ask voters to support their own property values. But tonight, I ask you to give us the chance to vote. Nothing more, nothing less. Thank you for listening.

▶ 2:18:13 Speaker 6: Any other members of the public wishing to speak at this time?

▶ 2:18:17 Speaker 6: Good evening.

▶ 2:18:21 Speaker 9: my name is michael so is mine cheers um we continue to talk about this override as simple i think that putting the schools on a level of simplicity is absolutely wrong and we're talking about our future we're talking about our children we're talking about everything we believe in so to sit here and tell me that this is a simple this is simple let's put it to the people well no you're obligated we voted for you we put you in power so that you could you know gather information you could be our voice Thorp nothing more important to me than my kids so i sit here we're talking you know the last override was what 2.1 million it failed but yet the next

▶ 2:19:07 Speaker 9: year there were articles posting about the mcas scores in melrose public high schools soaring soaring so the override fails but yet our kids our kids are prospering so now we have a mayor now i get the charter the mayor is not elected by the people no nothing against the mayor but we are denied we are denied a person that may have a solution that meets the yes and the nose in the middle so we don't get that person to vote we don't get to say that's the person we want to reject the override we get a person selected by a select few to say this is 5.18 million dollars you know when i look at it five point that's six hundred what's that six hundred dollars a year you know private sector people we can barely afford to live here we i moved here i have been here maybe four months i moved here because the melrose public school system is far better than where i came from but now i'm i'm feared that i will be run out of town because i can't afford to live here so is that is that is that the just cause of everyone here is that push everybody out you know have the select few live here have the people that can afford to live here have have the one percenters live here you know i feel that every time i speak i can't speak because every time i speak i'm shut up i'm shut up by the yeses i'm stopped by the people that letter oh yes even though there was no literature written to the law I was stopped you must vote yes how do you vote yes on a law that doesn't have words it's just wind from our lips so we sit here and we say yes it's simple let's let the people vote is that really is that really what we come to it's that simple as Alderman as as presidents as whatever we are it's that simple just to let people say yay or nay to not do your due diligence to provide information to the public to provide data that is that is sufficient I mean I sat here and I listened from day one to to now where people have asked for more information and yet nobody nobody has nobody has stopped to say you know what yes let's take a step back let's wait and let's gather more information so that everybody can come to an educated decision whether what they believe on is real or not let's let's come to a middle ground and figure it out 5.18 million that's insane i'm gonna call i'm gonna call a spade a spade how do we go from 2.1 to 5.8 that's more than double from a mayor that's not even elected by the people where where's the checks and balances is that what is that not what this country was founded on i mean Thorp no checks and balances in melrose massachusetts so yeah i sit here you know my mother my mother supported me my mother brought me through pub private and public schools she had to buy my supplies year in year out so we sit here and we have to listen to complaints about supplies we have to listen to complaints about this complaints about that we never had any of that but my mother found a way to support us and by doing that we found a way to succeed it's not about the teachers it's not about money we can throw money at it it's not about nobility as everything that we found as a principal in our country in our town been thrown to the wayside is everything come down to the dollar bill have my kids come down to the dollar bill are my kids nothing more than a dollar sign is that what this is 5.18 million dollars do i have to sell do i have to sell my kids i mean to me this is propaganda to me this is a scare tactic to me this is this is nothing more than you know what do we fear most our kids failing so we're going to use that failure as some type of epidemic to scare people into voting yes i mean are we really using our children is that what we have come to if that is what we have come to that then i then i fear then i fear my kids joining this school system i fear my kids joining this community and i fear for this community because doomsday which has been brought up about the schools no that's not that's not accurate the doomsday is the people that say oh yes let's use our kids to get a yes vote on 5.18 million dollars because there is no money sign there is nothing that can can pay a teacher to do what they should do a teacher is supposed to be noble it's supposed to be a profession that is not signed not signed by a by a by a blank paycheck by a six percent increase a teacher is supposed to be there to nurture your children inspire your children care for your children but yet we think that the only way to have a teacher in melrose is to give

▶ 2:24:07 Speaker 9: them money i i get nothing else to say i mean if that if that's the case if everything is a dollar sign then god help us all thank you sir anybody else this evening in the chamber that's willing

▶ 2:24:31 Speaker 6: to speak good evening you look familiar but do you mind stating your name you stated for me

▶ 2:24:39 Speaker 7: jerry rose mount vernon street you know i could i could lead a philosophy seminar on the rhetorical devices used in this room the melrose miracle let's start with that does everybody in the

▶ 2:24:52 Speaker 7: city understand that the excessive marketing of melrose the rise in real estate values directly reduces and has reduced our chapter 70

▶ 2:25:09 Speaker 7: reimbursement from the state that acute that apparent wealth that we have in this community of the property values, it actually, as I understand a few years ago, actually became a higher percentage versus the income part of the Chapter 70 formula. All these ridiculous property values have taken money away from us from the state. For those of you that have marketed Melrose to that degree, the Melrose miracle and made all the money off with the real estate agents and the lawyers and everybody else, you caused us to get millions of dollars less in state aid because of what's been happened here in addition to forcing out people who can't afford these higher prices is this what we want Melrose to be number one number two when you listen carefully

▶ 2:25:55 Speaker 7: what people say some of the truth beneath it comes out saying we need more money to fund the status quo well I would assert that the status quo is not serving our students as they could be served Yes, do we have a good demographic with students who have highly educated parents who are also wealthy? Yes, we do. That flows to good student outcomes in general. But our district doesn't do well for the students who don't come from privilege. Our district actually does miserably for some of them.

