City Council — 2018-11-19
Attendance
Manisha Bewtra ; Robert A. Boisselle ; Scott M. Forbes ; Jennifer L. Lemmerman ; Kate Lipper-Garabedian ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Monica C. Medeiros ; Peter D. Mortimer ; John N. Tramontozzi ; Francis X. Wright Jr. ; Michael P. Zwirko
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Comment
- Communications from Her Honor, The Mayor And Other City Officials
- ORDER-2019-27 : An Appropriation from Free Cash (01-324001) in the amount of One Million, One Hundred Sixty Two Thousand, One Hundred Eighty Seven dollars ($1,162,187.00) to various accounts as set forth herein.
- New Business
- Orders Out of Order
- Orders from Committee
- ORDER-2019-9 : Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 177-12: Snow and ice removal as set forth herein.
- REPORTS - RULE 53
- Calendar
- ORDER-2019-25 : Calling a Special Election on Tuesday, April 2, 2019
- ORDER-2019-26 : Order to Place General Override Question on the April 2, 2019 Special Election Ballot
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BULLETIN● NOVEMBER 19, 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 Present 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-2019-27 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash (01-324001) in the amount of One Million, One Hundred Sixty Two Thousand, One Hundred Eighty Seven dollars ($1,162,187.00) to various accounts as set forth herein. Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee
ORDER-2019-9 Amending Revised Ordinances Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 177-12: Snow and ice removal as set forth herein. Defeated Board of Aldermen
ORDER-2019-25 Calling Election Calling a Special Election on Tuesday, April 2, 2019 Adopted
ORDER-2019-26 Ballot/Overide Order Order to Place General Override Question on the April 2, 2019 Special Election Ballot Adopted City of Melrose Page 1 12/3/2018 10:50 AM
Transcript
▶ 37:36 opening the regular meeting of the board of all the motion to recess made by alderman wright seconded by alderman boisselle all in favor aye any opposed you're now in recess for those members of the public we do need to start our full board meeting which was posted for 7 45. we'll do that and we can come back to this one watching sausages get made. For which one? Yeah, that's true. You are? Okay. No, probably this one will go later because there are probably people who have public comments and things like that. Probably, I don't know. We're going to reset back to the other one. Good evening, everyone. do you think today is Monday November 19th 2018 this is a board full regular excuse me regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Aldermen for the city of
▶ 39:13 Melrose this meeting is being recorded in accordance with the open meeting law is available on the city website as well as mm TV 3.org at this time I would ask that madam clerk please call the roll Ottoman Bewtra here Ottoman boys out here Alderman Forbes. Here. Alderman Lemmerman. Here. Alderman Lipper-Garabedian. Here. Alderman McMaster. Here. Alderman Medeiros. Here. Alderman Mortimer. Here. Alderman Tramontozzi. Here. Alderman Wright. Here. President Zwirko. Here. 11 present. Everyone now could please stand and join us in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
▶ 40:04 Shawn M. MacMaster: At this time, we just recessed in order to call this meeting to order under our rules. We seek to seek a recess now at this moment so we can address the other issues at the Appropriations Committee. Motion to recess, Mr. President. Second. Then a motion to recess made by Alderman Mortimer has been seconded by Alderman Lemmerman. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We stand at recess. I call back to order the meeting of the Appropriations Committee. Alderman McMaster. Madam Chair, if I could have a very brief moment for a point of personal privilege to recognize some guests in the chamber. Go ahead. With us this evening are members of the Weebelow Scouts, Dens 4 and 8 from PAC 615. They are working on an Arrow of Light Award, which requires them to learn about the rule of law
▶ 1:52:46 Motion to adjourn. Second. We have a motion to adjourn made by Alderman Tramontozzi, seconded by Alderman Mortimer. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Now adjourned. It's like 200 feet. Yep. Just in case you need the points on it. evening the full board alderman for the city of melrose is now back in order from our earlier process uh at this time we did not yet convene the public comment portion of our full board meeting um chairman motion over the floor for public comment mr president Thorp been a motion made by alderman mortimer to open up the floor for public comment has been seconded by alderman Boisselle all those in favor aye aye opposed this is the portion of our meeting where any member
▶ 1:54:15 of the public who is with us this evening may come before us with their name and address speak on the orders that are before us this evening anyone force willing to speak hello again hello again just to clarify the uh order that was just passed or recommended for passage in the uh committee is going to be taken up at this meeting now that correct um so again i'm lee schlanger from ward 1 or street uh the comment i wanted to add before uh was that the i listened carefully the words of the gentleman from dpw engineering department as well as some of the pictures that were sent around and things online they seem largely to be commercial areas uh which are are covered by our current ordinance or the church qualifies that commercial
▶ 1:55:07 area certainly mixed-use areas if there are residents multi-dwelling residences another what's not one or two families owner-occupied but rather apartment buildings senior citizen places and so on those in my mind should be covered by our current commercial ordinance or if not we certainly I think should amend so that all those areas on Main Street and everywhere else are covered those are problem areas and and the areas on the corners that are cloud over those are the problem areas but not something that uh is naturally fall in snow and that that someone could a resident could be responsible for themselves and the comment about it maybe depends what part of the city you're from that's sort of the same thing i'm saying the mixed use and commercial areas have
▶ 1:55:51 a problem here and we should make sure that oak grove is covered and everything else that's the area that the city has sidewalk uh routes and if they don't we should um but the the residential areas that are not like that um again i go back to my comments before about what if you're away on vacation or any of those other things um so i understand uh i'm kind of lost as to where we are with the audience right now frankly with the the amendments that were proposed and then not adopted and so on and i strongly suggest you you table this uh for this meeting uh issue a a brand new text for people to look at for yourselves to look at for all of us in the community to look at and then come forward at the next meeting with clear comments um i understand the intent of what was
▶ 1:56:38 said to get rid of the fine for residents but the i don't think the text is clear and Thorp several paragraphs that still refer to residences in the ordinance that was there both in the enforcement portion and the proposed ordinance changes that are earlier in I think it's section C and it's not clear that those are being adopted now or not if we're just trying to have the outreach then we should just have something that says outreach and not all these other things about fines or not so I'd suggest having a clear ordinance that that everyone could look at with a republished text but certainly the intent of having an ordinance without a fine that allows people to understand that you know they should be
▶ 1:57:27 getting to to their sidewalks as I do and as most people do is less objectionable but I don't think we have a clear ordinance right now and all the problem cases that people are bringing up or the vast majority aren't actually covered by the changes that are being proposed here that we need better enforcement of our commercial ordinance as it stands now and maybe inclusion of some things that are not included in the commercial ordinance but should be as i said before thank you thank you sir any other members motion to close oh sorry uh julie de lillo circuit street uh so i'm gonna change the topic i'm gonna go to override um and I spoke before you last week and sent you a little bit of information and just a couple of things
▶ 1:58:24 to add to it when I looked at the 1 million 850 as a percentage of the 28 million in school salaries that's a 6.58 increase that means you could increase every single person on the school side by 6.58 percent seems a little high when I looked at all the teacher contracts to do that comparison kohlers are about two percent they're anywhere from one to two and a half so to put out there a 6.58 increase seems a little high i've asked you to to push back on this to slow this down to make sure that this is reasonable and with all due respect president work out it's not simple you are our elected officials it is your obligation to put on a ballot an override that is necessary not a want not a wish list but
▶ 1:59:22 something that is necessary and to make sure that it is responsible and reasonable we rely on you to do that we rely on you to make sure you have the data i've gone and pulled some data um it was surprising to me to see that the bb school can be renovated for 2.2 million dollars when just two years ago we had a mayor tell us that it was so costly we could not recapture that school it would be way too costly it is half of what we paid for those modular classrooms half so now we're gonna we're gonna recapture it we're gonna lose the revenue we're gonna pay 2.2 just to do the basic renovations that doesn't include getting it up and running plus the over five million dollars for the modules doesn't seem responsible and
▶ 2:00:22 I'll go back to it's hard to believe because the story keeps changing so I am asking again that you carefully carefully consider this and it doesn't have to be now there can be a further election or you can decide this at a different time but you have to get some data I gave you the masters five and the masters 10 for teachers to show you that our teacher salaries are in line with what the superintendent uses as comparables which is the Middlesex League but half of those schools are not comparable but if you looked at that we're not that far off from Lexington we're not that far off from Belmont so for someone to sit and say that our teachers are paid significantly less I want you to look at data it's easy to pull those teach all you have to do is
▶ 2:01:24 Jessica Dugan: put in Belmont teacher contract Arlington you can pick towns and put the teacher contracts and you can see what those salaries are at every level so it isn't simple it isn't I'm asking you to think about it make sure it is responsible thank you any other member of the public wishing to speak it's nice to see you all I'm Jessica Dugan I live at 58 Crescent Avenue I'm here to speak to the override proposal as well and to ask for your support for four years I sat on the other side of this table as a member of the school committee and in In that time and in the years ahead of that, as I engage, and in the years since then, as I tune in and follow very closely what's happening, I've gained complete confidence
▶ 2:02:42 Jessica Dugan: in two things. The first is that this city is doing everything it can to find cost savings and efficiencies and to maximize revenue sources available to us. I'm completely 100% confident in that. The second thing is that from a budget perspective, Thorp nothing left to give. To maintain the status quo, the level of service that we expect, we just need more revenue. It's actually just quite simple. This should come as no surprise to any one of you. This has been years in the making. For years, we have considered budgets that are less than adequate. For years, we have been extremely creative to make things work. For years, we have made cuts that have had the least impact but are now starting to hurt.
