City Council — 2017-10-16

City Council Regular Meeting

This meeting starts at 9:32 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Robert A. Boisselle present · 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 present · Ward 1 Alderman; Francis X. Wright Jr. present · Ward 3 Alderman; Michael P. Zwirko present · Alderman at Large

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BULLETIN● OCTOBER 16, 2017 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:45 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176

ORDER-2018-36 Opening Statement Regular Meeting of the Board of Aldermen to be held on Monday, October 16, 2017 at 7:45 P.M. in the Aldermanic Chamber, City Hall, Melrose, MA Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present 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 Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Present Michael P. Zwirko Alderman at Large Present Donald L. Conn Jr. President, Alderman at Large Present

ORDER-2017-165 Request Proposed Revisions to City Charter for the City of Melrose as recommended by the Charter Review Committee for consideration by the Board of Aldermen Passed

ORDER-2018-34 Divided Order Proposed Revision to City Charter, Article 3, Executive Branch, Section 3-1: Mayor: Qualifications; Term of Office; Compensation; Prohibitions - subsection (c) Compensation as set forth herein. Defeated

ORDER-2018-35 Divided Order Proposed Revision to City Charter, Article 4, School Committee, Section 4 (b) Term of Office as set forth herein. Defeated

ORDER-2018-20 Appointment City of Melrose Page 1 11/7/2017 4:41 PM Minutes Board of Aldermen October 16, 2017 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 Passed

ORDER-2018-21 Appointment 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 Passed

ORDER-2018-22 Appointment 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 Passed

ORDER-2018-30 Appointment 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. Passed

ORDER-2018-33 License - Class II Motor Vehicle Application of Anthony P. Pasquale d/b/a C.M.C. Classic Muscle Cars, LLC for a Class II, Motor Vehicle License at 13 Stevens Place, Melrose, MA Passed City of Melrose Page 2 11/7/2017 4:41 PM

Transcript

▶ 9:41 inferno yeah yeah alderman lemmerman here yeah alderman mccarty margolis here here all the medeiros here here alderman mortimer here here alderman Tramontozzi yeah yeah alderman wright Here. Here. Alderman Zwirko. Here. Here. President Conn. Here. Here. Eleven Presidents. We have a quorum. Could 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. Mr. President, I make a motion to open the floor for public participation. Second. Alderman Mortimer moves that we open public participation for this evening the motion is seconded by Alderman Boyce L on the motion all those in favor aye

▶ 10:34 anyone opposed this is the portion of our meeting where any member of the general public can come forward state their name and address sit at the table in the center of the room and address any issue relative to any order that is on our agenda for this evening why don't we wait why don't we wait 60 seconds just in case anybody's straggling in here when the 60 seconds have expired consider my motion as made sir and second so alderman mortimer is making a motion that we close public participation this eve for the evening alderman Boisselle has seconded the motion is there any discussion on the motion all those in favor of the motion please indicate by saying aye aye anyone opposed motion passes and that concludes the public participation portion of our

▶ 11:57 meeting order 2017 dash 165 proposed revisions to City Charter for the city of Melrose as recommended by the Charter Review Committee for consideration by the Board of Aldermen motion to remove Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to make a motion to remove this order 2017-165, as well as the two subsequent orders, 2018-34 and 2018-35, from the table. Second the motion to remove the orders from the table. Well, actually, it's two motions. On the motion for concurrent action, there's a motion that's been made by Alderman Search, seconded by Alderman Mortimer. All those in favor of concurrent action relative to those three orders please indicate by saying aye anyone opposed has now been a motion made by Alderman Zwirko seconded by Alderman

▶ 12:58 Mortimer to remove the three orders from the table all those in favor of removing the orders from the table please indicate by saying aye aye the orders are removed from the table I would assume somebody wants to divide the orders at this point Thank You mr. president I'd like to make a motion to divide the orders that order 2018-34 and order 2018-35 be addressed before the order of 2017-165 alderman work Oh moves that we divide the three orders that's a privileged motion the orders are divided they are off the table and they are there for your discussion and voting second the motion discussion on these orders. Alderman Medeiros. Thank you. At this time I'd like to move that we amend well I'd like to move for passage of the change for I'm not exactly sure what our

▶ 13:59 Monica C. Medeiros: proper motion would be. I was going to say passage of the change indicated in order 2018-34 is a revision to the Charter that that be incorporated into our redlined version of the Charter so that revision is to add the word mayoral before the words biennial city election in our Charter in article 3 executive branch section 3-1 mayor qualification terms of office compensation prohibitions and then under c compensation to make that change and the purpose for this would be to prohibit the compensation of the mayor being changed within the term of the sitting occupant of that office and that the change would take place after the next election okay i would take this as a motion for passage of this order and if it does pass we have some other procedural issues the verbiage of the

▶ 15:14 charter changes was passed by a final vote of the board at our last meeting and the order was held on the table uh due to sentiment by majority of the board that they wanted to have the changes to the charter engrossed and before them before they voted if they do vote to send it forth to the great general court as a home rule petition so alderman medeiros is moving for passage of all order 2018-34 second motion is seconded by alderman inferna it's their discussion on the order okay this vote would require a roll call for passage and it and it would require eight votes for passage would you call the roll please alderman brazel no no alderman forbes yes yes Yes, Alderman Inferna. Yes. Yes, Alderman Lemmerman.

