Public Participation

Transcript (~4 min @ 23:20)

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

▶ 23:13 John N. Tramontozzi: I entertain them. Just for the record, this hearing, this committee meeting is being recorded. pursuant to the message Commonwealth of Massachusetts open meeting law.

▶ 23:26 Speaker 10: Motion to open the floor for public participation.

▶ 23:28 John N. Tramontozzi: Second. So we have a motion by Alderman Forbes, seconded by Alderman Zwirko, a motion to open the floor for public participation. Anybody in the public who wishes to come forward? We see a gentleman coming forward. Sit at the table, state your name, address, and proceed to speak.

▶ 23:48 Speaker 11: hi my name is Jerry Moroz I live on Mount Vernon Street 62 I'm here to comment about the order and I don't know if I have the number one to 2017 dash 136 thank you that Alderman Medeiros filed I applaud the intent of this order is to be able to have the public be able to attend meetings that are relevant for and i appreciate it very much um i'm sure you're going to get some feedback that you know for the the all the large number of city staff on the water and sewer committee that they're not going to be as happy about coming at night for a meeting and that's typically probably why they do them during the day all the time now um you know i think the obvious solution to that is probably to remove some of the city staff off of the water and sewer committee and and maybe have some of the members of the public on there and perhaps someone could propose an amendment to that effect

▶ 24:44 Speaker 11: possibly one related thing that I I'd like to raise while you're looking at rules like this is I do try to attend a number of different meetings of the city and it's very common that not only sometimes they're at an odd time or a time of the day that there's a meeting people might like to attend and that aren't accessible that way but additionally to that is that well i want to say by good example the board of alderman meetings are always posted well in advance as to when the meeting date and time will be even if the agenda isn't there you know when there's going to be a meeting you can rely on it you can know to plan your calendar around that date and time you know the earlier the agenda would get up there even if it's revised later would be better so people would know what the topics are i do see that a lot of meetings like the water and sewer committee meetings which i've tried to attend in a number of occasions um they're often posted you know two days and two hours before the meeting you know they beat the statutory time by a couple hours and and not even to know when the meeting's going to be and to have me constantly you know if you don't look at the calendar for two days you can miss a meeting so i'd appreciate it somehow in the process not only when the meeting is but that meetings are published well in advance number one and number two with water and sewer committee meeting i can probably count three or maybe four times in the last few years that there's been a meeting scheduled and i've either found out when i get there that it wasn't happening or i found out the night before because somebody mentioned at a board of alderman meeting that the meeting wasn't happening the next morning and and although it may seem small and insignificant and in any individual time in fact i've overlooked every one of them in some level but in the aggregate it's another burden of the public against the public to have to go through to engage in the process in the city and so while you're looking at these meeting time issues the meeting you know certainly the access to the meeting is limited when the meetings aren't published and when you know when you do plan your calendar around a certain date and time so that you know that time of the day i'm going to be there at 10 o'clock in the morning for a meeting and then it doesn't happen and then the meeting happens a different time that now i don't have because i re-arranged my calendar that is an issue but again i i thank you for filing this order i think it's a it's a good step and i and i do wonder if you can't have some amendments that would allow more public on the committee to meet at night and and maybe less of the staff that aren't so needed on that committee as a policy setting body thank Thank you. Thank you.

▶ 27:23 Speaker 3: Any further members of the public who wish to come forward?

▶ 27:26 Speaker 10: Motion to close public participation, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 27:28 John N. Tramontozzi: Second. Thank you. Seeing none, we have a motion to close public participation by Alderman Forbes, seconded by Alderman Mortimer. All in favor? Aye. Opposing none, public participation is now closed. We have one order on the agenda and I'll read that. That's order 2017-136. Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228, Water and Sewer, Article 2, Water, section 228-15. By inserting the sentence, the committee shall hold at least one meeting per year after 6 PM. I'll step forth herein.