Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2018-01-18

Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting

This meeting starts at 11:05 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Manisha Bewtra present · Alderman at Large; Robert A. Boisselle present · Ward 4 Alderman; Scott M. Forbes present · Ward 7 Alderman; Gail Infurna present · President/Ex-officio Member; Jennifer L. Lemmerman present · Chairman; Kate Lipper-Garabedian 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. absent · Ward 3 Alderman; Michael P. Zwirko present · Vice Chairman

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JANUARY 18, 2018 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:30 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 Jennifer L. Lemmerman Chairman Present Michael P. Zwirko Vice Chairman Present Manisha Bewtra Alderman at Large Present Kate Lipper-Garabedian Alderman at Large Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Alderman Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Ward 3 Alderman Absent Peter D. Mortimer Ward 6 Alderman Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Present Gail M. Infurna President/Ex-officio Member Present

ORDER-2018-55 Appropriation An Appropriation from the Contract Stabilization Fund (84042-590000) to the Library Salary and Wages account (016111-511000) in the amount of $13,000.00. Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2018-57 Appointment Reappointment of James Bradley, 41 Glendale Ave., to the Board of Appeals for a five-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2023 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2018-58 Appointment Reappointment of David W. Roache, 366 Swains Pond Ave., to the Board of Appeals for a five-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2023 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 1/24/2018 4:31 PM Minutes Appropriations Committee January 18, 2018

ORDER-2018-56 Appointment Reappointment of Krista Lillis, 37 Pearl St., as an Associate Member of the Board of Appeals for a two-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2020 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2018-87 Appointment Reappointment of Maya Jamaleddine, 10 Melrose St., to the Human Rights Commission for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2021 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2018-106 Election Special Election if Mayoral Vacancy before March 15, 2018 Recommend Place on File Board of Health City of Melrose Page 2 Updated 1/24/2018 4:31 PM

Transcript

▶ 10:22 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: So moved. Second. Motion to adjourn by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Boisselle. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Committee on protection and licensure is adjourned. Thank you. Good evening. Being 7-36 on January 18th, 2018, I call to order the Appropriations Committee. Thank you. My name is Jennifer Lemmerman, I'm the chair of the committee, and I am joined here this evening by Vice Chair Alderman Zwirko and committee Member Alderman Buccia, Alderman Lipper-Garabedian, Alderman Medeiros, Alderman Tramontozzi, Alderman Boisselle, Alderman Mortimer, Alderman Forbes, and President Infurna. This meeting is being recorded, it is played live on MMTV. It's also available for viewing later on both the city website and the MMTV website.

▶ 12:15 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Motion to open the floor for public participation, Madam Chair. Second. We have a motion to open the floor for public participation by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Forbes. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The floor is now open for public participation. Any member of the public wishing to speak on any item before our agenda this evening is welcome to do so. You can come forward to the table in front of us. Please state your name and your address. There are several issues on our agenda this evening, including some appointments and appropriation for contract stabilization, as well as an order on a special election for a mayoral vacancy. Thank you. I'd like to ask the board to approve a special election for mayor.

▶ 13:02 uh i think the people have a right to speak and say who they want to represent them for the next two years it's been said that two years isn't enough to get established or anything but for over a century it has been a two-year term and so i'd like to just see a an election for the remainder of mayor dolan's excuse me term thank you sir would you state your name and address for record as well as sign in the sheet when you have a moment it's a richard stanton i'm at 185 pleasant street in miller thank you very much thank you thank you thank you my name is david goodue i live at 13 tremont street i also agree with the gentleman that just spoke before me the next term for mayor will be almost a full term and i think it's very important that we recognize the fact

▶ 14:24 that we have a pool of citizens in this community that are very talented some of them retired some of them not professional politicians in politics for life work you might say so I think that we should open up the process to these people because there's a lot of talent in this community and we should avail ourselves of that pool of people if it was a short term that we were looking at i could see put somebody in appoint somebody to take the the uh the mayor's responsibility in an orderly quick fashion until the next election but in this case it's a little bit different because we have uh almost a full term and i think whoever fills that office most likely will be continue to be they'll be in a very good position to extend their

▶ 15:23 it one term after another after another so i think again i get back to i think it's a good time to broaden the pool of candidates and by doing that we uh open it up we should we should open it up to the public have a general election to avail ourselves of that possible talent that's out there That's it. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Julie DeLillo, 13th Circuit Street. I can't do two things at the same time, seriously. I first want to say I value the fact we have a charter. I value the fact we just reviewed it and that this topic didn't come up, and I fully respect Gail, for all you've done for stepping up into the role, but I would ask that if it's possible to have a special election, that we go ahead and do so. For me, as a citizen, I got technically

▶ 16:54 five votes, right? I got my award for Alderman-at-Large. Those are the voices that speak for me well the four aldermen at large who speak for me didn't all agree until five votes in that it was Gail and so they didn't really represent me the first four times around I mean I think the fourth time we got sort of the consensus and so I think it's only fair that the citizens who voted all of you in if you had all out of the gate said Gail well we voted for you to represent us and I would have said okay I voted for you but when three of my five didn't agree then you haven't you haven't really represented me you sort of capitulated you're sort of all agreed in the end that this is the way we would go

