Legal & Legislative Committee — 2017-05-01
Attendance
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. ; Michael P. Zwirko
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Participation
- Orders
- ORDER-2017-124 : Petition to the Great and General Court to enact a Special Act: “An Act Authorizing the City of Melrose to allow the Installation of Secondary Water Meters in Two-Family, Owner Occupied Residential Properties”.
- ORDER-2017-131 : Amending the Rules of Order of the Melrose Board of Aldermen by adopting Rule 54 (filling vacancy in the position of City Clerk or Clerk of Committees) submitted herewith.
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE LEGAL & LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MAY 1, 2017 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:40 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 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 John N. Tramontozzi Chairman Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Vice Chairman Present Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Alderman Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Present Michael P. Zwirko Alderman at Large Present Donald L. Conn Jr. President/Ex-officio 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
ORDER-2017-124 Home Rule Petition/Special Act Petition to the Great and General Court to enact a Special Act: “An Act Authorizing the City of Melrose to allow the Installation of Secondary Water Meters in Two-Family, Owner Occupied Residential Properties”. Recommitted to Committee
ORDER-2017-131 Amending Rules of Order of the Board of Aldermen Amending the Rules of Order of the Melrose Board of Aldermen by adopting Rule 54 (filling vacancy in the position of City Clerk or Clerk of Committees) submitted herewith. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 5/4/2017 4:46 PM
Transcript
▶ 5:12 John N. Tramontozzi: legislative committee also present this evening is alderman Francis wright he's the vice chairman alderman mortimer alderman forbes alderman's workup and president khan are voting members of this committee non-voting members present this evening alderman inferno alderman Lemmerman alderman mcintyre my goal is and alderman medeiros this meeting is being recorded and it will be televised for future viewing all in accordance with the commonwealth of massachusetts open meeting law um do we have a motion for open this law for public participation mr chairman thank you we have a motion to for to open the floor for public participation by alderman forbes seconded by alderman mortimer on the motion all in favor aye opposed seeing
▶ 6:01 none this is the opportunity for any members of the public who wish to come forward to speak on any um matter on the agenda this evening there's two orders on the agenda good evening if you can um identify yourself for the record and who you are hi my name is jerry murrows i'm here to speak on 2017-124 i've learned since you last spoke about this that apparently the properties down at oak grove actually install sub meters the city didn't have to have anything to do with it they were actually as i understand it they're still on one master meter that the city's billing with the egregious tiered rate system as well and they're passing all the extra costs on to the individual tenants in the property down there based on the chapter 186 section 22 provision that they can
▶ 7:06 sub meter and bill the tenants for them for the bills they get the charges they get from the city so you know given that that's done I tried to research I don't see any mass general law that says that you can't have more than one meter on a property i may miss something i you know i rely on the internet to search for these things in the in the mass legislature's website but what i don't understand is is to ask the legislature for a special act so that we can put a second meter in a couple houses of melrose that don't want to use the sub metering um option that that the state law provides since 2005. i don't understand why i would go into these contortions for something like that again as i emphasized the last time i spoke is if you would just go back to a legitimate rational authentic
▶ 8:06 flat rate for water and sewer you wouldn't need to go through all these contortions and and it just shows how you know if we're if we're the only city in the state asking for this you know special act of the legislature in this way and somehow maybe there are others but it just shows how far away from reality we've gotten with this tiered rate system that a land that a landlord is now petitioning their alderman apparently to um to ask the legislature to pass a law because of what that alderman voted or all of you alderman voted to do in a tiered rate structure and i understand you relied on on people you thought you could you could you could rely on to establish that structure um i i do submit that i think i provided you good rebuttal to
▶ 8:54 what those people have argued when they've argued for a tiered rate system so in terms of this particular order it would be absolutely unnecessary if you didn't have tiered rates the landlord's going to pay for the two families the the two parts of that house no matter what at a flat rate with no penalty um if the city puts in two meters there the city gets a little bit of a benefit we get an extra customer we get another hire another base charge out of that out of that dwelling that we would otherwise get um but the city then has two bills for that structure and to if the city billing system were competent enough and could remain competent enough to keep track of that when the place gets sold that it's it's done that way it would be there um it this issue doesn't
▶ 9:40 solve the problem for condominiums it doesn't solve the problem for three families or four families or anything else and and before you go and explore all the different permutations that you could help mitigate the harms of the tiered rate again please go back and reevaluate the tiered rate it's not helpful for the melrose it's harmful it's caused i mean if it's it's basically holding itself out there as a red herring that everybody's focused on instead of focusing on the real issues of cutting the cost in the water and sewer system about reducing inflow and infiltration and about having some rational um policy and process around water and sewer so that's all i have to say about that tonight please let go the the contortions let's just
▶ 10:28 John N. Tramontozzi: go back and deal with the flat and have a flat rate deal with that tiered structure this year you can do it you can ask the water and sewer committee to give you back a flat rate and let you know what that rate would be how it will show your revenues for next year and well mellows will we better off for it thank you okay very good thank you motion to close public participation mr chairman second is there any other members of the public who wish to come forward to speak on any matter on just the legal and legislative committee seeing none we do have a motion to close public participation by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman Zwirko on the motion all in favor aye very good any opposed seeing none uh public participation is now closed um the first
▶ 11:08 John N. Tramontozzi: First order on the agenda this evening is Order 2017-124. It's a petition to the Great and General Court to enact a special act, an act authorizing the City of Melrose to allow the installation of secondary water meters in two family owner occupied residential properties. We did receive a communication from Mr. John Shener, who's the Director of Public Works. communication he mentioned that this order was introduced by alderman forbes thank you alderman forbes for that to the water and sewer committee at their meeting last week on april 28th the discussion was tabled pending receipt of an opinion requested by alderman forbes from the city solicitor robert van campen they are scheduled the water and sewer committee is
▶ 11:59 John N. Tramontozzi: scheduled to continue their discussions at their next meeting which coincidentally is tomorrow tuesday may 2nd at that time hopefully there'll be further discussions at the committee water and sewer committee with opinions from the city solicitor one suggestion i have is that to keep it in committee but alderman forbes please yes if i may just a quick point i did have a conversation with city solicitor on last thursday i also plan to have another discussion with him tomorrow so as this evolves and becomes more fluid we'll have more information to bring to the table so seeing that we're really not in a position to act on this order um i would uh consider a motion to a committee second very good we have a motion by alderman mortimer to retain this order in
▶ 12:43 John N. Tramontozzi: committee seconded by alderman forbes uh any further discussion seeing none on the motion all favor aye aye any opposing none this order will stay in committee at the moment the second The second order for this evening is order 2017-131, amending the rules of order of the Marrow's Board of Aldermen by adopting rule 54. Regarding filling vacancy in the position of city clerk or clerk of committees submitted here with the sponsor of this order is President Donald Kahn. I defer to you, President Kahn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We recently had went through a search process for our clerk of committees. The other office which we would have the authority to fill by appointment is the city clerk's office.
▶ 13:34 John N. Tramontozzi: In going through the process before, it occurred to me that we don't have a formal rule to govern this. The rule that I've proposed is codifying the practice that we've used in the past, which is the president of the board nominates three people to serve as a search committee. They work with the HR department, they interview candidates, and they bring forward candidates to the board. I think it would be wise for us to codify this in a rule, and I hope that the committee tonight and the board as a whole adopts the rule. Very good, thank you. Any further discussion? Motion to recommend for passage. We have a motion to recommend for passage by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Forbes. on discussion seeing nothing further on the uh motion all in favor aye aye any opposed seeing