ORDER-2018-35 : Proposed Revision to City Charter, Article 4, School Committee, Section 4 (b) Term of Office as set forth herein.

Transcript (~7 min @ 17:00)

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▶ 16:48 Monica C. Medeiros: order number 2018 dash 35 it's a proposed revision to the Charter article 4 school committee section 4 B term of office as set forth herein and this you'll have the language would amend the Charter to elect all six school committee members uh beginning in the election 2021 for a two-year term okay alderman

▶ 17:20 Speaker 2: medeiros is moving for passage of order 2018-35 is there a second to the motion second the motion

▶ 17:36 Speaker 2: alderman forbes seconds the motion motion is before you alderman medeiros thank you

▶ 17:38 Monica C. Medeiros: uh thank you very much i brought this forward and i hope you can spend some time to talk about it it and it's it's been a long time talking I guess about the Charter but at the same time it we haven't had that much opportunity to bring things up and

▶ 17:58 Monica C. Medeiros: this change would the main reason for this change is we've seen I think four years is a little bit too long for the school committee I've talked to many people and anecdotally that find that that's a long commitment for a job that that doesn't pay anything and we've seen a lot of vacancies over the last ten years since this has been put in place additionally you know my experience I served on the school committee when we had nine members I thought it was good and we had healthy discussion and a lot of members with different perspectives who who brought things forward I know we all see the and we often bemoan the

▶ 18:36 Monica C. Medeiros: proliferation of money in politics and in elections and the importance of that and when we only have three seats up at one time in the city it raises the stakes and it raises the bar for those school committee members which is kind of required when you have the staggered term you know three at a time and it becomes much more expensive to run and and win one of those seats and it becomes more important sometimes how good a campaigner you are or in the importance of donations sometimes from things like political parties or unions and things like that become actually you know big factors in these little local races that have to do with our schools so I feel would get a more open and broad participation and we would lower the cost of having to run and and therefore have a more healthy system when we had two-year terms with six people elected at once and you know just reading today an article about you know what makes a good committee and one of the things was accountability and you know the biggest thing that makes us all accountable our elections so you know having to come back in a two-year term I think makes everybody more accountable we all get elected two-year terms you know we have a lot of continuity here on this board as well as we do have some new people and it allows for healthy discussion and a wide array of viewpoints to be heard and I think that would be healthy on the school committee too so that's thank you all any further

▶ 20:23 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: discussion all the next year Margolis I appreciate Alderman Majerus his perspective on that however I think based on my several terms on the school committee when it was two years I think it was in some ways more difficult and the concern when we were changing the Charter was that the committee with two years everybody at the same time could in fact easily turn over and this a pretty substantial learning curve on the school committee not that there isn't on this board as well but I think since we're a bigger board we have more resources to to look to with each other I can't really support going backwards on this I think we have done pretty well the last few elections and generating interest in candidates I believe we have five candidates this year for three seats and I just feel that asking the school committee to campaign and every other year and decide you know that they've got to kind of get out there I don't I don't think it's making progress and I think in fact based on my experience I think that the four-year term serves the city and and our voters better than two years so I can't support that sorry anyone else thank you mr.

▶ 21:57 Michael P. Zwirko: president I won't be supporting this particular order merits aside this would be a substantive change to the Charter which would I feel require approval by the voters of Melrose I'm also the timing on this I don't believe that there is enough time to put this on a ballot that's coming up in about three weeks and then you would have to wonder if we would be having an off-cycle election for this question itself which could be costly we did during the charter review discuss term lengths for all seats including the mayor as well as school committee the charter review commission felt that the term lengths for all the offices were appropriate as well as the staggered nature for school committee so i do appreciate you bringing this forward and you know it's it's worth the discussion for those reasons i can't support it Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.

▶ 22:50 Speaker 2: Alderman Forbes. Thank you, Mr. President.

▶ 22:51 Scott M. Forbes: I just wanted to — there was a lot of time and effort that went into the — to everything that we've discussed tonight, so I appreciate everybody's — everybody's discussion and feedback. I know Alderman Medeiros spent a lot of time and effort on this order. I applaud her for her efforts, and there are some things that I actually agree with her on and be able to open that dialogue and have that discussion. However, after careful thought and consideration, I do think that if we're ever going to change the term of an elected office that that would have to go before the citizens of melrose we can do that in this horseshoe and have 11 votes but i really think it's something that we would need public feedback on and spend a little bit more time generating that kind of interest and find out what the actual voters would want to do with those terms so for that i do applaud uh the efforts of alderman medeiros but on this vote tonight i i will vote opposed so thank you thank

▶ 23:43 Speaker 2: Thank you. Anyone else?

▶ 23:49 Speaker 2: Okay, could you call the roll, please?

▶ 23:51 Speaker 5: Alderman Boisselle? No. No. Alderman Forbes? No. No. Alderman Inferna? No. No. Alderman Lemmerman? No. No. Alderman McAteer-Margolis? No. No. Alderman Medeiros? Yes. Yes. Alderman Mortimer? No. No. Alderman Tramontozzi? No. No. Alderman Wright? No. No. Alderman Zwirko? No. No. President Kahn? No. No.

▶ 24:14 Speaker 2: Okay, that order does not pass.

▶ 24:18 Speaker 2: We have currently before you, Order 2017-165.