Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2019-04-11

Appropriations and Oversight Committee Meeting

This meeting starts at 0:02 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Manisha Bewtra present · Voting; Robert A. Boisselle present · Vice Chair; Scott M. Forbes present · Voting; Jennifer L. Lemmerman present · President/Ex Officio Member; Kate Lipper-Garabedian present · Chair; Shawn M. MacMaster present · Voting; Monica C. Medeiros present · Voting; Peter D. Mortimer present · Voting; John N. Tramontozzi present · Voting; Francis X. Wright Jr. absent · Voting; Michael P. Zwirko present · Voting

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● APRIL 11, 2019 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:30 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 The public should take notice that the Melrose Board of Aldermen may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the Board of Aldermen consisting of both voting and non-voting members. Members attending this duly posted meeting are participating and deliberating only in conjunction with the business of the standing committee. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Kate Lipper-Garabedian Chair Present Robert A. Boisselle Vice Chair Present Peter D. Mortimer Voting Present John N. Tramontozzi Voting Present Francis X. Wright Jr. Voting Absent Monica C. Medeiros Voting Present Scott M. Forbes Voting Present Michael P. Zwirko Voting Present Manisha Bewtra Voting Present Shawn M. MacMaster Voting Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman President/Ex Officio Member Present

ORDER-2019-47 Utility Petition Petition of National Grid for multiple pole and conduit relocations throughout Melrose as set forth herein as part of Electrical Transmission Line Upgrade Project. Recommend as Amended Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2019-79 Property: Easement Acceptance of Revised Easements at 360 and 366 Swains Pond Ave Recommend as Amended Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2019-80 Home Rule Petition/Special Act Petition to the Great and General Court to enact a Special Act to authorize the City of Melrose to amend the Melrose City Charter to replace the term “Board of Aldermen” with “City Council” Recommend Passage Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 5/1/2019 11:59 AM Minutes Appropriations Committee April 11, 2019

ORDER-2019-81 Home Rule Petition/Special Act Home Rule Petition to Amend Section 3-10 of the Charter of the City of Melrose Without Recommendation Board of Aldermen City of Melrose Page 2 Updated 5/1/2019 11:59 AM

Transcript

▶ 0:02 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Good evening. The hour being 730 on Thursday, April 11th, 2019. The Committee on Appropriations is called to order. This is a committee of the whole. I am Chair Alderman Lipper-Garabedian, and I'm joined tonight by Vice Chair Boisselle and Alderman Mortimer, Alderman Tramontozzi, Alderman Medeiros, Alderman Forbes, Alderman Zwirko, Alderman Bewtra, Alderman McMaster, and President Lemmerman. in accordance with the open meeting law this meeting is being taped and will be available on the city of Melrose website it is also streaming and being shown on TV currently by MMTV motion to open the floor for public comment we have a motion open the floor for public comment made by Alderman Mortimer seconded by

▶ 0:46 Vice Chair Boisselle all in favor aye opposed this is the portion of the meeting where any member of the public wishing to speak on any of the four orders before us tonight is welcome to come forward and share your perspective please be sure to sign in and also speak into the microphone for folks at home and i live at 10 ravine road in melrose i grew up in grew up in melrose and my parents lived here for most of their adult lives working to make the city an inclusive environment in which to live a city that respects everyone i'm a member of the commission on women but i'm speaking as a private citizen this evening to express my support for changing the name of our legislative ball body from alderman to council i know that there were people in melrose who think that this

▶ 1:38 discussion is wasting valuable time and keeping this governing body from discussing other issues facing the city i disagree the name of the legislative body is a symbol and paints a picture of who we are it's a reflection of the personality of our community and what it stands for words and names do matter and the name alderman is a word that sounds exclusionary to a large portion of the population including me unique is not a positive in this instance melrose can find better ways to be unique by working to be even more inclusive and showing respect for all its citizens while it may not be exclusionary in fact its name implies that it is obviously i'm not alone in my belief as we are the last community in the commonwealth still

▶ 2:21 debating this issue for those who saw this discussion as a waste of time i say that the time to end the discussion is now and make the change in order to bring Melrose into the 21st century. For those who see this as a liberal issue, I would say language evolves. When was the last time you flew on a plane with a stewardess rather than a flight attendant, or had your mail delivered by a postman rather than a postal worker? When was the last time you heard reference to a fireman instead of a firefighter, or a policeman instead of a police officer? next time I exercise my right to speak before this legislative body I hope to be addressing the Melrose City Council thank you thank you if you didn't sign

▶ 3:09 in please do thank you hi everyone my name is Jane Allen I live at 179 East Foster Street and like Karen I believe language is powerful and in subtle ways it can make us feel included or excluded from different spaces and for that reason I would welcome the change to City Council thank you thank you thank you hi I'm Jerry Morose I'm here to speak about the order about the issue of the mayor's term whether it ends with the election or not I firmly believe that you know if there's an interim step that interim step ends as soon as we have somebody identified by the population to become the new mayor I especially am troubled by the way that a lot of these things come up you know this came up Monday today you're hearing about it it'll be done sometime soon I

▶ 4:34 remember the Charter the Charter review committee met for week after week for months going over all kinds of things and to spring something like this on in such a short fashion in a short manner and trying to act on it so quickly in a time when a lot of people are distracted because they go on vacation next week for school holidays and everything else I just find that the timing is suspect in some ways also especially given the manipulations that happened around the changes on this board that this board made when you had already elected a President of the board and then reverse direction clearly to have somebody else become the acting mayor interim mayor It feels as if it's another step along that way of trying to manipulate process in order to benefit somebody now

▶ 5:23 I don't know You know, I don't really have a clue about retirement issues You know does mayor Infurna get an extra retirement bonus because she's then get 125 plus thousand a year for two years out of three years average with her old alderman salary i don't know how that works but the whole thing smacks of a little bit of a little manipulation and i think this board ought to be above that if if there's a legitimate reason to do it everybody in this room had an opportunity to speak to it in the whole charter review process that went on and on and on um if you wanted to do it now you could take your time but clearly if you do something now you're clearly doing it for a person not for a principal and that is what