▶ 2:03:27 Jessica Dugan: And for years, other department needs have gone unmet to fund our schools. At this point, especially after last year's budget process, to need more time to decide on a way forward is irresponsible. The time is now. We have a proposal from Mayor Inferna to consider. This proposal addresses our most urgent and defined needs, and it was created by a team of people, not just the mayor, who are wholly invested in the success of our city. with feedback from this community in a way I have never seen before. Thank you Mayor Inferno for presenting a responsible solution to this looming crisis. There have been concerns raised about this proposal that I feel are off base. It's been implied that our teachers salaries are competitive enough and that
▶ 2:04:12 Jessica Dugan: the investment proposed in this override is not needed. I cannot understand this. We can compare steps and lanes and colas all day long. The simple fact is that we have one of the lowest average teacher salaries in the state ask any one of our teachers if they could make more money elsewhere and they will say yes not only is this shameful but it presents a huge problem as we try to recruit retain teaching talent one driver of average teacher salary is our contract every three years Melrose invests in a new teacher contract the last contract was a smart investment and the best we could do if you remember our community had just rejected an override and our revenue remained extremely limited the
▶ 2:04:57 Jessica Dugan: new teacher contract took everything we had and it was targeted at the steps and lanes with the most critical salary discrepancies but to imply that that investment we made three years ago was enough and that we can sit back now and let it ride out is just plain wrong each negotiation with every one of our unions represents an important opportunity to move forward and now after three years years our teacher contract negotiation begins again another driver of our low average teacher salary is that we hire teachers with limited years of experience this places them on the inexpensive side of our steps and lanes and provides an opportunity to save money when more experienced teachers leave at first glance one might think this is a good thing it's a common
▶ 2:05:41 Jessica Dugan: practice across many school districts but Melrose has used this practice to the extreme to continue to maintain level of service in our schools at times it is strategic and smart to hire new teachers not only do they provide a cost savings but they bring a wealth of energy and progressive practice to our classrooms but at the same time to build the staff solely on that practice sets a dangerous precedent our school leadership needs to be more able to hire experience where it matters and to ensure a balance of expertise across our staff that maintains a diverse level of collective teaching practice this is why this override before us is so smart not only will it address these teacher salary concerns but it will provide needed classroom materials space
▶ 2:06:25 Jessica Dugan: staffing levels and a stabilized school budget together this has a dramatic impact on the working environment of our educators and the learning environment for our students so with that I'd say it's time to get on board we can't sit back pass blame be victims of prop two and a half and ask for more time to study the details we have been studying and working for years the override mechanism is a part of this law for just this reason it was built for cities like ours to be used strategically and at times that make the most sense to us to our community to Melrose so please give this community the opportunity to vote for this initiative and because there has been no alternate solution presented
▶ 2:07:09 Jessica Dugan: and because we cannot wait please give your full support to this override initiative as we work to educate the community on this smart solution the time is now thank you always for your service every one of you I'm confident that you all want what's best for Melrose I look forward to your vote tonight and I look forward to your support of this override in the months to come thank you thank you good evening I spoke last week I emailed President Zwirko as well as Medeiros earlier this weekend I appreciate them getting back to me we've heard a lot of emotion and passionate speeches about the override you know talking points now I'd like to talk about the facts teacher Sally yes it is it is very low but I think when they look at the teachers salary I don't
▶ 2:08:16 know if it includes that we pay 84 percent towards the health insurance I don't know anyone in the private sector that gets that if you look at the surrounding communities Wakefield Woburn Stoneham they pay anywhere between 70 80 percent so that's a significant savings for them something that we're not even considering i mean if we just went down from let's say 84 to 80 percent looking at the total payroll for the um the total health insurance cost for the city of melrose uh you're looking at easily a half a million dollars worth of savings per year perhaps people don't like talking about that it doesn't fit the narrative for this override to pass um the second re the thing i'd like to talk about is
▶ 2:09:00 again the salaries are low and i think something should be done there no doubt about it but is that 1.8 million um i think someone spoke earlier a six percent salary increase um you know i don't know what the plan is as far as the superintendent allocating any raises but to say it's for retention i'm not sure if that's necessarily accurate according to the state department of education for the most recent school year that ended our retention rate for teachers is 87 state average is 85 so teachers are staying in melrose for something other than salary and i think that's something we need to take into consideration um so i i say you know let the let the people vote um but i also think it's hypocritical for this board to say let the
▶ 2:09:54 people vote i mean as i said uh last week when i spoke here um this board would not let these citizens vote for the net for the um the mayor because we all know dolan uh effectively pretty much resigned in december but his last day wasn't until february was stretched out until february to present the prevent a mandated uh special election under the city charter um so yeah we can say let the people vote but they never the people never got to vote for a mayor who would present um an override plan and the other issue i'd like to say about the override plan why i i think it's a fool's errand um we couldn't pass 2.25 million override last time now we're going to more than double down and go to 5 million but Thorp been no analysis on on what would what
▶ 2:10:42 would pass i mean we look at uh look at a town like reading they had an override that that failed and then 18 months later they had one that passed the original one was 7 million but between the 18 months between the time it it was defeated the time it eventually passed they They did surveys of people. What number would you feel comfortable with? And the number they figured was four million. Thorp been no type of analysis. And I just think that we don't know what's gonna happen here. It's like the mayor's playing the lottery. The other issue I'd like to talk about is, as far as the timing of the special election. We had 73% voter turnout this past election. Absolutely incredible. I mean, yes, it was a midterm election,
▶ 2:11:33 but I don't think there was any elections, really, in doubt here in Massachusetts, as far as that was concerned. And I think the last override that we had in November 2015 was 44%. So I say, let's have this in November. Yeah, I know Thorp been a lot of publicity about that, but people equate November to election day. You know, maybe the board doesn't care. Maybe if it passes, that's fine, but in my book, the end never justifies the means. Is it worth the expense for the city when they can't guarantee that this is gonna pass? No, yeah, I understand that the fiscal year starts in July 1st, but that's always been the case. It always starts in July 1st. Last time the override was in November, same situation.
