City Council — 2015-08-17

City Council Regular Meeting

This meeting starts at 14:05 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Jaclyn L. Bird present · Alderman at Large; Robert A. Boisselle absent · Ward 4 Alderman; Donald L. Conn Jr. present · President, Alderman at Large; Scott M. Forbes present · Ward 7 Alderman; Gail Infurna present · Ward 5 Alderman; Jennifer L. Lemmerman present · Ward 2 Alderman; Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis present · Alderman at Large; Monica C. Medeiros present · Alderman at Large; Peter D. Mortimer present · Ward 6 Alderman; John N. Tramontozzi absent · Ward 1 Alderman; Francis X. Wright Jr. present · Ward 3 Alderman

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BULLETIN● AUGUST 17, 2015 Aldermanic Chamber Regular Meeting 7:45 PM

ORDER-2016-17 Opening Statement Regular Meeting of the Board of Aldermen to be held on Monday, August 17, 2015 at 7:45 P.M. in The Aldermanic Chamber, City Hall, Melrose, MA Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jaclyn L. Bird Alderman at Large Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Absent Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Present Gail M. Infurna Ward 5 Alderman Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Ward 2 Alderman Present Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis Alderman at Large Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Alderman Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Absent Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Present Donald L. Conn Jr. President, Alderman at Large Present

ORDER-2016-18 Amending Something Previously Adopted Amending Something Previously Adopted Order No. 2015-154 - City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2016 be amended by striking the sum of "$72,485,826.66" and inserting in place thereof: "$72,435,826.66 as set forth in the attached document. Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2016-19 Acceptance Acceptance of Fire Alarm System Upgrade Donation in the amount of $10,500.00 to Fund # 2883 Assigned to Committee Finance Committee

ORDER-2016-20 Appropriation An Appropriation in the amount of $57,887.36 from Raised and Appropriated to various accounts as set forth within Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2016-21 Appropriation City of Melrose Page 1 11/9/2015 6:38 PM Minutes Board of Aldermen August 17, 2015 Appropriation of $20,000 from Library Fines, Account # 29032-590000, to Library Expenses: Books and Periodicals, Account # 016112-534200 Assigned to Committee Finance Committee

ORDER-2016-22 Appointment Appointment of Mark S. Robinson, 50 Clifford St., to the Melrose Library Board of Trustees for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2017. Assigned to Committee Health, Education & Welfare Committee

ORDER-2016-23 Appointment Appointment of Christopher J. Chiurri, 158 Howard St., to the Historical Commission for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February, 2018 Assigned to Committee Health, Education & Welfare Committee

ORDER-2016-24 License Application of Izuchukwu O. Ofoma aka Izu Ofoma d/b/a Boston Jaunt LLC for a Livery Service License (1 vehicle) at 49 Melrose Street, Apt 4C, Melrose, MA Assigned to Committee Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2016-3 Appointment Reappointment of John Ford, 31 Magnolia St.., to the Traffic Commission for a five-year term; said term to expire on the first Monday in June, 2020. Passed

ORDER-2016-8 License - Class II Motor Vehicle Application for a Class II Motor Vehicle License to Peter Varone, Jr. d/b/a JP's Auto Sales, LLC at 735 Broadway (aka Newburyport TP), Melrose, MA Passed

ORDER-2016-9 License - Hackney License Hackney Carriage (Taxi) Licenses Renewed commencing May 1, 2015 Placed on File

ORDER-2016-10 License - Hackney License City of Melrose Page 2 11/9/2015 6:38 PM Minutes Board of Aldermen August 17, 2015 Hackney Carriage(Taxi) Licenses Not Renewed 2015 Placed on File

ORDER-2016-11 License Livery Car Service Licenses Renewed commencing May 1, 2015 Placed on File

ORDER-2016-12 License Livery Car Service Licenses Not Renewed 2015 Placed on File

ORDER-2016-13 License - Gasoline Storage Gasoline and Storage Licenses Renewed commencing May 1, 2015 Placed on File

ORDER-2016-14 License - Gasoline Storage Gasoline and Storage Licenses Not Renewed 2015 Placed on File

ORDER-2016-15 License - Second Hand Dealer Second Hand Dealer Licenses Renewed commencing May 1, 2015 Placed on File

ORDER-2015-192 Amending Revised Ordinances Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228-14 by adding paragraph C relative to Water Meters as set forth herein. Referred to Water Rate Comm Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2015-194 Amending Revised Ordinances Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228-15 by adding paragraph C relative to Water Proration as set forth herein Referred to Water Rate Comm Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2015-195 Amending Revised Ordinances City of Melrose Page 3 11/9/2015 6:38 PM Minutes Board of Aldermen August 17, 2015 Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228-30 by adding paragraph F relative to Sewer Proration as set forth herein Referred to Water Rate Comm Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2016-6 Appointment Appointment of Manisha G. Bewtra, 330 Grove St., for a three-year term on the Human Rights Commission, said term to expire on the last day of February, 2018. Passed

ORDER-2016-4 Appointment Appointment of Zachary D. Drench, 24 South Cedar Park, to the Conservation Commission for a three-year term; said term to end on the last day of February 2018. Passed

ORDER-2016-7 Amending Revised Ordinances Amending Revised Ordinances of the City of Melrose, Chapter 6, Section 6-3.1 (Senior Citizen Property Tax Work-Off Abatement Program) Passed as Amended

ORDER-2015-202 Bond Authorizing a Bond in the Amount of $400,000 for the Purchase of Real Property Passed City of Melrose Page 4 11/9/2015 6:38 PM

Transcript

▶ 14:17 Alderman Wood. Here. Here. Alderman Cossack. Alderman Forbes. Here. Here. Alderman Turner. Here. Alderman Turner. Here. Alderman McTiernan-Torres. Here. Alderman Medeiros. Here. Here. Alderman Vorderman. Here. Here. Alderman Turner-Torres and Alderman Wright. Here. Here. Alderman Turner. Here. Here. Okay, we do have a quorum. Everybody please rise and join me in saluting the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Tonight's meeting is being recorded and will be rebroadcast on Melrose Cable Television in accordance with the dictates of the Commonwealth Massachusetts Open Meeting Law.

