Protection & License Committee — 2016-08-22
Attendance
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
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Participation
- Orders
- ORDER-2017-13 : Application for a Second Hand Dealer License to Catherine Cronin & Christine Cronin d/b/a Shoppes at Franklin Square LLP at 954 Main Street, Melrose, MA
- ORDER-2017-14 : Application of Hakan Unal d/b/a City Livery Service for a Livery Service License (l vehicle) at 39 Groveland Road, Melrose, MA
- ORDER-2017-15 : Gasoline and Storage Licenses Renewed commencing May 1, 2016
- ORDER-2017-16 : Gasoline and Storage Licenses Not Renewed commencing May 1, 2016
- ORDER-2017-7 : Communication from Massachusetts State Lottery Commission regarding KENO To Go License at Franklin Market, 463 Franklin St., Melrose, MA
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE PROTECTION AND LICENSE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● AUGUST 22, 2016 Aldermanic Chamber Committee Meeting 7:30 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 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis Chairman Present Monica C. Medeiros Vice Chairman Present Gail M. Infurna Ward 5 Alderman Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Ward 2 Alderman Present Donald L. Conn Jr. President/Ex-officio Member Present Scott M. Forbes Nonvoting Member Present Peter D. Mortimer Nonvoting Member Present John N. Tramontozzi Nonvoting Member Present In Attendance: City Solicitor Robert Van Campen
ORDER-2017-13 License - Second Hand Dealer Application for a Second Hand Dealer License to Catherine Cronin & Christine Cronin d/b/a Shoppes at Franklin Square LLP at 954 Main Street, Melrose, MA Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen
ORDER-2017-14 License - Hackney License Application of Hakan Unal d/b/a City Livery Service for a Livery Service License (l vehicle) at 39 Groveland Road, Melrose, MA Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen
ORDER-2017-15 License - Gasoline Storage Gasoline and Storage Licenses Renewed commencing May 1, 2016 Recommend Place on File Board of Aldermen
ORDER-2017-16 License - Gasoline Storage Gasoline and Storage Licenses Not Renewed commencing May 1, 2016 Recommend Place on File Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 8/24/2016 2:05 PM Minutes Protection and License Committee August 22, 2016
ORDER-2017-7 Authorization Communication from Massachusetts State Lottery Commission regarding KENO To Go License at Franklin Market, 463 Franklin St., Melrose, MA Rescind Previous Action Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 2 Updated 8/24/2016 2:05 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Time being 7.34. The Protection and License Committee will convene. I'm Chairman McAteer-Margolis. With us this evening is Vice Chair Medeiros, Alderman Ward 5, Infurna, Alderman Ward 4, Boisselle, Alderman Ward 2, Lemmerman. Also with us this evening are non-voting members of the committee, Alderman Mortimer, Alderman Forbes, I believe Alderman Tramontozzi is on his way in the door, President Khan in accordance with the Massachusetts general laws open meeting laws this meeting is being recorded for future viewing via the city website or MMTV do we have a motion to open the floor for participation if there's anyone this evening who would like to come forward to speak on any of the orders that are on the protection and license committee please feel free to do
▶ 0:58 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: so now seeing none alderman inferno moves seconded by alderman lemmon to close public participation the first order we have with us this evening is 2017-13 it's an application for a secondhand dealer license to catherine cronin and christine cronin doing business as the shops at franklin square llp at 954 main street melrose mass i believe we have the applicant with us this evening if we have a motion to suspend the rules thank you seconded by alderman inferno all in favor aye opposed um ms conan would you like to join us at the table everybody good evening okay uh it appears as though your application is all in order is there anyone on the committee that has any questions or would you like to make a statement about your new business uh my sister
▶ 1:57 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: law christine and i are opening a little shop up in franklin square that actually consists of locally crafted and produced items we do take in home good consignment which is why we are here requesting the second-hand license thank you anyone from the committee anyone who is a non-voting member from the committee motion to recommend alderman gazelle moves to recommend seconded by alderman inferno all in favor aye opposed so your application is approved and recommended by the committee it will go forward to the full board which meets in september and you'll be notified all right thank you very much welcome and good luck thank you thank you good luck our next order this evening is as order number 2017-14 it's an active an application of hukan unal doing business as city livery service
▶ 2:56 for a livery service license one vehicle at 39 groveland road in melrose and mr unal is with us this evening we are already under suspension of the rules so would you like to it appears as though all of your documents are in order would you like to just tell us a little bit about your business yes please good evening everybody um i have been running a taxi business for the uh since 2009 in melrose but i'm sure everybody knows uber and that is actually um killing our business so i would like to give up on my um taxi license and get an um delivery license instead to be able to cut down on the expenses especially taxi insurance is very very expensive okay in melrose so that is actually my idea anybody has any questions for me i believe alderman inferno from the committee is
▶ 3:56 Gail Infurna: first yes ma'am thank you very much um thank you for coming before us this evening uh i'm the ward alderman for that area so i'm concerned about parking of cars so you don't have a taxi car parked there anymore no no so you'll just i will be giving up on my license and replacing it with the one livery license just have the one car for the uber service that you're going to be providing livery license yes ma'am okay okay and you have that parking on your premises without a problem yes ma'am okay great thank you very much president khan yeah um i wanted to ask about the taxi license license um but once in a while we do something right here on the board of aldermen so i always like to point that out um and we we see a lot of uh controversy about these livery and uber licenses
