PUBLIC COMMENT

Transcript (~4 min @ 1:35)

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

▶ 1:25 Leila Migliorelli: And now onto the minutes approval. At this time, I will motion by unanimous consent to approve without reading the minutes from the city council meeting on December 1st, 2025. Seeing no objections, these minutes are now approved. Uh, moving on to public comment, I will motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objections, we are now open for public comment per rule 33 A of the Melrose City Council Rules. This is a portion of the meeting where the public may speak on any item on tonight's agenda. Comments expressing any viewpoint on other matters are all also welcome. Just a reminder, the public comment period is an opportunity for the public to share comments. Counselors will not respond. The public has up to five minutes for comments. Is there anyone here tonight wishing to speak in public comment? Yes. Please approach the table and state your name for the record. Okay.

▶ 2:21 Speaker 6: Hi, how you, uh, my name is Brian Johnson. Um, I live at 25 Adams Street, but my office is in Stoneham and right next to the offices, they're a public kiosk and I regularly see it updated with current information, uh, powered mostly by the Chamber of Commerce there. Then I come home to Melrose and pass our kiosk, and you can guarantee at least one side is gonna be outdated. The other side's hard to read. Uh, today there is a large QR code that's, uh, promoting a survey for Memorial Hall. So there, that's a step in the right direction. Um, I'm prepared. I'm helping organize the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, and I've, um, asked in advance through the proper channels to, um, have permission to put up a poster inside this kiosk. And I was denied. So I'm here tonight to talk about that. Um, I, I, I was told that MLK day is no longer a city event, and I just find that impossible to believe in this day and age. It used to be, and I believe it still is. Um, and it might sound small to be talking about a kiosk, but it's happening in a larger context. At the federal level, MLK Day and Juneteenth we're just removed as free admission days to our national parks. Head Start. Applicants are now warned away from using hundreds of ordinary words and grant requests, words like women, black and accessible. Even a very legible typeface has been banned simply because it is accessible. These small things are like pebbles on a scale. One pebble doesn't tip too much, but keep adding them always on the same side. And eventually the balance shifts. Dr. King reminded us that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. That arc does not bend on its own. It bends because institutions, especially local ones, choose to hold it. So while our federal government chips away at the meaning of MLK Day, our local government has an opportunity to stand firm. What I'm asking for is simple. A few weeks in the public kiosk for community, Martin Luther King, J Junior, um, Martin Luther King Day of service poster. The city has a long history of leading this effort. It's one of the reasons I moved to Melrose was the, the very vibrant community. I found that the potluck over there, um, ordinary citizens like me have stepped up to help fill the gaps, but that doesn't remove the city's responsibility to support it. The event originated with and belongs to the city. Perhaps we could spend $695 to buy a banner plus overtime to have DPW workers hang that banner across on Main Street. But the coalition has a very limited budget and a kiosk poster costs a 10th of that while still signaling to the community that our local government supports Dr. King's vision. And we don't know if a street banner would not face the same objections as the kiosk poster. Must we wait for finally crafted policy and the words of Dr. King for years? Now, I've heard the word wait, and that's from the letter from Birmingham Jail. Admittedly, he's talking about a vastly more serious issue, but our federal government is not waiting at all to erase MLK day. Will you please let us put up a poster and to make this concrete, I brought in a rough layout to show you how it would look.