▶ 15:14 to open the floor for public participation Mr. President. Alderman Mortimer moves that we open the floor for public participation the motion is seconded by Alderman Forbes on the motion all those in favor aye anyone opposed motion passes this is the portion of our meeting where any member of the general public can come forward to the table in the center of the room identify themselves and declaim on any order that is on our agenda for this evening is there anybody who wishes to speak good evening let me just sign in here good evening my name is JD lorac I reside at 17 school Street and I'm also a candidate for alderman at large I'm here tonight to comment on the agenda item pertaining to water rates I'm sure it's the case with all of you it

▶ 16:19 certainly has been the case for me as I have met voters and citizens around the city that there is great concern about water and sewer rates and the system for how those rates are assessed in the city in general the concerns seem to fall in two categories one a great deal of concern that the rates are just plain too high that they've been going up and there seems to be no limit and secondly that the underlying system by which the rates are assessed is unfair along several dimensions I'd like to focus tonight on one dimension that I think is really quite obviously unfair and that is the practice of charging for current fiscal year rates even for use that occurs in a prior fiscal year many citizens have commented to me that they fundamentally do not understand why it

▶ 17:10 should be the case that water rates should be assessed at a higher rate for usage that occurred at a lower rate in the past. And just as an ex post facto law in the criminal context is unconstitutional, in some ways, this practice in the ordinance that we have now is an ex post facto policy. And it's unfair because the rules of the game change for our citizens in the middle. I'm sure we can all agree that two tenets that important for any public policy but especially for tax and fee policies is that they be transparent and that they be predictable and I think that the problem with our current system right now is that the system is not completely transparent and not completely predictable it's hard to come up with a

▶ 18:04 sort of parallel for you know what this policy might be like but I was thinking about it and it's as though you know someone goes to Macy's and they buy a pair of pants and it's $30 and then they get their credit card statement 15 days later in the mail and it's $50 because the rules changed in the middle of the game I think that's sort of an accurate parallel to the problem we have with the with the water ordinance as it currently stands and I would like to commend the board for taking it up tonight and in particular to alderman Medeiros for her leadership on this issue it seems eminently sensible that we try to fix this problem and I noted in the packet tonight that all of you have that the

▶ 18:44 consultants that the city has retained to look at this issue kind of deconstructed the changes that alderman Medeiros is is putting forward and critique them on the basis that the tiered water the tiered structure of fees that we have right now are incompatible incompatible and complex with the changes that alderman Medeiros is seeking to my mind that is not a critique of Alderman Medeiros policy change, it is rather a critique of the underlying system. So I would ask and commend the Aldermen tonight to take the proposals on the table seriously. They are sensible proposals aimed at solving a very obvious problem, and I hope that some progress can be made on this issue. Certainly if I am fortunate enough to join you on the Board of Aldermen next year, Alderman

▶ 19:35 Medeiros you will have an ally on this issue because I think what you're doing is very much the right thing thank you thank you sir anyone else who wishes to speak this evening good evening I'm Karen Druitts and I live at 67 Russell Street in Melrose and I am a 28 year resident of the city and I'm a single homeowner and I would like to bring up the topic of the parking the purchase of of the one Kimball Court building, which is adjacent to the Dill's Court. I have to say that I'm very opposed to the City purchasing that property because I'm echoing Mr. McGuire's comments in the Melrose Free Press that we don't want to remove that property as a commercial property off of the tax rolls. additionally in downloading the parking in downtown Melrose study that was done

▶ 20:51 by Nelson Nygaard in 2012 I found it very enlightening because I had not read it before and while I only downloaded it today I had a chance to you know skim it and the parking the report here is basically saying that we have adequate parking and i do believe that we have adequate parking so many people do focus on parking in dill's court because that's where so much of our business is located centrally located around that parking space and i think that the city itself has not done enough in utilizing the recommendations of this study um to make improvements to the parking in melrose and i think that adding at least 600 000 bond and i don't know what the exact number was i heard it could be even as high

▶ 21:49 as 625 000 but based based on six hundred thousand dollars each one of those spots if it's 21 spot spaces would cost 28 571 dollars per spot does that make sense for the city of melrose to incur that expenditure and put that unnecessary tax burden on our citizens um i'd like to find out what the city is is doing what other plans that they have to implement some of the suggestions which i think are really good suggestions and also to find out why that the city only went part way in reconfiguring dill's court because in looking at the picture that they include in the reconfiguration of dill's court it makes a heck of a lot more sense than the reconfiguration that the city has done today so um i just wanted to again say that i'm opposed to this the city

▶ 22:52 spending that kind of money okay thank you thank you hi my name is jerry morose um i live at 62 mount vernon street um i'm here tonight to talk to you uh primarily about the the water and sewer items on the on the calendar um but i just did some quick math here that over the 300 months of the 25-year bond as i recall the bond for the parking lot is um it actually is about two thousand dollars a month per practice oh i'm sorry forget that i my math bad there sorry about that trying to do it too quickly anyway um to the water and sewer issue which i thought much more about before tonight um the recommendation from the committee was to place these items on file and i urge this committee to please not do that this is the time of the year

▶ 24:12 to start talking about water and sewer rates not necessarily to change them for this year although So if it was deemed appropriate, that might not be a bad thing. But this is the time to start talking about water and sewer rates, and the structure of the system. So that when the budget time comes next year, and the rate setting time comes next year, you've already given thoughtful examination and due time to all the underlying issues that are inherent in this topic. I sent you a letter today to go into a number of the details about, In my view, the irresponsible report by this person that we keep hiring as a consultant for our water and sewer issues. This person does not show that he has given us any value in terms of making our system more efficient.