▶ 4:46 uh throughout the commonwealth and the world and for people who are watching at home they should be aware that melrose has a comprehensive ordinance that this board passed I believe almost two years ago regulating livery license drivers and services such as uber which require quarry checks and all kinds of other things that are matters of controversy in other communities in other areas so people should be aware that that is on the books and hopefully based on that ordinance that anybody who's operating is I'm sure this gentleman will in Melrose will provide safe service to all of our residents that's all I have already done that yeah and I wasn't directing my comments at you sir I'm sure you've run a good business I'm sure in the past and I'm sure you will in the
▶ 5:42 Monica C. Medeiros: future but there were many many localities where there aren't comprehensive regulations relative to uber and services of that nature and that should be mandatory I agree with you sir because we are serving the public and public safety comes first so I agree with you 100% on that thank you thank you I just had a question I know you said you would save money on insurance by switching is this insurance is private insurance and is it because Melrose requires a specific level of insurance for a taxi driver versus what's required for a livery license or is it just what the insurance companies will insure for a taxi versus insurance companies have special rates for different cities unfortunately Melrose is the one of the highest ones so that
▶ 6:36 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: was my concern thank you anyone else motion to recommend Alderman Boisselle makes a motion to recommend. Seconded by Alderman Inferno. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? So this order will be recommended to the full board for the September meeting, and after which, when the full board votes on it, you'll be notified that your application is officially approved. But there's no need for you to come back. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Great, thank you very much, and good luck. Thank you. Next order is 2017-15. It's an order for gasoline and storage licenses that have been renewed commencing May 1st, 2016. We have had an update on this order due to a pending inspection that has taken place. So we have revised, the order has been revised.
▶ 7:32 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Do we have a motion to accept this revised order by substitution? So moved. Second. So the order has been amended by substitution by Alderman Inferno, seconded by Alderman Medeiros. All in favor? Aye. And so do we have a motion now to place on file the amended... Motion to place on file as amended by substitution. Alderman Inferno moves to place the amended order on file, seconded by Alderman Boisselle. All in favor? Aye. Seconded? Oh, sorry. Opposed? I mean, no. That order carries and will be placed on file. The next order is 2017-16, it's the gasoline and storage licenses not renewed, commencing May 1st. And once again, this order has, we're requesting that this order be amended by substitution.
▶ 8:29 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: So moved. Second. Alderman Inferno moves, seconded by Alderman Boisselle to amend this by substitution. All in favor? Second? Opposed? So the order to amend by substitution carries. Do we have a motion to accept the new order amended as so amended? Motion to recommend to place on file. Alderman Medeiros recommends to place this amended order on file. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Alderman Inferno. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That order will also be placed on file. Finally, we have another order, 2017-7. It's a communication from the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission regarding the keynote to go license at Franklin Market, 463 Franklin Street in Melrose. The history of this order is that we were notified that there had been an application that the state wished to
▶ 9:30 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: and offered us an opportunity as a board to respond the board voted its objection and sent a letter to the lottery so noting its objection to issuing that license I have checked with the city solicitor we have had no further communication from the lottery on this matter I do believe that the applicants are here uh president khan good evening everyone just motions second rules second second all in favor aye aye yes sir hi i have the keynote to go issue for the franklin market members 463. i used to we started last year the business and keynote to go to come after three months with regulations for the rules and regulation for the lottery we start a couple months and after the license take out and we call a lot of these and he said the issue for the syria melrose
▶ 10:31 so that's why i come here to kino to go because i know the no allow the monitor so we need only kino to go license for that so kino to go's game is like you know the mass cast mega million spirals just like games kino to go has two minute games so people play like 50 60 kino take the ticket home you check the online you come back to cast the tickets like that is people's not hanging out over there i see and i i don't like the people hanging out too anyway because city mellows is the different city you know i know that i have the store full store i have the store in quincy is many people they hang it out but those are different kinos like kinos monitor too many monitors and everything because the city mellows is the difference way
▶ 11:16 John N. Tramontozzi: you know so there was no monitor no monitor okay there's no allowed monitor too anyway so So I don't want to follow like broken the rules. We couldn't follow the rules, you know? Thank you. Alderman Conn, did you have a comment? No, I'll yield to further speakers before I make a comment. Okay, is there anyone else from the committee? No, Alderman Tramontozzi. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Mr. Patel is running a very desirable market there, as we know the history of that market. And he is a new owner, and I think he is doing a fine job. The place looks clean. It is well kept, and people in the community frequent the market. We certainly want to encourage him to continue in his business uh and um and service the franklin street in the highlands