▶ 2:12:24 If we delay this vote until November, It's only going to impact one fiscal year, so that's all I wanted to say, so thank you. Thank you, sir. Good evening. Good evening, President and members of the board. My name is Robert Bell, I live on National Street. Thank you for giving me and the others the opportunity to speak tonight. As I understand what's on your agenda, it's merely to advance the proposed referendum to the spring ballot. I have full faith that a comfortable majority of the Board of Aldermen will vote to allow the citizens to express themselves. To those considering obstructing and delaying the proposal, I must ask why. With all, no, excuse me, we all respect the aldermanic tradition
▶ 2:13:46 of diligent questioning of mayoral proposal. as one of your duties as the people's representative. However, the override aims to let the people decide. It's not a matter of representative democracy. It's a matter of direct democracy. Thorp no truer test to voters' opinions than a referendum to delay and obstruct as an insult to the voters in Melrose. There are those who state fair questions. Is it too much? Should it be done by special election in the spring or delayed until fall? Why doesn't it include any money for public safety buildings? Is it based on sound analysis of need? These are all more than fair questions and there are many other questions, all of which can and should be addressed during the period between now and the spring.
▶ 2:14:45 If you're against it, you have lots of time to convince others. you have a duty to allow the people to vote. If you are against it, convince us with your logic and information, not with your obstructionism. Speaking personally, I'm solidly pro-override. Give me a notion that this city, where my wife and I grew up, went to Melrose schools, returned after our educations in military service, raised our children who went through Melrose Schools K-12, who both use their educational foundation at great colleges and have post-grad degrees, the mere notion that we can tolerate being at the statewide bottom of per-pupil spending out of 251 municipalities, that notion is just so wrong. I hope that those who are on this board who similarly benefited from the sacrifices of our parents, our educators, and the community at large, recognize that they have an obligation to honor the legacy left to us to continue to help Melrose progress.
▶ 2:16:11 there are many Melroseans who have been as deeply involved in every aspect of our city as myself and my wife Melrose did not become the Melrose Miracle the hottest real estate market in the country by accident. The efforts of those who helped bring us to a recognized success story will all go for naught if we do not address the need for better pay for teachers and principals. Few have been so involved in Melrose Real Estate as I have. From representing buyers, sellers, lenders, developers large and small, from contributing to the policies and ordinances which spawned the successful downtown reinvestments, steering Oak Grove Village through the permitting processes, helping create the Washington Street Smart Growth District,
▶ 2:17:14 in the Essex-Tremont Rail Corridor rezoning, the Affordable Housing Incentive Ordinance, the Melrose Housing Authority, the Melrose Redevelopment Authority, all these policies which helped make us successful, the great results which have benefited each and every one of us who are homeowners, all of this progress will cease if we do not adequately fund our schools. Schools are number one in creating property value. They ask voters to support their own property values. But tonight, I ask you to give us the chance to vote. Nothing more, nothing less. Thank you for listening. Thank you, sir. Any other members of the public wishing to speak at this time? Good evening. my name is michael so is mine cheers um we continue to talk about this override as simple
▶ 2:18:28 i think that putting the schools on a level of simplicity is absolutely wrong and we're talking about our future we're talking about our children we're talking about everything we believe in so to sit here and tell me that this is a simple this is simple let's put it to the people well no you're obligated we voted for you we put you in power so that you could you know gather information you could be our voice Thorp nothing more important to me than my kids so i sit here we're talking you know the last override was what 2.1 million it failed but yet the next year there were articles posting about the mcas scores in melrose public high schools soaring soaring so the override fails but yet our kids our kids are prospering so now we have a mayor
▶ 2:19:21 now i get the charter the mayor is not elected by the people no nothing against the mayor but we are denied we are denied a person that may have a solution that meets the yes and the nose in the middle so we don't get that person to vote we don't get to say that's the person we want to reject the override we get a person selected by a select few to say this is 5.18 million dollars you know when i look at it five point that's six hundred what's that six hundred dollars a year you know private sector people we can barely afford to live here we i moved here i have been here maybe four months i moved here because the melrose public school system is far better than where i came from but now i'm i'm feared that i will be run out of town because i can't afford
▶ 2:20:11 to live here so is that is that is that the just cause of everyone here is that push everybody out you know have the select few live here have the people that can afford to live here have have the one percenters live here you know i feel that every time i speak i can't speak because every time i speak i'm shut up i'm shut up by the yeses i'm stopped by the people that letter oh yes even though there was no literature written to the law I was stopped you must vote yes how do you vote yes on a law that doesn't have words it's just wind from our lips so we sit here and we say yes it's simple let's let the people vote is that really is that really what we come to it's that simple as Alderman as as presidents as whatever we are it's that simple just to let
▶ 2:21:00 people say yay or nay to not do your due diligence to provide information to the public to provide data that is that is sufficient I mean I sat here and I listened from day one to to now where people have asked for more information and yet nobody nobody has nobody has stopped to say you know what yes let's take a step back let's wait and let's gather more information so that everybody can come to an educated decision whether what they believe on is real or not let's let's come to a middle ground and figure it out 5.18 million that's insane i'm gonna call i'm gonna call a spade a spade how do we go from 2.1 to 5.8 that's more than double from a mayor that's not even elected by the people where where's the checks and balances
▶ 2:21:49 is that what is that not what this country was founded on i mean Thorp no checks and balances in melrose massachusetts so yeah i sit here you know my mother my mother supported me my mother brought me through pub private and public schools she had to buy my supplies year in year out so we sit here and we have to listen to complaints about supplies we have to listen to complaints about this complaints about that we never had any of that but my mother found a way to support us and by doing that we found a way to succeed it's not about the teachers it's not about money we can throw money at it it's not about nobility as everything that we found as a principal in our country in our town been thrown to the wayside is
▶ 2:22:35 everything come down to the dollar bill have my kids come down to the dollar bill are my kids nothing more than a dollar sign is that what this is 5.18 million dollars do i have to sell do i have to sell my kids i mean to me this is propaganda to me this is a scare tactic to me this is this is nothing more than you know what do we fear most our kids failing so we're going to use that failure as some type of epidemic to scare people into voting yes i mean are we really using our children is that what we have come to if that is what we have come to that then i then i fear then i fear my kids joining this school system i fear my kids joining this community and i fear for this community because doomsday which has been brought up about the schools
▶ 2:23:26 no that's not that's not accurate the doomsday is the people that say oh yes let's use our kids to get a yes vote on 5.18 million dollars because there is no money sign there is nothing that can can pay a teacher to do what they should do a teacher is supposed to be noble it's supposed to be a profession that is not signed not signed by a by a by a blank paycheck by a six percent increase a teacher is supposed to be there to nurture your children inspire your children care for your children but yet we think that the only way to have a teacher in melrose is to give them money i i get nothing else to say i mean if that if that's the case if everything is a dollar sign then god help us all thank you sir anybody else this evening in the chamber that's willing
▶ 2:24:21 to speak good evening you look familiar but do you mind stating your name you stated for me jerry rose mount vernon street you know i could i could lead a philosophy seminar on the rhetorical devices used in this room the melrose miracle let's start with that does everybody in the city understand that the excessive marketing of melrose the rise in real estate values directly reduces and has reduced our chapter 70 reimbursement from the state that acute that apparent wealth that we have in this community of the property values, it actually, as I understand a few years ago, actually became a higher percentage versus the income part of the Chapter 70 formula. All these ridiculous property values have taken money away from us from the state. For those of you that have marketed
▶ 2:25:30 Melrose to that degree, the Melrose miracle and made all the money off with the real estate agents and the lawyers and everybody else, you caused us to get millions of dollars less in state aid because of what's been happened here in addition to forcing out people who can't afford these higher prices is this what we want Melrose to be number one number two when you listen carefully what people say some of the truth beneath it comes out saying we need more money to fund the status quo well I would assert that the status quo is not serving our students as they could be served Yes, do we have a good demographic with students who have highly educated parents who are also wealthy? Yes, we do. That flows to good student outcomes in general.
