Health, Education & Welfare Committee — 2017-10-12
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Participation
- Orders
- ORDER-2018-20 : Appointment of Steven Douglas, 139 Youle St., to the Melrose Housing Authority for a five-year term; said term to expire on the first Monday of March 2020
- ORDER-2018-22 : Appointment of Nancy Messina, 132 Country Club Road, to the Council on Aging for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2020
- ORDER-2018-21 : Appointment of Robert McKechnie Jr., 49 Melrose St., Apt. 7E, to the Council on Aging for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2020
- ORDER-2018-30 : Appointment of Jacklyn Varela, 64 Vinton St., Unit 4, to a three-year term on the Commission on Women; said term to expire on the last day of February 2020.
- Adjournment
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Good evening. The time being 7.30 on October 12th, 2017. We will commence the Health, Education, and Welfare Committee. I am the chair, Alderman Lemmerman. We're joined this evening by committee members Alderman Medeiros, Alderman Infurna, Alderman McAteer-Margolis, as well as non-voting members Alderman Mortimer and Alderman Zwirko. In accordance with Mass General Laws, this meeting is being recorded. It can be viewed on MMTV as well as on the City of Melrose website. We have a motion to open the floor for public participation. Second. We have a motion for public participation by Alderman Medeiros, seconded by Alderman Inferna. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We now open the floor for public participation.
▶ 0:46 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: If there's anyone here in the chamber this evening who would like to speak on any of the four orders in front of us, you may come forward now. Seeing none, Madam Chairman, motion to close public participation. Second. motion to close public participation by alderman inferna and seconded by alderman MacMaster margolis all in favor aye any opposed public participation is now closed as i mentioned we have four orders in front of us this evening we have several appointments and we'll begin with the first order 2018-20 appointment of stephen douglas 139 yule street to the melrose housing authority for for a five year term, said term to expire on the first Monday of March 2020. Motion to suspend the rules.
▶ 1:31 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Second. A motion to suspend the rules by Alderman Inferna, seconded by Alderman Medeiros. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The rules are suspended. We'd like to invite Mr. Douglas to come up to the table. Good evening, good evening. Good evening. Thank you for being here with us this evening. Would you like to start by just telling us a bit about yourself? I'm Steve Douglas, Mel was resident for 21 years, we'll be 22 in November. My wife and I live on Ewell Street, fantastic community, very welcoming. And they've taken care of us, and I'd like to help to give something back myself. That's great, thank you very much. Do we have any questions for Mr. Douglas from the committee? Alderman Inferno.
▶ 2:17 Gail Infurna: Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Welcome and thank you for volunteering your time on a very important commission, committee, whatever. I'm a member of the housing corporation, so I have a great interest in Melrose housing around here. So could you tell us what your interest is and why you volunteered to join this one? Originally from Cambridge, and I grew up in the housing development in Cambridge. And my friends and I, we've been friends since we were in the first grade. And values that were instilled in me from that time period, they're still with me now. I'm very proud of that, and I found it was a fantastic learning, growth, it was just the best. And I like to make sure that I can reach out and help someone else, maybe someone who's older, who needs a little stabilization.
▶ 3:12 things change in their family life, I want to be able to make sure that they have a safe, secure facility that they can reside at and have comfort with and also have a community with. And I'm really looking forward to sitting down and helping out as much as I can. Thank you for joining them, and they're a great group of people, so I hope you have a good experience. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Inferno. Any others? Motion to recommend. Second. Motion to recommend by Alderman McAteer-Margolis, seconded by Alderman Inferna, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We will recommend your appointment at the full board committee, our next is next Monday. You don't need to be there, you're welcome to be if you'd like to be.
▶ 3:56 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Thank you for coming down. Thank you very much. Thanks, Mrs. Douglas. Thank you. The second item on our agenda is order 2018-22, appointment of Nancy Messina, 132 Country Club Road to the Council on Aging for a three year term, said term to expire on the last day of February 2020. I'd like to invite Ms. Messina up. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Would you like to tell us a bit about you? Pardon me? Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself? Sure, I've been a Melrose resident for about 27 years. I am retired from the Department of Revenue for, gosh, a long time. Took an early retirement to raise my son. And I've been volunteering at the Milano Senior Center for about four years.
