City Council — 2018-10-15

City Council Regular Meeting

This meeting starts at 50:10 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Manisha Bewtra present · Alderman at Large; Robert A. Boisselle present · Ward 4 Alderman; Scott M. Forbes absent · Ward 7 Alderman; Jennifer L. Lemmerman present · Ward 2 Alderman; Kate Lipper-Garabedian present · Alderman at Large; Shawn M. MacMaster present · Ward 5 Alderman; 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 · President, Alderman at Large

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BULLETIN● OCTOBER 15, 2018 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:45 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Manisha Bewtra Alderman at Large Present Robert A. Boisselle Ward 4 Alderman Present Scott M. Forbes Ward 7 Alderman Absent Jennifer L. Lemmerman Ward 2 Alderman Present Kate Lipper-Garabedian Alderman at Large Present Shawn M. MacMaster Ward 5 Alderman 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 President, Alderman at Large Present

ORDER-2019-19 Classification of Property Request to set a Public Hearing on Classification of Property for November 26, 2018 at 7:30 P.M. and subsequently determine the Classification of Property Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2019-20 Grant Authorization to Accept a Grant in the amount of $168,000.00 from the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) through the Housing Choice Initiative; and Authorize the Mayor to Execute a Contract with DHCD Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2019-21 License - Common Victualler Application by James Turner et. al, doing business as Rising Eagle Publick House, 503-509 Main St., Melrose for a Common Victualler License Assigned to Committee Protection and License Committee

ORDER-2019-22 License - Hackney License City of Melrose Page 1 10/17/2018 5:08 PM Minutes Board of Aldermen October 15, 2018 Application of Jawad Danguir, d/b/a AYYA Transportation at 139 West Emerson St., Apt. 10 Melrose, MA for a Livery License Assigned to Committee Protection and License Committee

ORDER-2019-23 Utility Petition Petition of National Grid and Verizon New England to install one Pole in the municipal parking lot behind 419-429 Main St. and to install one JO pole on Grove St. in accordance with Plan # 26150795 Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee

ORDER-2019-16 Acceptance Acceptance of Community Mitigation Funds, Encore Boston Harbor (Wynn) Casino Passed City of Melrose Page 2 10/17/2018 5:08 PM

Transcript

▶ 50:15 Michael P. Zwirko: would entertain a motion to open the floor for public comments all moved second the motion is before you has been made by Alderman Mortimer has been seconded by Alderman Boisselle the floor to open the floor for public comment all those in favor any opposed this is the portion of the meeting where anybody in the audience may come before us and speak to any item that is currently on our agenda for the full board this evening motion to close public comment mr. president second seeing no one in the chamber this evening wishing to speak alderman Mortimer moves to close public comment it has been seconded by alderman Boisselle all those in favor to close public comment any opposed public comment is closed at this time given that we still have discussion in

▶ 1:55:21 Michael P. Zwirko: and I'd like to make a motion to accept them without reading. Second the motion. Alderman Lemmerman moves to accept the minutes of the meetings that she mentioned without reading it has been seconded by Alderman Mortimer all those in favor of the motion opposed those minutes have been accepted into the record section 3 is the communications from her honor the mayor and other city officials matter what are two zero one nine dash nineteen requests to set a public hearing on classification of property for November 26 2018 at 7 30 p.m and subsequently determine the classification of property alderman thank you mr president i'd like to ask for immediate consideration in order to set the public hearing on this order

▶ 1:56:04 Michael P. Zwirko: alderman Lemmerman moves for immediate consideration of this to set the public hearing is there an objection may proceed i make a motion to schedule a public hearing on this order for november 26 2018 at 7 30 p.m second the motion alderman moves to set the date for November 26th 2018 at 7 30 that has been seconded by Alderman Mortimer all those in favor any opposed that motion passes a motion to return this order to the table and Alderman Lemmerman moves to return the order to the table uh until it is heard on the date set forth second the motion to lay the order on the table it's been seconded by Alderman Mortimer all those in favor aye aye opposed the balance of the order lays on the table