▶ 17:54 and I think for the citizens who who vote for you that it's only fair we get to have a say in it again so therefore I'm I would ask that if it is possible that we have a special election thank you thank you is there anyone else would like to speak this evening to chill 15 6th Street I am also in favor of having a special election I believe that there is more talent out there that we could tap into also um you know the talent that we're looking at them you know it were broken up into seven woods here and so i mean you know one seventh in a way of the city is only represented and actually voted in favor of what now is going to be the mayor for two year term um so i i think that should be open to public and and have a

▶ 19:00 a better pool of uh people that we could have elected into the into the term of um mayor thank you sir good evening carrie corcoran malice from cargill street i would like to voice my support for the order in favor of considering a special election for all of the reasons previously articulated and also I believe the citizens should be able to weigh in when we're speaking about a two-year term but I also think that from a fiscal point of view it needs to be considered that meaning no disrespect to Ms. Infurna that The long-term pension consideration, because Ms. Infurna would be entitled to a greatly enlarged pension through the system, if I understand it correctly, would cost the taxpayers over many, many years.

▶ 20:22 Not that that isn't an option that should be considered, but I think that the cost of an election, somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000, I understand, versus many years of paying a much larger pension should be weighed carefully. And I think that the voters have a right to a full dialogue on that type of topic also. so i very much support the order to consider a special election thank you thank you good evening my name is robert albers i live at irving street and i'm here tonight because i support um but mostly everyone's been saying about we do have a special election i can see if this term was going to be filled for six months seven months maybe even a year but i think two years down the road there's going to be a lot of decisions and hard choices that need

▶ 21:43 to be made and I really feel that the people of Melrose have a right to have a say in this matter I know you know we all like use Alderman and everything else but I just think it would be more fitting if we had this election for the length of time that it involves so thank you very much thank you thank you good evening my name is Robert off Euro I'm a resident of Lebanon Street in Melrose I like to add my name to the list of citizens who would like to see this order move forward it was pretty clear to us last week that there was a change of opinion amongst the Board of Aldermen from the previous December meeting and so I think it'd be in all fairness to all the citizens all the taxpayers in

▶ 23:03 our city that they be given a chance to have a say in who gets to be their mayor for the remaining two years I understand there is going to be a cost associated with a special election but I think that's the price we may have to pay for a representative democracy so I would like to see this move forward thank you very much thank you seeing no person willing to come forward motion to close public purchase second a motion to close public participation by Alderman Forbes and seconded by Alderman Mortimer all in favor of closing public participation all right any opposed public participation is now closed we have six items on our agenda this evening we will start with order number 2018-55 an appropriation from

▶ 24:16 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: the contract stabilization fund eight four zero four two dash five nine zero zero zero zero to the library salary and wages account zero one six one one one dash five one one zero zero zero in the amount of thirteen thousand dollars motion to recommend for passage madam chair second we have a motion to recommend for passage by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman Boisselle do we have discussion on the order alderman Zwirko i'm just curious if there's anyone that uh is here from library or the administration department head we do have uh mr van kampen here this evening who can speak to this order if the committee would like to speak with him motion to suspend the rules excuse me we have a motion to spend the rules by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman

▶ 24:59 forbes all in favor aye opposed we are under suspension of rules thank you good evening madam chair Member of the committee uh the order before you this evening is intended to fund year one of a recently completed three-year contract with the library union uh just for your benefit and for the public's benefit we've reached agreement with the library union to pay cost of living adjustments over a three-year period of two percent in year one one and a half percent in year two and one and a half percent in year three for a total increase over three years of five percent that is consistent with the long-standing bargaining pattern of the administration at least since i've been here so just want to report that to the

▶ 25:36 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: committee thank you alderman zyrka thank you chairman Lemmerman um was any of this retroactive it is retro to july 1st 2017. it is okay correct so and then three years to fund retro plus prospectively for the remainder of the fiscal year and then we'll budget in the next two fiscal years okay thank you that was all the questions i had chairman any other questions from the committee we have a motion for passage that's been second or motion to recommend for passage that's been seconded all in favor aye aye any opposed this order will be recommended for passage to the full board in our next meeting the second order on our agenda is order 2018-57 the reappointment of james bradley 41 glendale ave to the board of appeals for a five-year term said term to expire

▶ 26:23 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: on the last day of february 2023 motion to recommend for passage second we have a motion recommend for passage by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman Boisselle any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed this order will also be recommended to the full board for passage at our next meeting order 2018-58 reappointment of david w roach 366 wayne's pawn ave to the board of appeals for a five-year term said term to expire on the last day of february 2023. motion recommend second okay we have a motion to recommend for passage by alderman forbes seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor aye i'm sorry any opposed this order will also be recommended to the full board for passage fourth order on our agenda this evening's order 2018-56 the reappointment of krista lillis 37

▶ 27:14 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: pearl street as an associate member of the board of appeals for a two-year term said term to expire on the last day of february 2020. motion i'll recommend for passage second we have a motion to recommend for passage by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman Boisselle any discussion all in favor recommending for passage aye any opposed this order will be recommended for passage to the full board the fifth order on our agenda is 2018-87 reappointment of maya jamaladeen 10 melrose street to the human rights commission for a three-year term said term to expire on the last day of february 2021. motion to recommend second the motion to recommend for passage by alderman tram and tozy seconded by alderman bucha any discussion all those in favor of recommending

