That the City Council accept local option statute M. G. L c. 39, Section 23D for the Melrose Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Conservation Commission, and the Historic District Commission holding adjudicatory hearings to allow for members to not be disqualified from voting on a matter solely because of their absence from one hearing date.

Transcript (~12 min @ 46:00)

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▶ 45:56 Maya Jamaleddine: and for all the information that you're providing. Um, moving on to ID to orders ID number 12 94 4 that the city council accept local options that statue MGLC 39, section 20 3D for the Merose Planning Board, zoning Board, and, uh, of Appeals Conservation Commission and the Historic District Commission holding, um, I hate this word, adju. Adjudicatory. Okay. I'm not gonna try it. Hearings to allow for members to not be disqualified from voting on a matter solely because of their absence from, uh, one hearing date. Okay. Also, you're speaking on this, um, order. The floor is yours.

▶ 46:51 Speaker 6: Okay. Well, thank you. Um, so there, this, our second request tonight is to adopt the Mass General Law, chapter 39, section 20 3D, which is a local, uh, option to accept, um, the part of the state law that allows for a member to miss one meeting of a public hearing and still be eligible to vote at a future meeting. Um, the city or the, at the time Board of Alderman did adopt this law in 2006. Uh, but there was no reference to the boards and commissions to which it, it applies. And so we are bringing it back, um, before you to make sure that it's valid and for before we use it. Um, and so this adopting, um, this law would allow for a member to miss a meeting when there's multiple public hearings for a case. And they would have to, um, listen to the recording of the meeting and get up to speed and sign that they've done so, um, before being eligible to, to vote, uh, at, at a future meeting. This, uh, request is for the land use boards of the city. So the planning board, the zoning board of Appeals, the Conservation Commission, and the Historic District Commission. Um, the reason why we find that this is important is, um, because oftentimes if a member is absent, um, we typically know ahead of time we have great board commission members, but sometimes things, you know, come up and, um, we'll find out at a meeting that, um, we don't have all of the members that are eligible to vote. And an applicant request will request to continue to a future meeting. Um, the members of the public that come then can't say what they'd like to say because we can't open the public hearing. And so it causes a lot of frustration, um, for the public and, you know, also, you know, applicants and their, um, consultants as well. Um, so, and by adopting this, it, um, you know, sets up a fairly easy process, um, to still continue on with the hearing, and then the member listens to the recordings, um, and is able to participate in the vote. Um, and we have, you know, staff for all of these boards who are able to easily record the meetings, um, and make it possible for members to, to listen before the next, um, before the next, next meeting.

▶ 49:16 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Have Councilor gpe, and then Councilor Fina Chiro.

▶ 49:20 Mark Garipay: Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I'm happy to, happy to see this, uh, this, this was one rule that was very, um, like, I couldn't figure out why. 'cause you know, a, a resident could come up, come in front of the Board of appeals and someone could be away on business. They volunteered jobs and then all of a sudden they gotta go through the whole whole process again. And, um, so I'm happy to see this and I will enthusiastically, enthusiastically support it.

▶ 49:46 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Counselor Ro. Thank

▶ 49:49 Cal Finocchiaro: You. Um, I just have one question. So if, if a commission member, um, misses more than one, is this

▶ 49:57 Speaker 6: Right? They can only miss one meeting. Okay. Mm-hmm.

▶ 50:00 Speaker 5: Great. Just wanna clarify

▶ 50:02 Maya Jamaleddine: That. Thank you. Um, counselor Kara Shey,

▶ 50:07 Speaker 6: if there are voting members who have questions first, they should go.

▶ 50:11 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, counselor Van Dever.

▶ 50:13 Kimberly Vandiver: Uh, thank you. Uh, I guess my question, uh, posed to the committee and consider making an amendment is just that I saw in the first footnote on Attachment A that this talks about, um, other types of, um, boards in Melrose that hold, um, relevant hearings. And so I, I'm just curious if anybody would want to expand this further than the, um, the set of, um, boards that are currently included in this order.

▶ 50:44 Speaker 4: So it's open question for discussion.

▶ 50:46 Speaker 9: Thank you. Thank you,

▶ 50:49 Mark Garipay: Uh, for the chair. Um, I would, I'm happy with supporting this as is if you want to come back and change it. 'cause I don't know all the boards and commissions that we have, I'd rather get a full list, but I'll, I'll support this as is as proposed to us. I don't know that I would wanna, um, make a change right now. Uh, I'm not saying we can't in late date, but I don't wanna make sure we, we miss a board and commission that, uh, is not included.

▶ 51:17 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Ms. Maa, do you have any comments on the suggestion that, um,

▶ 51:22 Speaker 6: We did consider, you know, being inclusive with this, um, proposal? Um, typically the, um, other boards and commissions, um, that hold public hearings have typically one night of a public hearing, and so it's less of an issue. So that's why it's proposed to before proposed with, um, with these four, um, boards, although it could, you know, be expanded whenever you choose to do so.