▶ 16:13 Monica C. Medeiros: Yes. Yes, Alderman Bakatir-Margolis. No. No, Alderman Dieris. Yes. Yes, Alderman Mortimer. No. No, Alderman Tramontozzi. Yes. Yes, Alderman Wright. No. No, Alderman Zwirko. Yes. Yes, President Kahn. No. No. Okay, that order fails. Okay, we have two other orders that are before you. or motions relative to either of the other two orders motion for passage of order number 2018 dash 35 it's a proposed revision to the Charter article 4 school committee section 4 B term of office as set forth herein and this you'll have the language would amend the Charter to elect all six school committee members uh beginning in the election 2021 for a two-year term okay alderman medeiros is moving for passage of order 2018-35 is there a second to the motion second the motion

▶ 17:32 Monica C. Medeiros: alderman forbes seconds the motion motion is before you alderman medeiros thank you uh thank you very much i brought this forward and i hope you can spend some time to talk about it it and it's it's been a long time talking I guess about the Charter but at the same time it we haven't had that much opportunity to bring things up and this change would the main reason for this change is we've seen I think four years is a little bit too long for the school committee I've talked to many people and anecdotally that find that that's a long commitment for a job that that doesn't pay anything and we've seen a lot of vacancies over the last ten years since this has been put in place additionally you know my experience I

▶ 18:19 Monica C. Medeiros: served on the school committee when we had nine members I thought it was good and we had healthy discussion and a lot of members with different perspectives who who brought things forward I know we all see the and we often bemoan the proliferation of money in politics and in elections and the importance of that and when we only have three seats up at one time in the city it raises the stakes and it raises the bar for those school committee members which is kind of required when you have the staggered term you know three at a time and it becomes much more expensive to run and and win one of those seats and it becomes more important sometimes how good a campaigner you are or in the importance of donations sometimes from things like political parties or unions

▶ 19:16 Monica C. Medeiros: and things like that become actually you know big factors in these little local races that have to do with our schools so I feel would get a more open and broad participation and we would lower the cost of having to run and and therefore have a more healthy system when we had two-year terms with six people elected at once and you know just reading today an article about you know what makes a good committee and one of the things was accountability and you know the biggest thing that makes us all accountable our elections so you know having to come back in a two-year term I think makes everybody more accountable we all get elected two-year terms you know we have a lot of continuity here on this board as well as we do have some new people and it allows for healthy

▶ 20:12 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: discussion and a wide array of viewpoints to be heard and I think that would be healthy on the school committee too so that's thank you all any further discussion all the next year Margolis I appreciate Alderman Majerus his perspective on that however I think based on my several terms on the school committee when it was two years I think it was in some ways more difficult and the concern when we were changing the Charter was that the committee with two years everybody at the same time could in fact easily turn over and this a pretty substantial learning curve on the school committee not that there isn't on this board as well but I think since we're a bigger board we have more resources to to look to with each other I can't really support going backwards

▶ 21:10 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: on this I think we have done pretty well the last few elections and generating interest in candidates I believe we have five candidates this year for three seats and I just feel that asking the school committee to campaign and every other year and decide you know that they've got to kind of get out there I don't I don't think it's making progress and I think in fact based on my experience I think that the four-year term serves the city and and our voters better than two years so I can't support that sorry anyone else thank you mr. president I won't be supporting this particular order merits aside this would be a substantive change to the Charter which would I feel require approval by the voters of Melrose I'm also the timing on this I don't believe that

▶ 22:15 Michael P. Zwirko: there is enough time to put this on a ballot that's coming up in about three weeks and then you would have to wonder if we would be having an off-cycle election for this question itself which could be costly we did during the charter review discuss term lengths for all seats including the mayor as well as school committee the charter review commission felt that the term lengths for all the offices were appropriate as well as the staggered nature for school committee so i do appreciate you bringing this forward and you know it's it's worth the discussion for those reasons i can't support it Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Alderman Forbes. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to — there was a lot of time and effort that went into the — to everything

▶ 22:57 Scott M. Forbes: that we've discussed tonight, so I appreciate everybody's — everybody's discussion and feedback. I know Alderman Medeiros spent a lot of time and effort on this order. I applaud her for her efforts, and there are some things that I actually agree with her on and be able to open that dialogue and have that discussion. However, after careful thought and consideration, I do think that if we're ever going to change the term of an elected office that that would have to go before the citizens of melrose we can do that in this horseshoe and have 11 votes but i really think it's something that we would need public feedback on and spend a little bit more time generating that kind of interest and find

▶ 23:33 out what the actual voters would want to do with those terms so for that i do applaud uh the efforts of alderman medeiros but on this vote tonight i i will vote opposed so thank you thank Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, could you call the roll, please? Alderman Boisselle? No. No. Alderman Forbes? No. No. Alderman Inferna? No. No. Alderman Lemmerman? No. No. Alderman McAteer-Margolis? No. No. Alderman Medeiros? Yes. Yes. Alderman Mortimer? No. No. Alderman Tramontozzi? No. No. Alderman Wright? No. No. Alderman Zwirko? No. No. President Kahn? No. No. Okay, that order does not pass. We have currently before you, Order 2017-165. And as I indicated before, the board has passed the language of the revisions to the charter at the last meeting.

