ORDER-2018-23 : Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228, Section 228-15(b) as set forth herein.

Transcript (~10 min @ 2:32)

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▶ 2:14 John N. Tramontozzi: Public participation is now closed. We have two orders on the agenda, and I'll read the first one. number 2018-23 that's amending mellows revised ordinance chapter 228 section 228-15b that's set forth herein i'll read the actual proposed amendment to section 228-15b of the revised ordinances of the city of meadows there is hereby created a water rate review committee to consist of the director of public works city engineer the auditor treasurer collector and the member of the board of alderman Appointment by the president of the board of alderman and two citizens of melrose Appointment by the president of the board of alderman the committee shall meet at least annually to review the water rate charges established pursuant to this section the cost of operating and maintaining the water system and any capital improvements to the system the committee shall hold at least one meeting per year after 7 pm it shall report its findings in any recommendations to the board of aldermen in conjunction with submission of the annual operating budget that's the proposed ordinance with the amendments to it what is the wish of the committee president khan yeah um

▶ 3:33 Speaker 2: This order is shockingly similar to an order that I filed I think in January or February of last year, and when I filed my order, I felt that having one or two citizens as representatives on the water and sewer rate committee would facilitate the process. That it would allow for citizens to feel that they had more of a role to allow citizens to prevent present information and bring their own opinions to the rate setting committee it seemed to me that it was a good idea and as we debated it the discussion kind of went sideways and the board kind of decided that they some of some members of the board instead of having citizen representation we're So listening to rhetoric about putting four or five or a majority of members of the public on the committee. Which is not a proposition that I supported, nor would I support it now. I thought when I filed the similar order to this last year that it was a good order. And I was surprised that it failed. I think that it would serve us well to have citizen representation on the water rate committee. And I hope that people will support this order, and that we don't get into, well, what I considered, obviously, as usual, what I consider to be productive and counterproductive is not always what others do.

▶ 5:23 Speaker 2: But what we don't want is to create a commission of unelected citizens who set the rate. But we do want to hear from citizens and we do want to empower one or two citizen representatives to bring their views to the commission. So I'm going to support this order. I hope the committee supports the order. I'm disappointed that since I filed my order, we've lost eight or nine months where we could have had citizen representation on it. I hope that we will rectify that error forthwith very good well said any other

▶ 5:52 John N. Tramontozzi: members of the committee who wish to discuss this order any Alderman's work

▶ 6:04 Michael P. Zwirko: oh thank you mr. chairman just a couple things here that now we're looking at this proposed proposed section of the ordinances I'm wondering if we might want to entertain further amending it to discuss the schedule it says here that that the committee shall meet at least annually I find that a little rare maybe the committee could meet quarterly you know there is it does say that they shall at least one meeting per year after 7 p.m. which I think is a time which we amended actually earlier in this legislative session I feel like meeting once at least once for an issue as important to the citizenry might be a little too infrequent I also wanted to just comment that I voted against the earlier proposal which President Kahn alluded to only because that the proposal at the time was for one member of the citizenry now this order has two I do support having at least two members of the residents of Melrose Appointment to this board I'd like to hear some other comments from the members of the committee but I just wanted to make that statement at this time mr. chairman so

▶ 7:06 John N. Tramontozzi: that's all my comments right now thank you any further discussion you know

▶ 7:09 Scott M. Forbes: alderman Forbes Thank You mr. chairman as a member of the water and sewer committee I do know meetings are held at least on a quarterly basis in in when you think about the first quarter from January through March and then March into June when we do set the rates I mean we meet pretty much monthly sometimes twice a month because that's when you know when the budget is coming out and we do have to do address the issue with with the rates so they're established at that time but during off sessions there are meetings that happen on a quarterly basis so I agree with you I think that you know saying that we shall meet once a year I mean it's a valid statement but the truth of the matter is that if we only met once a year there probably be some problems I also agree with President Kahn we should have a couple of citizens on the committee it's always good to have a voice in here further input I do agree I think the conversation got a little saturated when it came to the number of people that were being selected on the committee and it did steer the conversation a little bit sideways but I do agree with the order as it is as this presented today if there was an amendment to hold it at least quarterly i would agree with that but i think that this is uh this is where we should be so thank you any further discussion

▶ 8:18 Monica C. Medeiros: uh alderman medeiros thank you uh yes i agree with the previous speakers that this definitely went a little bit sideways in discussion uh previously and i too at the time did not support because we were hoping to see two citizens versus one uh this order as it's proposed now does

▶ 8:45 Monica C. Medeiros: include two citizens uh i do feel like hopefully i think if we look back in time this committee didn't meet as often and perhaps in some areas uh when we weren't in the midst of budget discussions didn't need to meet that often hopefully someday in the future we'll we'll get to that again but

▶ 9:10 Monica C. Medeiros: once we get our rates under control I think a little bit and get used to the systems that we're in we may not need it but one thing that I do see here that's included is to remove the reporting by the 13th day of April of each year and although I don't want this discussion to go sideways so I will support it as it is I just point out that you know I do hope that we get the report from this committee a little bit sooner and we have not been getting it by April 13th in the past at least two or three years so hopefully we won't get too late moving forward thank you

▶ 9:51 John N. Tramontozzi: well you any further discussion all the men's work off thank you again mr.

▶ 9:56 Michael P. Zwirko: chairman I'll speak for the last time so I appreciate the comments of alderman Forbes and I agree I mean they do meet more than once it's just that the writing is they could meet once and get away with just meeting once annually and I'm a little bit unsteady with that I think having something a little bit more concrete would be applicable here we have the ordinance before us instead of doing this piecemeal I say we make the motion now so that's what I'll do make a motion to further amend said order to strike the sentence beginning the committee shall meet at least annually strike annually to read quarterly as well as the committee shall hold at least four meetings per year second animal

▶ 10:40 John N. Tramontozzi: in the penultimate sentence so we hope before we use it so the committee shall meet at least quarterly to review the water rates and then the license I mean the sense before the the committee at least one meeting per year after 7 p.m.

▶ 11:00 John N. Tramontozzi: at least four meetings per year after 7 p.m. correct so you want for those

▶ 11:08 John N. Tramontozzi: meetings to be after 7 p.m. I mean they haven't quarterly meetings anyway yeah I just meant they're looking for quarterly no idea was to have if I if I made the idea was to have a meeting open to the public later in the evening so the public can participate after hours and that makes sense and you have that

▶ 11:25 Michael P. Zwirko: opportunities yeah I'll withdraw that second amendment based on the the fact we're now putting citizens on the Commission themselves so yeah yeah thank you for that so it would just be the first amendment the shall meet at least

▶ 11:35 John N. Tramontozzi: quarterly at least quarter down to review the water rates any further to

▶ 11:40 John N. Tramontozzi: second the motion to amend all right so we have a motion to amend by all the men's work or seconded by Alderman Mortimer any further discussion on the um amendment all in favor aye aye any opposed okay so now we have an amendment um the amendment uh further reads the com i'm going to just for that sentence the committee shall meet at least quarterly to review the water rate charges etc etc um any further discussion on the motion uh well strike that is there a motion to recommend recommend as amended second has amended there's a motion to recommend as amended by alderman's work or seconded by alderman forbes any further discussion seeing none all in all in favor of the motion as amended say aye aye aye opposed okay so that order will be recommended as amended to the full board for uh review okay thank you the uh second order on the agenda order 2018-27 in order to amend rule one of the rules of order for the murrow's board of aldermen and um well let's see so um so this is a an order