Public Participation

Transcript (~8 min @ 6:23)

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

▶ 6:02 Speaker 1: Second the motions. Alderman Tramontozzi moves that we accept the minutes of our July and August meetings without reading. The motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer. On the motion, is there any discussion? All those in favor of the motion, Indicate by saying aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes, the minutes are hereby accepted. Motion to open the floor for public participation, Mr. President. Alderman Mortimer moves to open the floor for public participation. The motion is seconded by Alderman Forbes. On the motion, all those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. This is the portion of our meeting where any member of the public who wishes to talk about any item on our agenda can come forward to the table at the middle of the room identify themselves

▶ 6:54 Speaker 2: and speak anybody like to come forward and you said to write the name down on here please okay my name is Eileen Zafiropoulos and I'm chairperson of the board of trustees at station crossing and as you probably know that's a 48 unit condominium building on Willow Street and we are joining a group in Melrose regarding the tier on the water tier that you're charging multi-family or multi-unit buildings and we have oh I think 39% elderly and we live in a thousand square feet or 1,200 square feet some of 1,400 some of 700 square fee so our water bills worked very high last year and going higher this year so we're appealing i'm not sure if it's on your agenda but we're appealing to the board of all demand to reconsider that

▶ 7:56 Speaker 1: thank you yeah there is an order on our agenda to discuss this issue thank you thank you who else

▶ 8:12 Speaker 2: would like to speak hi i'm nancy cahill i'm the property manager for the coolidge apartments across the street 585 main street i'm the agent for that property and represent an apt management group i am also here to speak on the three-tier system um we find that if you do the simple math of the cubic feet per residence which are 49 residents that we would typically would be on the first tier rate versus the three tier rate if we go to charge back to our residents the water rate then we would have to charge them back at the three tier system in order to be even so what we're proposing is or suggesting on on order 2015-36 is that you either look at to master meter averaging or some other means of treating the single family apartments which are around the 1,200 square foot range, 800 to 1,200 square foot range similarly to your single family homes. did bring a red letter backing that up and i'll pass that to mr boys out the distribution thank

▶ 9:33 Speaker 1: you thank you and just for the edification of anybody who's in the audience uh water rates actually are are considered and proposals are considered by a water rate commission of the city and that's next scheduled to meet on october 1st at 8 30. so any of you who are here this evening who are also interested it's october 1st at 8 30 in the morning and it's upstairs in the mayor's conference room you're all welcome to attend that meeting that's 8 30 a.m a.m anyone else who wishes

▶ 10:17 Speaker 2: to speak this evening good evening i'm kim joyce i'm the property manager over at town estates apartments we have 266 apartments 12 buildings in total we have 12 meters we are also being charged on the three-tier system our prices have raised over the last three years 21 percent and we are asking that something be concerted where we can be either multi-averaged or residential average the water as well i thank you thank you sir thank you

▶ 11:17 Speaker 3: you my name is Steven Cefalo 12 Mount Vernon Street condominiums Melrose I'm here on behalf I know this is not the right form but I'm just here sort of just sort of fiery sort of a volley because I think we are concerned as condominium owners and the few people that we have sitting behind me are probably represent over 500 individual owners of residential property that's termed condominium in the city and essentially what we're asking for is to be treated equally along with everybody else a condominium in Melrose that I'm living in is approximately 1,100 square feet no different necessarily than a ranch on Wheeler Avenue or Altamont Road probably paying the same amount of taxes about thirty two hundred thirty four hundred dollars a year but yet our building our water bills because we are not averaged out forces us to pay a commercial rate which increases what we would pay over what a residential user would pay by about 30 to 40 percent the town of Natick back in 2009-2010 realized this situation and made adjustments in their rates to accommodate apartment users and condominiums and I know that there'll be this hearing coming up with October you'll be hearing more from us on that but I just wanted to sort of let you know in advance that we're out there and we'd like some consideration right

▶ 12:51 Speaker 2: thank you sir anyone else who wants to come forward yes good evening my name is Jeb Mays and I'm here from the maintenance contractor trust fund I'm not here about water and I apologize if I'm in the wrong forum I am here because the because of the contract for cleaning at the high school and the middle school

▶ 13:13 Speaker 1: ma'am we're in mouth I don't mean to stop you but that's not anything that

▶ 13:19 Speaker 2: we're discussing this evening like I say I may not be in the right forum we we

▶ 13:22 Speaker 1: have a rule that we can only entertain discussion on things that have been noticed out to the public even for public comment we have a rule that I'm

▶ 13:36 Speaker 2: just I'm trying to clarify so including for public comment in order to make public comment we would need to get something agendized yes and okay that was when we called and spoke to whoever it was that was not made clear to us

▶ 13:49 Speaker 1: okay I'm sorry if that's the case the other thing that you might want to check on is if this is something that's involving the school department you may

▶ 14:00 Speaker 2: want to be at the school committee meeting it I'm not sure who makes the decision on contracting for the city if it's the school department or if it's

▶ 14:08 Speaker 1: your city purchasing agent okay if you could maybe give us a call give our clerk here a call we could try to get you to the right meeting okay all right

▶ 14:20 Speaker 1: thank you very much anyone else who wishes to speak to any order that is on our agenda this

▶ 14:30 Speaker 1: evening chair would entertain a motion opposed public position second alvin racketeer margolis moves to close public participation the motion is seconded by alderman forbes on the motion all those in favor aye anyone opposed motion passes public participation is hereby concluded