Public Participation

Transcript (~11 min @ 9:15)

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

▶ 9:09 Speaker 8: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which stands one nation under god the invisible with liberty and justice for all

▶ 9:21 Peter D. Mortimer: mr president i make a motion to open the floor for public participation second alderman mortimer

▶ 9:26 Speaker 6: moves that we commence public participation the motion is seconded by alderman forbes before i call for the vote i want to remind everybody that the meeting is being recorded and will be rebroadcast on melrose cable television on the motion to open the floor for public participation all those in favor aye anyone opposed motion passes this is the portion of our meeting where any member of the public can come forward and speak on any item which is on our agenda

▶ 10:00 Speaker 9: for this evening is there anybody who would like to come forward uh and i'll take maybe two minutes um talking regarding the petition on the sanctuary city i know there'll be an opportunity probably to speak at a later time but I wanted to just express I guess my thoughts and concerns around this issue that really in Melrose in my opinion is not an issue but in being careful that we don't divide this city and being the recipient of a verbal chastising by others in this community when I didn't agree with or was a was on the opposite side of them it's concerning to me that we're gonna have this process where we are going to have people who are going to disagree on the sides and this is a very emotional issue for people and so I guess for me it's just I think we really need to be thoughtful on the message we give out and that this is a civil process and that people don't feel that they have the right to chastise or verbally attack or do any of that to the people that might be opposed to them so that's all I had to say thank you thank you anyone

▶ 11:20 Speaker 3: anyone else who wishes to speak this evening hi i'm jerry morose i'm here to speak on the um composition of the water and sewer committee um a couple things from the legal and legislative meeting the other day um you know alderman khan's points you know you're correct that the zoning board the appeals board they actually make final decisions and the traffic commission as well makes final decisions and we populate a lot of citizens on those committees clearly we can trust citizens to do the right thing on the zoning board on the Planning Board on so many other committees in town without having a large contingent of city staff and employees on the committee surely if the water and sewer committee is only going to be in an advisory capacity to the Board of Aldermen I would think you can trust even more to allow citizens to be involved in the process because if somehow you don't like what they've done you have the final say in this room here so you know I as I as I heard the conversation the other night you know it the conversation seemed to go toward from what alderman Khan has presented in his order from two members of the public there now we're down to one member of the public and what I found very strange was how that occurred at the meeting the other night a number of the aldermen said oh well you know we'd like to have at least two on the board and but but all but I'll vote for one because that's all we can get that implies two things to me either people on this board have been talking to think that there's not support for more than one person on the on the water and sewer committee who's a member of the public to go to that and somehow you think that people aren't going to support more than one person and that's why everybody's you know notching it down to say well okay we'll vote for one which was the final vote from the Legal and Legislative Committee the other night. I find that troubling at several levels. I think that you can trust three or four citizens of Melrose to come to a Water and Sewer Committee and bring their expertises, bring their perspectives, bring their sensitivities to that committee that have been missing for many, many years in establishing policy on water and sewer in Melrose.

▶ 13:47 Speaker 3: I don't mean to beat up on how we've gotten to the bad state we're in, where we're the worst in the MWRA, where we have the highest rates pretty much, you know, around the country, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. There's only a couple places around the country other than an MWRA that are even close to us. But we've let the power structure of the city get us to this horrible point. let the citizens have some power have some input have some some way of designing something different that citizens can contribute and support both because if you've established another water and sewer committee that is basically the existing power structure of the city declaring this is what we're going to do well guess what it's the existing power structure the city that that's going to take all the blame spread the capacity around let the

▶ 14:36 Speaker 3: citizens be the citizens let them be have a have a role in the say of what happens in this town what's what's the fear that you have for allowing three or four citizens to be there to be in a majority on the water and sewer committee i don't understand it i would like you all tonight if you're going to vote for anybody anything less than four citizens on this committee i'd like you to express what your fears are of why you think that citizens can't contribute appropriately to a committee as you allow them and encourage them and and are proud of them doing in so many other committees around the city again what is the fear you have

▶ 15:23 Speaker 3: um i'd like to be so bold as to suggest you know right now we have something that's recommended from legal legislative i would love it for one of the members of this board to suggest an amendment to that recommendation that we put four people there and let's let the alderman put on the record

▶ 15:42 Speaker 3: what you really think about the citizens in this community. Have a vote for four. Let's see who votes for it and who doesn't. If that fails, propose another amendment. Vote for three. If that fails, let's see who fails it and who's in favor of it and see what happens. Let's then try two. Let's try one. Let's not have any more of this dynamic around here that, oh, we're going to vote for something. We're never going to talk about why. we're not going to give any reasons for it, we're just going to end up with a certain outcome without anything expressed publicly. The democratic process requires you to take a stand publicly. It doesn't say to you, oh well, you know, make pretend that you want a lot of citizen involvement, but oh well, there's some powers around the room that somehow obstruct you from being able to do so. Please have the courage to come out and support citizen involvement in the Water and Sewer Committee. We found over the years that not having citizen involvement has not gotten us to a good place. It's gotten us to a horrible place. And it's time to let the citizens have some input because clearly there's something missing in what we do here. You know, I was at the school committee meeting the other night. You know, we basically have the highest athletic fees in the state, essentially. We have the highest water and sewer, you know, leaking and up there in rates in the MWRA. which is the highest the state as it is like we need something to change here and for for this board to use the same process that you've used time and again to come to the same the same conclusions that oh we can trust the power structure of the mayor with the dpw head and the city engineer and the the auditor and and and whether the treasurer or not you know it hasn't worked they've they have failed us is what's been happening here it's time to take the water and sewer issues of our city back to let the citizens have input into them

▶ 17:55 Speaker 3: to me it frankly it was almost like a circus the last few years but water and sewer the consultancy had in their hair not even even though they paid a lot of money to supposedly bring expertise here they didn't express expertise and nobody challenged them on it if citizens were on that committee you would have found out for sure what was behind the motivation of what was presented here this whole tiered rate structure putting condos you know you know way way way higher for their water and sewer rates you know there's so many different issues at at at play here that aren't being that aren't being addressed so please again what's your fear about having citizens control the Water and Sewer Committee, which is only a committee that makes recommendations to you. So even if you don't trust the citizens that are on there, you still have the say-so to say, okay, we don't agree, we're going to do something different. It's a recommendation. Why not let more people, a broader amount of people, a broader view of things be represented in the committee to do it? i i um i mean at some level i am challenging you please try to vote for four try to vote for three put it on the record what you really believe don't just everybody say oh well you know i'd like to have citizens there but you know it looks like the board only wants one so we're going to just vote for one i i resent that whole that whole dynamic that that that that seemed to be occurring the other night and i'd like you to reverse that tonight thank you very much thank you

▶ 19:28 Speaker 6: Yes, sir.

▶ 19:32 Peter D. Mortimer: Motion to close public participation.

▶ 19:34 Speaker 6: We need to wait to see if there's anybody else.

▶ 19:36 Speaker 8: Yeah, I took a look.

▶ 19:36 Speaker 6: Please, let's wait a second. All right. Is there anybody else in the chamber who wishes to speak on anything that's on our agenda for this evening?

▶ 19:48 Peter D. Mortimer: Motion to close public participation, Mr. President. Second.

▶ 19:52 Speaker 6: Alderman Mortimer moves to close public participation. The motion is seconded by Alderman Boycelle. On the motion, all those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. Public participation is concluded for this evening.