▶ 28:02 Monica C. Medeiros: for passage all right any opposed this will be recommended to the full board in our next meeting the sixth and final order on our agenda this evening's order 2018-106 special election if mayor mayoral vacancy before march 15th 2018. this is an order sponsored by alderman at large monica medeiros thank you thank you uh if i may um first preface this by i want to thank everybody for the consideration of this order especially uh you uh you chairman lemmerman and president Infurna for for moving this forward at our first available meeting um i had first submitted this order prior to our december 18th meeting under the in light of the announcement by mayor dolan that he had been seeking and was a finalist as a position to be the town administrator

▶ 28:59 Monica C. Medeiros: in linfield obviously a lot has happened since then and we know this is a reality and he's he's leaving I had heard from if I'm talking to some of the alderman and and from the public that you know this was something that some of us thought maybe should happen although we weren't sure when at the time the mayor was going to resign and this was a an option that the mayor had presented to me as one of our options when he told me that he was planning to possibly leave so I wanted to we talked about you know how can we talk about this if we don't have an option or a forum for it so I submitted this order back in December a little more than a month ago in order to actually give us the option to start to

▶ 29:52 Monica C. Medeiros: talk about it but as it was out there and as I talked to more people in the public I really do believe that not just for something to talk about but I think that it really is the best and and fairest option that we have I had reached out to our city solicitor for guidance and he had suggested that in order to pass if you know if we are going to move forward with this and in order order to pass muster of the state house that it be more specific so he has reached out and I hope if we can suspend the rules and and have him come forward again I would appreciate that I believe we're still under suspension of the role yeah I know he has reached out to people at the Statehouse and was waiting to hear back so therefore I do have a copy of what I have proposed that I've

▶ 30:50 passed out to everyone yeah just for for the committee's edification so I have been in contact with folks at the Statehouse specifically I've been told that representative Broder has been reaching out to House counsel and the staff of the Joint Committee on municipalities and the reason I reached out is because as I had suggested to you if the board's will was to go down this road I wanted to ensure that whatever was passed would withstand muster at the Statehouse in terms of level of detail in terms of you know passability by the legislature and signature by the governor as of this evening they're still in the process of getting me material so I don't have any further information in terms of detail to report to the committee tonight but that is

▶ 31:38 Monica C. Medeiros: something that is still in the queue although the clock is as you and I discussed this afternoon the clock is running somewhat short on this process so the the first thing I'd like to do tonight is ask the board's consideration to amend the order by substitution to add the amended version so we're all talking about the same thing and the amended version would add a couple of sentences but I'll read it out loud so it's notwithstanding any provisions contrary to the Charter of the city of Melrose should the mayor vacate the office prior to March 15th 2018 the city of Melrose shall appoint an acting mayor and shall hold a special election in the manner provided in section 7 1 of the Charter of the city of Melrose to fill a vacancy and to any extent necessary

▶ 32:25 Monica C. Medeiros: shall petition the state legislature for necessary approval and so that is a motion to amend by substitution We have a motion to amend by substitution by Alderman Medeiros is there a second second by alderman Tramontozzi all in favor of amending the order as described sec uh hi hi any opposed the order is now amended thank you so the intent here of these amendments are to make it clear that my intention with this order is that the last thing that i would like to see happen is for you know we we know timing is of the essence no matter what And even if we do have a special election or not, that President Infurna will become, at least she will take over the duties of mayor when the mayor leaves.

▶ 33:20 Monica C. Medeiros: And so the charter allows for an acting mayor to not resign their position as an alderman. And, you know, so if the mayor had vacated prior to January 8th, we would have, and the president of the Board of Aldermen would become the acting mayor and would take over the duties of mayor, not resign their position as an alderman, and when the results of the election were over, would go back to being an alderman. the way the charter reads right now if the mayor leaves now anytime after January 8th after inauguration day and into the the second year of his term sorry into the third year of his term past the second year then the president of the board of aldermen becomes the actual mayor they must resign their seat on the Board of Aldermen and no longer becomes no

▶ 34:20 Monica C. Medeiros: longer is an alderman so this would be tricky and if if we had a special election and I you know I certainly certainly certainly certainly do not want Alderman Infurna to lose her seat on the Board of Aldermen because of you know a special election so that is the reason for saying a special point an acting mayor, that's the language used in the Charter, and to have a special election in the manner that's prescribed in Section 7 of the Charter, which talks about the amount of days to have an election and a preliminary election if there are more than two candidates. So that being said, that's the reason for this amendment by substitution. There's a lot of factors to take into consideration but

▶ 35:16 Monica C. Medeiros: You know first and foremost this is this is an exceptional situation, but it's not an emergency situation Thank God. We're not in a situation where somebody took ill or Had to leave unexpectedly and we had to fill this position. We have had you know, some advance notice in advance of this this vacancy and in advance of that two-year term which i think does make this a little bit exceptional this is the first time we have had vacancies in the past in the office of mayor we have not had any under this new charter and since the mayor's term has been a four-year term for over a century the mayor's term was only two years and you know this the time in which the you know the president of the board of aldermen will fill the office of mayor is almost