▶ 6:05 a board board of aldermen or a city council should not be about right um you know there are so many important things that you could be discussing and working on and that we keep having these things come up and i'm not representing anything but this type of thing that it comes up on Monday today is the hearing and then you know in no time it goes again next week it's it we need to spend some time and some effort and some deliberation about important issues in the city and these distractions really do harm the processes that need to happen to make Melrose better in so many ways so I urge you that if anybody had wanted this before you could have had it if you want now let's take time let's have some public hearings about it let's not just make this a quick

▶ 6:58 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: thing and go um please i i hope that you can all sit back and leave the charter alone in regard to the mayor and um and we can look at it next year you'll have two years to look at it after the election because clearly we would have a new election if this mayor if the new mayor left at that point and so we have a lot of time to deal with this thank you thank you motion to close motion to close public motion to close public comment made by alderman Zwirko seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor aye opposed thank you this concludes our public comment as i mentioned we have four orders before us tonight the first is order 2019-47 petition of national grid for multiple toll and conduit relocations throughout melrose as set forth herein as part of electrical transmission line upgrade project motion to suspend the rules that we may hear from representatives of national grid

▶ 7:55 and the director of dpw john chena second we have a motion to suspend the rules made by alderman mortimer seconded by alderman forbes uh all in favor aye opposed thank you for joining us tonight i think this is a continuation of a conversation on this so we welcome you back and we'd be happy to hear some updates about this so good evening and thanks for having us back on this order we appreciate the extra time we had to deliberate this internally as I said during our last public hearing this grant of location at the seven poles is a is a small part of a larger program which will take about a couple years the National Grid is set to embark it includes the replacement of nearly 300 approximately 340 poles the installation of these seven new poles and a lot of rewiring of their

▶ 8:52 electrical circuit and about a third of melrose the end of the day the goal is to eliminate the substation on upham street and bring extra power into this grid and other manners so that's my elementary overview of the project we have a Representatives from national grid can obviously get into more detail about it uh the last time we met though i do i do want to note that we did not have specific conditions but we've spent um the last few weeks developing a memo that i forwarded to the board it's lengthy but we'd appreciate it if the order could be amended to include the memo and the map that goes along with it National Grid has accepted these terms and conditions some are general just you know in general regards to the

▶ 9:48 few years that this program is going to take place and how we'd like them to go through the city in an organized manner and how we want to communicate you know day to day week to week and how we don't want one section to bleed into another per se we like to complete a section and then move on to another one um so some are general some speak to detouring some speak to communication and then there's one the the second half of the memo speaks to some specific site specific conditions um regarding the seven locations that are part of this order make a motion to include amend the order by including the aforementioned men memo and map second second and alderman mormer do you mean the map as well yes yes okay we have a motion to amend the order to add the memo um and also the map and that's

▶ 10:40 Michael P. Zwirko: really seconded by i think alderman medeiros all in favor aye aye any opposed okay so we have the amended order before us so we're here to any questions about the memo the map or anything in particular brendan is here from national grid and he's very familiar with the seven locations and the project great alderman's work oh thank you madam chair thank you for being here this evening i know this is uh this is going to be a large project um and thank you for embarking on it it's nice to have at least the polls uh replaced from you know over time their integrity can certainly wane my real question though um is actually for uh mr shenna i just wanted to state that at the last meeting we had an individual from woodruff it's a neighbor of mine and i just wanted

▶ 11:26 Michael P. Zwirko: to say thank you i noticed here in the site specific conditions that you added at the very last line that you'll work with the affected residents to determine if new trees are desired along the sidewalk and grass strip i appreciate that as i had mentioned during a storm this past fall the tree actually huge tree fell on the residence and it's a nice beautiful tree and luckily no one was hurt a little property damage but to insert that in for the site specific conditions i appreciate that no problem and good luck to the work and i know this will be quite an endeavor so um be safe and be well thank you madam chair sure alderman mcmaster thank you mr shanna thank you for being here sir thank you for being here you may recall mr shen at the last

▶ 12:09 Shawn M. MacMaster: meeting i had mentioned that five of the seven locations are in ward five are there any concerns or issues or anything noteworthy to report to the public based on those five locations since our last meeting where i had some questions and some concerns that i raised and the second part of that question relates to west wyoming can you talk about as part of this plan what efforts the city is able to take to mitigate traffic congestion and those concerns that i brought up around the lincoln school especially during the school Time yes, so if you get into the the details of the letter in the site specific conditions The Wyoming site we are requesting that the work take place outside of school hours

▶ 12:57 We're also requesting that the businesses are notified prior to the work and that the any abutting residents are as well in regard to Ashmont that location we requesting that the whole be installed prior to our scheduled road program this summer in regard to Washington Street we made note of the daycare and the fact that that's a major commute route to Oak Grove both in the morning in the afternoon and you know obviously be vigilant to that as part of the you know preparations for the work these aren't week-long projects the installation of a pole and and then the rewiring is a day a time or maybe three four days over five to ten calendar days that's typically what it is but there are some site specific conditions to you know the some of the discussion we had before

▶ 13:53 Shawn M. MacMaster: and we feel confident with this team and we they've came to us i think initially in early december and we've been discussing this all along and um it was good to still document the conditions so that the project the project contractors know what they need to do in each specific site well thank you for your attention and your responsiveness to the issues that I raised I appreciate all of your hard work in coming up with these conditions and I just want to thank you for your efforts to mitigate any disruptions or other issues that may come up in the course of this work for the residents of ward 5 and the neighborhood so thank you sir thank you very much chairman lippi garabedian um thank you for your work on this as we know the

▶ 14:48 Peter D. Mortimer: above ground infrastructure as well as the below ground infrastructure in melrose is old needs a lot of work so we appreciate this to increase the voltage around the city and And it's going to make Melrose a better place. Construction is always inconvenient, as we're learning with some of the projects downtown. But I think you're going to see this, not to do with you, but you're going to see some of those problems addressed by this board in the near future. So we're going to be taking care of this. And I would like to make a request, while you're in the midst of all this extensive work, It could be a golden opportunity to alleviate a lot of the double poles. This has been a request that's been ongoing since I became an alderman 19 years ago.

