Public Comment

Transcript (~10 min @ 1:26:30)

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

▶ 1:26:30 Speaker 3: It's within the department, so that's roll call six. And this one, which one?

▶ 1:26:43 Speaker 3: That's a roll call eight. We've got eight here.

▶ 1:27:02 Peter D. Mortimer: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We are reconvening the full board of the Melrose Board of Aldermen. We recessed this to return to the Appropriations Committee earlier, and now we are back in session for the full board. At this time, the Chair would welcome, excuse me, the President would welcome a motion to open the floor for public participation for the full board. So moved. Made by Alderman Lemmerman. Second. Seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor of opening the floor for public comment, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, hearing none, the floor is now open for public comment for any agenda item before the full board.

▶ 1:27:46 Speaker 1: Seeing none, motion to close the floor.

▶ 1:27:47 Speaker 3: We have some.

▶ 1:27:48 Speaker 1: I'm sorry.

▶ 1:27:51 Speaker 3: What would a night be without Jerry?

▶ 1:27:55 Speaker 3: Good evening, Mr. Morales. Good evening.

▶ 1:27:56 Speaker 4: Hi, I'm Jerry Morales.

▶ 1:28:00 Speaker 4: Before I speak about the issue, I can't speak. I wanted to, there are often times when public

▶ 1:28:10 Speaker 4: comment kind of is inappropriate in the middle of another issue. And I've asked at various times to delay public comment in a meeting so that I don't interrupt a different, more sensitive thing that occurs. And it's always been told to me that you can't do that, you always have to do it. And it's awkward to come here and speak about a different issue in the middle of another issue. And I expect it was inadvertent tonight, but I'm pleased that you violated Rule 21C of the board and not holding public comment in your recess before. And I'd like maybe for the board to somehow structure that, that you can actually do that legitimately at occasions in the future. I wouldn't have spoken tonight if you had had the public comment earlier. I am here to speak about an item on your agenda tonight about the removal of snow from public sidewalks by private people.

▶ 1:29:13 Speaker 4: And there are a number of problematic issues in my mind about that. I know it's going to go to the Committee on Public Works. But it's always difficult to figure out when meetings are going to be held. And given the practice of posting meetings maybe 49 hours before the meeting, it's hard to figure out when meetings are happening. And I wish that even if a meeting agenda isn't finalized, that a meeting can be posted so we can see when it will be, even if the agenda isn't finalized. I appreciate that. But in terms of the snow ordinance, I do want to get a couple things on the table here. before it gets referred to the committee so they can be prepared to deal with it. In every community I've ever lived, I've always tried to help out people who are incapacitated for one reason or another to clear the sidewalk for them and do what I can. However, in the process of doing that, I know many people that aren't able to clear their sidewalks. And we do have a number of wonderful people in Melrose who volunteer to help and do things. But to make it mandatory that every person has to clear a public sidewalk, I believe is inappropriate. And if it's a public sidewalk, if you go to that point, it's a slippery slope. But we've got to now say, in a time of financial crisis, now you have to clear half the street in front of your house. Where does it end? But the public way is the public way, it's just the responsibility of the city. And if the city wants it cleared, there's a mechanism for the city to clear it and to pay for it. And it does come down, I know it would take money. But the city has to determine its own priorities in terms of whether clearing the public sidewalk is of such a public benefit that it's important for the city to fund it with our tax dollars.

▶ 1:30:58 Speaker 4: You know, the idea of exempting people who don't have sidewalks is another disincentive for people to have betterments and install sidewalks.

▶ 1:31:13 Speaker 4: We want the city to be walkable, we want to get places. In general, most people clear their sidewalks. And for most of the complaints that I have heard of and that I have myself, some of the larger obstacles while clearing a sidewalk is actually due to actions of the city public works or their contractors in terms of closing in corners on streets, in terms of dumping bucket loads of snow onto the city sidewalk in front of somebody's house, that now you're going to claim that that person's not responsible to remove. The other issue about that the city can issue a $50 fine to anybody who doesn't clear the snow within 12 hours, and it's a little bit problematic language saying sunrise to sunset. As it's worded, maybe I'm misunderstanding it, but that kind of onerous fine structure, well as the fact that the city can then arbitrarily pay somebody to do it and charge somebody a hundred or two hundred or who knows how much dollars to shovel the sidewalk because the city engineer decided it needed to be shoveled and then the question is is that when the city clears the sidewalk itself is it then providing a benefit to the private people in the private businesses