▶ 36:17 Monica C. Medeiros: two whole years and you know it to me it seems to me that that is quite a long time to go without some validation from the voters directly again we have had instances where the mayor has left but it's never been filled for more than you know a period of months not a few months not something that would be over a year and i you know i do know we did review this in the charter uh i we didn't specifically look at this provision um i believe it is something that and i know i spoke with our city solicitor and i do anticipate filing something to amend this in the future so it maybe it's only the the last year that this would happen of the mayor's term but this you know this is something I do think you know we just overlooked we've

▶ 37:07 Monica C. Medeiros: had the same mayor for 16 years and didn't think he was going anywhere so I I asked for your support this evening and I I know there is some cost associated with it and one last thing I I do have an email from Linda Lee angelillo our election administrator uh dated monday december 18 2017. um this had been forwarded to the board on december 18th um so i know that didn't include olivin butra and alderman Letter garabedian um but i would ask that this please be added okay to the to the board and in it she says the average cost of an election is twenty eight thousand dollars and that city elections tend to run a little higher 30 to 34 000. um this is a little bit different than i see she answered the same question for alderman Zwirko and said that the average cost was 35 000. so

▶ 38:11 John N. Tramontozzi: that seems to be about where we're looking somewhere you know from 30 to 35 000. thank you thank you uh next in queue we have alderman Tramontozzi uh thank you madam chairman um I have some questions for the city solicitor, but first I just want to make a statement that while I fully support the argument that the people should vote for the person who will govern the city, I'm looking at the provisions of the city charter. The city charter is a legal document that provides for provisions for how the city is to be operated. and my question to the city solicitor is um are there any limitations in our ability to call for a special election in light of what the city charter says and section 310 of the it talks

▶ 39:05 John N. Tramontozzi: about the vacancy in the office of mayor vacancy in the office of mayor occurs during the first two years of the term for which the mayor is elected then the board of aldermen shall immediately call for a special election to be held within 90 days following the date of the vacancy so that's clear but that term um that provision doesn't apply because the vacancy is not going to occur until at this point it's february 5th this seems to be the announced date so if you read part b of section 310 if a vacancy in the office of mayor occurs in the third or fourth year of the term for which the mayor is elected then the president of the board of aldermen shall become the mayor period that's how i read it enforcement of charter provisions are according to section 914 done by

▶ 39:55 John N. Tramontozzi: declaratory judgments in superior court by general laws chapter 231a is there anything in the city charter that authorizes the board of aldermen to take some form of action that essentially what we're doing is is negating a provision of the city charter city charter is a legal document are we in our legal rights to do what this order calls for i think this governing board and again i respect and i fully support uh the the the process of having uh the people elect the mayor but we also governed by a city charter we send this order to to the Great and General Court, the state legislature, they're going to send it back to us and say, you have complied with your city charter. You have sent the president of the Board of Aldermen to become the mayor provided in section

▶ 40:53 John N. Tramontozzi: 310 subparagraph B. Why and what authorizes them legally to act on a provision that we we send to them through the home rule petition. I suspect this is going through a home rule petition. Can we cite to the state legislature a provision in our city charter that authorizes to do that? Because if we can't, as an attorney, I don't believe that we have the legal authority to do that unless the charter authorizes us to do that. Or there's a provision in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or the state legislature that specifically authorizes governing bodies of municipalities to do what we're attempting to do here. So we just need to know if we're gonna be on legal footing here.

▶ 41:47 John N. Tramontozzi: Are we gonna get a challenge, and again, I respect the people who are here present saying that they wanna vote, but for everyone that says they wanna vote, there's Member of the public out there who are saying, we got a city charter that we have to live with we could change the city city charter at a future date if we wanted to but we have this in in presently in our possession we we we can't violate the law and we cannot violate the provisions of this charter unless and i'm looking to you for guidance sir unless you're giving me the authority that says that we can do that sure so currently under the city charter there is no provision that would allow for a special election under the circumstances this is and i i talked to alderman medeiros this afternoon

▶ 42:33 and i referred to this as kind of like the thousand year storm this is something that i don't anticipate anyone contemplated when the charter was passed in 2005 i don't think it was contemplated by the charter review committee last year when they went through a very thorough comprehensive analysis of the charter and what needed to be repaired and what needed to be fixed So there's currently no ability in the existing charter to conduct a special election. Given the circumstances, given the timing of the mayor's departure, the only option would be under the commonwealth's home rule procedure to petition the legislature to request authority permission to conduct a special election. I think I expressed concerns at the organizational meeting, however,

▶ 43:27 that given the time involved and given the fact that our charter document was approved by the voters of Melrose, I'm not entirely confident the legislature would be able to act quickly enough to to allow for that special election and the other analogy i would just use for this body and for the public is at some point as the city's attorney i can only put so much toothpaste back in the tube so on february 5th unless there's an order from the legislature which would mean the board would have to essentially vote on a final order like early next week Send it to the legislature on Wednesday after the mayor signs it. The legislative, you know, both branches of the legislative body at the state house would enact, enroll,