▶ 15:35 Peter D. Mortimer: And I can see in the gallery, State Representatives Paul Broda, a former president of the Board of Aldermen. He was working on it back when he was on this board. But the double poles are eyesores, not a safety issue, but they are eyesores. So, always in the course of construction, there's some down time, something doesn't show up, people are waiting. Murphy's Law always applies to construction projects, unfortunately. As anyone who's ever rehabbed a house, and Mr. Shannon can certainly attest to, there's always something that comes up. But in the meantime, maybe this would be a golden opportunity to eliminate a lot of the double poles, the unsightly double poles that we have all around Melrose.

▶ 16:22 Robert A. Boisselle: be wonderful if you could uh accomplish that to some extent thank you very much uh vice chair thank you for coming gentlemen uh i noticed in the memo that came to us uh item number three the city will be responsible for moving our own utilities now the polls also have the cable networks attached to it also is that correct correct have they been informed of the upcoming work and preparing for the changeover so it's a good question and to your question and alderman one of his comments we met a few weeks ago with everybody who's on the polls from the poll these utility polls have electric phone cable and in some instances fire alarm street lights and fiber optic cabling for our own city and school network so we we all met together they run a pro every

▶ 17:21 poll is listed in the what's that program it's called the engines programs the national joint utility i forget the rest n-j-u-n-s and and so every poll that every utility on a poll is in that program and this project was a gr and that meeting was a great opportunity to update that listing and i know that our engineers have been working with verizon and national grid to update our existing inventory of double poles and now it's very critical in fact one of the conditions is that we continue to use that so that we can keep track of this and we don't lose control of double poles in the city so it could be a good opportunity to clean up what we have but if they stick to the conditions it they absolutely will be able to inventory where the double poles

▶ 18:12 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: are moving forward okay thank you very much thank you manager um i just have a few questions from the really the helpful memo that you circulated a few days ago it's also in the public record um when you were just to make sure i'm clear so the general conditions it sort of describes this as a large scale project of at least 240 utility poles and i think you mentioned in here that the whole process is going to take eight to twelve months i think when we just heard from you now it sounded like it might be a little bit longer than that and there might be more than 300 polls so maybe this is just a subsection of the overall project no that was me okay being tired it's 200 it's 240 polls not 340 polls and the 8 to 12 months that this references is the approximate

▶ 18:58 time that project team that met feels a double pull will be in place it's a two it's at least a two-year project but the eight to twelve months referenced here is we wanted to target a window of how long we expect a double pole to be in place from the time it's installed at the time it's removed we that that was a condition that we felt was important to define so we have a target a target and a window of when the pull it's difficult because we don't know what's on all of them so best case is eight months but we we do feel within a year that they should be able to pull that poll great um and we talked last time and you mentioned this time that we're going to decommission the substation located on upham street i recall that national grid will hold on to that property

▶ 19:48 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: because at some point you might need to use it again i'm wondering if there's any part of that land or plot that can be repurposed for the city it does it looks like a pretty tight spot but i don't know if there's any chance it's a it's a prime location right downtown there was some discussion about that but at this time I haven't heard anything back from my superiors as to what they're gonna do I know they're gonna replace the roof to the building and do some aesthetic improvements to it but as for public use I'm not sure we have undecided at this time okay and we did condition that anything they do there they should work through our office of planning and community development and inspectional services so we'll be in the

▶ 20:30 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: loop and whatever happens there and I'm sure those two departments will do everything they can to protect our interest great I think there's even some green space in front that I don't know if if even you know for some of the public celebrations we have in downtown if it's possible to put things there I'm not sure then you mentioned so the first step will be that National Grid sets the pole and moves electrical utilities second step is the city moves our street lights fire alarm infrastructure and fiber network cables and then all the other communication at last final step is all the other communication utilities move their lines for the step that involves the city moving things is that at our expense as a city yes it is and you mentioned

▶ 21:21 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: now that part of the plan for west wyoming is notifying the businesses and the abutting neighbors is that the case for all of these locations well i know that you had a list that's a part of the record as well of everybody i assume who's already been contacted or will be contacted um so they typically on poll real poll installations we don't notify okay that's why when we when we require it as a condition we usually condition location by location because they're not usually there and anything they do is if if somebody had to get out of their driveway per se that type of project can allow it um so you can you can allow it yeah yeah i mean they'd usually show up and you know knock on knock on the door and let people out for the

▶ 22:06 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: day and things like that i see it's not as invasive as you might think it would be usually we're there and like nobody's around okay so people are usually at work especially in a residential area the one other question I had was about Washington Street so I appreciated that for Wyoming you made a condition that as you mentioned all the work has to be completed outside of regular school hours and I assume that also includes sort of the hour leading up to school and the hour after it because of drop-off and pickup on Washington Street is it possible to have a condition where you're not replacing the pole during the rush hour the commuting hours since that is such a heavily trafficked so that's typically that's typically what we do okay what we conditioned

▶ 22:53 is that you know careful consideration should be given to the hours of work and traffic so once we get together i mean they'll usually either install something initially in the morning and go there after nine o'clock or middle of the day or things like that we just we rather than be specific to a particular window in that case we uh we will work it out okay and you feel like that gives you enough leverage and negotiating to make sure okay great those are all my questions again this was very um helpful to have this as additional material for our record thank you uh alderman medeiros thank you uh just a couple of quick things and so uh this the city is responsible for moving our own utilities and in the condition you said you're in the process of determining