▶ 25:02 He just plays around with the numbers and to try to make it look like we're taking less money from residents than we really are. And whether that's sanctioned by other people within the city government, I don't know. But I find it very manipulative and certainly not transparent as to how it's presented here. I gave you a pretty detailed breakdown of what I disagree with about what he said. He claims that Alderman Medeiros proposal will have a devastating effect. He gives no, in his report, no support for that conclusion whatsoever. He shows simplistic reasoning within his report to you. I urge you to keep these things on file. Number one, Alderman Medeiros thing that if we're going to keep this twisted system of

▶ 25:51 a three-tiered rate structure, allow people to mitigate the damage done to it the best they can. I applaud Alderman Medeiros for making that suggestion. I don't think that that is the ultimate solution. I think the ultimate solution is to have a fair rate system that is one rate for all people whether you live in a condominium or an apartment building or a single family home. what's fair a lot of a lot of nonsense was spoken about two years ago and we all heard it we were all in the room together about how you know this tiered system was fair and equitable well it's not fair and equitable to say that to the people at Melrose towers or the people at any other condominium that because they have one meter for a big building they're going to pay more per

▶ 26:33 person for water and sewer than any other person using the same amount of water in in Melrose that's unfair and that this has gone on now for two full years and now we're into a third year i find it outrageous and i brought this issue to your attention each and every year this issue came up i did it in advance i did it this past spring as well do not please do not place these on file please open up this discussion the other issues about the water and sewer rates um the prorating with the new meter system if people are able to think clearly, probation will not be necessary. The meters can be read on June 29th. The bills can go out June 30th if you want to with the current fiscal year rates. Everybody can get

▶ 27:23 their usage for a whole fiscal year done and billed in the same fiscal year. Now, I understand the timing of the bills. You don't want to have people have water bills due the same time as August tax bills, where you can certainly make some accommodation for that issue. But the truth is, is that Alderman Medeiros proposals are real and positive as mitigation factors to an underlying broken system. Let's fix the system, but let's work off of what Alderman Medeiros has proposed so we can explore all the options and make sure that we actually frame a system for next July that's true and honest and accurate and representative of true cost of the system i need to say that all this attention to the weird rates is it's a perfect

▶ 28:14 distraction to the real issues we aren't attending to containing the costs in our water and sewer enterprise funds we aren't this consultant hasn't proposed good ways of reducing pumpage that's not built because of leakage in the system this new consultant hasn't proposed good new ways and creative ways of reducing our ini inflow and infiltration into the sewer system through which we pay millions of dollars extra because of that that failure of us to do and as i said before if we keep improving our system in the sewer side especially at the rate at which mwra releases low interest funds we don't get ahead of any other town in those huge fixed costs of mwra that are apportioned proportionately to all disc all cities we'll have the same proportion

▶ 29:01 still we need to get ahead of the curve move ahead of what the standard funding for mwra is and reduce our ini that way this in this huge time right now of the highest mwra debt payment we would save millions of dollars from elrose if we would get ahead of the curve if we keep going along and saying oh well they gave us a million dollars of free interest money we'll use that like every other community does we're just in parallel with every community we don't get better these are the serious issues about water and sewer that aren't being addressed by the water and sewer committee that i can tell by the consultant that i can tell and certainly because it doesn't come to you even by this board i really urge you do not reflexively

▶ 29:41 place these things on file i really wasn't happy with the the you know the the attitude towards these things at the at the committee meeting where they were voted to be placed in file i felt that it wasn't giving these issues their proper due um thinking um anyway i look forward to having the issue of water and sewer rates discussed robustly in this chamber maybe in some public meetings so you can actually have a fair hearing of all the issues because we all know that the people from the public that come forward here all the time to bring forward issues um you know in a short period of time you can't address the issues but then this committee often gives very long periods of time to people who are sitting here and who are saying things

▶ 30:31 that aren't true and without giving any chance of rebuttal i i do want to point out specifically that um at the meeting where this was was discussed um the issue of proration uh mr schenner from the department public works responded as if that well we can only take care of the probation issue if we go and do monthly billing 12 monthly billing and then we'll take care of the probation issue and he even said well that would be an expensive costly thing to do kind of kind of diminishing the that we should actually do that well i don't agree with that assessment i believe that we can have quarterly billing still just do it at the right time you know read the meter january 25th send the bills out january 30th you know we're done with it you can still

▶ 31:17 do quarterly bills it doesn't have to be a monthly thing nobody here seemed to pick up on that it doesn't have to be monthly to have it timely so these are just a few of many issues that i've given to you in the letter that i sent to you i really urge all of you to please open this issue up for public discussion for for addressing it the issues in the open for clearing away all the weeds around this so we can come to some good consensus thank you thank you sir is there anybody else who who wishes to speak this evening motion to close public participation mr. president second alderman Mortimer wishes to move to close public participation the motion is seconded by Alderman Lemmerman on the motion all

▶ 32:00 those in favor aye anyone opposed passes order 2016-18 amending something previously adopted order number 2015-154 city of Melrose operating budget for fiscal year 2016 be amended by striking the sum $72,485,826.66 and inserting in place thereof $72,435,826.66 as set forth in the attached document. That order will be referred to the Committee on Appropriations. Order 2016-19, acceptance of fire alarm system upgrade donation in the amount of ten thousand five hundred dollars to fund number 2883 that order will go to the committee on finance order 2016-20 an appropriation in the amount of fifty seven thousand eight hundred eighty seven dollars thirty six cents from raised and appropriated to various accounts as set forth

▶ 33:02 herein order 216-20 will also go to the committee on appropriations order 2016-21 appropriation of $20,000 from library fines, account 29032-59000 to library expenses, books and periodicals, account number 016112-534200. That order will go to the Committee on Finance. Order 2016-22, appointment of Mark S. Robinson, 50 Clifford Street, to the Melrose Library Board of Trustees for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February 2017. Order 21622 will go to the Committee on Health, Education, and Welfare. Order 2016-23, appointment of Christopher J. Cherry, 158 Howard Street, to the Historical Commission for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February 2018.