▶ 44:24 get it to the governor's desk, all by February 2nd. I am not confident that can happen. That's my opinion. The other issue we run into is, by operation of law, operation of law, the President of the Board of Aldermen on February 5th, assume that can't happen by February 2nd, becomes the Mayor, with all the powers of the Mayor. By operation of law, the Ward 5 Alderman Site becomes vacant. So, I think the concern is, the current charter doesn't allow for it, and I'm more concerned that we could get this done quickly enough to address it, if it was something this board so desired. Let me ask you this, I got another follow-up question. You said in order for us to send the petition onto the state legislature in the form

▶ 45:16 John N. Tramontozzi: of a home rule petition, procedurally, if this board were to adopt the order as amended, do we send it directly to the legislature or does it need the approval of the mayor? Does the mayor have to sign off on that? The mayor would have to sign it, as any other, you know, order passed by this body. So, there's still the additional hurdle of the mayor signing off on it? Correct. And I read Section 914, Enforcement of Charter Provisions, you know, the mayor is under duty to follow and comply with all city, to make sure all city agencies and city employees comply with charter provisions. And then if the Board of Aldermen don't believe that the mayor is complying with the charter provisions, then where we go?

▶ 46:15 John N. Tramontozzi: We go off to superior court looking for declaratory judgments in General Laws Chapter 231A. This is awful crazy. And, you know, I don't know. um the other thing too is um there is cost associated with this um is is is it uh is it appropriate to take the cost to run a special election from the general funds you're going to hurt other agencies and departments of the city i would suggest that if this if this board chooses and I'm open to discussion if this board chooses to go that route that the the cost to run that special election be assessed to the mayor's budget and it can be spread out over two years is that is that is that something that would be appropriate could we do that yeah I don't know the answer that that's more

▶ 47:17 John N. Tramontozzi: of a mr. de la russa question but my assumption is you can if you expend it in a fiscal year you've got to raise it in that fiscal year and I'm not sure the process to carry it forward over two fiscal years yeah because it made sense i was just thinking out loud sure that uh you know it's it's a mayor aureole uh situation and uh maybe assess it to just the mayor's budget um but um but i'll um thank you for that that helps a lot and um and i'd like to hear from others on the board as well uh their their opinions and thank you thank you Thank you, I have a question. So the election would have to be held within 90 days. If there were more than two candidates, would that mean the preliminary would have to be?

▶ 48:07 So the election, so the other thing to bear in mind is, this entire special election will be dictated by the special act. It will not be dictated by the city charter. I want to be clear, Alderman Medeiros, I think I know what your order is. This is not an amendment of the city charter. This is a special act that would, for a moment in time in our history, supersede the city charter with respect to a special election in this instance. So the question of when would the election occur would be specified in the act. So if it's, say, June 4th, that's the date that I would require actually be included in the language of whatever the legislature and the governor are going to sign. If there are more than two candidates, the special act would dictate that a preliminary election be held.

▶ 49:02 And under section, I think it's 7-1, Alderman Tramontozzi, you seem to be our charter expert tonight. but i think it's i think it's 7-1 dictates that if there is there are more than two candidates for mayor there's a preliminary that has to occur 28 days before the general or something like that it is under seven more okay so um all of that alderman would be spelled out in that special act that would be passed that answers your question are you all set on the future yeah This is going to be quite a show, you might say. Question, logistics. In applying for a position to run for office, there's a signature requirement. In a special election, is this also will be required? I assume you would still be required to meet the same threshold signature requirement in order to be placed on the ballot.

▶ 50:03 Robert A. Boisselle: Okay, we're talking about 90 days, 28 days. going to be a time period to accumulate the signatures required that's a good question um i would defer to the election administrator on that but i assume there would be a deadline to gather your signatures in order to be placed on the ballot because she obviously has to go through the expense of printing ballots so a minimum we'll say a minimum well we'll check with the election office for argument's sake you know a minute it's 30 days to get your signatures this if we use 30 days as a starting point uh we're moving into close to april and may for a possible election at all okay it would there be any other logistic requirements in with the candidates applying for the position besides the signatures i'm not aware of any but

▶ 50:57 i'm i'm not an election official so i really don't want to comment but i'm not aware of any okay Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Thank you. Other Member of the committee? Yes. Thanks for the time. I just want to confirm, it's your opinion that we would have no choice but to petition the legislature for a home rule petition? Correct. There's no other option. That is the only option. And we're talking about asking, we would have to complete the drafting of this order, it at this body, have the mayor sign off on it, send it to the legislature in the middle of a budget cycle, which I'm very well aware of with working on a budget right now at the state level, and then have the legislature approve it, get it to the governor's desk,

▶ 51:53 Michael P. Zwirko: and have him sign it by February 2nd. Correct. Extraordinarily short timeframe within which to accomplish that. Do we have any additional questions on that? Not right now. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Lemon. I just have one quick question. I reserve the right to speak a little bit later, but why is the only method in which this could go before the legislature a special act? I mean, we can amend the charter at any time. Why wouldn't we seek to amend the charter, send that amendment to the people to approve the charter amendment, and then send the amended charter to the legislature? That would seem to me to be very clean. I mean, it's certainly a route one could take because the charter was approved by the voters.