▶ 23:41 Monica C. Medeiros: which poles contain our infrastructure and the estimated costs to perform these transfers um can you talk a little bit about what you might think the cost would be in in the process to for us to remove our utilities well what we'll do is we hire a contractor yeah our street lights are removed and relocated onto the new pole we have a vendor on the contract that does that we pay for that type of work in our dpw highway budget on the streetlight maintenance fire alarm is typically done in-house it's done by the fire department and fiber optic cabling is something that we'll have to bring a vendor in that's it cabling some of it we don't we may not need anymore and that's what we're evaluating and some may have to be reinstalled and we'll either do that through

▶ 24:37 our streetlight vendor or maybe fire alarm will be able to do that as well do you anticipate that we'll need to go outside of what's already budgeted to to do this would this require additional not all 240 poles will be installed right away so i think it'll be will be the goal is we hope to be able to cover it within our operating budget i budget for some of that this type of work in general I mean they put they replace poles all the time poles get hit poles right and when that happens whatever is on that pole has to be transferred so some of it is is within that we cover it from within our budget but I've put I have put the auditor on notice and once we start and we'll see where we can go and there might be a need to supplement the budget there might be a need to

▶ 25:30 Monica C. Medeiros: transfer funds from other lines whether it could be a projected surplus into this line we'll see how it goes but oh the goal is to is to still cover it out of our operating budget and then sort of generally and in the past I've heard it you know upon occasion there's been some situations where sometimes there's something on a poll for a company that's out of business and or maybe you don't know exactly that it's there until so you get up on the pole and then there can be some delays and in moving the utilities does this happen to something we might run into I haven't personally dealt with that and any project that I've handled but I do know of like some defunct telephone companies that you know you know went belly up and their infrastructure still there but I have

▶ 26:25 not heard any of that from any of the surveyors or engineers have worked on this at all so we don't answer by now that would that would have brought to our attention if it's dead infrastructure that nobody owns and then it can be cut and removed and I guess that's something we'll have to work out with Verizon I would imagine either us or them would probably end up dealing with it that's good and so you think that it's possible that we might end up seeing less wires as a result of this project I know that our wires are probably not gonna decrease I don't know if horizon has plans to remove you know defunct copper cables that they don't know old copper phone lines I know like everything they use is fiber optic now and then but uh i really i'm not sure i would say possibly

▶ 27:19 Monica C. Medeiros: i don't know if that's part of their scope of work is to remove that rather than just transfer it i think that'd be a better question for them but that's okay thank you i appreciate that i appreciate this uh memo mr shena thank you from your department and um and just want to stress to how important it is stated here that the the engine software system is is updated and um it's definitely you know i think a great help to everybody involved and thanks okay we have an amended motion uh order before us to recommend for passage the order as amended second we have a motion to recommend the order as amended made by alderman mortimer seconded by Vice Chair Boisselle all in favor aye that motion carries and will

▶ 28:12 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: be to the full board thank you for being here thank you thank you our next order is order 2 0 1 9 79 acceptance of revised easements at 360 and 366 Swains Pond Avenue and I think we're still under suspension of rules if the Director Schnell wants to stick with us for a minute just to explain this one a little bit these two easements on Swayne's pond sure late last summer of 18 Sanofsky family at 360 Swayne's pond approached us about the possibility of Relocating an existing easement in the rear of their property so that they could facilitate a rare addition to their home We started speaking about in some of the general conditions that we would require they went out and they engineered a Upgraded drainage system

▶ 29:21 Which impacts both their property and their neighbor 366 the Roach family The plan that you have dated April 8th is our most updated plan And they have worked very closely with our engineering group To make sure technically this was possible and feasible. This has all been done at their own expense They'll be constructing this and managing this at their own expense and their own oversight at the end of the project they're required to provide The city with an as-built and they will record that as-built and the new easement with the registry of deeds Our city solicitor has worked with both families and creating easement documents and they were both attached to the order as well to execute once that as-built is

▶ 30:14 done the existing easement information easement documents that we gave as part of the order have an exhibit fee well we will trade this out once we have a true as-built this way the document refers to what's actually in the ground again this is being done whole fully in their expense entirely in their expense at their expense and it's being done to the conditions that our engineering group required motion motion to amend the order to include the plan submitted on April 8th to our clerk of committees second okay there's a motion to amend the order to include those plans made by alderman Mortimer seconded by alderman forbes all in favor aye aye opposed okay we have a amended order before us alderman forbes

▶ 31:05 Scott M. Forbes: uh well you did answer my question thank you for being here tonight um about the as far as the expense that is being paid by the resident and excuse me uh as a result it'll it result in an improved and upgraded infrastructure uh for the city so um you answered my question as far as uh this once this passes i assume that the homeowner can start the work uh in a in a reasonable time frame yeah i believe they've they're ready to go yeah i know that i think monday the contractor was in this past monday met with our city engineer and their personal engineer coordinate connections and sequence of work so i do believe that once this order passes they will be ready to go and they're good to go on our end yeah very much a collaborative effort with a lot of moving parts

▶ 31:54 Manisha Bewtra: so we appreciate your involvement in that as well so thank you thank you thank you alderman Bewtra thank you um so generally this is a pretty environmentally sensitive area is that correct um prone to flooding i i'm saying this because i know i think of a friend who lived further along on Swains Pond Avenue and experienced a big flood on their property so I'm just curious if this is the type of thing that's that that area of the city is particularly prone to and if a lot of the properties in that area have similar easements there are a stretch of properties on Swains Pond on that side of Swains Pond that have a drain pipe behind their property eventually it comes back on to Swains Pond Ave and outlets into Towers Pond and Swains Pond