▶ 24:34 And the issue that was held on the table was tabling, sending it forward, pending, having everyone have an opportunity to see the final product, which hopefully everybody has. Alderman Zwirko. Thank you, Mr. President. I make a motion that we send this to the Great and General Court of Massachusetts for their approval via home rule petition. Second. Alderman Zwirko moves that we send forward the order to the General Court as a home rule petition. The motion is seconded by Alderman Wright. Is there discussion on the motion? Ms. O'Shea, could you call the roll, please? Alderman Rizal. Yes. Ms. Alderman Forbes. Yes. Ms. Alderman Inferno. Yes. Ms. Alderman Lemmerman. Makati Margolis. Yes. Yes. Alderman Medeiros. Yes. Yes. Alderman Mortimer. Yes. Yes. Alderman Tramontozzi. Yes. Yes. Alderman Wright. Yes. Yes. Alderman Zwirko. Yes. Yes. President Kahn. Yes. Yes. Eleven years.

▶ 25:32 Okay, that order passes. Okay, do we have any orders that are being submitted out of order this evening? Do we have any orders from committee? Alderman Lemmerman. Thank you, Mr. President. I move to remove order 2018-20 from committee. Second. Alderman Lemmerman moves to remove order 2018-20 from committee. Motion is seconded by, I believe, Alderman Mortimer. Sure. This is the appointment of Stephen Douglas of 139 Youle Street to the Melrose Housing Authority for a five-year term, said term to expire on the first Monday of March of 2020. On the motion to remove the order from committee, all those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. The order is before you. Motion for passage. Second.

▶ 26:24 Alderman Wright moves for passage. motion is seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. Is there any discussion? All those in favor of passage of the order please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That order passes. Do we have any additional orders from committee? Alderman Lemmerman. Thank you Mr. President. I move to remove order 2018-21 from committee. Second. Alderman Lemmerman moves to remove order 2018-21 from committee. Motion is seconded by Alderman Medeiros. This is appointment of Robert McKechnie 49 Melrose Street apartment 7e to the council on aging for a three-year term said term to expire on the last day in February 2020 on the motions remove the order from committee all those in favor aye anyone opposed motion passes

▶ 27:11 the orders before you motion for passage so the lumberman moves for passage motion is seconded by Alderman Tramontozzi is there any discussion all those in favor of the motion please indicate by saying aye aye anyone Opposed? That order passes. Do we have additional orders from committee? Alderman Lemmerman. Thank you, Mr. President. I move to remove order 2018-22 from committee. Second. Alderman Lemmerman moves to remove 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 in February 2020. Motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer. Discussion on the motion? All those in favor of the motion? Aye. Aye.

▶ 27:56 Anyone opposed? Motion passes. The order is before you. Motion for passage. Second. Alderman McAteer-Margolis moves for passage. Motion is second by Alderman Boisselle. Any discussion relative to the motion for passage? All those in favor of passage of the order, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That order passes. Alderman Lemmerman. Thank you, Mr. President. I move to remove order 2018-30 from committee. Second. Alderman Lemmerman moves to remove Order 2018-30 from committee. Motion is seconded by Alderman Mortimer. It is 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 in February 2020.

▶ 28:41 Is there discussion on the motion to remove the order from committee? All those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. The order is before you. Motion for passage. Second. Alderman Wright moves for passage. the motion is seconded by alderman lemmerman is there any discussion all those in favor of passage of the order please indicate by saying aye aye aye anyone opposed that order passes alderman McAteer-Margolis uh yes mr president i request that we remove order 2018-33 from committee second alderman McAteer-Margolis moves to remove order 2018-33 from committee motion is seconded by alderman mortimer this is application of anthony p pasquale tba cmc classic car llc for a class 2 motor vehicle license at 13 stevens place elrose massachusetts is there any discussion

▶ 29:37 on the motion all those in favor anyone opposed motion passes the orders before you motion for passage second alderman MacMaster margolis moves for passage motion is seconded by alderman mortimer any discussion on the motion for passage all those in favor anyone opposed that order passes do we have any members of outside committees who need to report on activities of said committees pursuant to rule 53 okay and i have one housekeeping matter before i entertain any further motions the board recently passed an order authorizing the president to appoint citizen members to the water and sewer committee and anybody who's watching at home who wishes to be considered should make that known to the clerk of committees over the next week or two please

▶ 30:41 motion to adjourn mr president second alderman mortimer moves to adjourn the motion is seconded by Alderman Boyce-Held. On the motion, all those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Motion passes, meeting's adjourned.

City Council — 2017-10-16

Attendance

Agenda

Minutes

Transcript

Original documents