▶ 34:05 That order will also go to the Committee on Health Education and Welfare. Order 2016-24, application of Izuchukuo Ofoma, aka Izu Ofoma, doing business as Boston Jaunt, LLC for a livery service license, one vehicle at 49 Melrose Street, Apartment 4C, Melrose, Mass. That order will be considered by the Protection and License Committee. have any orders out of order this evening Alderman Inferno excuse me not out of order I'm sorry anyone else have an order out of order are there any orders from committee Alderman Inferno we have ordered our 2016-3 the reappointment of John Ford to the traffic Commission for a five-year term said term to expire in the first Monday in June 2020 motion to take that from

▶ 35:03 committee second alderman inferno moves that we remove that committee uh that order from committee the motion is seconded by alderman mortimer on the motion all those in favor aye anyone opposed motion passes the order is removed from committee it is before you and there was a recommendation for passage of mr ford's appointment in committee alderman inferno moves to pass second motion seconded by alderman mortimer is there any discussion all those in favor of passage of the order indicate by saying aye anyone opposed that order passes any other orders from committee well the next year Margolis yes mr. president thank you I request that we take ordered two zero one six dash eight from committee it's an application for a class two motor vehicle license to Peter

▶ 35:52 veron jr doing business as jp's auto sales at 735 broadway second the motion alderman mcateer margolis moves that order 216-8 be removed from committee the motion is seconded by alderman mortimer on the motion is there any discussion all those in favor of the motion indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed motion passes the order is before you this order was recommended earlier this evening in committee motion for passage second Alderman McAteer Margolis moves for passage the motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer is their discussion if there is not all those in favor of passage please indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed that order passes mr. president may I continue to ask that order two zero one six dash nine be removed from committee it's

▶ 36:49 Hackney license carriage taxi license is renewed commencing May 1st 2015 second the motion Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to remove order 216-9 from committee the motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer is there discussion relative to the motion all those in favor of the motion please indicate by saying aye aye anybody opposed motion passes the order is before you it was recommended for passage earlier this evening after place on file excuse me early this evening in committee second all the men in McAteer Margolis moves to place the order on file I think Alderman Forbes nosed out Alderman Mortimer in a tough battle there for the second motion seconded by Alderman Forbes is there any discussion all those in favor of placing the order on file indicate by saying aye

▶ 37:42 Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That order will be placed on file. Alderman McAteer-Margolis. Once again, Mr. Chairman, from the Protection and License Committee, I request that we take Order 2016-10 from Committee. It's the Hackney Taxi Licenses, not renewed for 2015. Second the motion. Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to remove Order 2016-10 from the Protection and License Committee. The motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer. the discussion relative to the motion all those in favor of the motion indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed motion passes the order is before you the committee recommendation was to place this order on file motion to place it on file second alderman mctier margolis moves to place

▶ 38:27 order 216-10 on file the motion is seconded by alderman mortimer is there discussion all those in favor of placing the order on file indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed that order will be placed on file uh mr president next we have order number two zero one six dash eleven livery car licenses renewed commencing may 1st may i please take that from committee Second. Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to remove Order 216-11 from Committee. The motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer. Is there discussion relative to the motion? All those in favor of the motion indicate by saying aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. The order is before you. It comes from the Protection and License Committee with a recommendation to place the order on

▶ 39:22 file. Motion to place on file. Second. Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to place the order on file. The motion is seconded by Alderman Byrd. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of placing the order on file, indicate by saying aye. Aye. Is there anyone opposed? Motion passes. That order will be placed on file. Order number 2016-12. Could we remove that from the committee, please? Second the motion. Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to remove Order 216-112, delivery car service license is not renewed for 2015 the motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer is the discussion relative to the motion to remove the order from committee if there is not all those in favor the motion indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed that motion passes the order is before you it

▶ 40:14 was the committee recommendation to place the order on file motion place on five second Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to place the order on file the motion is seconded by Alderman Forbes. Is there discussion? All those in favor of the motion please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That order will be placed on file. I request that we take order number 2016-13 gasoline and storage licenses renewed commencing May 1st 2015 from committee. Second the motion. Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to remove order 216-13 from the Protection and License Committee. The motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer. Is there discussion relative to the motion? On the motion, all those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. The order is before you with a

▶ 41:03 recommendation from the Protection and License Committee to place the order on file. Motion to place on file. Second. Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to place the order on file. The motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer. Before I call for the vote, is there any discussion relative to this order? All those in favor of placing the order on file indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed that order will be placed on file mr. president I request that we take order 2 0 1 6 dash 14 gasoline and storage license is not renewed May 1st 2015 from committee second the motion alderman McAteer Margolis moves that we remove order 2 16 1 4 from the protection and license committee the motion is seconded by alderman Mortimer is there anybody who wishes to discuss

▶ 41:48 the motion if not all those in favor of the motion indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed that motion passes the order is before you with a recommendation from committee to place the order on file motion to place on file second Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to place the order on file the motion is seconded by Alderman Forbes is there discussion all those in favor of placing the order on file please indicate by saying aye is there anybody Anybody opposed? That order will be placed on file. Order number 2016-15. We take that from committee, please. Second the motion. Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves that we take Order 21615, which is secondhand dealers licenses renewed commencing May 1, 2015.