▶ 32:44 makes its way out to that watershed we're not increasing the size of the pipe as part of this project we're just replacing it so we won't we shouldn't be impacting downstream flooding of the sort and if there are any blockages we've probably going to be helping people upstream from these two properties we we did a similar project in this easement run I think three four years ago but it was collapsed pipe and this type of pipe is cast iron it's old cast iron and it tends to rot in the bottom and all the time that will settle and when the pipe starts to settle the pipe gets blocked so anytime we can replace this type of pipe and put in plastic pipe it's a big it's a win so great understanding that this is at the expense of the homeowners homeowner is

▶ 33:38 Peter D. Mortimer: there are what kinds of requirements is the city what are your requirements with regards to materials used and obviously it sounds like there was a lot of back-and-forth which is great but just okay thank you those are my questions Alderman Mortimer. Thank you very much, and I'd just like to make a comment that, yes, that culvert is, that underground pipe is there. But fortunately, the town is, and Swains Pond watershed has an enormous capacity. Even during the midst of the Mother's Day storm, I had been down there looking at it, and the water was still flowing to the Saugus River without a problem. So we're very fortunate for all the drainage areas in that area that it can go. And I would just like to add that I have recently conferred with the city solicitor.

▶ 34:34 Monica C. Medeiros: And he indicated to me that everything regarding this easement change and any adjustments are completely appropriate and within the confines of all legal requirements. Thank you very much. Thank you, Alderman Medeiros. Thank you. you and I do see we have attorney Van Camp and the state solicitor here with us I was wondering if he might be able to to come up for a minute too but I did want to ask has the did the Conservation Commission take a look at this at all by any chance it's not we don't feel that's pertinent our engineers don't feel that and so that's that wouldn't be a normal part of this only in a floodplain or wetland you're not in the buffer zone where the drain line is going as I

▶ 35:32 Monica C. Medeiros: understand it so you wouldn't be required to have concom exercise any jurisdiction okay and it looks like from this is not my area of expertise but it looks like we're kind of going from a somewhat rounded culvert that goes through the backyard in the area where the proposed addition would be and changing it to more of a straight line and so this is going from one existing easement or two existing easements to a slightly different easement is that correct if you look at the if you look at the plan there the easement follows the pipe and the pipe takes a somewhat curvature approach through these two properties what the project will do is use an existing manhole upstream and install a new manhole on the other end of the proposed improvement and then put

▶ 36:30 pipe straight in between them which is typical construction these days in the past especially here in Melrose these curvature culverts once open bodies and people just put the pipe and backfilled it it may end is through downtown in the same way today's today we like to go with straight pipe and manholes at the change in angles to better access it better clean it in in the future and so there is an existing with the what happens to that once this is done will we will they will we grant essentially becomes abandoned the pipe would I believe the pipe will probably abandon it in place okay so the pipe would stay in the ground the easement itself would be abandoned and what would be showing at the registry of deeds would be a new easement with a new plan showing where

▶ 37:31 that active pipe and that active easement are located is there from from your perspective is there any legal detriment to the city for doing this I don't I don't see when I think the end result is the easement documents would would read more clearly than the current do and I believe from an engineering standpoint and not my expertise I believe the engineering of this new line makes that system more efficient so perhaps a benefit thank you very much appreciate that thank you alderman's work oh thank you madam chair i just have two quick questions so we've noted a couple times this evening that the property owners will be paying for this work how how often does that occur that the owner agrees to pay for all the work is it rare or

▶ 38:23 residential property is rare but it's not rare in developments happens all the time land are transformed whether it's um you know a single family how two single family house lots become one large property or a larger scale development these type of improvements to our infrastructure happen all the time and we've seen that on Dexter Road recently with the Regan's Way Dexter Road we've seen it on almost every large scale development where they're upgrading infrastructure or our roadway network as part of their project and this is a smaller residential scale where the where the homeowners have requested an opportunity to improve our it for us to give us authorization to improve our infrastructure at their cost

▶ 39:08 Michael P. Zwirko: and it's really I'd see nothing wrong with it so I'll just make one more comment that will note that the property not only the homeowners is being improved and upgraded but so is the infrastructure and at no cost to the city other than some time on reviewing some plans so it sounds like a pretty good plan to me thank you madam chair thank you for your time can i just ask one question so i assume that the building inspector or somebody will take a will also sign off on this once it's installed just to confirm that it meets the expectations our our city engineer will work with their certified engineer okay for the pipe when that's done the building any addition to building inspector would take over at that point got it okay thank you so well the committee motion

▶ 39:58 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: to recommend as amended second a motion to recommend as amended by made by alderman forbes and seconded by alderman mortimer all in favor any opposed that motion passes will be recommended to the full board thank you for being here tonight the third item on our agenda is uh order number 2019-80 petition to the great and general court to enact a special act to authorize the city of melrose to amend the melrose city charter to replace the term board of aldermen with city council this is sponsored by president Lemmerman thank you madam chair um first i want to just take a moment and thank very loud um and thank my colleagues here in the chamber who have opted to join me in co-sponsoring this order so alderman Tramontozzi alderman Bewtra alderman's worko

▶ 40:54 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: alderman Letter garabedian alderman Medeiros alderman wright and alderman mortimer i appreciate them joining me in this effort i also want to take a moment and thank every member of the public who took time out of their busy schedules to join us whether in this chamber to speak we've had a couple tonight had several earlier this week as well i know that's not easy to do but it's very important for anything that we do here and also the many who wrote to us and many of those emails that we received over the past several days were very personal and very impassioned and we appreciate that input so before i go any further at this time i would like to make a motion to attach all of those email correspondence i believe the clerk of committee said there were

▶ 41:38 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: 58 um that we received and she also invites any other Member who may have seen individual emails sent to them that they'd like in the record to to add those as well so i make that motion now to attach those to the order second you have a motion to attach the order 58 emails plus or minus that's in duly seconded all in favor aye aye opposed so that those are attached thank you Thank you. So, many of you have heard my reasons for proposing this back when I did it three years ago, and because nothing has changed, my reasons have not changed. So, I'm not going to spend a great deal of time rehashing it and making an impassioned plea. I will give a brief recap of what many of those reasons are. You know, the issue of using language

