APPT-2023-18 : Appointment of Kelsey Lima, 53 Pearl Street, Apt. 3, to the Melrose Human Rights Commission, for a three-year term set to expire on the last day of February 2026.

Transcript (~10 min @ 3:10)

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▶ 3:30 Speaker 1: Time is seven 30? And I will motion by unanimous consent, um,

▶ 3:37 Leila Migliorelli: to open the floor for public hearing for the f y 24 water and sewer rates, which are orders 2023 dash 97 and 2023 dash 98. Seeing no objection, the public hearing is now open. Do we have anyone here or online interested in speaking in the public hearing for water and sewer rates for FY 24? Anyone here?

▶ 4:03 Speaker 2: There's no one present at this

▶ 4:06 Leila Migliorelli: Time. Okay. If there's no objection, I will motion by unanimous consent to close the public hearing on, um, water and sewer rates. Seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. First on our agendas. Tonight is appointment 2023 dash 18. Appointment of Kelsey Lima, 53 Pearl Street, apartment three to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three year term set to expire on the last day of February, 2026. I believe tonight we have Mayor Broder here to speak on this order.

▶ 4:45 Paul Brodeur: Good evening just about everyone. It is good to see you all. I appreciate the opportunity, uh, to be with you here this evening. I look behind you have the, a team here behind me, so I will try to be, uh, brief with this piece of the, of the presentation. So, uh, to my right is Kelsey Lima. She is, um, she has many things. And if you had a chance to take a look, um, at her resume for, I mean, everyone's somewhat young compared to me, but for someone of, uh, of her age, she has a remarkable set of professional accomplishments in the field of social work. Uh, I invite you to peruse the details and perhaps you will share some of that with us this evening, uh, in, in, in her remarks. Uh, but she has really, um, professionally, uh, developed a an incredible set of skills and leads with compassion. She also, very shortly after she arrived in Melrose, stepped forward to serve on, um, the d e i advisory Task Force, uh, that I have that, you know, as you all know, uh, helps me. And this seems to me to be a very logical step, uh, for someone who, again, who has jumped right in and has, um, the background and the communication skills. The, um, really just what, what I did not know that is not on here, I hope you don't mind me sharing this cuz she just shared it with me. Um, is while she was an undergrad, I was talking about on my son is going to London and she mentioned that she spent two weeks in Rwanda, um, as an undergrad, uh, studying and such. So, um, truly worldwide experience that I believe will, uh, inform her judgment and be a huge asset to the Human Rights Commission. So I am enthusi enthusiastically. Recommend for your consideration, uh, Ms. Lima's application. If you wanna say a few words, Feel Free.

▶ 6:46 Speaker 4: Uh, thank you for having me here. Um, do I say a little about myself or? Sure, sure. Um, so I'm a, um, a licensed independent clinical social worker, um, for the Department of Public Health. Um, so in Boston, um, and I primarily work with, um, some of, um, Boston's most vulnerable, um, people. Um, they don't have health insurance sometimes. Um, oftentimes they have dual diagnoses, um, with mental health and substance use disorder. Um, so I'm in a public health hospital at, um, state run. And, um, besides that, I use some of my time, um, pro bono, right? Um, doing psychological evaluations for asylum seekers and people who, um, need, um, visas for human trafficking, labor trafficking, um, and various other, um, things that are happening to people. Um, so I enjoy volun volunteering, um, my time outside of, um, my life as a social worker, um, to support, um, my communities. And I think that's mostly about me. I, after undergrad I moved out here, um, which is very different from where I grew up. Um, but one of the things I wanted to do was to be, um, engaged in my new community, um, just as I did in, you know, in Salem when I lived in Salem and also where I, um, grew up in the South Shore. Um, so I'm happy to, to be here. Thank you.

▶ 8:26 Speaker 1: Thank you. Questions from the committee. Councilor Carm Shady,

▶ 8:30 Manjula Karamcheti: I'm Ms. Lima. Thank you so much for being here and for your service on the, uh, mayor's task force as well. Um, I know that you co-chaired that and it is a task getting people together for those meetings and that kind of thing. So I totally appreciate your efforts. I'm just curious, would love to hear a little bit more about why you wanna be on the Human Right Human Rights Commission and, you know, if you were able to set agendas and make things happen, what would you like to see happen?

▶ 8:58 Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's a really a loaded question with what I would like to see happen. Cuz there's a lot of things, I think as a, a younger person, um, you know, in, in the city. Um, what was the first question though? Sorry, can the first

▶ 9:14 Manjula Karamcheti: Question just what makes you wanna be on the Human Rights Commission? Sorry. And what would you like

▶ 9:16 Speaker 4: To do? A long drive from Boston. Okay.

▶ 9:20 Speaker 1: We totally get it. Drive from Boston.

▶ 9:22 Speaker 4: That's right. Um, I wanna be on the Human Rights Commission cuz um, I, you know, human rights is really significant to me in all different ways. I think a lot of times when people think of human rights, I think of really more global, globally and broadly. And I think it really starts right at home. Um, and so that's where I want to be is right at home. And, um, working on that, I do a lot of work in, you know, the broader community and, um, living here, I want to be a, um, a citizen that looks at home too.

▶ 9:57 Manjula Karamcheti: Awesome. Anything you wanna do on the Human Rights Commission?

▶ 9:59 Speaker 4: Um, I think I need, would need more time to kind of see what that would look like. Um, but for me, I, I'm really into just exploring kind of what that might look like and some of my own perspectives coming and, you know, might change as I also, um, you know, look more into like, what what's been going on, um, in the Human Rights Commission. Yeah.

▶ 10:26 Manjula Karamcheti: Excellent. Well, thank you for signing up to be on the Human Rights Commission and I'm really excited about your clinical background. I think doing human rights work and doing diversity, equity, inclusion work, you know, empathy and compassion are so important. So I'm excited that you're bringing that to the group. Thank

▶ 10:43 Speaker 4: You. Thank you.

▶ 10:46 Speaker 1: Um, thank you, uh, vice Chair Jamal,

▶ 10:49 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Thank you for, um, stepping up and for, you know, willing to serve, um, our community. I am excited to see someone with your expertise and, um, knowledge be and passion, uh, joining, uh, human Rights Commission. Um, I'm not gonna give you a hard time. I'll ask you, uh, questions, uh, knowing the commute that you, uh, had today. Uh, but I'm very excited to see what you will bring to our community and, um, to human, to the Human Rights Commission as well. Um, I know that we have come long way from when I personally moved to Meadows, but also we do have a lot of work to do. So we are all counting on Human Rights Commission and everyone else in the community, and I hope you'll make great change.

▶ 11:40 Speaker 4: Thank you.

▶ 11:42 Speaker 5: Can Stewart? Yeah, Madam Chair, I'll make a recommendation for full counsel. Second,

▶ 11:46 Leila Migliorelli: Um, motion to recommend to full counsel made by Councilor Stewart. Seconded by councilor, um, caram Shady. Anyone on discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll

▶ 12:01 Speaker 2: Vice chair Jamine? Yes. Councilor Sin? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor gpe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Caram Shady? Yes. Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Greg? Yes. And Chair Mi? Yes. That is nine. Yes. Unanimous.

▶ 12:20 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you. So this order, um, motion passes, passes and will be brought to the full counsel with a recommendation for passage. Thank you both for being here tonight. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All right. So we have a council meeting starting at 7 45. We have a lot of other orders on our appropriations and oversight committee agenda. We can dig into sewer rates or adjourn and head into the full