▶ 1:56:52 moving on order 2019-20 authorization to accept a grant in the month in the amount of 168 thousand from the Department of Housing and Community Development dhcd through the housing choice initiative and authorized the mayor to execute a contract with dhcd I get that order will be sent to the committee on appropriations move to new business order 2019-21 application by james turner et al doing business as rising eagle public house 503 to 509 main street melrose for a common victual license that order will be sent to the committee on protection and license order 2019-22 application of jawad dang wire doing business as ayah transportation at 139 west emerson street apartment 10 melrose mass for a livery license that order will also be sent to

▶ 1:57:46 the committee on protection and license order 2019-23 petition of national grid and verizon new england to install one pole in the municipal parking lot behind 419 to 429 main street and to install one jo pole on grove street in accordance with plan number two six one five zero seven nine five alderman Boisselle a motion for immediate consideration to set a date for public hearing alderman Boisselle moves for immediate consideration on this to set the date is there an objection you may proceed alderman Boisselle the target date i believe is for november 26 2018 at 8 p.m for order 2019-23 alderman Boisselle moves to set the date for this hearing as of november 26 2018 at 8 p.m and up is there a second to the motion second it's been seconded by alderman

▶ 1:58:44 Michael P. Zwirko: lipper garabedian all those in favor of setting the date any opposed date has been set alderman Boisselle yeah lay this on the table this order second alderman Boisselle moves to lay this order on the table for the purposes of the public hearing um all those in favor any opposed the balance of the order which is to discuss the non public hearing portion of this will be sent to the Appropriations Committee we move to orders out of order there are none any orders from committee Alderman Lemmerman thank you I moved to remove order 2019-16 acceptance of community mitigation funds on Corp Austin Harbor Wind Casino from the Appropriations Committee second motion Alderman Lemmerman moves for a motion for passage

▶ 1:59:34 Michael P. Zwirko: passage of the order 2 0 1 9 dash 6 has been seconded by Alderman Mortimer I'm sorry there's a motion to remove from committee correct apologies on that Alderman Lemmerman moves to remove this from committee we actually heard about this earlier this evening it has been seconded by Alderman Mortimer all those in favor to move said order from committee opposed the order is before you motion for passage second Alderman Lemmerman moves for passage of this order it has been seconded by Alderman McMaster this will be a roll call vote as it is for appropriation of funds i would ask if there's any further discussion on this alderman wright i'm sorry i missed this in committee i'm excited about this uh having

▶ 2:00:15 Francis X. Wright Jr.: urged mayor dowland to pursue uh surrounding community status um and ultimately uh being recognized as a neighboring community or however they're categories categorizing us i'm glad to see the gaming commission has has given us enough status anyway to receive at least initially a hundred thousand dollars so I'm excited about this thank you Alderman Wright and as you'll note from earlier for those that were here it's great news because the areas of which but your ward will be improved for transportation to Oak Grove thank you that's great any other members that wish to comment at this time that of course could you please call the roll we need the motion for passage first yeah that was made you made it to take it from

▶ 2:01:01 Manisha Bewtra: committee oh when he second the motion for passage thank you excuse me no problem autumn and you try yes autumn and boys out yes autumn and lemmerman yes autumn and lipper Garabedian yes autumn and McMaster yes autumn Medeiros yes autumn and Mortimer yes Alderman Tramontozzi. Yes. Alderman Wright. Yes. President Zwirko. Yes. We now move to rule 53 which is reports from any committees of which a member of the Board of Aldermen serves. I believe we have two this evening. I will begin in alphabetical order with Alderman Dutra. Thank you. On October 6th the Library Strategic Planning Committee met to kick off the strategic plan for the next five years this group includes Linda Gardner the director of the public

▶ 2:01:54 Manisha Bewtra: library as well as a number of public library staff trustees of the Melrose public library friends as well as residents and folks affiliated with the school libraries this was this is going to be an interesting time because Melrose is in line for a grant from the library building authority and that grant will likely be received during the period within the next probably two to three years so this strategic plan is going to cover kind of how the library will operate should we receive the grant thinking about also funding that we would need from the city side to match that grant and what will happen to the library during construction as well as ultimate occupancy of the expanded and renovated space but also what happens if we don't have that grant we had a really