▶ 2:26:32 Speaker 7: More money isn't the answer here. Changing the status quo is the answer. I have come into this chamber for multiple meetings for more than 10 years, talking about issues about the schools and other things. And nobody has wanted to make one significant change to change what we do and how we do it, rather than just throw more money at it.

▶ 2:27:02 Speaker 7: The mayor's proposal, the $5.18 million, throwing money at something without a competent

▶ 2:27:12 Speaker 7: theory of action is wasteful. The idea that somehow because you offer higher salaries to teachers that, oh, we'll have the best teachers in the world come to Melrose, it's not true. That we'll retain better teachers, it's not about money. already proved that years ago that mellows teachers were being being paid less in other places but good ones stayed here and the idea somehow that because we have all these young teachers and it's

▶ 2:27:45 Speaker 7: because we aren't paying enough money and the older teachers are gone well you know something hello the reality is is that the present superintendent has openly stated to older teachers when I get rid of you I can replace you with two younger ones so don't act as if somehow the current administration of the Melrose schools or the current administration in the mayor's office somehow has a plan to translate the money into better services and outcomes for our students they don't It doesn't happen that great teachers have left Melrose on their own when they stayed here for years prior, suddenly because their money wasn't going up higher.

▶ 2:28:35 Speaker 7: It's not about the money, it's about what we do with it. And when you as a board, when the mayor and the school committee have a proposal about what they will do differently to do better, we can listen to more money.

▶ 2:28:51 Speaker 7: and to say 5.18 million dollars and say that we should just be voting yes on or no on that that is what is an insult to the citizens of Melrose it's clear to me observing this public process over all these years this was a backroom deal it's no longer cigarette filled smoke-filled rooms it's now marijuana smoke-filled rooms right that's what's going on here right Thorp a group of people that got together and said, this is what we want, and we think that more money for raising teacher salaries, and more money for more teachers, and more money to put the Beebe school back online. And as a tangent, yes, we were lied to a couple years ago. We spent more than $5 million renovating, putting in modulars when we were told the Beebe couldn't happen. And now suddenly the Beebe can come online for less than half the money that the modulars were going to be. How many times do you think you can lie to the citizens of Melrose and get away with it? How many times do you think that, oh, it's just about the money. Let's spend money and make the learning commons look wonderful. Let's make the science labs look wonderful. But you know something? None of those things change the quality of education in the Melrose public schools. This marketing, this obsessive marketing of Melrose is one thing that has to cease.

▶ 2:30:05 Speaker 7: and the marketing and just saying oh we just need more money that is the insult to the citizens it's not more money it's what you do with it and Thorp been no proposal about what's going to change again the theory of action what are you going to do and how does it flow from there Thorp a throwing if you throw more money at your contractor do you suddenly get a better addition to your house if you throw more money at your accountant somehow you suddenly pay in less taxes. It matters who you hire, what they do, and how they do it. And so in my view, as I've said a few times already, the insult to Melrose is not having a competent discussion in advance. It's not airing all the views. The roadshow of these listening sessions from the mayor, it was a pre-done deal. The people who were in the back room are in the back here right now. They already defined what they wanted for an override and talked about it. The mayor socialized it and tried to get it there you know I did want to talk also about the soap snow removal on the sidewalk thing here and I want to tie the two together that you know we would never say to the parents of Melrose oh they're your children you pay to educate them we wouldn't say that would we of course not but we say to the people of Melrose who happen to have sidewalks in front of their houses oh they're your sidewalks you take care of them I hope somebody sees the hypocrisy in that maybe not it's about again