▶ 42:28 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: that accurately reflects the potential and the accomplishments of all people regardless of their gender is important to me and it might not be the number one reason for everyone but we have heard over and over again over the past week that it is important to many people and in fact I would point out that it's so important to many people that over the past 30 years every other community in Massachusetts that uses the term Board of Aldermen has decided not to use it anymore. And in addition, 39 towns, although they are a different form of government, have chosen the gender-neutral title in favor of the Board of Selectmen. And I would point out that among those, all four towns in the 5th Middlesex District, Redding, Stoneham, Wakefield, and Winchester,

▶ 43:12 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: have done so, leaving us as the very last. The gender-neutral term, it's more inclusive. it more accurately reflects a makeup of a body that had its first female member join in 1926 it's a very long time ago I would also argue as I have in the past that this brings more clarity and more accessibility to our board and the work that we do as local elected officials the policy decisions we make impact our constituents everyday life and through regular open dialogue between the board and citizens is the only way that we're going to accurately understand the potential of the potential consequences of the policies that we put in place in this chamber the term alderman is no longer used anywhere else in

▶ 43:57 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: Massachusetts I will keep hammering that point and as a result it's not widely recognized so this creates an unnecessary barrier for residents who may otherwise be engaged in local government we have over the years taken steps over and over again to try to make what we do more available to the people that we work for. We made sure that our meetings are on MMTV, that they're livestreamed online for people who don't have cable. So many of us have social media accounts that we use exclusively to communicate about the work that we're doing. And to me, this really is just another step in that direction, just making our work more accessible more open to the people that we work for and who elect us so i would say that whether

▶ 44:46 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: you prefer a term that is clearer whether you prefer a term that accurately reflects the inclusion and equity that we strive for or whether it's both like me or probably many many other reasons this is an issue that has left us we're we're the last to do it we are a community that has been recognized in many ways as being a leader you know whether it's smart growth sustainability efforts civil Rita protections we have led the way while others followed us and this is an area where everyone else has left us behind and i just strongly feel that it's an easy fix it's something we can do quickly and that we can send a strong message about how we want to present ourselves so a couple of housekeeping things i will say this is as you all know proposed to be a home rule petition

▶ 45:43 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: which would go to the state legislature for them to allow us to make this change to the charter I will mention that I have spoken to both Representatives Broder and Senator Lewis. We have Representatives Broder here this evening who has been vocal on his support for a change. Senator Lewis also is one of the 58 letters that we are attaching to the order who wrote in support. Both have indicated that they would be willing to see this way, see its way through the Statehouse. A lot of times when we do home rule petitions, we include a preamble that indicates when we send it up, it indicates that it would be going to effect immediately upon passage i did have a chance to speak with the city clerk about what it would take to implement this should it pass she feels that

▶ 46:32 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: 30 days is plenty of time for anything that needs to be updated to to be updated and so i would actually make a motion this evening to not include the emergency preamble to have it go into effect immediately upon passage and in fact instead have it go into effect 30 days after it is signed by the governor second the motion to make that amendment we have a motion to amend the order to replace the emergency provision with an effective date 30 days after the governor's signature seconded by alderman mortimer on discussion all in favor aye aye opposed okay so we are we've amended it thank you thank you um i do anticipate that there will be discussion among the board um as we as we move forward on this order um but as we prepare for that i would like to make a motion

▶ 47:23 Peter D. Mortimer: for passage to recommend for passage second there's a motion to recommend for passage made by president Lemmerman and seconded by alderman mortar on discussion uh i'm not sure if we would And I will defer to Waldemar Butro, just a point of procedure. I see we have State Representatives Broda in the gallery, and I would like to hear from him. We are under suspension still as we are for the night if he wants to speak about the process that will occur at the state level or not. Just as a courtesy, we might want to let him speak in case he wants to get home to his family. But I will yield to Alderman Bewtra, who's first in queue, as you see fit. Okay. I don't have a strong— Any way is fine with me.

▶ 48:11 Manisha Bewtra: I just want to be on the record to say I support changing the name and wanted to thank everyone who took the time to weigh in, who engaged in respectful dialogue, both those who support the change as well as those who don't. But in particular, I really wanted to thank you, President Lemmerman. you were the you brought this up in 2016 and you were ahead of the curve at that time I trust that tonight we're going to be moving Melrose forward and thank you for your leadership thank you thank you very much as many of you know and this is a change in position a reversal for me and so I wanted to address that back in 2016 and before I was very hopeful that the term alderman could be considered as on its own as a gender-neutral term just like we

▶ 49:10 Monica C. Medeiros: consider human or woman or history person so many of these words that have the masculine embedded in them and over time since 2016 we've seen so many communities change their names that now we are the last Board of Aldermen in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and as I sit in the Mass Municipal Counselors Association as its president and we consider changing our own bylaws for various reasons you know it's I'm a I find myself acutely aware that we are the last board of aldermen and as I stand in front of rooms and I introduce myself and I talk to people about being you know part of this organization again it's just at this point it sticks out like a sore thumb that we are the last ones but more so than that much because we've seen so much change since 2016 I

▶ 50:19 Monica C. Medeiros: I am increasingly confronted and maybe perhaps because I'm a woman and I identify as female that I have people come up to me and I find them sort of falling and tripping all over themselves trying to figure out what to call me do they call me all the person do they call me all their woman do they call me all their man do they call me counselor and they don't know what to do and so often it's a conversation that instead of getting to the point of what they've come to discuss with me it's trying to figure out how to address me and that's something that I never wanted I wanted to be personally called alderman that's the name of the title that I was elected to that's something that I again I had