▶ 2:03:07 Manisha Bewtra: great conversation just looking at examples from a few other communities that have done strategic plans I think the goal with this particular strategic plan is to make it more of a public facing document than what Melrose Public Library has had in the past all of these documents are currently available on the public libraries website but but again making it doing more community engagement having this document be more accessible to the public is a big goal as such you know at our next meeting I think we're going to be looking at the library's mission statement we talked a lot about a variety of different things at this first meeting how is the public library meeting curriculum needs and working with the Melrose schools how the library facilities are potentially how

▶ 2:04:06 Manisha Bewtra: could they be made more accessible for community groups a whole variety of things we did talk a lot about this potential construction that took a lot of the air in the conversation and this is going to be a six-month process aiming to have a presentation to the trustees of the library in May or June because Linda has to present this to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners I have an acronym here and I'm trying to remember my acronyms right now but that needs to be presented to them by October I believe so the goal is to have a completed plan by that time. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Dutra. Alderman Lipper-Garabedian. Sure. I have about five items to share with you related to the school committee work and things

▶ 2:05:04 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: going on in the Melrose Public Schools. So first is simply a reminder that this is the year that the school committee will be negotiating two contracts, and one is the teacher's contract, so that's a very substantial amount of work that's going to be happening this year. and the second contract is related to the traffic supervisors the second update is to talk a little bit with you about the goals that the one goal in particular that the school committee has adopted this year which is to lead I'm gonna read from it lead a comprehensive reality based discussion about the Melrose public public schools budget and here what is envisioned is that the meetings of the school committee will reflect real deliberation for the public

▶ 2:05:47 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: in terms of breaking down what trade-offs will be depending on the budget situation what choices will have to be made and that then also trying to provide the public with a real sense of the impact of decisions that are made at the budgeting process so not simply saying you know we're gonna cut the per pupil spending on art supplies to six dollars a pupil but to actually say what would that what does that look like in the schools what are we now no longer able to purchase for our art just by way of a quick example so I think that's good to hear that they're that they're thinking about the budget in those terms focusing on trade-offs and and real impact third issue I reached out to the superintendent and the city planner just to follow up on the approval that we

▶ 2:06:40 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: provided to the city to apply for MSBA grants for the roof in the high school it turns out we were denied our application was denied in July MSBA got far more applications and they had resources for so they ended up adjusting the requirement of timeline or time frame for roof replacements from 20 years to 25 years so we didn't qualify for that so the city is planning to continue to investigate the roof and make selective repairs as needed fourth we also approved an appropriation earlier this year to improve school door security at the elementary schools and the ECC and perhaps the high school in any event that work has all been completed so all of our school buildings now have secure external entrances and exits and then finally at the end of

▶ 2:07:31 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: September September 25th the Melrose school building committee met so I am the liaison for the board on that and by way of context six years ago there were fewer than 3,500 students in our schools we're now at almost 4,000 we are currently running two classrooms above the projection that we received a couple years ago for where we should be for this school year the middle school for example is designed for 900 students and the projection is that we're going to start to exceed that in a couple years the Lincoln has now moved music into its library the Roosevelt has lost its teacher prep room the superintendent mentioned there is a third grade class at the Winthrop Alderman Butcher and I do not have a son in that grade yet but perhaps one of them will be in

▶ 2:08:21 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: this class that apparently is a tiny classroom and that it's just busting at the seams with too many students so based on that the school building committee is going to be looking for solutions with our space issues based on some goals around equity efficacy sustainability and timeliness so there is a new demographic study that is currently underway this month and then the school building committee approved the getting an architect retained to look at our space options again from an educational perspective so I'm not clear on when our next meeting will be but I certainly will keep everyone updated and if you have questions just let me know any other reports out of rule 53 at this time move to the calendar there are no items there you can now move for

▶ 2:09:13 Michael P. Zwirko: adjournment motion to adjourn mr. president it's been a motion to adjourn made by alderman Mortimer it has been seconded by alderman Boisselle before we adjourned go Red Sox all those in favor any opposed we're adjourned thank you

City Council — 2018-10-15

Attendance

Agenda

Minutes

Transcript

Original documents