▶ 2:26:22 But our district doesn't do well for the students who don't come from privilege. Our district actually does miserably for some of them. More money isn't the answer here. Changing the status quo is the answer. I have come into this chamber for multiple meetings for more than 10 years, talking about issues about the schools and other things. And nobody has wanted to make one significant change to change what we do and how we do it, rather than just throw more money at it. The mayor's proposal, the $5.18 million, throwing money at something without a competent theory of action is wasteful. The idea that somehow because you offer higher salaries to teachers that, oh, we'll have the best teachers in the world come to Melrose, it's not true.
▶ 2:27:27 That we'll retain better teachers, it's not about money. already proved that years ago that mellows teachers were being being paid less in other places but good ones stayed here and the idea somehow that because we have all these young teachers and it's because we aren't paying enough money and the older teachers are gone well you know something hello the reality is is that the present superintendent has openly stated to older teachers when I get rid of you I can replace you with two younger ones so don't act as if somehow the current administration of the Melrose schools or the current administration in the mayor's office somehow has a plan to translate the money into better services and outcomes for our students they don't
▶ 2:28:20 It doesn't happen that great teachers have left Melrose on their own when they stayed here for years prior, suddenly because their money wasn't going up higher. It's not about the money, it's about what we do with it. And when you as a board, when the mayor and the school committee have a proposal about what they will do differently to do better, we can listen to more money. and to say 5.18 million dollars and say that we should just be voting yes on or no on that that is what is an insult to the citizens of Melrose it's clear to me observing this public process over all these years this was a backroom deal it's no longer cigarette filled smoke-filled rooms it's now marijuana smoke-filled rooms right that's what's going on here right
▶ 2:29:14 Thorp a group of people that got together and said, this is what we want, and we think that more money for raising teacher salaries, and more money for more teachers, and more money to put the Beebe school back online. And as a tangent, yes, we were lied to a couple years ago. We spent more than $5 million renovating, putting in modulars when we were told the Beebe couldn't happen. And now suddenly the Beebe can come online for less than half the money that the modulars were going to be. How many times do you think you can lie to the citizens of Melrose and get away with it? How many times do you think that, oh, it's just about the money. Let's spend money and make the learning commons look wonderful.
▶ 2:29:50 Let's make the science labs look wonderful. But you know something? None of those things change the quality of education in the Melrose public schools. This marketing, this obsessive marketing of Melrose is one thing that has to cease. and the marketing and just saying oh we just need more money that is the insult to the citizens it's not more money it's what you do with it and Thorp been no proposal about what's going to change again the theory of action what are you going to do and how does it flow from there Thorp a throwing if you throw more money at your contractor do you suddenly get a better addition to your house if you throw more money at your accountant somehow you suddenly pay in less
▶ 2:30:31 taxes. It matters who you hire, what they do, and how they do it. And so in my view, as I've said a few times already, the insult to Melrose is not having a competent discussion in advance. It's not airing all the views. The roadshow of these listening sessions from the mayor, it was a pre-done deal. The people who were in the back room are in the back here right now. They already defined what they wanted for an override and talked about it. The mayor socialized it and tried to get it there you know I did want to talk also about the soap snow removal on the sidewalk thing here and I want to tie the two together that you know we would never say to the parents of Melrose oh they're your children you
▶ 2:31:18 pay to educate them we wouldn't say that would we of course not but we say to the people of Melrose who happen to have sidewalks in front of their houses oh they're your sidewalks you take care of them I hope somebody sees the hypocrisy in that maybe not it's about again what we do and how we do it how is the application of more money and I'm not saying more money isn't necessary here I believe it is but there is no amount of money that I would apply in a random way and to know that the bulk of that money except for $750,000 is going to be sucked into salaries which are then that recurring problem that will be here every three or four years oh we need more money because it's all salaries and I want to get to one other thing about the lies that are told
▶ 2:32:19 in this chamber not in in the school committee realm is where I'm going at here you know I brought this up to the board last June I think last May when you're talking about the budget as I recall there were I think on the school security part of the the end of the year FY 17 on the DESE website I think we claimed that we spent 1.6 million dollars on school security in other years it was like 250,000 210,000 even at those rates I questioned it year after year after year I know that we're not applying that to school security and I want to be sure that DESE has a a separate line item for actual building issues with school security security systems and things around that this is for people mellows has lied for years about what's in that end of the year
▶ 2:33:14 report to the state of the schools i remember back in 2010 2011 we were reporting we were spending a hundred thousand dollars a year on curriculum materials i knew we were buying none it was a a group of parents that started the city going to actually buy curriculum first in 2005 with math and 2008 with ela we had no we weren't buying any curriculum in 2010 2011 suddenly we spent 500 000 a couple years later right and we actually bought some books what was what was the lie i brought this up in that time frame we were saying we were spending all this money that we knew we weren't so why would we throw more money at an entity of the melrose public schools that's been lying to us about what they've been spending money on already they used to have a
▶ 2:33:59 huge huge budget item every year that was this thing i think what they called it but it was basically their slush fund for what they were going to use for contractual obligations and various different things for different things that they wanted to do it was all stuck in there and i i wish i remembered right now the name of that category because it wasn't descriptive it was it was not transparent the mellow schools have not been transparent with what they do we don't see where the checks go all the revolving account money that comes into the city into that revolving accounts in the in the schools it is not available to anybody in melrose to see right now is that on the website somewhere what was paid of the millions and
▶ 2:34:37 millions of dollars revolving accounts no it goes to what somebody wants to do in their private mind and it's not even a school committee function the proposal on the table does not have the basis or basis in fact or a theory of action that would be competent to say that applying this money is going to do something i think a more modest ask with a with a real theory of action would be appropriate before you put this on the ballot and i know you've all voted for this already in your committee meeting but i urge you before you put this on the ballot to the citizens of melrose and make it this polarized and polarize our community again this extreme let's take a step back we have time this doesn't have to be decided tonight for any statutory purpose does it i don't
▶ 2:35:36 believe it does why don't we take a step back and evaluate for real at this committee level at this board level or send it back to committee evaluate for real what could be done with less money What creative approaches could be done to things? How can we save more money in other ways? How, and this is the key policy thing, policy, and you express by your budget, you express your priorities by your budget. Thorp no expression in priority of policy to just throw money at the wall and hope that something sticks and the kids come out better for it. So I expect most of you, all of you have already made up your minds, But I can tell you that I, for one, at $5.18 million with a suspect proposal about how throwing all this money is suddenly going to make our kids any better prepared for the world ahead of them, it's not in any of the listening sessions or proposals or anything the school committee has talked about in the last few years.