▶ 42:40 The motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer. Is there discussion on the motion to remove the order from committee? All those in favor of the motion indicate by saying aye. Aye. Is there anybody opposed? Motion passes. The order is before you. Motion to place on file. Second. Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to place order 2016-15 on file. The motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer. Is there discussion? All those in favor of placing the order on file, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That order will be placed on file. Madam Clerk, could you call the calendar, please? Order 2015-192, amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 228-14 by adding paragraph C relative to water meters as set forth herein.

▶ 43:31 This comes from the Legal and Legislative Committee with a recommendation to place on file. Is there discussion relative to this order? alderman medeiros then alderman bird yeah i'll defer to almond bird alderman bird you have the floor uh mr president i was just going to ask that we take uh order 2015-192 and order 2015-194 um kink for uh concurrent action so that we can discuss them at the same time alderman bird is moving for concurrent action on two fifteen one nine two next two and two fifteen one nine four is that what you meant to move alderman i'm sorry no let's take that back and i'll do it for the next two i'm sorry mr president okay we are back we are back on order 215192 alderman medeiros you have the floor thank you uh for uh asking for discussion mr president uh

▶ 44:31 Monica C. Medeiros: in this order i had submitted this order uh the the gist of it it may not be clear in what was read in the calendar this is to allow meters to be installed in any non-owner occupied unit as recognized by the assessor's office and my reason for bringing this forward was because i had received some feedback from people in the public who own property and are unable to individually have been told by the city that they're unable to individually meter some units that they may own as non-occupied non-owner occupied units this is in you know could be commercial residential and so on they were told that they were not allowed to do so because of the city not wanting to chase after tenants for billing purposes this state further states that

▶ 45:34 Monica C. Medeiros: the owner of a unit would be responsible for the payment on any any units any meters in the buildings i think this is a common sense solution we did have some discussion in our committee meeting by our city solicitor and our department of public works head and although they've mentioned that you know this would obviously even out some of the tearing they didn't really in my eyes address the legality or any anything towards that so I would like to see this move forward I think it's a common-sense solution I think the committee members here for moving to place this on file i would like to see this move to be for passage so um and a point of information i don't believe there's anything in our ordinance which supports the the statements

▶ 46:44 Gail Infurna: by whoever made the statements that you can't install second or other meters yes i i think that that is uh correct but i'm not sure why that why uh homeowners and property owners are being told that further discussion relative to this order alderman inferno thank you very much mr president um i wasn't here for the discussion i happened to be on vacation but i did watch it um and i was a little bit i was a little bit confused i guess and didn't quite understand what it all meant so i guess with that being said and knowing that we do have a water committee that does meet i would like to see these orders being sent to the water committee for them to um discuss it and whatnot i know we have um some information here from the consultant but i would

▶ 47:38 like to see the water committee really look at it and see what they think about it and come back with some sort of recommendation on it that's that's my motion that's where no further discussion second yeah so i understand like the motion is is it's a motion to table this order well to remand it uh to send it to the um water committee and i guess remanded and in committee and in what's it appropriations uh legal and legislative legislative take alderman alderman inferna is moving that this order be remanded to the legal and legislative committee pending a review of the order by the water rate setting committee is that an accurate uh recitation of your motion thank you second second motion is seconded by alderman wright is the discussion relative to

▶ 48:32 Francis X. Wright Jr.: the motion alderman wright i i would appreciate if we're going to send this back to committee and ask for the input of the water commission that the information we've been provided by by the consultant be fleshed out we get a little bit more detail when he talks about what that they could be increases that this would result in if I'm reading this correctly in a very large increase in the first and second step rates and a reduction in the third step rates and that single-family homeowners would receive a double-digit rate increase in their annual bills while commercial apartment buildings would have their annual bills reduced um i'd like to see some percentages or numbers to go along with that so you're making a friendly amendment that as we send this back

▶ 49:27 Monica C. Medeiros: to the water and sewer rate setting committee that the consultant be asked to explicate the findings that are set forth in his report yes mr president we have a member of this board who attends those meetings and i would hope that that member could spur that discussion on is there further discussion relative to the motion that's before the board at this time alderman medeiros yes and just to uh further reiterate alderman Wright point um there was some discussion at our committee meeting that we didn't know in fact how many units this would actually affect mr shena said he he didn't know how many units this this could affect uh how many meters that would be and you know i'd like to know things about how many requests they've received right

▶ 50:20 respectfully i think if we send it back there'll be a discussion of these things and i i do with respect i don't really think we need to list every potential question that we would ask them but if if we send it back and ask for more explanation and if people who are interested attend the water rate setting committee meetings they could ask their questions in person anything else relative to this water okay there's a motion to remand it to committee into with the the caveat that it be referred to the water rate setting Commission all those in favor of the motion indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed that order will return to the legal and legislative committee okay if we could continue please order 2015-194 amending Melrose

▶ 51:15 revised ordinances chapter 228-15 by adding paragraph C relative to water proration as set forth herein this order comes from the legal and legislative Committee with a recommendation to place the order on file before you for discussion Alderman Byrd now I'm serious now can we take order 2015-194 and order 2015-195 did I get that right for concurrent action so that we can discuss them together Mr. President and the order 195 is amending the revised ordinances by adding paragraph F relative to sewer proration as set forth herein Alderman Byrd is moving for concurrent action on 194 and 195 is there a second second second by Alderman Inferno is there any discussion on the motion for concurrent action all those