▶ 52:40 So wouldn't we want to send the amendment to them? I mean. Sure, so that's a separate procedure under 43B, under General Act Chapter 43B, a charter amendment follows a different process. Correct, but that's still an option. It is an option. Okay. It's probably the longer of the two, but it is an option. The other question, Alderman, that comes into play here, and you and I have had discussions about this in the past, is whether that type of a change is substantive enough to require approval of the voters, rather than just approval of this body and submission to the legislature. Understood, and that was a question that we wrestled with through the Charter Review Commission during 2017, for the duration of it, really.

▶ 53:23 Michael P. Zwirko: Okay, I just wanted to clarify that, because I was under the impression that you were saying there was only one path, and in fact, there are others. If the goal of the body was, other than the special act outside of the charter, another option, obviously, is to amend the city charter, but that likely could not be done in time for February 2nd. Understood, understood. But you could also handle all the provisions that you're concerned about at that time, but I understand your point, and it's well taken. So thank you, Chairman. And Alderman Medeiros and I did discuss the concept of future charter amendment to address this thousand year storm issue. Understood, yep, thank you. Other Member of the committee

▶ 54:02 Peter D. Mortimer: wishing to speak or comment? Alderman, yes, sorry. Thank you very much. I understand the problem here and it is a problem I wish we could have a special election in the last meeting we had I advocated for it I said there was a process it would have been better if we did it at that time because now we're probably not just up against the wall we're probably through the wall it's it's probably too late as our city solicitor just explained but at the last meeting when we elected our president i said we should do that but now that time it seems as though has come and gone I understand the statements, the points that are made that, well, you know, this really isn't the voice of the people, but the people elected the alderman who approved this charter,

▶ 55:21 Peter D. Mortimer: and that was all the people of the city. We don't live in a pure democracy. We live in a representative democracy. we elect leaders who then cast votes for us. Sometimes that works out great, sometimes it doesn't work out great, and sometimes it depends on which side you're on. You know, I'm 61 years old, and I've probably been following politics since I was about eight. Just following it for a long, long time and watching. And depending on which election you were watching, the electoral college, which is a representative democracy, gets hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread or it gets vilified as the great Boston molasses blood. Everybody either loves it or hates it depending on which election you have.

▶ 56:15 Peter D. Mortimer: But we have a representative democracy here. And the people elected the alderman to approve this charter. I read the proposed charter five times, and I asked a few people, what about this provision? That's kind of a long time, if the mayor, but if it's going to be almost two years that somebody steps in as acting mayor. They say, yeah, but this is where we are. This is what the citizen charter committee passed up to us. I read it over numerous times, you know, I think most of my fellow aldermen did the same. And we did it on behalf of the people. And yeah, this is the thousand year storm. It's the worst case scenario. It's almost two years, it's almost the full term. We've had other mayors who stepped in for shorter terms,

▶ 57:15 Peter D. Mortimer: Mayor Lyons, Mayor Alley came in for much, much shorter times. But when you make a line, you make a line. And, yeah, this is the right up to the edge of the line. You know, I'll give the example, hey, you're driving six or seven miles over the speed limit. On the highway, it's 2 o'clock in the morning. You're wide awake, not drunk. And you're going seven miles over the speed limit, and you get pulled over. Well, you're over the speed limit. You got pulled over. Now, in that situation, a good police officer, when I used to be a police officer, will say, slow down and give you a break. No one know all the cars are around, you're perfectly wide awake driving a Florida, and that's the way that'll go.

▶ 58:07 Peter D. Mortimer: Or the case where some poor person who's two weeks shy of their 21st birthday and they get caught drinking. Now, a good police officer will say, knock it off, especially if they're polite. They don't give them any lip. But the law is still the law. In this case, it's not like the operating the motor vehicle case or the drinking case where there's some discretion for the enforcement officer. This is a very, very public matter. The line is the line and the line's been drawn by the charter committee and the alderman who studied, at least this alderman did, who studied this charter. And I said to some alderman, geez, that's kind of a long time. Should we bump that up? And people said, well, no, we gotta draw the line somewhere.

▶ 59:08 Peter D. Mortimer: And it's like the drinking age, it's 21. Some people can drink at 15 and not have a problem. Some people could be 30 or 35 and they still shouldn't drink. But we have a line. When it comes to laws, we have to pick a line and a time. In this case, the charter picked within the first two years for the special election and within the last two years, an appointment by the Board of Aldermen. We talked about the charter here for almost three months, many, many meetings. We went over it with a fine-tooth comb, all open to public commentary, all open to public discussion, public participation, all last spring, and now this is where we are. Some people would say, I won't use the word worst case scenario, I'll just say

▶ 1:00:06 Peter D. Mortimer: the most extreme case scenario. This is really up against the wall. So, this is what it's come to, the thousand year storm, so to speak. You know, the thing that some people might have said, ah, that'll never happen, it'll never happen that the mayor will leave or get hit by a bolt of lightning or have a heart attack or get run over by a truck with exactly two years left, almost exactly two years left in the term. Well, it happened. Somebody who's been driving seven, eight, 10 miles over the speed limit their whole life, me, thinks they're never gonna get pulled over. But this time, we got pulled over. And if you run into a hard-nosed police officer, you get the ticket. And in this case, because it's not an area of discretion,

▶ 1:00:59 Peter D. Mortimer: because the law is the law, and we're right up against it, we're kind of stuck with it. So it's not the best operation of the legislative process, of the legislative process, but it's a representative democracy and this is the law that the people elected us and they wanted a charter. Nobody complained about it before this happened. So now it did happen. And there's another little wrinkle that no one's mentioned yet, which is the next possible time that this could come up, but the mayor could veto this. It takes 10 votes of the alderman to overcome a mayoral vote veto. So another thing that could happen is Mayor Dolan could veto this, even if we pass it, and that could happen very easily. Or he could just let it sit on his desk.