▶ 51:16 Monica C. Medeiros: hoped that it could be considered and thought of just like any other word but it's clear to me that that's honestly just not possible we're not going to get there with that word and the only way I think to move past this is to take it away and go to the gender-neutral counselor and really not have it be a distraction and not have it be an impediment to the communication that we're trying to have on a particular issue which is largely more important than than the word and so that's in one of the reasons why I had asked all them in Leatherman to be sign on as a co-sponsor on this I think it is something that we should pass and move on to other business and not let it be a a distraction to the work that we have to do and I know we will we will lose a

▶ 52:17 Monica C. Medeiros: little bit of something it's been nice to be an alderman rather than just a counselor that has that you know big city impersonal kind of connotation and and I I appreciated its uniqueness I appreciated the opportunity that when somebody asked me what is an alderman that I got to explain to them really what we do and there's an easy answer to say oh we're just like a city councilor but the truth of the matter is is so many people still don't know what a city councilor does so I think that opportunity may be lost in this and so I just hope that we remind ourselves to make sure that we're explaining as much as we can you know to people what it is we really do because i think sometimes that that gets lost

▶ 53:14 Monica C. Medeiros: and it's a great time in america i think where people are a lot more interested in government and in what happens so i think we do have an opportunity to do that but i am happy to call myself a co-sponsor on this order and to move it forward and will get a little a little bit of uh getting used to to not call ourselves a board and an alderman and but i think it's sometimes you have to know when to let go and i think this is it thank you thank you alderman trim and tozy thank you i told i too want to thank president lemmerman for the opportunity to become a co-sponsor of your bill i'm proud to be that co-sponsor as well and to support this water I was looking back at the history when this first was

▶ 54:15 John N. Tramontozzi: presented in 2016 we had them in August and September of 2016 had spirited debates and discussing about it and I saw that one of the issues that was raised at that time was procedural procedurally because there was a discussion about us going into a Charter Commission review and whether or not it was appropriate at that time to to vote in isolation to the name change or beat be part of the entire Charter review and I felt at that time well we're gonna go into the Charter review let's change it then and we can move it on to the legislature and I was proud to with Alderman Zwerchel to be a member the alderman Representatives of the charter view commission and at that time um i don't want to speak for alderman's work well i think we both supported the name change then as well but here

▶ 55:13 John N. Tramontozzi: we are today making it through the home rule petition process and i fully support the name change as i did during the charter review committee hearings and and i hope that everybody will appreciate the name change as an attorney i'm used to being called the counselor so it's not going to change too much for me but i think for the public as a whole and as eloquently represented here this evening to the public a comment in the letters we received it's the right thing to do it's right time so I strongly urge the the board to us to establish this in rule in favor of this order and thank you again thank you thank you I'm gonna approach this at a different angle I have not supported the name change during the past votes and just to bring that into perspective you

▶ 56:25 Scott M. Forbes: know everyone has their reasons of why they do what they do based on personal experiences and as a 22 year veteran and retired mass sergeant United States Air Force we are all considered airmen my sister who served eight years of active duty is considered an airman that to us is a universal term so when I always looked at the term alderman I always said that it was a gender-neutral term now I understand that that's my opinion and there's other people that are going to disagree with me and you know what that's okay you know we live in a world where we can have a spirited debate but as long as we remain respectful then you can have the debates the votes will be cast and then we move on to the next

▶ 57:03 Scott M. Forbes: door in other discussions I've always said that I would be more in favor of in calling myself an alderman a woman can call herself an alderwoman collectively we are a board of aldermen people did not like that term either because the term alderman does not feel gender inclusive so I understand that so I'm looking on the city of Woburn's website the Woburn is called the City Council there are nine Member of the City Council divided into seven wards each ward is represented by a ward alderman and is elected by the residents of the ward there are two aldermen at large elected by the residents of the entire city so there is a city council where you can call yourself an alderman or in our case we can call ourselves

▶ 57:51 Scott M. Forbes: alderman and alderwoman i would like to see something like that and as in at least in discussion to see if anybody would entertain something like that i think it represents a common sense solution that brings us into 2019 while still being able to recognize our past and our story and how we got here um that's where i stand i think that we could do something like that for those reasons i will not be supporting the order because i think that there's another solution out there that is better and is still inclusive so thank you alderman mortimer thank you very much chairman Letter garabedian um i am supporting this order because from what I've heard so far the four ladies who are on this board are in favor of it

▶ 58:43 Peter D. Mortimer: and if the four ladies on this board wish this board to be called the city council I will support that of course of course I would support that if that's what they want that's what they want to be called I like people to call me what I like to be called somebody has a name that I've never seen before Or I say, how do you pronounce this? And they tell me how they pronounce their name, and that's how I pronounce it. So people should be called what they want to be called, especially with ladies. As a man, I can imagine what it might be like to grow up in a world with these terms. But I can never really know to the core what this might mean to some women and maybe not to others. And the times are changing, as has been mentioned.

▶ 59:35 Peter D. Mortimer: In 2016, Alderman Infurna and Alderman McAteer Margolis were against this. And they said, tradition. And I was surprised, because I've known them for a long, long time. And they are feminist in their thinking. But they wanted to stick to tradition. But to me, a tradition is something you do, not a term, like playing the Thanksgiving Day football game against Wakefield. That's a tradition, something you do, not something you say. And words do matter. Words do matter. I voted for this in 2016, obviously on the losing side at that time. And my views are the same. People should be called what they want to be called. And this is an important term. As Karen Smolin spoke at public participation, she brought up the point that for a long time,

▶ 1:00:41 Peter D. Mortimer: about 20 or 30 years ago, we started saying police officer, not policeman. We started saying police officer. And firefighters wish to be called firefighters. They don't want to be called firemen. And that includes the men, too. So we call them what they want to be called. and the ladies on this board want to be called city councillors, so we'll call them what they want to be called. I'm sorry I'm going to get into a little bit of controversial conversation here, but I think it needs to be said. There's some people who say it doesn't matter, and it doesn't matter. Well, if it doesn't matter, they're coming up with arguments why we shouldn't do it. They say it doesn't matter, and then people I approach on the street, we've had all 58

