Appointment of Brian Kochanowski, 780 Main Street, to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three year term, said term set to expire last day of February, 2028.

Transcript (~5 min @ 21:08)

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

▶ 21:03 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. Uh, moving on our next order of business. Let's see, where did we pick up? Uh, is it item five? I think so. Yep. Yep. Okay. So we have ID number 1, 2, 4, 3 0 appointment of Brian Kowski, seven 80 Main Street to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three year term, said term set to expire the last day of February, 2028.

▶ 21:26 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I am pleased to put Brian before you for consideration. I just wanna highlight that he actually reached out to our office seeking appointment after engaging with the clerk's office, um, helping to work on elections and wanting to be more civically involved, which is just a wonderful thing to see, especially from a relatively new, um, Melrose resident. He brings a very substantive background in, um, the sciences that I will not even pretend to accurately assess. Um, so I think brings a really critical lens to the Human Rights Commission. We are in need of several commissioners for that group. We have four vacancies currently. So I'm really appreciative, um, of his willingness to step up and serve.

▶ 22:05 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you. And, um, uh, is Mr. Kowski, is there anything you'd like to add before we open up to the committee?

▶ 22:13 Speaker 5: Uh, nothing to add unless you have specific questions. Okay.

▶ 22:16 Kimberly Vandiver: Wonderful. Any questions from the committee?

▶ 22:20 Speaker 1: Uh, president Moore. Thank you,

▶ 22:21 Leila Migliorelli: Madam Chair. Thank you Mr. Kowski, um, for stepping up and, uh, throwing your hat in the ring. Um, as a former member of the Human Rights Commission myself, um, I, you know, I really learned a lot and, um, enjoyed the opportunity to serve on that commission. Just curious, wanna hear from you about, um, what you might be hoping to gain or influence. Um, I don't know to what extent if you've attended any meetings or have any, you know, sense of what they're working on, but what specifically drew you to, um, want to get involved?

▶ 22:53 Speaker 5: An excellent question. There are a couple of different factors that ended up getting me interested in the position itself. Um, I, I know obviously per what the mayor has said that I, I have a bit of an extensive background in different areas. As I like to say, I've worn many, many hats despite my somewhat, I'll call it short career, but many hats in that time. And in that same time, I've never necessarily been as engaged as I'd like to be. So when I originally got involved with the Clerk's office, um, I started becoming well more closely involved with this community. And for me, it became primarily a matter of giving back to the community of itself. And while the community may, may not necessarily know me now, I feel like they've treated me quite well and in this way I'd like to give back. Um, and I think that my background kind of best informs my application to this particular commission. Um, per the mentioned before, I've been involved in various sciences. I've worked in everything from private companies to the Mass General Brigham Hospital system. So I have encountered many different people from many different walks of life. I have many different experiences accumulated both from my education at a couple of different institutions. And per my mentioned before, many different hats of very many different jobs. And I felt like that converged well with the Human Rights Council, which per the history which I've been given, and a bunch of different other bits that I've read through that, that kind of seems to fit the council's descrip or commissions rather, uh, description pretty well. That they also wear quite a few hats. And I think that my background quite matches that. So a combination of that and, uh, an opportunity to give back to the community. Um, I've had the opportunity not to attend meetings, but I have had correspondence, um, with one of the commissioners on the council. And I know that they've been primarily event based in the past few years, but it was mentioned to me as well, that they've been doing a lot of surveying, doing a lot of data gathering. And that's another thing that kind of drew my attention as well. I'm used to working with data and that's something I'm more pictured walking into this, how we can use that type of information to kind of leap at whatever problems we're facing in that regard.

▶ 24:58 Speaker 4: Great. Thank you. Uh, any other counselors,

▶ 25:03 Speaker 1: councilor Foc Kiara?

▶ 25:04 Speaker 2: Just wanna say thank you and, um, sounds really great and just make a motion to recommend

▶ 25:10 Kimberly Vandiver: Second, a motion to recommend, um, from Councilor Foc Kiara with a second from Councillor Stewart. Anybody on discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? So that will also, um, go to full counsel with a motion for passage. Uh, you don't need to attend at the time, but you are welcome to if you would like to. And thank you so much for your willingness to serve and, um, as the mayor said, to, um, step into a commission that, that needs more membership and, and work right now. So thank you. Thank you.

▶ 25:36 Speaker 5: Thank you. Thank you. Uh,

▶ 25:40 Speaker 1: the Yes,

▶ 25:42 Leila Migliorelli: Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion to take ID 1 24 5 4 out of order for another appointment. Just second.