APPT-2025-15 : Appointment of Amy Iannone Tierney, 64 Garfield Road, Melrose MA to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Transcript (~9 min @ 4:38)

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▶ 4:31 Manjula Karamcheti: We have a motion to recommend made my President Elli Second Seconded by Councilor Romanul on discussion.

▶ 4:41 Manjula Karamcheti: All in favor? Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. That motion carries. Um, next we're gonna be moving on to ID number 1 2 2 3 9. The appointment of Amy Ioni Tierney 64 Garfield Road, Melrose, mass to the Affordable Housing Trust. And Mayor Gregor is here to present this candidate. So I will invite the candidate and the mayor up to the table. Um, at this time I will motion to suspend rule the rule of 37 B. Do I have a second? Oh, I'm motioning. You can.

▶ 5:22 Manjula Karamcheti: So moved. Second. Thank you. Um, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. We are now suspended. Rule 37 B. Uh, mayor the floor is

▶ 5:32 Jen Grigoraitis: Yours. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening, counselors. Um, before I speak a little bit to Ms. Tierney's credentials, I wanted to just kind of step back a little bit and talk about the trust more broadly. You have on your agenda tonight, two appointments to the trust to fill two vacancies and two reappointments. Um, by statute, that board comprises of five people. I will be the fifth. Um, the, the statute calls for the mayor or their designee. And I really wanna be involved in trying to get this trust up and running. 'cause I think the work it does is so critically important. Um, the trust was created by this body in 2020, and I wanna thank President Elli for, at the time, co-sponsoring that with me and to the, my colleagues who were on at the time for supporting it. Um, it is drive from state law and the purpose of it is to help disperse the funds that come into the trust through a variety of mechanisms. Mostly in Melrose, it's what's called payments. In lie, when developers build and the property is maybe too small to have a full unit be designated as affordable, they then pay the one quarter of the unit cost or one eighth toward the fund. The fund has about $300,000 in it, including $75,000 that, uh, former Mayor Broder had allocated from free cash and the council had approved. So while we're certainly not gonna change the world with that money, I think it's really important that we begin the conversation about how do we increase the affordable housing stock in Melrose. I think this body has been very supportive of efforts to make Melrose more affordable for people who currently live here as we talk about, you know, tax exemptions and things like that. But we also need to talk about the supply side of the issue as well. So, um, the trust, unfortunately, has never formally met to my knowledge. And so I think there's a real need to get things up and running. And so that brings me to the candidate who's here with me tonight. Ms. Tierney, as you'll see from her resume, um, brings a substantial background in legal and regulatory frameworks around housing as long as a real deep commitment to this work. And I think having both that values driven approach and that substantial professional experience is gonna be critical to the work of the trust. So I'm really thrilled that she's offered to step up into this role. Um, she's actually already in a volunteer capacity, helped author a grant application that my office is gonna submit to the mass housing program to, for technical assistance to help get new trust boards up and running. So I really appreciate her proactive attitude toward this work, and I'm really pleased to have her here tonight for your consideration.

▶ 7:53 Speaker 4: Ms. Tierney, would you like to say a few words?

▶ 7:55 Speaker 1: Yes, good evening, Madam Chair and Counselors. Um, I am, um, thank you for having me here tonight. I'm excited. Um, to that the mayor asked me to, um, join the Affordable Housing Trust. Uh, my husband and I moved here in 2015 and are raising our family here. And we love this community and, um, really am excited for the opportunity to use the Affordable Housing Trust Board, um, as an avenue to make Melrose more affordable and more accessible for all types of people at different stages of their lives with different incomes. I think, you know, there's over a hundred communities that have these trust, affordable housing trusts throughout the, um, the Commonwealth. So we're not reinventing the wheel. Um, I think that you see, and I have researched and talked with people at the mass housing, what, what these trusts can do and what they can do for Melrose is, you know, get, give opportunities for people who work in our businesses and our hospitals and our schools who wanna live here and they maybe cannot afford to. The same for people, young families who are starting out, or young single professionals, um, as well as our older residents who would like to stay here. Um, and maybe, you know, we don't have enough stock for people at that, um, time in their life as well. So, yes, as, uh, mayor Gar said, I've, you know, I spent 20 years as an attorney for the last 10 plus in Massachusetts, really representing clients in a variety of regulated industries. Um, so I think I can bring that experience to benefit the trust as it is, um, a creature of statute. Um, and it will need to be, um, implemented. Um, our actions will need to be implemented within that statutory construct. So, um, I'm really excited as, as the mayor, um, mentioned, mass Housing has a, has a technical assistance grant that we're hoping to get, hopefully, um, that we would get some assistance for them because they think it's critical that the board does the work to kind of create, um, their action plan and involves the community and takes a look at the housing production plan that has and, and works with the city to see what we can do, what we should do, what we, what the trust, and then educate the community on what the trust is, what it can do, what it can't do, um, what it isn't, you know, what it is, what it isn't. So I think it's exciting to start that conversation as, as the mayor said, um, I think once you get the trust up, um, and going, I think the challenge will be what our revenue sources are for it, um, because it's not, you know, we can't do as too much with what we have in, in kind of in lie payments, but all of that is, you know, a process. Um, so I'm excited to be able to try to help get it, get it off the ground.

▶ 11:01 Manjula Karamcheti: Thank you so much, counselors. Any questions?

▶ 11:07 Speaker 4: President Re

▶ 11:09 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, mayor Greg. Thank you, Ms. Tierney. Um, I just wanted to say, uh, just publicly thank, thanking the mayor for getting this started. Again, I think this is, we all know what of, um, a crucial issue of housing affordability is in the state, the city. Um, and so it's really, uh, good to see something that I, you know, she and I had shared in, um, helping start really getting going and, and addressing these concerns. So I'm very excited about these, my tier appointment and the other appointment and Reappointments and, and looking forward to seeing the work that this, uh, housing Trust does. Thank you. Thank you,

▶ 11:48 Devin Romanul: Councillor Romanul, uh, Very similar note. Just wanted to appreciate the nomination and restarting of this board, um, and want to express publicly any way that, uh, uh, for you and other nominees and the administration, uh, to propel, uh, affordability, um, you know, more expeditiously. And, um, anyway, thank you for throwing your hand, the ring,

▶ 12:09 Manjula Karamcheti: And I will use my chair privilege just for a moment. Uh, also say thank you to the mayor and thank you Ms. Tierney, for the nomination and also for proactively supporting the city and exploring how to set up, um, the, the team that you'll be working with on the Affordable Trust Group. Um, just appreciate that kind of thinking and strategy to make sure that Melrose is doing what we can in, in a strategic way to support affordable housing in our community and serve all the different populations that you described so eloquently. So really appreciate it. Um, what is the will of the committee motion

▶ 12:48 Speaker 5: To recommend? Second,

▶ 12:50 Manjula Karamcheti: I have a motion to recommend by Councilor Romanul, seconded by President Meley Orelli on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Uh, this motion carries. Um, thank you so much for being here tonight. This will move to our full council agenda. There was no need for you to be here on that evening. Um, but thank you so much for volunteering your time to be a part of, um, this work in the city. Appreciate it. Thank you.

▶ 13:17 Speaker 6: Thank you. Yep.

▶ 13:19 Manjula Karamcheti: I'm Staying. Okay. We are moving on to ID 1, 2, 2 4, the appointment of Joe Viola, 1 34 Howard Street, Melrose, mass to the Affordable Housing Trust. Um, we are still under suspension of Rule 37 B, so May Mayor Greg, I invite you to introduce your candidate. I did wanna ask my pronouncing your last name correctly.