▶ 2:36:43 So the insult to Melrose is the status quo. just applying more money to the same status quo doesn't change that insult the mellows miracle could be a wonderful miracle we could do some progressive things in education that are more efficient that would be better for our students that would be more future oriented to a new economy in a new world but we don't do it i imagine you're starting to wrap up but you're i've granted you three extra minutes okay well thank you for that um i'll wrap up very quickly the key thing here is on the schools how can we have confidence that giving more money is going to make anything any different than what it's been done with all the money we've given already and on the sidewalk ordinance it's a matter of fairness and i certainly agree with
▶ 2:37:36 some of the previous speakers here that you know what you all talked about and amended this in that way it's not apparent to anybody where you're at with this right now i think it would be a flaw to proceed tonight with that for sure you know obviously know that i'm opposed to that ordinance as as it was and that if Thorp any requirement that people have to do it it's a slippery slope as somebody said you know are we going to say oh tight budget year okay you plow half of your street mr morales i'm done thank you thank you any other members of the public wishing to speak at this time you know Alice Golub 15 Howard Street one of my big mantras is with privilege comes responsibility we have a huge privilege to live in the
▶ 2:38:24 United States of America in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the city of Melrose we pay taxes to the United States of America in this form of federal income tax we pay taxes to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the form of state income tax and last I checked we never have a chance had a chance to vote either on the federal on the state budget that is the job of the elected officials and whether we like those budgets or not it comes back to us either in cuts or surpluses and taxes that we have to pay now as citizens of Melrose we are given the privilege of being able to vote whether we are in favor this or not in favor of this something that many people complain about that they can't do it either the state or federal level I would urge the
▶ 2:39:20 aldermen to put it out there to the citizens of Melrose sooner rather than later nothing can be gained by waiting this is a critical mass issue I know in in my little neighborhood for the last seven or eight years i've been attending the neighborhood block party the first year i went there were maybe three children under the age of five now the last block party we probably had 25 children under the age of five why are they coming to melrose because we have something wonderful to offer them we've attracted them here And it's our responsibility to provide them with the services for which they move to this wonderful city. As far as the timing of the election, I lived in a community for many, many years that had open town meeting.
▶ 2:40:11 The open town meeting was held in the spring. If there was nothing interesting on the ballot, very few people showed up. When there was something major, such as an override vote, it was standing room only in the auditorium. if people are interested they will come out and vote but let's leave it to the people and i urge you to put this on the ballot for an april vote thank you thank you any other members of the public willing to speak at this moment motion to close public comment mr president second then a motion made by alderman mortimer to close public comment has been seconded by alderman forbes all those in favor aye any opposed public comment is now closed we turn to section 3 communications from her honor
▶ 2:41:00 Michael P. Zwirko: the mayor and other city officials order 2 0 1 9 2 7 and appropriation from free cash account 0 1 3 2 4 0 0 1 in the amount of 1 million 162 thousand 187 dollars to various accounts as set forth here in that order will be sent to the Committee on Appropriations move to new business no items orders out of order section 5 no items section 6 orders from committee Alderman Lemmerman thank you President Zwirko I move to remove order 2019-9 from the Appropriations Committee under the rules I do have to read the order there has been a motion made by Alderman Lemmerman to remove order 2019-9 amending Melrose revised ordinances chapter 177-12 snow and ice removal as set forth herein as amended through committee before you is there a second second on discussion removed from
▶ 2:42:04 Robert A. Boisselle: committee hearing none all those in favor aye any opposed I want discussion all them in boys oh okay we made some changes with this particular document we did a lot of amendments and there was a lot of scratching and outlining and everything else to be nice we have a clean copy because what you see here is not what we're voting on in this document that you have presented in the system so we should have a clean copy of all the amendments that we had change set that section 3 2 that that was discussed and so forth and the changes there and that document should be before us completed and be ready to vote at that point i'd like to make a motion there was a vote on a motion to remove the item from committee that
▶ 2:42:56 Michael P. Zwirko: vote was approved um so the item is now before you outside of committee for the full board i'll grant you the floor at this time because you appear willing to make a motion a motion to hold on this particular document until it's cleaned up and presented in the format i'd like to lay the order on the table i'll agree to that there has been a motion that has been made by alderman Boisselle to lay the order on the table it has been seconded by alderman garabedian Letter garabedian excuse me i believe the motion to place on the table is a non-debatable motion so therefore i will take a vote a point of order i think there was a motion to remove it from committee that was seconded so you'd have to withdraw the second in the motion that was that was voted on to remove
▶ 2:43:44 from committee oh okay so it was removed from committee yep okay so so it's before you okay thank you all those in favor to place this order on the table as proposed by alderman Boisselle seconded by Letter alderman Letter garabedian aye aye aye opposed opposed the order is before you that motion fails second motion for passage made by alderman wright has been seconded by alderman lemmerman on discussion hearing no discussion we will move to a roll call vote on the proposed order and the motion before us for passage as amended madam clerk alderman Bewtra yes Alderman Boisselle. No. Alderman Forbes. No. Alderman Lemmerman. Yes. Alderman Lipper-Garabedian. Yes. Alderman McMaster. Yes. Alderman Medeiros. No. Alderman Mortimer. No. Alderman Tramontozzi. No.
▶ 2:44:54 Michael P. Zwirko: Alderman Wright. Yes. President Zwirko. Yes. Motion does not carry. The order fails. we now move to rule item 7 excuse me reports under rule 53 we just met recently on Tuesday I don't imagine that any alderman had sat on a committee between Tuesday and now but to the extent that anyone has that we certainly would entertain them to update us on any of the committees or commissions of which they're a member of any alderman seeing none moving now to the calendar Order 2019-25, calling a special election on Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019. This comes from the Appropriations Committee. They recommend for passage. Motion for passage. Second. A motion for passage made by Alderman Lemmerman has been seconded by Alderman Wright.