▶ 1:02:11 Peter D. Mortimer: He could let it sit on his desk and not do it, And then presumptive mayor-in-waiting, Alderman Infurna could veto it. She could veto it as well. So even if this Board of Aldermen were to give this eight votes tonight, it still faces a mountain of problems as our city solicitor laid out, as Alderman Tramontozzi laid out. It just might be too little too late. And I can see both sides of the debate very clearly. It's one of the drawbacks to being a lawyer. You can sometimes see both sides of the discussion. But I think in this case, it's a charter we passed last spring. Now the chickens have come home to roost, and I think we're going to have to live with what we did. Moving forward, we might change that charter. Maybe we'll, as we do some slow

▶ 1:03:05 Peter D. Mortimer: deliberations, we may petition the state legislature to change the charter in the future and make it three years so the longest possible time would be the only one year that could happen so it's not the best of circumstances but uh i'm afraid we have to play the cards we've been dealt thank you very much point of order is there a motion on the floor there's not there's not a motion and then my second point of order is this would require eight votes is that correct for passage it's not six it's eight anyone I actually I think it's it's not in the appropriation order it's not a transfer it would require a simple majority oh so it's just six and then right but we voted the full board so we're not we're only only you the sending it to the majority here but at

▶ 1:03:58 Monica C. Medeiros: the full board it would also require a majority like the majority of the full majority okay okay thank you all right thank you thank you uh so you know this is one of those things where you know i think it's i think it's i mean if the mayor were to reject it it would come as a surprise to me as this is something that that he presented to me as an option so i i just want to put that out there but we do never know and I think if this is going to move forward obviously time is of the essence and I think we would have to you know take we should just take action on this probably at the next full board meeting one way or another but I do ask for support and I'll just say you know look this is a short time frame but what I've found in life is you know when

▶ 1:04:54 Monica C. Medeiros: there's a will there's a way and if the will of this board is to have a special election I think we can get it through in time and the legislature will listen but that's a one aldermen's opinion and so with that I would move for to recommend this order for passage we have a motion to recommend for passage by Alderman DeRose is there a second hearing none the motion fails for lack of a second what is the will of the committee so if we're not gonna have a vote on it I think it's incumbent on me to explain my position where it would be should there have been a vote so allow me just a little bit of latitude here so I wouldn't support this order I do think that it's factually incorrect I do think

▶ 1:05:43 Michael P. Zwirko: it needs to be amended a little bit if it were to go forward I don't like the language as it stands I would support amending the Charter to allow a special election if that's what we wanted to do I don't feel that I can override a charter that was approved by the voters and then further reviewed by us and had public participation and a public commission was set forth to review said charter and the ink is barely dry on that charter by the way so I do think that you know we do have a provision it's a provision that's exercised in many cities across the Commonwealth it's a provision that put mayor Menino in as mayor Menino back in 1993 and he served for two years prior to being elected in 1995 I this is it's the language is pretty clear you know we looked at this

▶ 1:06:26 Michael P. Zwirko: you know I know that this might be uncomfortable but it's certainly not a crisis I I do think that the path that I would choose if people upon you know maybe we were all asleep at the switch and didn't consider the two-year time period if we the board feel to amend that provision of the Charter I could see that I would like to have the voters I do think it's a substantial enough amendment that we should have the voters approve that I understand that the time frame for that is probably a little bit longer than folks would like but unfortunately we're not only marching against pretty clear language we're also marching against the clock I would also say that on January 8th you know for the second time I took an oath I took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the

▶ 1:07:10 Michael P. Zwirko: United States and the laws of the Commonwealth and this Charter is not just something that we play with it's the laws of the Commonwealth and I think the order that's before us although we're not going to vote on it I wouldn't support it because I don't think that it's correct I don't think it's factual and I think it's against the laws of the Commonwealth quite frankly I I greatly appreciate the folks that came here this evening and as I always say some of my most favorite meetings are the ones where the public participates it means a lot it's very frequent that we don't have many Member of the public here so thank you for taking your time to be here not being glib but you know we did a thorough review of this in the calendar year of 2017 the window of time

▶ 1:07:51 Michael P. Zwirko: the thousand year storm if that's the phrase we're using was a very small window it might be unfortunate might be fortunate but that's the hand that we were dealt so for those reasons I couldn't support this I'm sorry that it didn't get a second but I really think that the world we're operating in right now is a world that we're all was all known to us it's been posted and for those reasons I just wanted to state my position thank you madam chairman now I had sent this order and the proposed amendment to your attention is there anything not factual in this order as far as you're aware what do you mean factual i don't understand that well i um i just heard alderman's work so he didn't think it was

