APPT-2024-28 : Appointment of Kelly Broderick, 22 Burrell Street, to the Park Commission.

Transcript (~10 min @ 1:06)

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▶ 0:53 Speaker 1: I will close public comment. Public comment is now closed. Our first order of business is order number 2024 dash 28, the appointment of Kelly Broderick of 22 Burrell Street to the Park Commission Without objection. I would like to have, uh, Kelly Broderick come forward.

▶ 1:16 Speaker 3: Suspend rules. Mr. Chair. I'll make a motion to suspend Rule 37 B. Second. Thank you.

▶ 1:23 Speaker 1: There has been a motion to suspend the rules. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Those opposed the ayes have it.

▶ 1:36 Speaker 1: What is, does uh, anyone have any questions for Ms. Broderick?

▶ 1:42 Ryan Williams: Anyone Like to be recognized? Would love to Hear your thoughts on your appointment or mayor's comments.

▶ 1:47 Jen Grigoraitis: Sure. Good evening, everyone. So I'm thrilled to be here tonight presenting Kelly Broderick to you for your consideration for appointment to the park commission. I've learned it's park and not parks, interestingly enough, but, um, she will be replacing Bill Gardner, who's gonna be stepping down at the conclusion of this fiscal year after many, many years of service to the community through the commission. Um, as you have a cover letter and Ms. Broderick's resume, she brings substantial project management, financial management skills, as well as a legal background and is the parent of two children who are involved in a variety of organized recreational activities. Um, and I really appreciate how she highlights in her cover letter some of the, the issues that are facing our park commission, which include that we are really at the tipping point as a community around, um, access and use for our fields. We are seeing increasing demand for organized sports, um, and some questions of equity and how that is determined, as well as just overall huge increases in usage of all of our natural resources since Covid. So I'm really excited to have her, um, here tonight and willing to take on this position. Thank you.

▶ 2:56 Speaker 1: Are there any questions from the committee?

▶ 3:01 Speaker 1: I would like to, um, do you, do you have anything to, to throw out there? Have you got anything you wanted to say tonight? No.

▶ 3:10 Ryan Williams: No. Okay. That's fine. That's totally fine. Well, then I'll, I'll jump right in. Sometimes people come and they have a whole spiel. It's not a big deal one way or the other. Um, so I, uh, really appreciate you stepping up and thank you for bringing fresh blood into the park commission. This is the second new face that we've seen in a commission that had not seen a lot of new faces, so that's fantastic.

▶ 3:31 Ryan Williams: Um, you were so specific in your letter and you hit so many good points that I wanted to ask you a little bit more about them. Um, and in particular, just to kind of go down the line and tell me what is it that you are thinking of, uh, when you say points one, two, and three? So, just to start off with the stewardship of Melrose's Natural Spaces, is there something in particular that speaks to you about those places? Uh, what do you have in mind with regard to improvements of stewardship? What are some of the challenges you've seen with stewardship? You know, what are you thinking?

▶ 4:02 Speaker 4: So I think that, um, there are a few different parts to these. The, the three items below. Um, I think number one is just probably the function of the commission and that that's what the commission does, and I would like to be a part of that. Um, but then I think number two and three are probably a little bit more forward thinking. Um, certainly I'm having a little hard time seeing this, um, diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I think, um, the mayor covered some of this in, in her opening comments. Um,

▶ 4:48 Speaker 4: The use of the fields that we have, um,

▶ 4:54 Speaker 4: probably could be expanded to think of other types of sports. I think there's more, um, different types of, uh, sports that are like field hockey, um, softball, um, in, in trying to open up those spaces to those other organizations. Um, but it's not just limited to youth sports, you know, there's, there's other adult organizations that may want to utilize some of these spaces as well. Um, so we really need to think of the community as a whole and not just, you know, individual parts. Right. So that's, that's kind of what I was thinking. And then as far as strategic planning, um, that's, you know, taking what we have and thinking about where we're going in the future, right? So we're here now. We understand that the population of Melrose has changed over the last so many years, and we know that it's only gonna continue to change. So how do we need to adapt what we're doing on the Parks Commission to the population of Melrose so that we're serving that population, but also considering the fact that we do have, I mean, climate change is going to impact us and making sure that our parks are, and, and our open spaces are being managed in a way that's appropriate for climate change.