▶ 2:45:51 In discussion, this is also a roll call vote. Madam Clerk, hearing no discussion, I ask that you please call the roll. Alderman Bewtra. Yes. Alderman Boisselle. Yes. Alderman Forbes. Yes. Alderman Lemmerman. Yes. Alderman Lipper-Garabedian. Yes. Alderman McMaster. Yes. Alderman Medeiros. Yes. Alderman Mortimer. Yes. Alderman Tramontozzi. Yes. Alderman Wright. Yes. President Zwirko. Yes. 11 yeses. The order passes. Order 2019-26. Order to place general override question on the April 2nd, 2019 special election ballot. this order also comes from the Appropriations Committee and it also comes with a recommend for passage Alderman Lemmerman thank you I'd like to make a motion to attach the written communications that we've received for
▶ 2:46:44 Michael P. Zwirko: public comment on this order during the time I believe we've received seven if I'm correct emails and I'd like to move to attach to IQ I'm to second the motion Thorp been a motion made by Alderman Lemmerman attached to attach to order 2019-26 the communications electronically that we received with respect to this order that has been seconded by alderman mortimer all those in favor to attach said documents to this order hi hi any opposed the order is now before you as amendment uh with the informational attachments there too alderman lemmerman motion for passage second this uh motion for passage made by alderman Alderman Lemmerman, as amended in both the attached communications, has also been seconded
▶ 2:47:31 Monica C. Medeiros: by Alderman Bewtra. On discussion of the motion, Alderman Medeiros. Thank you. Thank you. I have to say, I think this order is anything but simple. Proposition two and a half, first of all, anything that comes before us as aldermen is here before us for a reason and for us to weigh in on. And Proposition 2 1⁄2, I've heard a lot of discussion about why do we even have this. Proposition 2 1⁄2 was put in place to protect the taxpayers from unreasonable increases in property taxes, which at times could possibly force people from their homes. It's a very serious, very serious matter. This is before us today. It's something that the public can't simply, we're the appropriating body of the city, this board of aldermen. This is our job to deliberate this. The public simply
▶ 2:48:32 Monica C. Medeiros: can't put forward an initiative petition to raise taxes or to set the tax rate to appropriate funds. That's left up to this body. The mayor has put before us a proposal. It's up to us as aldermen, as the appropriating body, to review it carefully and to make sure that it is responsible and that's what we're putting out there this proposal and the specific specifics of it have only been in the public view for really less than two weeks the mayor announced her intention to put it before us two weeks ago Monday unfortunately with an attachment that didn't work and it was before us officially in our agenda packet less actually that next Tuesday morning so it's actually less than two weeks that this has been before us this is a serious serious appropriation of
▶ 2:49:40 Monica C. Medeiros: five point one eight million dollars and not just is it a serious appropriation of five point one eight million dollars it's an appropriation that can affect each and every residential and commercial property owner in the city as well as the people who rent and the estimates that we have are that this would cost the average taxpayer with a single-family home five hundred and fifty dollars more that's on top of forever that's on top of the additional year-to-year tax increase which we haven't even gotten together to set the tax rate yet we don't do that until next week on the 27th we have a public hearing on setting the tax rate you know for the average homeowner this is gonna cost within the next two years they'll be paying $1,000 more it's a very
▶ 2:50:35 Monica C. Medeiros: serious proposal that's before us and it's our job to make sure that what's here is responsible and at minimum to make sure that it's clear that the that we know what the question is and that the public knows what the question is. You know, tonight, so we had one committee meeting in which this was discussed, and tonight we don't have any members of the mayor's administration here to discuss this should we have any follow-up questions. We haven't heard from the tax assessor. I've asked for forecasting, and unfortunately, I've learned that we don't do any forecasting in Melrose. The city auditor said pretty clearly, we don't make predictions. This is not a magic show, I think that was his quote, but we're looking at something
▶ 2:51:36 Monica C. Medeiros: that's going to have a major impact. This new proposal includes more than $4 million of new spending. It includes the hiring of 28.5 additional positions. These have long-term ramifications. All I have to go on to say whether or not are we making a responsible decision to put this out here is we can look at visual budget as a tool which projects out until 2021 but the actual numbers that have been input into that system are only it's only FY 16 was the last year that actual numbers were put into that system so I can't guarantee that those numbers are right yeah they're out there in the public but our city isn't doing anything to make sure that we're not going to end up in a deficit moving forward as far as i can tell i've tried to find it and i've been told that this is
▶ 2:52:45 Monica C. Medeiros: visual budget's the sole tool that they use we don't make predictions so all i can see from visual budget is in 2021 it looks like we're at a 2.3 million with fy16 numbers as the last actuals looks like we're showing we're heading into a 2.3 million dollar deficit maybe that's something that we can overcome with free cash i'm not sure but i'm not really sure that adding you know this is this is not a responsible way to to do things as far as i can tell we're adding you know four million dollars worth of new spending through this question more than that and we when I see fiscal 2021 which is only two years from now and all these things like new positions in new spending are going to face we're gonna face increases
▶ 2:53:42 Monica C. Medeiros: that go along with those you know we get a new contract with salary increases we have new positions Thorp going to be increases for those positions in health insurance in in salary increases frankly from year to year I wish that these two questions were in reverse in terms of the order of whether or not to set a special election I I voted to set the special election date because I anticipate I made an educated guess the prediction that this is going to pass and go on to the ballot I think there are some things here that are important and I think it would be if this is going to go forward I think there are benefits to having this be voted on before we go into the next fiscal year's budget I
▶ 2:54:36 Monica C. Medeiros: think there are some things like that seven hundred and even that seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars you know Thorp just a lot of inconsistencies that we hear and have heard over the years you know at the last meeting I asked would that seven hundred fifty thousand dollars would that mean we won't will we still be having the transfer in for the Medicaid school reimbursement and mr. de la Russo said yes seventy five thousand dollars but we have actually the same order on this agenda that was previous order number 2019 27 includes what we did use to balance the budget this year which is not a good way to do things five hundred and twenty five thousand dollars and the school Medicaid fund transfer in three hundred thousand dollars not seventy
▶ 2:55:30 Monica C. Medeiros: five thousand dollars three hundred thousand dollars and that's what it's been for years and years and years past as long as I can remember way back to when I was on the school committee so you know where we where do the numbers come from. Superintendent Taymor talked about the class size for kindergarten in August being 336 children. I believe Alderman Lipper-Garabedian at her last school committee update told us the actual number was 324 for kindergartners which is you know more recent than August. We have before us a proposal to reclaim the Beebe school all that's here is the lost revenue of the rent but we're not looking at the auxilary cost the operating costs that will come with putting this back on the budget even that's going to mean a principal I can't
▶ 2:56:26 Monica C. Medeiros: imagine that it's not going to mean a principal it's going to mean a custodian it's going to mean a nurse it's going to mean we're going to have to now transfer the 30 kids that go to the same collaborative out and pay for for the transportation cost take them out of their home school and pay for transportation costs to bring them to another school it's going to include electricity fuel heating cost things that are operating costs a responsible question would include that if we're going to bring this school back online it doesn't matter what the purpose for the school is if it's for kindergarten or if it's for additional I don't know what it might be might be high school some specific classes these costs will still exist and I you know this is
▶ 2:57:24 Monica C. Medeiros: proposition two and a half I said this is a serious thing it's a mechanism to protect the taxpayer in the the mechanism allows for the people to decide that they want to override that protection and and spend more money and if the voters want to do that they can but in the city we haven't passed one of these in 25 years so if this passes i you know my predictions are it's going to be hard to get people this is a hefty this is a hefty ass for a lot of people it's going to be hard to get them to pass another one after it so i think we better i think it would be wise to this isn't obstruction this is making sure that the public has a chance to understand this question that we do our job as the appropriating body of the city