▶ 4:47 a voluntary receptionist for the month of October I teach smartphone classes to senior citizens and someone asked me to be on the board and I said okay and sounded like a great idea because since I spend a lot of time at the Senior Center I have a few ideas of you know things that could be interesting to seniors great thank you any questions from the committee any non-voting members? Motion to recommend. Second. Motion to recommend by Alderman Medeiros. Seconded by Alderman Inferno. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We will recommend your appointment to the full board next Monday. And again, you could be there if you would like to be, but you're not required to be. Okay. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you.
▶ 5:36 The third item on our agenda is order 2018-21, appointment of Robert McKinney Jr., 49 Melrose Street apartment 7e to the Council on Aging for a three-year term said term to expire on the last day of February 2020 I can invite you forward that's right it was very close well that's closer than most people well my wife Joan and I We moved to Melrose in 1967, so we've been here, I've been in Melrose here now for about 50 years, and raised our two daughters, lived over in the Highland section, lived on Ora Street for 45 years, sold our house a couple of years ago, and I now live at the Towers, the condominium unit. And primarily, my business background is about 35 years in banking. And finished up actually in the healthcare area, working for the Jocelyn Clinic on the financial side of things,
▶ 6:50 to regarding insurances and that sort of thing. My participation here in Melrose, I've served on the board of the YMCA. Obviously when the children were in school, the PTOs and all the fun things that go along with parenting and so on. And when I was asked if I'd be interested in the Council on Aging, I considered this a good opportunity, number one, because obviously I'm a senior. And I thought that it's time for me to become involved again within the community. that I've been retired and now that I've moved to this the new address and so on and so I'm excited about this and look forward to becoming quite involved with your approval thank you very much entirely welcome some questions from the
▶ 7:47 Gail Infurna: committee leave Alderman Inferno thank you very much madam chairman thank you for once again volunteering your time on this and I see you are filling the shoes um left by mary edwards and mary edwards has been on the council of aging for many years a board five constituent and a good person so good luck to you as you fill those shoes you have a good job appreciate that we want to thank mary for all the years that she has done uh her duty to the council on aging yeah thank you any other comments or questions from the committee motion to recommend second seconded by Alderman MacMaster Mark Golis all in favor aye any opposed okay we will recommend your appointment at the full board next Monday I thank you for your
▶ 8:36 confidence thank you and the final item before us this evening is order 2018-30 appointment of Jacqueline Varela, 64 Vinton Street, Unit 4, to a three-year term on the Commission on Women, said term to expire on the last day of February 2020. I invite you to come forward. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Would you like to tell us about yourself? Sure. So my name is Jacqueline Varela. I've lived in Melrose for about two and a half years. I'm not actually a native New Englander. I moved here when I was 24 after coming on vacation to Boston and falling in love with the area so i was originally from south florida and then my family moved to virginia when i was 12 and then i gradually made my way further north um i love this region and i'm really glad to call
▶ 9:36 melrose my home it's the first time i've ever you know owned my own place if it was a small condo and i just really wanted to find a way that i could be a part of the community and one of the things I think is important is making sure that Melrose is an inclusive community for all and I think supporting women and in the incredible roles that they play in our community is an essential part of what local government can do professionally I worked in state government for the first 10 years of my career first the secretary of public safety in Virginia and then for the last eight years at the attorney general's office here in Massachusetts and now I I work at Tufts University doing communications
▶ 10:18 Michael P. Zwirko: and project management. Thank you, thank you very much. And just want to acknowledge Alderman Boisselle, a committee member who's joined us. Welcome. No, that's okay. Any comments or questions from committee? Non-voting members. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I just, I read your letter. I really enjoyed what you had to say. and I also appreciate the sense of humor. The mediocre gardener had me laugh. So I appreciate that, it's very genuine to put that in, but I just wanted to remind you, we have a community garden now here in Melrose, so maybe you could practice up on some skills. But looking forward to the work of the commission and you being on it, I just wanted to point that out. I did get a kick and I appreciated it greatly,
▶ 11:01 Gail Infurna: so thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Motion to recommend. Second. Motion to recommend from Alderman McAteer-Margolis, seconded by Alderman Medeiros. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? we will recommend your appointment on Monday at the full board meeting thank you thank you I could just have a moment of personal privilege just to say that tonight we've had four appointments of volunteer boards and commissions here in Melrose and I it would be remiss if we really just let them just go without really thanking them and all the other ones that do step up to the plate to volunteer and make Melrose what it is we really appreciate all your contributions the community thank you thank you well said motion to adjourn the motion to
▶ 11:46 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: adjourn from Alderman McAteer-Margolis is there a second second second by Alderman Medeiros all in favor any opposed we are adjourned thank you everyone this is the easy part