APPT-2024-31 : Appointment of Thomas Smulligan as IT Director

Transcript (~4 min @ 2:02)

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▶ 1:47 Maya Jamaleddine: during our annual budget hearings. Each city department comes before the council to present their annual operating budget for FY 25. These hearings will continue for five weeks, and the schedule of the departments is available online for the benefits of the public. This means that you'll see the same agenda items on our budget during our budget hearing season until the council passes the full FY 25 budget.

▶ 2:19 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, first item on our agenda, uh, appointment 2024 dash 31. Appointment of Thomas, uh, GaN as IT director.

▶ 2:35 Speaker 2: Good evening.

▶ 2:37 Jen Grigoraitis: Good evening everyone. Um, I'm thrilled to be here tonight presenting Tom Mulligan to you for appointment as the city's IT director. I think many of you have had an opportunity to interact with Tom, um, and he has been filling this role since February and doing an outstanding job. Um, just by a little bit of his background, he brings over 15 years of experience in it, both in municipalities and in public schools. In his role in Melrose, he's the IT director for both the City of Melrose and the Melrose Public Schools. He's also served our country, um, while serving in the Army for five years. And he brings a lot of tech certifications that I will pretend to know nothing about. And I, why I think that matters is that I think one of the things that Tom excels in and is so critical to this role is his ability to effectively communicate with non-technical people. His department, which is a small staff of four, is working with every department, every board commission, you all the school committee, our partners on the school side, and the ability to troubleshoot, to problem solve, and to help us meet the needs of a very diverse and challenging user population with the limited funding that we have, is a real strength and has really helped us tackle some challenges. So I'm so excited that he's willing to step into this role and, um, and really appreciative of your consideration.

▶ 3:55 Speaker 3: Thank you very much for welcome. That trail. You welcome. Um, I don't know what the else there is to say now. Uh, Madam Chair counselors, thank you very much for having me here tonight. Um, as Mayor Agenda said, I've been in it for 15 ish, so years I've run the game at from your entry level help desk at Staples, um, all the way up to now, and everything between, um, also fixed random computers on mountaintops as she pointed out. Um, it had nothing to do with my job, but it just kinda, this is what got me into it, is just having to fix stuff and making it up as I go. Um, so I hope that I can do everyone justice and keep the boat moving forward and adapt to all the changes that are happening daily, um, with everything that's changing out there in the world. And, you know, doing that on the shoestring budget that we have with the small team that we have, and doing as best we can and, and getting all that information out to you all and everyone else in and around the city. Thank you.

▶ 4:55 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Do we have any question from my colleagues?

▶ 5:03 Maya Jamaleddine: Vice Chair Williams?

▶ 5:04 Ryan Williams: I just wanted to say thank you for coming out today. It's great to see you in person. Um, uh, I personally am a tech guy myself. I've been impressed with the progress that the department has made in the last year. Really appreciate how you've been responsive to a whole host of different issues. Um, and with that, I'd like to make a motion to recommend this to the full council. Second,

▶ 5:24 Maya Jamaleddine: We have a motion to recommend to the full council, made by Vice Chair Williams, seconded by Councilor Romanul. On discussion. Seeing none.

▶ 5:38 Speaker 2: Um, Mr. Clerk,

▶ 5:40 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councilor Gar. Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councilor Vandiver. Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Councilor Naro. Yes. President Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Uh, motion passes Unanimously. Congratulations.

▶ 5:58 Speaker 2: Thank you all.

▶ 5:59 Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you.