▶ 2:58:18 Monica C. Medeiros: to ask the tough questions and and make sure that we're looking ahead and that we have a number and we have a plan of what is going to happen with this money and what's going to happen in you know one year two years three years nobody has a crystal ball you can't predict everything but we can make some good educated guesses and you know right now i haven't seen enough from the administration to say that this is a responsible question the way it's outlined here and I don't think so if it goes forward tonight I I can't support this right now I saw in 2015 when I did vote to put the question on the ballot for an override I saw repeatedly the people who were in favor of the override as part of their
▶ 2:59:15 Monica C. Medeiros: campaign say over and over again the alderman voted unanimously to place this on the ballot they unanimously support putting this on the ballot they and with the assumption that it was something that everyone unanimously supports so again we are the appropriating committee of the city this is before us it's absolutely our job to vet this i don't feel what i've seen in front of me as is responsible right now and i can't put myself approval on it thank you thank you alderman Medeiros any other alderman wishing to speak at this time alderman mcmaster thank you mr president the orders before us tonight are about two things one on which we already voted that's to call a special election in april the other is to place the override
▶ 3:00:02 Shawn M. MacMaster: question of course on the ballot i attended both listening sessions i met with the mayor i met with the auditor i've been contacted by numerous residents and since the majority of residents who have been in touch with me since the last meeting opposed both orders tonight i thought that it was important for me to explain my position in re reaching my decision to support both orders i've been guided by the facts from my perspective there are four overarching facts the first is that we have a revenue problem in the city of melrose we all know that commercial and residential tax revenue are not enough we know that local option tax revenue provides minuscule revenue we know that intergovernmental revenue has been cut to the bone over the last
▶ 3:00:50 Shawn M. MacMaster: decade second fact is that our schools have unmet needs our growing enrollment rates require adequate funding and the key word here is adequate funding i believe that the mayor and the superintendent have made their case with clear and convincing evidence i don't believe that the number before us is unreasonable it may not be perfect but it's not unreasonable third fact is that our operating budget as a city is in a precarious state let's rewind back to the budget hearings this past spring what did we hear we heard chief lyle come before us and talk about having a part-time administrative assistant as someone who works with all of the police chiefs in Middlesex County outside of this chamber in a
▶ 3:01:40 Shawn M. MacMaster: professional capacity he is the only police chief in Middlesex County who has a part-time administrative assistant we heard from chief Kalina come before us and talk about the antiquated dispatch system that the fire department has a system that has barely changed since 1895 not 1985 so let's put that into perspective 1895 when Grover Cleveland was president on top of that our fire department has aging apparatus with engine for being almost over 20 years old and we have a ladder truck that is almost 23 years old so we shouldn't be surprised to see which we did this past spring the vehicle maintenance line item in the fire department's budget being increased by 36.4 percent our veteran services budget was cut by 12 percent in the midst of service men and women
▶ 3:02:43 Shawn M. MacMaster: returning home from Afghanistan and before that Iraq our council on aging budget was level funded level funded and think about that for a minute over a quarter close to a quarter of our population in Melrose is over the age of 60 five years from now that's a projection that comes out of the gerontology Institute at UMass Boston the McCormick Graduate School of which I'm an alum that talks about the 60 plus population being over 30 percent yet we've level funded that budget I could go on and on and talk about each department but I won't but what I will say is that as a new alderman this experience has been eye-opening for me and it's been disconcerting the fourth fact is that we are up against the clock two weeks ago the mayor came before us
▶ 3:03:45 Shawn M. MacMaster: us and she said quote if we do not offer our residents this opportunity we will have to make drastic cuts to the budget without their input having sat through last spring's budget hearings I don't want to be put in that position I especially don't want to be put in that position as a ward alderman when 95% of the calls that I get each week have to deal with DPW issues and I think all the ward alderman here can agree that we're likely to see cuts to dpw and to the green team if the voters don't have an opportunity to vote on this and if the override doesn't pass for all the reasons that i've outlined all of which to me are facts the residents in melrose deserve to vote on this issue come april and the order before us tonight that we have yet to vote on has my support
▶ 3:04:39 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Alderman McMaster. Next in queue, we have Alderman Bornemer. Thank you very much, President Search. I am going to vote to put this question on the ballot. Well, we just did vote to put on the ballot, and I'm going to vote to put this question as delineated with the amounts contained, the $5.2 million. It seems like a big number, but we need a big number. When I started 18 years ago as an alderman, we closed two fire stations, we closed schools. About a quarter of the storefronts in downtown Melrose were closed. Mayor Dolan, with the help of some aldermen who were here, he and I started at the same time. I'm the alderman who represents downtown. In one of the fire stations that we closed, we went through some hard times.
▶ 3:05:34 Peter D. Mortimer: Very, very hard times. It was a miracle. The mayor took on some tough, tough battles. He streamlined the cemetery, he streamlined a lot of departments. We did get a debt exclusion for a new middle school. That turned out to be a great thing for property values. We started the ambulance service and We made it part of the fire department and that provided us great revenue. You can trust the government of the city of Melrose. We do good things. Unfortunately, people here override a lot of times. And their immediate reaction, their emotional reaction, is to say no, no, no, I don't want to pay any more money. and then they'll fill in the intellectual arguments, some of them true, some of them false,
▶ 3:06:38 Peter D. Mortimer: to support that initial emotional feeling, I don't want to pay. But it's worth it. If you really think it through and try to put intellect over emotion, you realize if, as Alderman McMaster aptly pointed out, most of our population is over 60. I'm over 60. I'm collecting Social Security. My income has to carry me for a long time. I have two kids in college, well, one kid in college and one who's gonna be in college in another two years. Yeah, money's tight, but it's worth it. You know, we came out of this. You can trust the government and the city of Melrose. We came out of those times in 2001 when Mayor Dolan and I first started. and I'm the senior alderman now, and now our downtown looks beautiful.
▶ 3:07:32 Peter D. Mortimer: We opened those fire stations again. But we're at a crossroads. You know, if we hadn't done some of the things we did, Melrose wouldn't have moved forward. And now we're at a place where it's gonna slip. But people say, well, maybe it's not gonna slip, maybe it's not gonna slip. But if something slips, it costs a lot more to fix it, if it's even possible to fix it, than it does to stop it from slipping in the first place. A stitch in time saves nine. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And these cliches didn't get to be cliches because they're not true. A lot of cliches got to be cliches because they are true. And we need this. And I say to some people who are over 60, as I am,
▶ 3:08:23 Peter D. Mortimer: you know, if you have to pay $500 more a year for 10 years until you sell your home that's five thousand dollars you will have paid in ten years time five thousand dollars but because of that you will probably sell your house in ten years for forty or fifty thousand more some people understand that some people say well i never intend to leave my house i'm i'm gonna die in my house um and that's interesting so they don't care about the price but another thing that happens is when you have good schools it cuts down on crime I've been a police officer of an attorney and 80% of crime 80% of arrests occurred kids under the age of 22 and good schools prevent that good schools prevent addiction and crime which go hand in hand so besides the
▶ 3:09:22 Peter D. Mortimer: good investment, the good return on investment of $5,000 to get $40,000 or $50,000 more if you sell it in 10 years, which is probably the direction in which I'm going, 10 or 15 maybe. You also get to live in a better community where you don't have criminals and addicts breaking into your car in your driveway overnight. You don't have people doing daytime burglaries, which are a big crime for addicts. They get in, they try to steal jewelry and money and just walk down the street. And it's worth it because in the meantime, even before you sell your house, you get to live in a good community. Melrose is worth it. And yeah, I don't mean to exclude anybody, but Thorp a place for different kind of communities.
