ORDER-2017-128 : Amending Part I, Section 19.01 of the Administrative Code in accordance with Section 5-1 of the Melrose City Charter to increase the membership of the Commission on Women in the City of Melrose from seven members to nine members.

Transcript (~15 min @ 36:50)

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

▶ 36:40 Speaker 1: on the motion all those in favor aye anyone opposed motion passes the order will be placed on file as we trudge forward here this evening we have three public hearings and at this point in time if we could commence the first

▶ 37:00 Speaker 2: public hearing could you read the order please order number 2017-1 28 amending part 1 section 19.0 one of the administrative code in accordance with with section 5-1 of the Melrose City Charter to increase the membership of the Commission on Women in the City of Melrose from seven members to nine

▶ 37:18 Speaker 1: members motion to remove the order from the table mr. president Alderman Mortimer moves to remove the order from the table the motion seconded by Alderman Lemmerman on the motion all those in favor aye anyone opposed motion passes the order is removed from the table motion to commence pursuant to our administrative code in the event that we are attempting to change the numeric composition of any city committee we are required to have a public hearing this is the public hearing motion on the issue of whether to change the number of commissioners from seven to nine Alderman Mortimer do you have a motion motion to commence the public hearing Alderman Mortimer moves to commence the public hearing motion seconded by Alderman Lemmerman on the motion all those in favor anyone opposed motion passes public hearing is commenced anybody who wishes to speak on this order please come to the center of the room identify yourself and you shall be heard I am

▶ 38:14 Speaker 2: later Williams I'm the chairperson of the Melrose women Women's Commission and I'm very thankful that you're hearing this motion they're basically two two reasons why we would like to go forward with adding two more people one is that we have done quite a bit this year and i reviewed many of those at the budget hearing and you could tell that we did quite a bit of work and we also had quite a bit of work to do in terms of preparing the organization moving forward in terms of the bylaws and and the meeting minutes and all of that organization. And so we basically need more hands because people come and life happens to people and they can participate or they can't. So it would be helpful to go from seven to nine just in terms of having more people to assist. The second reason that we would like to have two more people is we really do want to include different types of perspectives and I think that unfortunately so far we have had the people who have been interested in serving are somewhat similar and so we wanted these two positions in order to basically recruit different perspectives different backgrounds different demographics because the one thing that we as a commission are very committed to is to being inclusive and I have to thank my other commissioners who are here to support us to support this motion because they have done great work this year and I'm very proud of the work that's happened and I think adding two more people would be helpful to the people too because it would you know add and it were a great group of people we work together and those are the reasons why I think we should have two more

▶ 40:36 Speaker 1: people thank you anybody else who wishes to speak relative to this order this

▶ 40:43 Speaker 1: evening second Alderman Lemmerman moves to close the public hearing the motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer on motion all those in favor anyone opposed motion passes the public hearing is hereby concluded when this order was submitted it was not sent to committee it was held on the table here in order to accommodate the public hearing what a request for me to consideration be appropriate mr. president no it's I think it's already before us it's before you I'm just pointing out that it didn't get to committee it's been held here for the purpose of allowing us to hold the public hearing motion for Passed mr. President. Second. Alderman Mortimer moves for Passed of the order. Motion is seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. Is there discussion relative to the order? Alderman

▶ 41:31 Gail Infurna: Inferno. Thank you very much, and I certainly want to acknowledge and thank the Women's Commission for all the work they have done. I've attended, when I could, some of your forums, and they've been very informative, so I think there is a lot of work to be done. I think I would feel a little bit more comfortable and I belong to a lot of different committees one being the bridge where we have the bridge board but then we break off and we have people like the walking the B committee and it brings people on to be working with the Commission let's I'll talk in sense that if it was the if this is the way it would go for the Women's Commission they don't necessarily have to be sworn in commissioners but they could be on board to come on and do some work do the work that you do and help do different forums and all your little tasks that I see your your minutes and your agenda so you know they could work on that but it's also a nice way to get more members stepping up to the plate and seeing how they feel about the dedication and the time that they have to give and that's kind of how the bridge works Maeve does the same thing I'm on the walking committee of the Maeve but I'm not on their board but we all work together so I think there's a way you could still do this without bringing two people two more members on and some of my concerns is one is there is another option to do it and I think it would make the Commission stronger because you would have actually more people involved with these little subcommittees of whoever you want however you want to do it you know what and whatever grouping you wanted to you know put them as sometimes too many hands in the pot as they say with that that's saying too many chefs stirring the pot can kind of not accomplish everything that you really want to get done you've only been in for a year and I know you've been very very active in doing things that I'm just wondering if there is a better way to do that I'm a little concerned about adding two more people on and getting to more people on to make the commitments as I know there have been some people that have dropped off for whatever reason so instead of being a yo-yo maybe starting a subcommittees of a little section and then asking people to join that and then as you know maybe some openings come up they could you know get on the Commission at that point okay we have