▶ 6:16 Speaker 1: And what you, can you tell me a little bit more about

▶ 6:18 Speaker 4: If you want me to get really specific about that? I don't have like, the scientific data and all of that too, to support that. I think it's more of a general comment.

▶ 6:26 Ryan Williams: Oh, I don't, I don't think you need scientific data to support it. Thank you. It's definitely, I appreciate that. Well known. Yeah, yeah. No, I was just thinking about like, for instance, you might be thinking of, of, um, rain gardens, right? That's one way to address climate change, you know, or any, anything else. What's your, um, um, what is, what is your, when you, when you talk about economic conditions in Melrose, what, what do you, what do you referencing in your letter when you talk about economic conditions? You said strategic planning that is responsive to changes in climate, demographics and economic conditions.

▶ 7:00 Speaker 4: So, um, So I think,

▶ 7:05 Speaker 4: again, you're looking at the population of Melrose. I think there's a lot, um, that's happening in the city and, and your population is changing. Yeah. The, um, I mean, I feel like some

▶ 7:18 Speaker 4: of this is kind of obvious that people are paying more for their houses, new families are moving in. Um, you know, you're trying to maybe build up your downtown a little bit more, build, you know, bring in more, you know, businesses and whatnot, right? And, um, you wanna make sure that if you have, you know, you're, you're using public funds, and this is kind of part of my professional life. Um, you know, if you're, you're managing someone else's money and you're, you're doing that for the public or otherwise, you kind of have a responsibility to do that in the right way, right? And so if your population is changing, you have a responsibility to, to them to do the right things, right? And so if you're, you know, whether you have too much money or too little money, you need to try to manage the parks so that you can deal with that, right? Because you're not always gonna have, you're gonna be in a deficit or you're, you're not. And you have to kind of maintain that. Does that, does that make sense? Yeah. Do you have any further questions about that?

▶ 8:26 Ryan Williams: I have. No, I have, I have one, one, um, I guess a plea, a comment from, from myself to anyone who joins the park commission, and I've said this to a couple of folks that have been on there. I know that we are thinking about putting down plastic grass on the playing surfaces, right? Sometimes it's called turf. And I know there's been a lot of community discussion about this. A lot of surveys taken, a lot of feedback taken. And we've seen, we've talked to some folks from the parks department about the benefits of turf, um, of plastic turf on the, on the playing field. One thing that I feel like I've never heard as a city council member, or even just as a resident going to park commission meetings is what you would do for the same money in a natural surface environment. And that's just something that I think as we, you know, you know, down the road, if this conversation comes up, I would love to hear more about both options if and when we come to that discussion. Because I think it's all fine. And well to say, you know, for eight or $10 million, we could, we could plastic over all of El Pond or the fields at El Pond, and we would never have a groundwater problem again. But what I never hear is, if you had that same eight to $10 million and you were investing it in, in natural grass, and, um, resurfacing and leveling and things like that, what would that do for us? That's something that's always on my mind. So I really appreciate you, happy to support, really appreciate you coming before us and enduring all of my endless questions. It's something that's really important to me. Um, and my daughter plays field hockey, actually just signed up. And soccer. Both my kids play soccer. So, um, you know, I'm certainly aware of the, of the issues we have with the fields. So thank you very much. That's it for me. Thank You. Thank you. Council Garak.

▶ 10:04 Mark Garipay: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you Mr. Broder, for putting your name forward. Um, the Park Commission, uh, is, we have many commissions and boards in this community. I think the park commission is one of the toughest 'cause you have to deal with a lot of, a lot of user groups, and it's, it's a lot of work. Um, so I appreciate you, uh, you put your name forward and I'll make a motion to recommend. Second,

▶ 10:27 Speaker 1: There's been a motion to recommend and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed.

▶ 10:38 Speaker 1: And the, uh, motion to recommend to the full counsel, to the full counsel. We'll send it to the full counsel with the recommendation.