▶ 3:10:15 Peter D. Mortimer: If you don't wanna live in a high quality community like Melrose, maybe you wanna live in a lesser quality community. Maybe you wanna live in New Bedford, but have a cottage in New Hampshire. I don't have a cottage in New Hampshire. That I choose to use my limited money to live in a nice community like Melrose. And you don't get what you don't pay for. If you want something good, you have to pay for it. And yeah, I wouldn't hold it against the schools that they ask for money and they persevere and produce good results anyway, because someday the dam is gonna break. And Mr. Della Russo has seen it, and I've worked hand in hand with Mr. Della Russo and Rob Dolan through the years, and he said the phrase, he actually got it from me,
▶ 3:11:06 Peter D. Mortimer: Thorp no more rabbits to pull out of the hat. Thorp no more rabbits to pull out of the hat. we don't have anything left, you know, we're using up everything we have, Thorp nothing more, and some people create the argument, whether it's false or not, that well, I don't want the override because we need a new police station, we need a new fire station, we need to fix the library. Well, ultimately, it all comes out of the same cash bucket. It all comes out of the same cash bucket. Ultimately, it all comes out of the same cash bucket as Alderman McMaster pointed out a moment ago, very, very correctly. Our departments are failing, we need this. And I'm not somebody who just believes in throwing money at a problem.
▶ 3:11:58 Peter D. Mortimer: And that's the reason I took the position I did on the snow shoveling ordinance earlier. I think we have more important priorities and it's something we can figure out to a better, I think about my votes. I do my research. I've looked things up. I've met with the superintendent privately. I've met with Mr. De La Russo privately. These are professionals. I know it's a big sum of money, but it's worth it. It's worth it to keep our community, and you know, I resent the federal government. I really do. They tell us things, I talk to my friends who work behind the counter at Dunkin Donuts every morning, and their health insurance has gone up from $100 to $400 a month. And meanwhile our federal government keeps giving themselves more and more of the best
▶ 3:12:54 Peter D. Mortimer: health insurance in the world. Our state government's a little more accessible, but they spend too. But you know what, your local tax dollar is your best tax dollar, because this money will never leave Melrose. I wish there were a law in this country that said 50% of all monies that I pay and everyone else pays to the federal government would never leave Melrose, but that's not going to happen because they like their money. But this way the money stays here. You know, if you want to meet your state senator, I mean your federal senator from Massachusetts, it's going to be hard to do. You're lucky if you get a phone call back from a third-level intern. But if you want to meet with an alderman in Melrose, we'll
▶ 3:13:36 Peter D. Mortimer: meet with you. If you want to meet with the mayor, she will meet with you, as long as you're respectful. Your local tax dollar is your best tax dollar, because you get to see it in action. Look around our city. You don't see graffiti everywhere. We have a good quality city here, and it's worth investing in. And a conservative principle, when I speak to And a conservative principle, when I speak to my conservative friends, also about the investment, a conservative principle is, yeah, the federal government, over the 18 years I've been in, has given us less and less money every year. The state government has been giving us less and less money every year. We don't, everybody knows, we don't have the industry, we don't have the commercial property to support this.
▶ 3:14:24 Peter D. Mortimer: The conservative principle is, we take care of our own. The federal government isn't going to take care of us. The state government is taking care of us, less and less. We take care of our own. Your local tax dollar is your best tax dollar. We take care of ourselves, and if that means we have to dig into our pockets a little, then we do it. And that's why I'm in favor of placing this on the ballot, as mentioned in the previous vote. I'm going to support this override as it's laid out here. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you, Alderman Mortimer. Alderman Forbes. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to be real quick. I do support the ballot initiative. And a lot of it has to do with public participation.
▶ 3:15:10 Scott M. Forbes: You have people that come in here that just moved into Melrose. But you have two people in this room, Attorney Bell and Jerry Melrose, that have been here for a while. They're very passionate, they're well-respected in their circles in the community, and they couldn't be more farther from each other on this issue. And who's right? You're passionate about being yes, you're passionate about being no. That's why this has to go and be voted on on a ballot. The residents can be heard. The last two ballot initiatives for an override failed. So the key to winning any election is being able to present your message more effectively than your opponent. and those last two times were not successful so I feel like that the city has the challenge of
▶ 3:15:55 Scott M. Forbes: presenting a narrative of where over the next 10 years you're going to be spending in excess of 70 to 80 million dollars when it comes to 5 million for the override the 2.2 for the Hoover School the 40 to 50 million dollars on the public safety buildings the 20 plus million dollars on the library the city has the challenge of trying to present a narrative that ties all of those things together. And the override is the first step in making all of those things come together. If you think about going from point A to point B, the question is, is that step the right step? And that's why we're going to have an election in April to determine whether or not the residents think that that first step is the right step. But for now, I do support the
▶ 3:16:38 Shawn M. MacMaster: question being presented to the residents. Thank you very much. Thank you, Alderman Forbes. Any Any other Alderman wishing to speak at this time? Alderman McRaster for the Senate. Just very briefly, Mr. President, and if my colleagues could just indulge me, Thorp one issue I did want to address that I heard in this chamber tonight on a couple of occasions and that I heard last week and that I've heard in the community, and that's about this override waiting until we have a new mayor. Say what you will about the mayor. You can call her a lame duck. you can call her a seat filler or seat warmer or whatever it is but she is the mayor and the fiscal health of the city is her chief priority this is somebody who served the city
▶ 3:17:28 Shawn M. MacMaster: as an alderman for over 20 years i i don't think it's fair to call her illegitimate you know you can you can disagree with the override but as alderman forbes said you can vote against it but just think about it for a minute it would be very easy for mayor inferno to punt on this issue be very easy she doesn't have any children in the school system she doesn't have any grandchildren in the school system she's going to retire she's not seeking re-election as mayor she has no other political ambitions she's doing what she thinks is the right thing to do so i think to suggest that she's somehow illegitimate is just not fair and i think it's wrong and i just wanted to publicly state that this evening in the chamber
▶ 3:18:13 Michael P. Zwirko: thank you mr president thank you for that statement alderman mcmaster any other folks this evening seeing no more further discussion allow me just to indulge for a minute or two on this i will be voting in favor of putting this question on the ballot before the voters and i think it's important to allow the voters that decision i'll also add that i was here three years ago when we tried the general override and at times issues like this can get very to use the term that was used earlier as divisive well that's on each of us that's the folks that are watching at home the folks that are in this chamber this evening how you comport yourself when having these discussions is what's going to make this either
▶ 3:18:54 Michael P. Zwirko: divisive or not this is a serious issue that's dealing with a large ticket and it may be attacked at the margins but i have yet to see somebody attack it at its core this is going to stabilize the fiscal issues that we have at the school department level it's going to replace positions that we've cut over the years it's going to deal with some of the salary inequities that we're that we're seeing with us and other members of our neighboring towns and communities that's the plan that's a good plan that's a plan that deserves input and feedback from the residents to vote on that's what we're here to do this evening with that Thorp no further discussion i ask that the clerk call the roll alderman Bewtra yes ottoman voyzel yes
▶ 3:19:38 Michael P. Zwirko: alderman forbes yes alderman lemmerman yes alderman Letter garabedian yes alderman mcmaster yes alderman medeiros no alderman mortimer yes alderman Tramontozzi yes alderman wright yes president Zwirko yes that order passes ten to one motions approved uh at this time we now entertain motion to adjourn motion to adjourn motion to adjourn made by alderman Mortimer has been seconded by alderman Boisselle enjoy your Thanksgiving all those in favor aye any opposed enjoy Thanksgiving everyone the meeting is adjourned