▶ 52:09 Monica C. Medeiros: in favor of concurrent action please indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed motion passes the orders are joined and are before you discussion relative to these orders please Alderman Medeiros then Alderman Inferno thank you I would first like to move that we amend these orders by including the communication that we received today via email from mr. Mraz as well as the email that we received on this order from miss Bonnie Kelly I think under our rules those communications are now part of the orders okay mr. chairman I didn't see them added into IQ I'm too like I don't know when mr. Mraz's water came in but if it did come in it'll be added to the to the record or he could perhaps give us a hard copy of it before he leaves this evening I wanted to say that

▶ 53:11 Monica C. Medeiros: you know I do hope as some of these speakers said today that this is not the end discussion of these two orders and the discussion really of proration is not the end solution the the the problem set forth in our our waters bills is that currently we only have one meter reader in the entire city that's what this board has been told and that it's impossible for that one person to read every single meter in enough time to take a final reading before we change the rates usually at the end of the fiscal year and therefore we're billed on a quarterly basis but a quarterly rolling basis so that some residents are billed in say July some in August some in September for the three months proceeding and as a result many of those bills overlap the two fiscal years and

▶ 54:18 Monica C. Medeiros: the practice has been since implementing the new rate structure in 2013 that residents is you know some residents and it varies depending on which part of the rolling structure you're on are being built for water that they're using in in the prior fiscal year and at the new higher rates and you know I find that to be inherently unfair I don't think that that's an acceptable practice I understand that switching to tiered rate system makes it and so what we had done in the past to remedy this was to adopt a system of proration so that it would basically divide the usage by the number of days in each fiscal year in order to come to although not exact a more fair billing structure it becomes more

▶ 55:15 Monica C. Medeiros: complicated to do that with the tiered rate system and our consultant has has advised against that just because it's more complicated it isn't something that think we should abandoned I I find it hard to believe in 2015 that you know we walk around with you know tablets on our desks and computers in our hands and telephones you know that that we can't find a way in a computerized program to to resolve this and at least make it better part of the issue and one of the reasons why I supported two years ago we bonded in order to to get new water meters and part of the reason I supported that is because we were promised that once we got the new meters that we would be able to read the entire city within four hours and I really hope that that happens I know that it wasn't

▶ 56:15 Monica C. Medeiros: going to happen overnight we had been told it would probably be two years I had hoped that it would have been in place by this you know past summer that we just passed, the end of the fiscal year that we just passed. I hope that we resolve this before the next fiscal year. We shouldn't be retroactively charging people. It's just not right. And there was some discussion at that meeting, our committee meeting, which I appreciate the ability to speak somewhat at that meeting, as I was not a member of the Legal and Legislative Committee. But at that time, Mr. Shenna did say that we couldn't solve this problem until we went to monthly billing. And that is definitely contrary to some discussions that we had had in the past, where

▶ 57:14 Monica C. Medeiros: we were led to believe that the new meters would allow us to bill really almost any time we wanted, but certainly on the same quarterly basis or at the end of the fiscal year, and eliminate the need for any kind of proration. But while that doesn't exist, I originally submitted these orders back in the end of May and with the hopes that it would address this current fiscal year. I appreciate the recommendation to place on file rather than as a recommendation, say for instance ought not to pass but with no guarantee that the new meters will be in place and that would be ready to have this language be obsolete by next June I would encourage everybody to take another look at this especially one

▶ 58:11 Monica C. Medeiros: of the points that I hadn't thought of that mr. Moroz wrote in his letter was that in fact this system does affect some homeowners some rate payers more more so than others because we're on this rolling basis there are some rate payers that are being charged in particular just because of when their bills can't come out every year they're they're the ones is one segment of bill payers that are really facing you know if you're getting your bill in july for you know for usage say through july 15th and you're being charged for water going three months back most of that usage was really in the prior fiscal year and that's happening to you every year after year after year whereas if you wouldn't be faced with that if your if your billing was more you know

▶ 59:09 Gail Infurna: um it is a complicated thing to try to to discuss and I think that's what makes uh this such a tough topic but it really is uh affecting some repairs more so than others so um thank you thank you anyone else who wishes to discuss these orders well I'm an Inferno thank you very much um go ahead um I was muttering I um as I understood it that with these new electronic water meters are being installed now um that proration will really be a moot point because then all the meters will be read electronically at any time that they want to do it and the bills can get out but with that being said and maybe i've missed something along the line here uh regarding that once again we do have this water committee i i do suggest that we send also this to them

▶ 1:00:06 we do have once again an opinion from pioneer but i would like it to keep it open for discussion in the water committee and see what they come back with right just for the edification of the public the water committee that we keep referring to was set up by ordinance two or three years ago it contains the director of public works the cfo of the city and a representative of the alderman and that committee makes recommendations to the board of aldermen relative to water and sewer rates so that is the committee the commission uh or whatever else we referred to it as this evening uh that we're sending these orders back to at least if this motion were to pass is that a motion because i was going to second it i don't know we'd have to ask the maker is that a motion that is a

▶ 1:00:55 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: motion second alderman inferno moves to remand these two orders to the legal and legislative committee with the recommendation that they be referred to the water and sewer rate setting committee that motion is seconded by alderman mcateer margolis who now has the floor um thank you mr chairman i i was also um happy to second that because i think that this is where these discussions belong particularly as we continue them throughout the year as many of the members of the public have requested and i think that's certainly a valid request and that we should be kept appraised of what's going on with these new ideas and options I would personally like to see I know I've had my new water meter installed I believe most of Ward 2 and I think they've been working on one in

