ORDER-2018-4 : Adoption of the Revised Ordinances for the City of Melrose

Transcript (~10 min @ 17:12)

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

▶ 17:09 Peter D. Mortimer: The next order we have before us is order 2018-4. It is adoption of the revised ordinances for the city of Melrose. We are under suspension and I will ask our city clerk and our city solicitor come forward.

▶ 17:29 Peter D. Mortimer: Good evening Mrs. O'Shea, good evening Attorney VanCampen.

▶ 17:36 Speaker 3: Good evening Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman if I may by way of opening remarks for the members of the committee. So this order is the culmination of an ongoing effort to revise and update our code of ordinances. members know many years ago we adopted a new city charter which is now a 12 year old city charter and at some point following passage of the city charter we enacted an administrative code that administrative code governs the administrative functions of the city of Melrose currently we have a conflict between the administrative code and our general code of ordinance with respect to those agencies, those boards and commissions, those departments that fall under the administrative code. So for the last several years when I've been called upon to offer an opinion about a particular matter involving one of those provisions of the ordinance, I've had to give the administrative code superseding effect over the code provisions that may be in conflict. So one of the goals of this process has been to avoid that issue going forward. And what we've done is working with general code, working with the city clerk's office, we've worked with all departments in the city to look at our code of ordinances to determine what sections now fall under the administrative code, what sections are no longer necessary because they're archaic and frankly not applicable any longer. the end of the day general code came up with a manuscript that established for us where all the changes are to be made so what you have attached to the order i believe is a summary of all of the

▶ 19:22 Speaker 3: changes that if this board passes this order would be made to those sections of the city ordinance and again just to stress the purpose of this exercise and i understand Thorp an ongoing discussion about the charter review process I understand this to be another meeting about that at some point but the purpose of this was to ensure that our code of ordinances and our administrative code could be read and interpreted in harmony currently they cannot so passage of this order would make those changes would revise those sections of the ordinance and would

▶ 20:08 Peter D. Mortimer: bring the two into harmony and we had to entertain any questions members may have mr. chairman thank you very much mr. van Kampen mrs. O'Shea do you have

▶ 20:16 Speaker 4: anything to add very good thank you I'll throw it open then to the horseshoe for

▶ 20:21 Peter D. Mortimer: questions and comments alderman Medeiros please thank you thank you very much

▶ 20:33 Monica C. Medeiros: both for being here today this is I know this has been a long process when you refer to general code that's a consultant is that correct so I refer to

▶ 20:42 Speaker 3: the general code of ordinances as the what some may refer to as the revised ordinances of the city of Melrose general code is an outside consultant who sporadically publishes our ordinances online and in hardcopy version and they also worked with the city clerk's office in creating the manuscript that is the result of this summary you have before you and all of

▶ 21:06 Monica C. Medeiros: these proposed changes these are really changes that in essence have either been voted on by the public in the Charter change vote in 2005 and then the city administrative code vote that that we've taken as the Board of Aldermen to

▶ 21:27 Speaker 3: correct to an extent that's sometimes 95% correct so are there Thorp new

▶ 21:31 Monica C. Medeiros: changes in here that are outside of what's already been voted on yeah when I

▶ 21:39 Speaker 3: when I say 95% correct the other 5% are ordinances that have been revised since the administrative code but haven't been published because we've been working on

▶ 21:51 Monica C. Medeiros: this process so nothing here is a new substantive change to how we do business in the city this is really truly an administrative house clean house

▶ 22:04 Monica C. Medeiros: cleaning function at the end of the day if I leave here tomorrow and a week from now somebody's you know not gonna say like oh my god I can't believe you changed yesterday we could do this today we can't because no this document no

▶ 22:14 Speaker 3: you're codifying what we've been doing for a number of years in the city of

▶ 22:20 Monica C. Medeiros: dollars and and so and so general code is a consultant have we have we paid for this service already have a contract with we have a contract with them and is

▶ 22:36 Monica C. Medeiros: that ongoing it's all going yeah so we pay for that every year out of the city

▶ 22:40 Speaker 4: clerk's budget or out of the yeah we'll have a reserve fund today from time to time put money in that account to pay for this project and in the budget every

▶ 22:54 Speaker 4: year you'll notice we get maintenance and then if Thorp any leftover we encumber the

▶ 23:01 Speaker 3: funds for this project but in addition to that general code will also on an ongoing basis republish our online version I think it's on a quarterly basis so if the alderman pass ordinances as we go on a quarterly basis that online version will be in almost real time so that when people look at our ordinances online they're good they're going to see the ordinance as up-to-date

▶ 23:25 Monica C. Medeiros: as possible with those revisions and so in the past we used to have a big green book you're gonna get you're gonna get another big green book you know

▶ 23:34 Monica C. Medeiros: periodically would get an envelope full of ordinance changes and we have to take things out again but we haven't had that for quite some time now and everything has been online so we're going to get another we're going to have both we're going to have

▶ 23:48 Speaker 4: book form and it's going to be electronic as well okay and so somewhere in the clerk's office we're

▶ 23:57 Speaker 4: keeping so what's going to happen when this passes it's going to be electronically right away if it passes and then they're going to hold and publishing the book until the charter review of the charter has been passed whatever recommendations or any revisions you make

▶ 24:17 Speaker 4: then the book will get published but the holding law publishing the book until any revisions might be made because of this charter review okay and the the cost of publicing

▶ 24:31 Monica C. Medeiros: publishing the book is all part of the contract okay all part of the contract and so when it's done we should all bring our books in and recycle them thank thank you very

▶ 24:40 Speaker 3: much Thank You alderman Medeiros any further alderman wishing to be heard

▶ 24:42 Peter D. Mortimer: president Kahn please followed by alderman Forbes yeah when we step when

▶ 24:46 Speaker 1: we started with the Charter revision and the adoption of the administrative code

▶ 24:56 Speaker 1: and all of that stuff at that time we thought we were going to have our changes in real time on the internet and everything was going to be updated and to be honest with you it's made me nervous and concerned over the years that sometimes that we're not updating everything so this is finally going to put us you know back to the future where we should have been so I think this is a this is a good step forward I'm glad this project is completed may I take

▶ 25:23 Peter D. Mortimer: that as a motion to recommend for passage president president con has made

▶ 25:27 Scott M. Forbes: a motion to recommend this order for passage to the full board duly seconded by alderman boy cell is there any further discussion all the guests all of them at Forbes sorry thank you just a quick question and I know you said that this is basically just general housekeeping when you have certain sections that have been deleted chapters that have been deleted altogether just For an example, Chapter 71, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building, Chapter 79, Veteran Services. The reason why these chapters were deleted is because were they deemed obsolete or just updated over time where these were not necessary anymore? Can you explain that? Yeah, give me an example, Alderman. Did you say Chapter 71? 79, Veteran Services.

▶ 26:12 Peter D. Mortimer: Just bear with me. I think they're in two places. Yeah, so veteran services as an example would fall under the section of the administrative code that deals with the director of veteran services. Okay. So that those provisions- So it's just a simple shuffle. Correct. It's still in there. It's just- Correct. We're just housekeeping. Correct. Okay. That's all I needed to know. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Alderman Forbes. Seeing no further Aldermen wishing to be heard, President Connors made a motion to recommend this order for passage, duly seconded by Alderman Boycelle. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, this order will be recommended to the full board for passage. Thank you very much for your presentation.