Health, Education & Welfare Committee — 2018-03-05
Attendance
Manisha Bewtra ; Robert A. Boisselle ; Scott M. Forbes ; Jennifer L. Lemmerman ; Kate Lipper-Garabedian ; Monica C. Medeiros ; Peter D. Mortimer ; John N. Tramontozzi ; Francis X. Wright Jr. ; Michael P. Zwirko
Agenda
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● MARCH 5, 2018 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 Peter D. Mortimer Chair Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Monica C. Medeiros Alderman at Large Present Michael P. Zwirko President/ Ex-officio Membe Absent Manisha Bewtra Nonvoting Member Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman Vice Chair Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Present Kate Lipper-Garabedian Nonvoting Member Present John N. Tramontozzi Nonvoting Member Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Nonvoting Member Absent
ORDER-2018-140 Appointment Appointment of Karen Burke as Veterans Services District Director effective February 19, 2018 Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 3/8/2018 1:54 PM
Transcript
▶ 16:33 Peter D. Mortimer: jennifer lemmerman other voting members of this committee are alderman boycelle alderman forbes alderman Medeiros non-voting members present tonight are alderman Bewtra alderman Letter garabedian alderman Tramontozzi and that's as far as we go on that this meeting is being broadcast on mmtv as with all of our meetings and it is available for further viewing on the melrose website or the mmtv website motion to open the floor for public participation alderman lemmerman has made a motion to open the floor public participation duly seconded by alderman boisselle are there any members of the public wishing to come forward and discuss the one order we have on our agenda tonight the appointment of our incoming veteran service director
▶ 17:30 Peter D. Mortimer: um anybody emotional clothes parliament has made a motion to close public participation once again seconded by alderman boy cell all in favor of closing public participation for the hew committee please say aye aye any opposed hearing none public participation is closed and the first and only order we have before us this evening is order two zero one eight dash one four zero is the appointment of Karen Burke as veteran service district director effective February 19th 2018 motion to suspend the rules so we can bring up mayor Inferno and miss Burke second we have a motion to suspend the rules that we might hear from mayor Inferno and the candidate for the position previously read seconded by alderman boycelle all in favor of said suspension
▶ 18:26 Gail Infurna: please say aye aye any opposed hearing none we are under suspension your honor ms burke would you please come forward it's a pleasure to be here it's a pleasure to be on this side of the table and a pleasure to be here tonight to introduce lieutenant colonel karen burke um karen may be familiar a familiar face to some of you as she has been a veteran service office for the past two years as part of our regional office working in Wakefield and I am excited that she has accepted the position of regional veteran service officer as she is a qualified and already has worked with many of us here at City Hall Karen has received her bachelor's of science in nursing another two-pointer from one nurse to another from Villanova University and a master's
▶ 19:18 Gail Infurna: in health sciences emergency and disaster management from Trident University and graduating summa cum laude if you look at her resume you will see that she has since started out as a clinical nurse in 1995 she has always been eager to take on more and higher responsibilities including managing a clinic that directly supported the president of the United States she has handled the logistics of closing down an inpatient unit investigating HIPAA violations and led a patient safety program during her time in Wakefield she increased the number of beneficiaries served by 25% assisted veterans with their claims and worked with the Wakefield veterans Advisory Board to plan events and support veterans in the community she is she is
▶ 20:05 an experienced manager and quite capable of handling the bigger duties of the Melrose office and I respectfully request that you approve her appointment as Director of the Melrose-Wakefield Saugus Veterans Service Office. Thank you, Mayor. Ms. Burke, would you like to say something before we proceed? Thank you for this opportunity. I look forward to being within Melrose now. It's been a pleasure to be the VSO in Wakefield, and I look forward to being able to bring some of those same services to Melrose and serve your veterans here in the city. I live close by, so Melrose feels like home. We walk to downtown and enjoy all that Melrose has to offer, so I look forward to this opportunity. thank you very much for that any alderman wishing to be heard we'll start
▶ 20:49 Monica C. Medeiros: with members of the committee and first I saw alderman Medeiros please followed by alderman Lemmerman thank you I just want to say thank you and early congratulations but it will be my pleasure to vote for you this evening I've had the opportunity to work with miss Burke when needed with some issues had come up with my father who was a veteran and really appreciate your guidance and support and it's nice it's nice to be able to know that there are people that we can reach out to when there are you know times of need and to have such uh responsiveness and support is is very well appreciated so i'll say thank you thank you alderman Medeiros alderman Lemmerman followed by alderman forbes thank you mr chair um i would uh like to just echo uh alderman Medeiros
▶ 21:40 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: sentiments and say thank you thank you for your service um thank you for your service to the city we heard in the last committee meeting some of the critical services that you're providing um in your position so we appreciate it it's it's um it's absolutely critical to the community that these services are being and your resume speaks for itself so thank you thank you thank you alderman levelman alderman forbes please i guess third time's a charm uh i know we met at the uh veterans advisory board meeting um melrose one of those communities that leads from the front when it comes to veteran services i think you're going to fit right in uh you did outstanding work for the community in wakefield and we look forward to see you know how everything works out here in the
▶ 22:20 John N. Tramontozzi: city of melrose but uh definitely uh looking forward to uh to working with you so so thank you very much congratulations thank you thank you alderman forbes alderman Tramontozzi please Just a quick question, and then thank you for your service, and thank you for coming on board. Now, with your responsibilities as the Regional Veteran Service Officer, what happens with Wakefield and Saugus? Is there an assistant that's going to be appointed? Yes, we're in the process of hiring one for Wakefield. We've hired somebody in Saugus that we are in the process of training. So right now, you'll see me running around all three communities because I'm in for all three, but we have a good path to getting back to full staffing.
▶ 22:59 Peter D. Mortimer: Oh, good. All right, great. We certainly don't want to leave the other communities without any kind of representation, but we're pleased to have you here to be the front person for all of us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Tramontozzi. I'm seeing the end of the informal committee-based discussion. Is there a motion, please? Motion to recommend for passage. Second. We have a motion to recommend for passage from Alderman Medeiros, duly seconded by Alderman Forbes. I'm seeing no further discussion. all in favor of recommending this order for passage to the full board later tonight there probably will be a motion that will be taken from committee please say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none this order will be recommended to the full board for passage it's on our agenda to
▶ 23:46 Peter D. Mortimer: be taken from committee tonight it looks like you have enough votes here so i would uh hazard a guess that you need not stick around i think you'll be all set uh if Thorp a problem we'll lay it on the table but i would not anticipate there'll be any problem whatsoever thank you very much for your presentation thank you mayor have a great evening thank you thank you motion to adjourn alderman medeiros has made a motion to adjourn duly seconded by alderman forbes all in favor of a german please say aye aye any opposed hearing none the committee on health education and wealth fair is hereby adjourned thank you one and all stay tuned for the full board meeting. They haven't shut off the audio yet.