▶ 1:01:50 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Florida hmm well I was the second notice person myself President Kahn so I'm not sure where you're at in the process but they were very efficient and I know they're working very hard so I just I think before we were to jump the gun on figuring out the whole preparation issue again it would behoove us to find out exactly where we're at with the new installations if they will be done by July 1st next year and if when they are done what point are we prepared to go to to either monthly billing or quarterly billing that can resolve the proration issue so that we don't have that overlapping that we've been hearing of so that would be my request when it goes to the Water Commission and maybe have a report back to legal and legislative

▶ 1:02:48 Monica C. Medeiros: well Alderman Tramontozzi is the Aldermanic representative to that committee and I'm sure he'll be happy to report what transpires at any meetings it's the further discussion Alderman Medeiros for the second time thank you I would like to further amend to ask the Water Raid Commission to provide a recommendation if it's not this as to how to resolve the retroactive charging solution no later than July 29th of you know for effect no later than July 29th next year okay i'm sorry june 29th pardon me alderman medeiros makes a friendly amendment to the alderman inferno motion that we ask the water and sewer commission to opine as to what they believe the solution to this issue is if not what is proposed in these orders is that a fair

▶ 1:03:43 statement of the motion statement in a timely manner for next fiscal year start is there any further discussion i think i'm going to treat that as part of the motion that's already been made in second and alderman forbes rather than having people withdraw their motions and seconds and whatnot further discussion relative to this motion all those in favor of the motion please indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed motion passes that order will be remanded to legal and legislative committee with the appropriate instruction as discussed here this evening and hopefully ms harrington can take down what i'm saying quickly enough to encapsulate it that's moving orders that's both orders okay moving on down the calendar please

▶ 1:04:32 order 2016-6 appointment of manisha g butra 330 grove street for a three-year term on the human rights commission said term to expire on the last day of february 2018 this appointment was recommended for passage in committee motion to recommend the motion passes excuse me Alderman Burb moves the passage seconded by Alderman Mortimer. Is there discussion? All those in favor of passage of the order and approval of the appointment indicate by saying aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That order passes. Order 2016-4, appointment of Zachary D. Drench, 24 South Cedar Park, to the Conservation Commission for a three-year term. Said term to end on the last day of February 2018. This order was recommended for passage by the Committee on Appropriations.

▶ 1:05:25 Motion for passage. Alderman Wright moves for passage of the order. Second. Seconded by Alderman Forbes. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of passage of Order 216-4, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That order passes. Order 2016-7, Amending Revised Ordinances of the City of Melrose, Chapter 6, Section 6-3.1, senior citizen property tax work off abatement program so what it comes recommended as amended from the legal and legislative committee motion for passage second as amended Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves for passage as amended the motion is seconded by Alderman Medeiros is there discussion madam clerk there this is a roll call please call the roll well we have a

▶ 1:06:23 Peter D. Mortimer: motion that's been properly made and properly seconded and it's been voted yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes that order passes well motion for reconsideration mr president Alderman Mortimer being on the prevailing side moves for reconsideration is there a second to the motion for reconsideration second motion for reconsideration is seconded by Alderman Byrd on discussion on the motion for reconsideration Mr. President I make this motion because procedurally we were in the midst of a vote and no amendment could be made at that time but I just want to make sure that we are not going forward in an improper fashion in light of the memo that we have before us from the city solicitor and the chief assessor

▶ 1:07:35 Jaclyn L. Bird: and I'd like to hear other people weigh in on that to see if we shouldn't make the amendment before we go ahead and finalize our disposition on this. The chair always assumes that the board knows what it's doing when it makes a motion that's duly seconded but correct is there any discussion relative to the motion for reconsideration alderman bird thank you mr president um i believe that alderman mortimer is referring to the memo that we received from um city solicitor van campen that was uh correcting language that we had previously amended in committee and this would change it back to let's see it says the city solicitors of the opinion that the sentence in question is in proper form the original

▶ 1:08:29 Jaclyn L. Bird: language of the order as the plural quote individuals agrees with the plural their specific qualifications if the intent is to amend to the singular the correct form would be quote individual and quote his or her specific qualifications so I guess my motion would be to return the order to the way it was in its original format well we can't do that unless the orders can is reconsidered I'm sorry and we're breaking new ground here I think in 16 years I don't think I've ever had an issue of grammar that has come up before the board all right on the motion to reconsider do you wish to address the motion to reconsider Alderman Medeiros well it's it's not entirely appropriately so but I do stand by I made the original motion and I don't think there's a need

▶ 1:09:19 Monica C. Medeiros: to reconsider but I stand by my grammatical interpretation in the sentence in question is in each calendar year individuals shall be allowed to participate in this program based on and the original language was their specific qualifications to perform work and I moved to change it in which the committee did adopt at the time to ones o-n-e apostrophe s specific qualifications the reason being that although we're talking about individuals we're talking about each individual's own specific qualifications of that are belonging to that one person even though it is in even though the subject is that i think this is this is really grammatical insiderness but i i believe that i am correct that each individual has his or her own specific qualifications i think we want i think in my mind

▶ 1:10:20 i wanted to avoid the his or her qualifications because that just opens up a whole bunch of gender fun so i went with ones so there we go is there further discussion on the motion to reconsider okay an affirmative vote means that you wish to reconsider this order a negative vote means that you do not wish to reconsider this order and that you wish the original vote of the board of aldermen to stand as it relates to this order all those in favor of reconsideration of the vote please indicate by saying aye aye all those opposed to reconsidering the vote please indicate by saying aye aye okay it appears that the motion for reconsideration fails the order as amended passes order 2015-202 authorizing a bond in the amount of four