▶ 12:20 John N. Tramontozzi: community as he's doing now i personally i don't see any problems uh there now since he's taken over unlike the past we won't go into that but um the uh this if if i understand correctly this is not a you don't have keynote rooms like some places have these keynote rooms and it's no monitors so people will come in and play a game as they would with megabucks and so forth I understand it has been traditionally our practice to object to these keynote to go licenses and frankly I supported the objections to those maybe partly because I don't know much about keno i don't really play it uh but for i understand the king of the go um and i and i defer it to uh through you madam chairman is um are there other convenience stores or markets in
▶ 13:19 John N. Tramontozzi: melrose that provide that service now yes i believe that there are nine keno licenses identical to what mr cattell is seeking okay currently in melrose with with that in mind i really don't see the the the objection that we should continue to place on this establishment and so I would give the the the gentleman opportunity to to have that license in places and you know we'll monitor it as we monitor all such establishments in the city and we I don't anticipate any problems but as our board would do and anytime that there would be a problem we would call these people before us and and render some decisions on future uses of the license so with that my I would I would not object to allowing that keynote to go
▶ 14:16 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: licensed at that Franklin market thank you for the opportunity to speak on his behalf certainly Alderman Inferno from the committee thank you very much as one ward alderman to another board ultimate i certainly always um will listen to you so i certainly will make a recommend um i will recommend this to the full board as um to recommend it or how would we word this what do we uh well we have already we have to write to the um commission again right we have already sent a letter uh to the commission a letter of objection so I believe at this point we would need a new motion and we had a motion to reconsider it which failed at the last meeting so I'm not sure if we would need a new order Alderman Boisselle
▶ 15:08 can we get clarification some clarification from our city solicitor who happens to be here or could Mr. Patel just reapply and we not object well just so members of the board are aware so the state lottery sent notification out to the city of melrose and this board i think in july voted to oppose the application for a keynote license july 18th okay yeah so i i would i would assume the safest approach for the board would be to take up some kind of a vote to rescind the prior action and i don't know how your rules would dictate that if that's the will of the body and at that point with the rescission vote in hand you would send correspondence to the state lottery just making them aware that the board has rescinded a prior vote to oppose and now has
▶ 16:06 decided to support the application thank you councillor president khan yeah what i would suggest for this evening we don't meet again until september 29th september 19th so we couldn't act on this until a full board meeting at september 19th so if the committee just and i'm not telling the committee what they should do i'm only suggesting what they might do if they take any kind of a vote which indicates that they want to reconsider their prior action then i'm sure we can procedurally square this away before the full board meeting on the 19th so would a motion to table it be appropriate or perhaps if you want to rescind the previous if you want to rescind the previous vote and then at that point we could proceed in september with
▶ 16:53 the full board i don't think you want to respectfully i don't think you want to table it if you table it you keep it in committee i think you want to make and if this is what the committee wants if you want to make some affirmation that you want the license to issue it doesn't really matter what vote you take as long as we get it onto our agenda for our september 19th meeting and then we could take an action as the solicitor suggests i guess it would be a motion to rescind our um position on the keynote to go for the license at franklin market all right is there a second second alderman lemon second set so we have a motion to rescind our letter of objection uh all in alderman medeiros thank you uh on discussion and i i'd like to be able to address
▶ 17:46 Monica C. Medeiros: you here too uh this board several times many times in the past has objected to these licenses and i know there was a comment that we would monitor things going forward but this is our only option in order to reject it we have no authority to monitor these licenses beyond this point and some of my personal frustration is that you it seems you were granted a license by the lottery over our objection we received notice back in december and we sent a letter at that time we sent a letter of objection on December 23rd 2015 objecting to the keynote to go license and it seems as though something was issued outside of our objection so I you know more so than than anything you know in in opposition to you or your business or anything like that it's to the way
▶ 18:54 Monica C. Medeiros: that the lottery has handled this and to the fact that you know right now there's no monitors but We have nothing to say about whether or not they allow monitors in the future. And even if we object, I have no faith that they will honor our objection going forward in the future. In the past, I've objected to licenses. In particular, I can think of a location that's in the Towers Plaza. And one of the reasons was its proximity to the McCarthy House. And this is a location that's very close to the steel house. So my concerns are very similar to what they were before. So I guess we have some time to think it over, but I'm not sure that I would change my mind considering the past. Thank you. You're welcome.
▶ 19:46 Is there anyone else from the committee or on for the board? So we have a motion that's been duly seconded to rescind the order to move it along to the full board, is all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Opposed. So that motion carries. So that will go to our next full board meeting on September 19th. And you are welcome to attend that meeting again and speak in public on that order. September 19th, right? September 19th, correct. Thank you. You're welcome. Motion to adjourn. And we have a motion made by Alderman Inferno to adjourn. Seconded by Alderman Lemmon. All in favor? Aye. I opposed. This meeting is adjourned, stay tuned for appropriations. Good evening ladies and gentlemen, the time is 7.56 on August 22nd, 2016.