Communications from Her Honor, The Mayor And Other City Officials

Transcript (~2 min @ 10:45)

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

▶ 10:38 Leila Migliorelli: We are now closed for public comments. Um, before, next up on our agenda is communications from her Honor, the mayor and other city officials. Um, before we hear from the Mayor, I will entertain a motion to suspend Rule 37 B.

▶ 10:52 Robb Stewart: Madam President will make a motion to suspend Rule 37 B. Second.

▶ 10:56 Speaker 7: Motion to suspend Rule 37 B made by Councillor Stewart. Seconded by Councillor Carrum Shady Mad Clerk

▶ 11:02 Speaker 4: Councilor Ro? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Counselor Aldine. Yes. Councilor Karen Shady? Yes. Councilor Reky. Yes. Council Romanul? Yes. Counselor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Van Devin. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Re? Yes. 11. Yes. Okay.

▶ 11:21 Leila Migliorelli: Rule 37 B is now suspended, um, inviting Mayor Greg us up for any remarks she may like to make.

▶ 11:29 Jen Grigoraitis: Hello. Good evening, everyone. It's nice to see you all. Um, I feel better than I sound. I apologize for the voice. Um, just a, a brief update I wanted to highlight for you all is that on Friday we had the opportunity to have the Inspector General of the Commonwealth, Jeffrey Shapiro, come and meet with myself and Senior City staff from DPW Finance and Legal. Um, for those that aren't familiar, the Inspector General is the primary training, technical assistance and enforcement agent for Chapter 30 B, which is the portion of state law under which municipalities procure all goods and services. That is everything from building a public safety bus, um, building to buying this pen. So it was an opportunity to meet with the IG and his staff. They were very candid with us about best practices and training opportunities available for us. And also really took time to hear feedback from the staff in the room about the complexities of procuring for a municipality. Chapter 30 B applies to the city of Boston, as well as a much smaller community like Melrose and incredibly tiny communities out in Western mass. Obviously, we all bring different resources to bear in meeting the obligations of that. So it was a really fruitful discussion. Um, the Inspector General is relatively new in his role, and he reached out to all municipalities with new executive leadership, either mayor or town manager at the start of the calendar year. We are one of three so far to have taken advantage of the chance to meet with him. Um, and we're also gonna have an opportunity to send a staff person to the certification training that the IG offers to become certified in municipal procurement. It's a $2,000 training, and they're offering it for free to every municipality. So we will be assessing internally who will be the best candidate for that. But it was a great opportunity to engage with our state partners, especially considering some of the challenging procurements that we have coming down the pike. So I just wanted to let you all know that that happened. Um, and happy to answer any questions.