▶ 44:05 Michael P. Zwirko: alderman's work oh then alderman lemmerman thank you mr president i i really just had a question and um since the maker of the order is speaking after me alderman lemmerman maybe she could address it i was curious why um we the the orders for nine and maybe doesn't increase it uh to another number um i'm just i'm wondering if maybe in future years uh the commission will decide a similar order will be here to expand it further past nine i looked at the administrative code and for some of the commissions that we have there's no uniform set of commissioners the Veterans Advisory Council has 15 there's another one that I can't remember offhand that has 11 so while there isn't any uniformity in the amount of commissioners that Melrose puts forth I'm just curious why why we stopped at 9 that's my question and comment thank you mr. president thank

▶ 44:50 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: you thank you mr. president I can give a little bit of background on the discussions when the research behind the formation of the Commission was happening which you know when I spoke to several of the other boards and commissions in the city to get recommendations not only on numbers but on several things and when the discussions about numbers came up there was originally a desire to go with the higher number of nine which was similar to when the Human Rights Commission when we spoke to them that was sort of a number that came out with them but the wreck the strong recommendation from those folks that I spoke to was that when you're starting it to go with the lower number because of the need to do all of the administrative work and the bylaws and that that is something that could be done with a smaller group in an easier way and once the Commission is up and running and formed and actually doing the work that they created their goals to be that that would be the time to increase it to the goal number which was nine at the time we do actually I know we have some members here but the the Commission does have some subcommittees they're working on childcare and there are some people who are not sworn members not commission commissioners that are doing that work as well as I believe a student member who is not a sworn member who's come and is interested in the work of the Commission and is doing some of that side work as well thank you mr. president thank you

▶ 46:15 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Alderman McAteer-Margolis thank you mr. president I I think it's admirable that that you are becoming so successful that you need more hands and I think that also the other argument that really convinces me is the idea of adding some more diversity to your group and I think that's a key factor in having this commission especially as it's starting out and I applaud your effort to sort of review whose application comes in and try to get some other interest, some interest from people who might not otherwise have stepped forward. I do think it's a little different than some of the commissions that Alderman Inferno referred to insofar as you are part of the city, you're not really fundraising, but I would hope that you would take some of her advice. And when you do things like, you know, if you get to a point where you're going to do more fundraising or have a particular event, that you'll encourage, as she has suggested, more people to come in and pick up some of the heavy load and kind of the board members be a little more on the oversight management level as well. So I am going to support this order, but I do think that you probably have gotten some maybe good ideas from my fellow aldermen tonight. Thank you.

▶ 47:42 Speaker 1: Thank you.

▶ 47:46 Speaker 2: anyone else okay we have I'd like to I just like to respond you can't respond

▶ 47:50 Speaker 1: unless somebody makes a motion to suspend the rules does anyone wish to make a motion to suspend the rules Alderman Lemmerman makes a second to suspend the rules motion is seconded by Alderman's work oh and the motion to suspend the rules all those in favor you're all set thank you I just wanted

▶ 48:06 Speaker 2: to speak to the suggestions about having more hands and we have subcommittees when we have events we have events subcommittees and people do come to those and another subcommittee that's been formed is the childcare subcommittee we're looking into different resources and we have someone else on the commission chairing that and it has brought in a surprising number of people so they are very interested they bring a lot to the table so I think that I just wanted to make the statement that there certainly are people who are coming in and that we do have subcommittees and I think that the reason we wanted more commissioners is for the diversity aspect as well just as equally important as organization and and another pair of hands also I think that the having two commissioners is helpful because in light of the other numbers that I've heard here I think the Commission for Human Rights has eleven so these are lot of lot bigger and I think seven has seemed small at some times and also in terms of you know what's gone on in the past when we lose those members it takes some time to get people on and one of the reasons I'm here today asking for two more members is when people resign or leave for whatever reason that creates a huge hole which is and that burden is shared by the rest of us so I thought that if we have more members that would help when things but you know thankfully this year it's been great we work together very well and things are good so I just wanted to let you know thank you anything else okay we have a

▶ 50:21 Speaker 1: motion that's been made and duly seconded for Passed ms. O'Shea could

▶ 50:30 Speaker 1: you call the roll please yes yes yes all of an inferno yes he is all the member men yes yes all the MacAtee my gomas yes he is calling the dearest yes yes all of them in Mortimer yes yes all of them in Tremont ozi yes yes all of Yes, President Conn. Yes. Yes, ten yes. That order passes. Thank you. Good luck.

▶ 50:58 Speaker 1: Okay, moving on down our agenda, we have order number 2017-166, petition of National Grid to install one SO pole and one new SO anchor on Pratt Street in Melrose in accordance with plan number 24043322. Motion to remove the order from the table, Mr. President. Second. Alderman Mortimer moves to remove the order from the table. Motion is seconded by Alderman Forbes. On the motion, all those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Order is removed. And at this time, we will commence the public hearing. Is there anybody who wishes to speak relative to this public hearing?