▶ 51:50 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, counselor Karen, she,

▶ 51:54 Manjula Karamcheti: Um, thank you. So this makes sense to me. I understand it and why it would be important for someone who misses one meeting to be able to vote. I think my question is more on the side of

▶ 52:08 Speaker 6: like, do we really have the capacity to like record every meeting in the Cassidy room to capture public comment? And I'm particularly thinking of the Board of appeals meetings, the planning board meetings that are the bigger developments where there are numerous engineering reports, you know, blasting reports, traffic reports, and a lot of residents who come and speak on those and just sort of do we really have the capacity to capture all of that and the different spaces and places. Board of Appeals is still online, Cassidy Room for Planning board, just kind of just wanna make sure that the things that need to be reviewed so that board members really have all the information to be able to vote that, that we have that system set up. Mm-hmm. Um, and I also saw that there are some parts where, um, the board member needs to certify by affidavit that they've actually reviewed all the documents it's filed in the city clerk's office, and are we gonna really do those things and are we set up to do those things? Mm-hmm. Yes. So we, um, as you mentioned, the zoning board of appeals is holding their meetings remotely. And so that's very easy to, you know, we post all of their, their meetings. Um, and so it's, it's very easy for, um, the, the zoning board to be able to go back and, um, review the, their meetings. Um, we post all of the materials for all of these boards and commissions on the website. So the mat, the written materials are, um, easy to find and, um, we compile all the written comments and are able to email those, um, easily. So for the, the other three boards and commissions on this list, they meet in that Cassidy conference room and we're able to, um, purchase a, uh, recorder that's $25. It's a digital recorder that you can, um, put in the middle of the table and it can pick up all the, um, the voices, um, during the meetings. And so, um, we, you know, are already kind of set to do that once we get the approval, um, to make that small purchase. And, um, there's a, um, lots of templates from other communities that have adopted this rule of the certification, um, of the, the member. Um, I work for the City of Somerville for a number of years and, um, we, um, used this, we're able to use the, um, this kind of so-called Mullen rule. Um, the, the Mullen rule actually is the rule that, um, stated that you can't miss a meeting, but it's, that's what it's called. Um, so, um, it, it worked, it worked very well. Great. Thank you so much.

▶ 55:02 Maya Jamaleddine: Appreciate that. Thank you. Any other question? I do have a couple of questions, if you don't mind. Um, are these recordings going to be archived or, or stored somewhere or doing it after it's used?

▶ 55:19 Speaker 6: Uh, we could save them, um, in the, in our files. Um, there isn't a requirement that we do that. It, it's just the certification from that board member that they've listened to the recording after the meeting.

▶ 55:34 Maya Jamaleddine: And, and if just trying to, um, think, uh, in a way like forward, if someone requested, um, the recordings from the public, is that something that we are going to be able to provide it or just for the members who missed those meetings?

▶ 55:58 Speaker 6: If a member of the public requested it and we had the information, we could provide it to them. Um, you know, we're not required to record our meetings, so, um, we won't record them unless, um, there's a board member that's absent that we, we know we need to kind of use this rule to, um, to have them eligible to vote at a future meeting. So, um, except for the zoning board meetings that are currently still online, um, we have all of those on the website, but, um, we would only record them when needed.

▶ 56:34 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay. So it's not going to be recorded every time. It's just when someone is, uh, absent, that's when we record it and there is no guarantee that's going to be stored or being able to, uh, provide it if someone requested from the public to have those uh, records. Okay. My other question, now, if, uh, uh, the one time, uh, being absent, is it throughout the year or is it

▶ 57:02 Speaker 6: It's for that specific case.

▶ 57:04 Maya Jamaleddine: It's just for that case, but it's not like they can, I guess I'm, I'm trying to understand, is it for if they miss more than one meeting, um, is it something that's going to be counted or is it just per case?

▶ 57:23 Speaker 6: It's just per case. Per case. Okay. So often for, you know, depending on the case for the, the zoning board of appeals, they're kind of larger comprehensive permit cases. You know, if they have like three or four public hearings, it would just be, you know, for that specific case. And then the next case that came along, a member could miss one, one of those, you know, if they had three public hearings and they missed one, that, that would be

▶ 57:49 Maya Jamaleddine: Allowed. That makes sense. Thank you. Um, I don't have any question. What is the will of the committee Councilor gpe?

▶ 57:59 Mark Garipay: I'll make a motion to recommend.

▶ 58:00 Maya Jamaleddine: We have a motion to recommend made by Councillor gpe. Second. Seconded by Councillor. All in favor? A. Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none. This order will be, um, uh, recommended to the full council. Thank you both. Um, thank you. I appreciate you being with us tonight.