Finance Committee — 2015-04-27
Attendance
Jaclyn L. Bird ; Robert A. Boisselle ; Donald L. Conn Jr. ; Scott M. Forbes ; Gail Infurna ; Jennifer L. Lemmerman ; Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis ; Monica C. Medeiros ; Peter D. Mortimer ; John N. Tramontozzi ; Francis X. Wright Jr.
Agenda
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE FINANCE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● APRIL 27, 2015 Aldermanic Chamber Committee Meeting 7:25 PM The public should take notice that the Melrose Board of Aldermen may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the Board of Aldermen consisting of both voting and non-voting members. Members attending this duly posted meeting are participating and deliberating only in conjunction with the business of the standing committee. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Scott M. Forbes Chairman Absent John N. Tramontozzi Vice Chairman Present Jaclyn L. Bird Alderman at Large Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Absent Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Alderman Present Donald L. Conn Jr. President/Ex-officio Member Present Robert A. Boisselle Nonvoting Member Present Gail M. Infurna Nonvoting Member Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Nonvoting Member Present Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis Nonvoting Member Present Monica C. Medeiros Nonvoting Member Present In Attendance: COA Director Dawn Folopoulos
ORDER-2015-133 Establishment of Fund Establishment of COA FISH Donation Fund #2882, in accordance with MGL Chapter 44, Sec. 53A Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 4/28/2015 2:15 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 John N. Tramontozzi: Good evening. It is now 728, thereabouts, p.m. on April 27th, 2015. This is the Finance Committee of the City of Melrose Board of Aldermen. My name is John Tramontosi, I'm the vice chair of the committee and with us this evening is voting members Alderman Bird, Alderman Mortimer, President Kahn is with us this evening as well, and other Alderman present this evening who are non-voting members of the committee are Alderman Boisselle, Alderman Inferner, Alderman Lemmerman, Alderman Mary Beth McAteer-Maigolas, and Alderman Monica Medeiros. Motion to open the floor for public participation, Mr. Vice-Chairman. Thank you, Alderman Mortimer, for that motion to open the floor for public participation.
▶ 0:56 John N. Tramontozzi: Is there a second? Second. Second by Alderman Byrd, all in favor? Aye. For the public, we have one agenda item on the Finance Committee. If there's any members of the public who wish to come forward to speak about the order 2015-133, please come forward. Motion to close public participation. This is the finance, if you're here to talk about the alcohol thing, that's not this. That's not yet. Next up. I'll renew my motion, Mr. Chairman. We have a motion to close public participation by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Byrd. All in favor, aye. Aye. We have one item on the agenda this evening. It's order number 2015-133. It's establishment of the Council on Aging Friends in Service to Humanity Donation Fund number 2882 in accordance with Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44, Section 53A.
▶ 1:55 John N. Tramontozzi: And we have a motion to suspend the rules. I hear from Dawn. Excuse me, Paulopoulos. Thank you. Thank you, Dawn. Mr. Chair, may I also point out that this meeting is being recorded and is available on MMTV. Yes, thank you. Alderman Mortimer is reminding us that we are being recorded pursuant to the Massachusetts open meeting laws. available for public viewing at any time at MMTV. So we have a motion to suspend the rules by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Byrd. All in favor? Aye. Aye, good evening. Hello. Miss Palopoulos, how are you? Hi, good, thank you. So this is to open a donation fund for the FISH program. FISH is short, Friends in Service to Humanity. This program was run by a resident of Melrose for many, many years, and he decided to retire from it, so that was in March.
▶ 2:51 And in October, we found new coordinators for the program. We're collaborating, the Council on Aging is collaborating with Action Ambulance, and so the program is going strong. And what it entails is it's kind of a neighbor helping neighbor type of program. Anyone who lives in Melrose of any age can request a ride to a medical appointment from a volunteer, and the volunteers are Melrose neighbors. It's completely free, and the only cost that's involved in running this fantastic program that provides all of these rides is $50 a month, and that is to have a telephone line that passengers who need a ride, they can call and leave their request and then later in the evening they are called back to be matched with someone so on the donations more than cover the
▶ 3:49 $50 a month that it costs for to run the program so this account would be to put all the donations in but also then to pay that one charge out of each month which would be that phone bill very good we have any questions from anybody in board motion to recommend for passage well non-voting member i'll let alderman Boisselle um ask a question if you want so but we do have a motion for that thank you motion for recommendation thank you motion to recommend for passages john you mentioned that you you would call for a ride for a medical appointment who do they call um the phone number they call i know i mean do they call comes no it's an answering research it's an answering service in peabody that um does this um
▶ 4:34 just kind of out of the goodness of their heart for about 30 years so they just yeah they donate their service for this now how does the public find find out about this service or this number generally by calling the council on aging okay so they do call the council you give them a number we do okay yeah well it's just that the folks that do transportation when we can't meet someone's needs we all know to refer to this and also that the the really valuable part of this program is that often when you have a medical procedure the hospital will not just release you they actually need to give you to somebody so this is perfect for that because this is somebody who will go door-to-door whereas our service is more curb to curb so many people that call up
▶ 5:25 Gail Infurna: are calling this because they're having procedures done and they need a person to take them back and forth okay thank you very much john thank you mr chairman very good alderman inferno has a quick question for you thank you i'm also not a non-vote i'm a non-voting member but just to um take off on what alderman Boisselle was uh asking and i think uh don you were too too humble as to what you had to say as far as how do people know about this it's also in um your newsletter it's in the telephone book it's on your web page so it is all over the place and you know it's a wonderful valuable service for the elderly so i just wanted to throw that in there because you know thank you that the word is out there it's in the newspapers it's it's all over so good can i add a call for
▶ 6:10 Peter D. Mortimer: volunteers thank you don it is a good um opportunity for um others alderman mortimer Actually, just that last comment, I think Ms. Villalopoulos made it a little offhandedly, but a call for volunteers. A lot of high school students need community service hours, and this might be a good avenue for them. Is there certainly maybe juniors and seniors? Oh, but you don't know when to answer the phone, but you need someone who can drive. Yeah, so the volunteers that we need are people that are willing to drive, and it's very meaningful work. and the way it works is you sign up to have your name put on this list and in the evening you will get a phone call some people will get a phone call saying are you available at 10 o'clock tomorrow to take someone from Melrose to Melrose
▶ 6:59 Wakefield Hospital if you are that's great you get all the information if you're not no worries they'll call you again another day so it's extremely flexible there's no structure to it you're not setting your time aside for it so it's it's really a very good volunteer position for folks and it's extremely meaningful people get a lot out of being able to help folks in this way so if anyone is interested in volunteering they can call the Milano Senior Center or the Council on Aging and would volunteers to answer the phone and schedule the would they be needed to to schedule the rides no the only thing we covered in PVD they have enough of that is for driving very good thank you Ambulance does the coordinating part I see thank you very much mr. chairman
▶ 7:45 you're welcome see no other questions that we do have a motion on the floor Alderman Mortimer to motion to recommend a seconded by Alderman Byrd on the motion all in favor aye any opposing thank you so much Dawn thank you move on to the full board for passage thank you with that we have a motion to adjourn by Alderman Mortimer seconded by Alderman Byrd all in favor aye we are adjourned hang in there for the Appropriations Committee meeting the chairman, Jacqueline Byrd is the vice chairman. With us this evening, it's a committee of the whole. We have Alderman Inferna, Alderman Tramontozzi, Alderman Medeiros, Alderman Boisselle, Alderman McAteer-Margolis, Alderman Lemmerman, and President Kahn.