▶ 1:08:42 factual so yeah no my my concern is and you know i i can't speak for alderman's work but my concern is that as i have told you um we would have to flesh this out with much greater detail in order for it to be in a form capable of passage um i i don't i don't speak for alderman's work obviously but that that that's my concern which is why i've been asking folks at the state house for examples of similar special acts to determine what is passable at that level and we're just waiting to correct but there's nothing here that's not legal it's not it's not illegal for us to ask for to ask the petition the state legislature for approval no it's a legal option that the city has but this particular form that i'm looking at is probably not passable as worded okay and

▶ 1:09:40 Monica C. Medeiros: it's not it's it's not illegal to to ask the state legislature for things like there are laws in this no as i said where you'd operate under the home rule procedures of the commonwealth of the constitution of the commonwealth so no that that's not illegal so this is completely within our rights we may not choose that we want to do that but it's i've never been deposed but I get where you're going and this is not illegal at this point I would ask that we move this forward without recommendation we have a motion by Alderman Medeiros to move this to the full board without recommendation is there a second I'll second it seconded by Alderman Forbes all in favor all opposed opposed motion fails somebody else gets to make that motion

▶ 1:10:38 what is the will of the committee motion to adjourn on the agenda we have a motion to adjourn by alderman tram and tozy point of order is the motion is the order i don't have the number i'm sorry order 2018-0106 is as has it has it been has it been disposed is does it does it retain is it does it sit before the committee my understanding if we were to adjourn right now this would stay in committee and would come up when this committee met again uh i make a motion not to recommend order 218-106 we do have a motion on the floor which i would draw that motion i want a motion to place on file yeah motion to place on file I'll withdraw my motion yeah motion to recommend a place on file by Alderman

▶ 1:11:35 Tramontozzi second seconded by Alderman Zwirko can I have a discussion can I speak okay I just thought for the good of the order I would let you all know that in looking at this order I did research about a third of the city charters across the state and just for our edification to the degree we want to think about a different process by which we might reopen this, as was suggested, I think, by Alderman Medeiros and Zwirko and Mortimer. I'll just share with you all that cities around the state are totally different on this issue, and there's no consistent approach to it. There are some cities that never have a special election, regardless of when the vacancy occurs in a mayor's term. There are others that will have a special election up until, you know, three quarters or

▶ 1:12:26 further into the term. So we could certainly take a look at that and think about whether or not it's appropriate to shift the approach that we take here. But I do agree with the importance of stability and being methodical in how we think about the laws that govern our city and not reacting impulsively to a situation that is extraordinary and disrupting what has been a very deliberative process very recently that involved a lot of stakeholder input so I certainly would be inclined to revisit this topic with my colleagues and also hear from more in the public about it and and so that's sort of where I'm thinking right now in addition to the points that I talked about with the city solicitor about just the practical likelihood of something

▶ 1:13:15 like this actually being able to be pushed through I find it highly unlikely I am only one state employee but I'm a pretty aware of what is going on at the state level in terms of the budget and also this is the end of a term for a lot of legislators so they're trying to push through a lot of bills it strikes me as hard to imagine that we in light of some of the things that we need to get flushed out in this and that that we could actually get this through in a matter of 20 days so thank you for the time I appreciate it any other discussion thank you I just want to echo just a couple of points I know everyone had a chance to to say their piece I do agree with the statements that were made by Alderman Tramontozzi although we did experience a thousand year storm the

▶ 1:14:04 Scott M. Forbes: Charter does provide us with some sense of direction and how to react to that it is our governing document and I understand that the dates of January 8th really you know defined which direction we were going to go in and even though we had these extraordinary circumstances our charter did provide us with that direction um you know i do respect my my colleague alderman medeiros for bringing the order up i think that this is something that will probably be a topic of discussion moving forward and i think there could be some good dialogue from that but given the circumstances in the time frame that we are experiencing right now i don't really foresee this being a realistic scenario i also am a little

▶ 1:14:44 Scott M. Forbes: apprehensive since we did just open the charter as alderman's worker said in 2017 this did not come up for discussion and you know it provided us with a course of action and one final point i think that everybody that that put their hat into the ring to be board president at our last meeting i don't feel like that they were running to be acting mayor i think they were they were looking to fill that position and to see what their vision was for the remainder of the mayor's term which was in the provisions of what the charter was going to be i don't think anybody was saying please elect me to be your acting mayor i think they wanted to be mayor of melrose for the remainder of mayor dolan's term no matter who was elected in that position that's how i looked at it

▶ 1:15:25 Scott M. Forbes: that's how i cast my vote and uh i'm confident with the way things are moving forward i did want to just uh state that i i voted to bring that order to the to the full board without a recommendation just for the simple fact that i was curious to see if anything that would come back from the state house if we ever have ever had any more information it would have been nice to just to hear and just see how we could use it moving forward so thank you thank you alderman we have a motion before us to recommend that this order be placed on file that has been seconded all in favor Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Opposed. The order passes. This order will move forward to the full board with recommendation to place on file.

▶ 1:16:08 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Motion to adjourn. We have a motion to adjourn by Alderman Mortimer. Second. Seconded by Alderman Zwirko. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. We are adjourned.

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2018-01-18

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