▶ 1:11:27 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: hundred thousand dollars for the purchase of real property this order comes to the board from the appropriations committee with a recommendation for passage motion for passage mr president alderman mortimer moves for passage of the order second motion seconded by alderman inferna is their discussion relative to the motion please alderman mcintyre margolis thank you mr chairman I'm sure that several of you have also heard, again, from members of the public who perhaps weren't aware of this vote or as aware of it prior to our last meeting. I did hear from a few people, as we have this evening, not in support of it. I also heard from several people who were in support of it. I also took an took advantage of some personal knowledge of people who served

▶ 1:12:28 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: on the parking Commission to reach out to them and of course we had our staff here for the last meeting the lot in question even though the study indicated that we had adequate parking in Melrose that particular lot when you read the fine print said it was always at capacity and the parking commission was in favor of supporting this this order the people I spoke to on it anyways I think in a perfect world yes we would have been able to implement all the changes before doing this we have implemented a number of them we have gone to the three-hour parking which has been very very effective in many spots we are revamping the commercial permit parking and I think we have to realize that this is an opportunity that will not present itself again should that

▶ 1:13:26 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: building which really only generates I believe President Kahn you indicated about five thousand dollars in revenue right now okay so but should that property be taken off the tax rolls and sold and built as it could be with you know four stories and many residential commercial use mix we would be impacting that area even further not only in terms of its design but in terms of its impact on parking I also feel that my personal request which I continue to speak to the city planner about of trying to incorporate some smaller compact hybrid type car spaces and some more landscaping and some bike racks I think will hopefully get addressed in some of the site plan review so I know for many of us it was a difficult vote I am going to stand by my vote in supporting it and

▶ 1:14:26 Peter D. Mortimer: I hope that the financial aspects of it will play out to be less than the projection because we're doing so well with our bond rating that perhaps we have a lower rate when we go out and it really won't ultimately cost the city quite as much especially if we're able to get a few more spaces in there thank you alderman anybody else who wishes to speak on this order is all shake could you call the role please mr president excuse me may i speak i didn't i don't think you saw my hand i got it up no i'm sorry for the oversight alderman that's that's quite all right um i have not spoken on this order yet and i wasn't going to speak tonight if no one else did since there's already been a full and probably exhaustive that's exhaustive

▶ 1:15:15 Peter D. Mortimer: not exhausting discussion of this matter we had two full appropriations meetings with two hours of conversation so i'd just like to make the highlights since as chairman of the two meetings we had on it, I did not speak. Alderman Boisselle, who's always very thorough in his research, found that this price for the parking spots is well within the commercially acceptable. In fact, it was at the low end of the range for commercially acceptable spots. I'm a member of the Melrose YMCA board of directors and we are attempting and our accountants have done we're attempting to buy a lot at 8 central terrace right behind the Y and our accountants have done that research as well it's a lot we hope to tear the house down and turn into parking because

▶ 1:16:19 Peter D. Mortimer: the house is in decrepit condition probably not able to be rehabilitated much like this house on killam court this office building and kimball court so i think this is the right thing to do for that reason the point was made that in five or ten years parking might be obsolete some people had some ideas which i can't discount anything who knew 20 years ago that we'd be sending text messages and getting emails on our telephones but it was put forward that there might be cars that would just drop you off and then go park far away and then come back and get you when you're done with your business downtown and if that happens we'll be able to sell this lot back probably at a profit so I think this is a good idea as

▶ 1:17:16 Peter D. Mortimer: As part of the research on this, last Saturday morning, I just took some time to relax. My children had other activities in downtown Melrose. We had some errands to do, which my other child did. And my wife and I just sat in the parking lot in Dill's Court and watched from 11 to 12, 15, and there was no parking. And this is a Saturday morning in August. And cars were circling the lot, and they were waiting, and they were trying to cut each other off. And people were flashing their high beams to indicate that they had first claim to a spot that somebody was about to vacate. So it's a definite problem. It's a definite problem. We want to support our commercial business. I'm the alderman that represents downtown.

▶ 1:18:11 Peter D. Mortimer: So I represent some of the residents who are nearby who've spoken, but I also represent the businesses who pay their taxes and want to do business in Melrose. If there's available, free, close parking at Walgreens or Sub Villa or at Square One Mall down the road, people will go there. We need to help our business community. This price is within a commercially reasonable range. Sometimes you have to pay for what you need. It's an investment. It's an investment in our business community. And I see it with my own eyes that this is something that we should do. It's been thoroughly vetted. It's been analyzed from a financial and a fiscal position. It's found to be worthy. I think from a practical consideration, just a simple thing.

▶ 1:19:15 Peter D. Mortimer: There are studies, but the study was from 2012 and Melrose has changed. Melrose is changing quickly for the better, I might add. I'm sure we all saw that Melrose was listed in realtor.com and in the globe and on all kinds of internet websites as the hottest real estate market in America and the most desirable place to live in America, but having good parking is a part of that. We can change it. We can sell it back if it doesn't turn out to be a good deal. In the scheme of things, it's not a giant sum of money. I know some people don't like to hear that, but that's what we're here for, to vet financial expenditures that the mayor proposes and i think the mayor has proposed this wisely and in good

▶ 1:20:05 Peter D. Mortimer: faith and i think after this thorough vetting i think it's a move that we should as a board of aldermen and based on the appropriations committee meeting it looks like it's a meeting that we will push through as a board and appropriately so so that is why i just wanted to uh at least weigh in with a little more than just a yes vote uh since i did not get a chance to speak up to this point thank you mr president thank you all anyone anything else on this order associate could you call the roll please no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes president yes that order passes that concludes the business of the board of alderman mr president second alderman mortimer moves to adjourn the motion is seconded by alderman inferno all those

▶ 1:21:14 in favor of adjournment please indicate by saying aye aye aye or anybody opposed motion passes

City Council — 2015-08-17

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