▶ 2:31:42 Speaker 7: what we do and how we do it how is the application of more money and I'm not saying more money isn't necessary here I believe it is but there is no amount of money that I would apply in a random way and to know that the bulk of that money except for $750,000 is going to be sucked into salaries which are then that recurring problem that will be here every three or four years oh we need more money because it's all salaries and I want to get to one other thing about the lies that are told in this chamber not in in the school committee realm is where I'm going at here you know I brought this up to the board last June I think last May when you're talking about the budget as I recall there were I think on the school security part of the the end of the year FY 17 on the DESE website I think we claimed that we spent 1.6 million dollars on school security in other years it was like 250,000 210,000 even at those rates I questioned it year after year after year I know that we're not applying that to school security and I want to be sure that DESE has a a separate line item for actual building issues with school security security systems and things around that this is for people mellows has lied for years about what's in that end of the year report to the state of the schools i remember back in 2010 2011 we were reporting we were spending a hundred thousand dollars a year on curriculum materials i knew we were buying none it was a a group of parents that started the city going to actually buy curriculum first in 2005 with math and 2008 with ela we had no we weren't buying any curriculum in 2010 2011 suddenly we spent 500 000 a couple years later right and we actually bought some books what was what was the lie i brought this up in that time frame we were saying we were spending all this money that we knew we weren't so why would we throw more money at an entity of the melrose public schools that's been lying to us about what they've been spending money on already they used to have a huge huge budget item every year that was this thing i think what they called it but it was basically their slush fund for what they were going to use for contractual obligations and various different things for different things that they wanted to do it was all stuck in there and i i wish i remembered right now the name of that category because it wasn't descriptive it was it was not transparent the mellow schools have not been transparent with what they do we don't see where the checks go all the revolving account money that comes into the city into that revolving accounts in the in the schools it is not available to anybody in melrose to see right now is that on the website somewhere what was paid of the millions and millions of dollars revolving accounts no it goes to what somebody wants to do in their private mind

▶ 2:34:48 Speaker 7: and it's not even a school committee function the proposal on the table does not have the basis or

▶ 2:34:56 Speaker 7: basis in fact or a theory of action that would be competent to say that applying this money is going

▶ 2:35:08 Speaker 7: to do something i think a more modest ask with a with a real theory of action would be appropriate before you put this on the ballot and i know you've all voted for this already in your committee meeting but i urge you before you put this on the ballot to the citizens of melrose and make it this polarized and polarize our community again this extreme let's take a step back we have time this doesn't have to be decided tonight for any statutory purpose does it i don't believe it does why don't we take a step back and evaluate for real at this committee level at this board level or send it back to committee evaluate for real what could be done with less money What creative approaches could be done to things? How can we save more money in other ways? How, and this is the key policy thing, policy, and you express by your budget, you express your priorities by your budget.

▶ 2:36:06 Speaker 7: Thorp no expression in priority of policy to just throw money at the wall and hope that something sticks and the kids come out better for it. So I expect most of you, all of you have already made up your minds, But I can tell you that I, for one, at $5.18 million with a suspect proposal about how throwing all this money is suddenly going to make our kids any better prepared for the world ahead of them, it's not in any of the listening sessions or proposals or anything the school committee has talked about in the last few years. So the insult to Melrose is the status quo. just applying more money to the same status quo doesn't change that insult the mellows miracle could be a wonderful miracle we could do some progressive things in education that are more efficient that would be better for our students that would be more future oriented to a new economy in a new world but we don't do it i imagine you're starting to wrap up but you're

▶ 2:37:07 Michael P. Zwirko: i've granted you three extra minutes okay well thank you for that um i'll wrap up very quickly

▶ 2:37:17 Speaker 7: the key thing here is on the schools how can we have confidence that giving more money is going to make anything any different than what it's been done with all the money we've given already and on the sidewalk ordinance it's a matter of fairness and i certainly agree with some of the previous speakers here that you know what you all talked about and amended this in that way it's not apparent to anybody where you're at with this right now i think it would be a flaw to proceed tonight with that for sure you know obviously know that i'm opposed to that ordinance as as it was and that if Thorp any requirement that people have to do it it's a slippery slope as somebody said you know are we going to say oh tight budget year okay you plow half of your street mr morales i'm done thank you thank you any other members of the public wishing to speak

▶ 2:38:13 Speaker 1: at this time you know Alice Golub 15 Howard Street one of my big mantras is with privilege comes responsibility we have a huge privilege to live in the United States of America in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the city of Melrose we pay taxes to the United States of America in this form of federal income tax we pay taxes to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the form of state income tax and last I checked we never have a chance had a chance to vote either on the federal on the state budget that is the job of the elected officials and whether we like those budgets or not it comes back to us either in cuts or surpluses and taxes that we have to pay now as citizens of Melrose we are given the privilege of being able to vote whether we are in favor this or not in favor of this something that many people complain about that they can't do it either the state or federal level I would urge the aldermen to put it out there to the citizens of Melrose sooner rather than later nothing can be gained by waiting this is a critical mass issue I know in in my little neighborhood for the last seven or eight years i've been attending the neighborhood block party the first year i went there were maybe three children under the age of five now the last block party we probably had 25 children under the age of five why are they coming to melrose because we have something wonderful to offer them we've attracted them here And it's our responsibility to provide them with the services for which they move to this wonderful city. As far as the timing of the election, I lived in a community for many, many years that had open town meeting. The open town meeting was held in the spring. If there was nothing interesting on the ballot, very few people showed up. When there was something major, such as an override vote, it was standing room only in the auditorium. if people are interested they will come out and vote but let's leave it to the people and i urge you to put this on the ballot for an april vote thank you thank you

▶ 2:40:40 Speaker 6: any other members of the public willing to speak at this moment

▶ 2:40:43 Peter D. Mortimer: motion to close public comment mr president second then a motion made by alderman mortimer to close

▶ 2:40:46 Michael P. Zwirko: public comment has been seconded by alderman forbes all those in favor aye any opposed