▶ 1:32:28 Speaker 4: Is that an issue in terms of the city providing a service for some kind of people while all the other people are comfortable in the city not providing that service? There's a lot of difficult issues here. I don't know why Alderman Wright, who's not here tonight, keeps putting these things up. He did it last year as well, but there will be more conversation about it, I'm sure. Or, I just want to get it out on the table here now, in case I'm not able to make it to whatever the public works meeting is. This is one of the hotter days of the year today, September 6th, and hopefully it's cooler when we go outside. But I don't know what the intent of Alderman Wright is, and apparently Alderman Zwirko is a sponsor of this one as well. I don't know what harm they're trying to remedy with such an onerous burden on the residential people of Melrose, elderly people, incapacitated people, people who don't have the time, they work all the time to pay their taxes. They don't have the time to be there to clear the snow when you want it cleared, even if they intend to clear it later. These are all issues and I want to be clear that not everybody in Melrose can afford just pay a private contractor to go and clear their sidewalk floor. And that seems to be an attitude that comes from the city a lot, that anybody can just pay to have something done. And I know many people who cannot do that, cannot afford that, despite with all the work that they do to pay their bills, they can't afford to do that. And to expect that somebody who can't physically do it can then just pay somebody is presumptuous. So thank you very much for your time.

▶ 1:34:08 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you very much, Mr. Moroz. Did you put your address down there on the record? Just later for the clerk.

▶ 1:34:14 Speaker 4: He got me.

▶ 1:34:23 Peter D. Mortimer: You don't need to say it out loud for the public.

▶ 1:34:28 Peter D. Mortimer: Good evening. Good evening, Acting Mayor Zwirko.

▶ 1:34:32 Speaker 4: Mike Zwirko, 100 Derby Road.

▶ 1:34:35 Michael P. Zwirko: Thank you for allowing me to speak here this evening. I'm speaking in regards to the resolution that was filed by Alderman Butcher that was just recently passed unanimously, recommended for passage at the Appropriations Committee. First, I'd like to say thank you to Alderman Butcher for bringing it up for us. It's not only timely, but it's also important. I also want to say that I don't think that we should be here tonight talking about this.

▶ 1:34:59 Speaker 4: Unfortunately, we have to be here tonight talking about this.

▶ 1:35:04 Michael P. Zwirko: As Alderman Forbes said earlier and other speakers, in 2014, we, City of Melrose, put in these ordinances.

▶ 1:35:16 Speaker 4: We're now reaffirming them because there's an effort by some folks to go backwards.

▶ 1:35:22 Michael P. Zwirko: I know we're not going to do that here, and I'm proud of that. And I wanted to speak in favor of this, as I'm not able to join you this evening. These folks aren't asking for special rights, they're asking for the same rights that we all enjoy. We've said earlier that our motto needs to mean something, and it's something that I take very seriously, and I know that we all do. And we want people, especially in this time, to feel comfortable and to feel welcome here in the city of Melrose. And unfortunately, right now, a lot of people, especially with this pending ballot question, are very scared.

▶ 1:35:56 Speaker 4: These folks are in our schools, they're in our houses of worship, they're on our streets, they ride the buses with us.

▶ 1:36:04 Michael P. Zwirko: They deserve that, and I just hope that this sends a message to all those folks that are out there, as well as our own, that we stand up for you, we stand by you, and we support you.

▶ 1:36:14 Speaker 4: Thank you for your time.

▶ 1:36:16 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Acting Mayor Zwerchow.

▶ 1:36:21 Peter D. Mortimer: Is there a motion to close public comment, please? So moved.

▶ 1:36:24 Speaker 4: Second.

▶ 1:36:26 Peter D. Mortimer: Was that Alderman Lipper-Garabedian has made a motion to close public comment. Duly seconded by Alderman Forbes.

▶ 1:36:37 Peter D. Mortimer: Proceeding to the business in hand. All in favor. Pardon me? Take the vote. Take the vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right. Thank you very much. Public comment is now closed.