ORDER-2015-182 : Be it ordered that the Rules of Order of the Melrose Board of Aldermen be amended to add Rule 32B and Rule 32C as set forth herein.

Transcript (~6 min @ 26:21)

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

▶ 26:20 Speaker 7: order 2015-182 be it ordered that the rules of order of the Melrose Board of Aldermen be amended to add rule 32 B and rule 32 C as set forth herein this order

▶ 26:31 Speaker 3: comes from the legal and legislative committee with a recommendation to place on file motion to place on file alderman Tramontozzi moves to place order 215 182 on file second motion is seconded by alderman inferna is there discussion relative to this order thank you thank you mr

▶ 26:59 Monica C. Medeiros: president i will be voting in opposition to placing this order on file this evening this is an order which i filed back in may as a change to the rules of our our board of aldermen

▶ 27:16 Monica C. Medeiros: my intent was to make the way we receive communication more consistent among how it's received among the board and shared among the members of the board of aldermen and also with

▶ 27:33 Monica C. Medeiros: the public i sat in on the committee of the legal and legislative committee of which i was not a

▶ 27:41 Monica C. Medeiros: voting member and i have to say that i found our chairman's comments that evening sort of uncharacteristically offensive that night and mostly the way he clarified the

▶ 27:58 Monica C. Medeiros: communications that we received from the public as being quote most usually opinions puffery and rants and quote this order that I filed would propose

▶ 28:16 Monica C. Medeiros: two changes to our rules and there's been much discussion that perhaps some of this is already being done I do believe some of it is being done two changes one would codify that if a member of this Board of Aldermen requested information in the public meeting that the ant from the administration that the answers to those questions would be automatically made part of the public record and added to our orders in IQ m2 that information by virtue of its nature of course is part of the public record but this would at least make it added to the software that we have in the online meeting portal that is available to all of us as members and to all of the public from anywhere that has access to the world wide web the second part of that would also add communications that we receive from the public the administration and from other entities for lack of a better word for things like that we often receive communications from for instance our consultants call things like that

▶ 29:31 Monica C. Medeiros: third parties third parties okay I'm not a lawyer mr. president but I do know that those communications that we receive and that all communications that we receive here at City Hall addressed to the Board of Aldermen sent to our public emails at the City of Melrose are considered to be public record in and of themselves and this would make it consistently that those communications would be shared in the IQ m2 meeting portal associated with the orders that that are before us I found those comments and that the the communications from the public were considered to just be most often opinions rants and puffery offensive because those are the people that we represent that put us in these seats that our job is to be a representative of the people that are out in the public and when they present their opinions to us that's valuable to me at least and I think that it should be shared with all of us consistently and I think that when we have things that are addressed to the Board of Aldermen they're meant to be shared with all of us they're meant to sway our opinions we have as chairman Tramontozzi pointed out every meeting we have public participation where we have a short time at the beginning window of our meetings in which members of the public can come and speak before us but not everyone can make that little short window in the beginning of our meeting people work people have children people have school people have other obligations they may be sick they have things that can prevent them from coming to our meeting and because they send us a letter or an email instead of coming before us I don't think that makes it any less valuable to share with all of us so I would ask that we vote against placing this on file and that we instead vote for passage of this rules change Thank You Alden further discussion relative

▶ 31:40 Speaker 3: to this order okay this order will be by voice vote six six people would be required to vote in favor for the motion to pass all those in favor of the motion to place this order on file indicate by saying aye anyone opposed opposed okay that motion motion passes the order will be placed on file order 2016-32