ORDER-2019-10 : Appointment of Karen Smolens, 10 Ravine Road, Melrose, to the Melrose Commission on Women for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2021.

Transcript (~6 min @ 12:25)

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▶ 11:00 Peter D. Mortimer: It is 7.33 in the evening, and this meeting is being televised on MMTV. It is also being recorded for future viewing on their website, as well as the city website. That's the city of Melrose website. Is there a motion to open the floor for public participation, please? So moved. We have a motion to open the floor for public participation made by Alderman Forbes, duly seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. All in favor of opening the floor for public participation, committee members please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the floor is now open for public participation. If there are any members of the public wishing to come forward to comment on any item on the agenda for this committee, this committee only, they may come forward and do so now to make some public comment. Seeing nobody coming forward, Alderman Lemmerman has made a motion to close public comment. Truly seconded by Alderman Forbes, all in favor of closing public comment, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, public comment is now closed. I am the chairman of this committee, Peter Mortimer, the vice chair is Alderman Jennifer Lemmerman. Voting members are Alderman Boycelle, Alderman Medeiros, and Alderman Forbes. Non-voting members present this evening are Alderman Tramontozzi, President Search, Alderman Bewtra, and Alderman McMaster. The first order on our agenda this evening is order number 2019-10. It is the appointment of Karen Smolens from 10 Ravine Road, Melrose, to the Melrose Commission on Women for a three year term. Said term to expire on the last day of February 2021. Trustee Alderman Forbes has made a motion to open the, excuse me, to suspend the rules. It will be seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. All in favor of suspending the rules, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, may we now hear from the candidate for appointment and from our mayor. The candidate for appointment is Karen Smolens, as just mentioned. And our mayor, of course, is Alderman, excuse me, Alderman Infurna, I almost said, is Mayor Infurna. Thank you.

▶ 13:20 Peter D. Mortimer: Good evening Ms. Smolens, good evening Ms. Williams, good evening Mayor Inferno.

▶ 13:24 Gail Infurna: Thank you to the Board of Aldermen. It's always a pleasure to come back here, and it's always a pleasure to come back with employees that want to serve and volunteer on our commissions. Tonight I'm here to introduce Karen Smolens, although she doesn't need a lot of introduction to most people. She comes to the commission with an extensive experience in the non-profit sector. She grew up in Melrose in a family that exemplified community involvement. father Irving smallins was a d-day veteran and an active participate in our veterans activities her mother Edith was a teacher in our community as well as a community activist and a true role model for any woman who wants to change the world Karen worked for Mystic Valley elder services and since 1989 she has worked for the Boston psychoanalytic Society and Institute where she fills a variety of roles she has already begun thinking about new issues for the Commission on women to address and I am confident that she will bring both wisdom and skill to the Commission to help them fulfill

▶ 14:29 Speaker 4: their mandate welcome Karen would you like to say anything miss smallins I'm just looking I'm really looking forward to getting involved in the Melrose Commission on women and I'm really excited to be contributing to the community where I grew up thank you very much miss Williams would you have any

▶ 14:50 Speaker 6: comments at this time the only comment we have is all of the commissioners are very proud to nominate Karen Smolin's she's as you've heard had a long history in Melrose and we look forward to having her bring new ideas to the Commission

▶ 15:07 Peter D. Mortimer: indeed quite correct by everybody alderman lemon when I saw you first

▶ 15:11 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: thank you mr. chairman and I was going to ask the question that you asked which was um if you wanted to say a few words about yourself miss mullins but since you did and thank you i just will take the opportunity to say thank you very much for your willingness to step up and serve on the commission um i would certainly agree with mayor inferno that your your family uh needs no introduction in this community and has been so involved i think your parents were some of the first people i met when i moved here 10 years ago and started getting involved with the community and so thank you for stepping up to be part of this commission we appreciate it

▶ 15:43 Peter D. Mortimer: thank you thank you thank you alderman Medeiros please thank you uh you did submit a pretty

▶ 15:46 Monica C. Medeiros: extensive letter thank you i enjoyed reading it um i was hoping that you could share with the board and with the public some of your agenda items for if you have any special interests or any agenda items you wish to push forward as a commissioner uh well part of the reason that um

▶ 16:06 Speaker 4: When Jessica Buster approached me, I'm really interested in the whole life cycle with regard to women. And given my age, I'm especially interested in sort of the sandwich generation of dealing with seniors, which I've done with my own parents, and also dealing with my own issues as I'm heading towards the retirement age. And I think it's really important that people have an understanding of different things that are involved. For example, having a power of attorney in place, making sure that you yourself have a will in place, but that your parents also do that kind of thing. And also to sort of understand what kinds of things are available for seniors and also for people who are trying to help their own parents as they get older. So those are some of the things that I'm really interested in right now.

▶ 17:10 Monica C. Medeiros: Thank you. Thank you. I think those are very important, and I had to deal with some of those myself. And it's challenging to maneuver your way through, and we find more and more women are caregivers and also the ones that end up living longer usually. So Thorp a different set of challenges and sometimes living alone and and managing so thank you thank you thank you alderman medeiros are there any any further

▶ 17:32 Peter D. Mortimer: members of the committee or outside the committee wishing to be heard at this time is there a motion uh recommend for passage by alderman lemmerman duly seconded by second alderman forbes seeing no further discussion all in favor of recommending this the full board for passage later this evening please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none this order will be recommended to the full board Board for passage, you need not stay around, you can leave now. There should be no problem at the full board, they usually follow the committee recommendations. And thank you very much for your service to Melrose. I know you've been a Melrose stand out for years and now we're lucky to have you on our committee. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much.

▶ 18:22 Peter D. Mortimer: The next order we have before us is order 2019-11. It is the appointment of Miles Selina Wenzel, 473 Lebanon Street,