▶ 1:01:28 Peter D. Mortimer: The emails that we got were in support of it, and I think the community is overwhelmingly in support of it. But some of the people who are against it say it doesn't matter. Well, I said, well, if it doesn't matter to you, then let the ladies who are on this board have the name by which they wish to be called. Let that occur, but they say it doesn't matter. And then I've heard the incorrect argument, in my opinion, that well, you have more important things to do. Waldman have more important things to do well you know what we do whatever we need to do we've had two orders before this tonight and we didn't say we have to hurry up and get to this order we have to all right forced all the conversation let's leave let the conversation go we got to get to

▶ 1:02:16 Peter D. Mortimer: this order no we gave both these previous orders a full and thorough vetting and that's what we do we're not on the clock like workers at some construction company where they say cut down these 20 trees and the boss comes around at 3 o'clock quitting time and says you only cut down 15 trees well boss we had a problem with the chainsaw well we'll have to cut down the rest tomorrow we do our work we take care of our agenda we're not wasting our time here because twice in the past two months we've stayed here till midnight because we had serious work to do and this is serious work to do it's important to some people but we don't give any other serious work that we have to do short shrift because we're addressing this serious work it's first

▶ 1:03:06 Peter D. Mortimer: of all it's not a waste of time and even for those people who do think it's a waste of time it's our time that we're wasting we're not wasting their time if If we have to stay here till midnight, as was proven in the last two months, to get our work done, we stay here till midnight. But this is important, and even if we weren't, the order's before us, it is important. And we take the time to deal with each and every order to the full extent necessary to achieve the best possible results for the city of Melrose. Thank you very much. Thank you. Alderman Zwirko. Thank you, Madam Chair. Peter, we almost will be here till midnight. No, I think you made some great comments, and I wanted to just add that this certainly

▶ 1:03:49 Michael P. Zwirko: is not a distraction. You know, 2019, the ability to be able to pass this order is not only in due time, but there's some historical significance. A hundred years ago, 1919, suffrage movement took hold. Women finally are afforded the right to vote. It's time now that we move forward on this order. I'd also like to say thank you to President Lemmerman for her work on this. When I think of her, I think of the word fortitude, to continue at this and to go forward knowing of its previous failure, but knowing that elections matter, and that in 2017 this board changed significantly, and for her to continue to push this was not only the right thing to do, but it stands to her character. I've been waiting a long time to say this, so basically what I said, it is an old word

▶ 1:04:46 Michael P. Zwirko: in Danish that needs to be retired. Tonight we can retire that word. It has been said also this evening that the term is unique. It is, but not in the right way, and certainly not in a way that I want to be associated with it. Sometimes being the last one isn't a good thing. As someone with the name ZW, I've experienced that from time to time. This is a pragmatic and necessary change. It's about time. I'm happy to support this change once again. Thank you. Thank you. Alderman McMaster. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to thank President Lemmerman for filing this order. I'd like to thank my colleagues for their comments. And I'd like to thank Alderman Forbes because I think the one thing that Alderman Forbes

▶ 1:05:34 Shawn M. MacMaster: does is always make it very clear that we can have dialogue and discourse and we can do it in a way where we can agree to disagree and he's been a consistent and a constant voice in that regard that being said he and I also know that we approach this issue from very different perspectives and I say that knowing and as alderman for knows that he and I are very close outside of this chamber and he and I have become very close friends over the last year and this is an issue that we disagree on but we can have a debate and we can be civil and I think it's it's an example of what can be done and should be done outside of this chamber on any issue that confronts the community whether it's a controversial

▶ 1:06:15 Shawn M. MacMaster: issue or not that being said I've received a lot of email correspondence and I was touched by much of the correspondence that we all received that shared similar experiences to the ones that I've had with my own six-year-old daughter and my daughter just a few weeks ago said to me daddy why have there been no girl presidents and I wasn't really sure how to answer that and she watches these meetings to see dad even though she doesn't really want to stay tuned in and she at least from what my wife tells me after she sees me she tunes right out. But at six years old and being innocent, she doesn't quite understand the term alderman. Yet as a six-year-old, she thinks it's comical. It's somehow funny that

▶ 1:07:08 Shawn M. MacMaster: women aldermen are called aldermen. And she doesn't understand that. So she thinks it's funny. But a few years from now, when she's not six, I can't help but wonder how she's going to feel about it and I tend to think she's not gonna think that it's funny and she's gonna question the term and she's gonna question me as her father when she looks back and maybe wonders you know why I voted a certain way or why you know so you know with with that being said and understanding the importance of this issue to my colleagues on the board to President Lemmerman to President to Alderman Bewtra to Alderman Lipper-Garabedian to Alderman Medeiros I am in full support of this I think it's time I think it's a gender-neutral term and I

▶ 1:08:00 Manisha Bewtra: think the term counselor offends no one so I will be voting in support of this tonight thank you madam chair Alderman Bewtra thank you chairwoman I wanted to with all due respect to Alderman Mortimer wanted to just sort of state for the record kind of in reiterating alderman McMaster's point regarding sort of the importance of engaging in dialogue and respecting dissent we did receive 58 emails there were at least two that I recall maybe a few more I didn't count the sort of yeses and noes the yeses were overwhelming in terms of supporting the change but we have received a couple of alternative opinions and have certainly seen some of those on social media and it's again not a critique of you but I just want to sort of state for the record that we do

▶ 1:08:52 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: acknowledge and appreciate all of the feedback that we've received regardless of whether we personally agree or whether that's the way the current is going thanks I just you know I am also in support of this name change I want to thank president Lemmerman for bringing it to us again and for offering to let folks sign on as co-sponsors as I shared with the constituents who have reached out to us and I want to thank them as well for being so engaged when I ran for the board a couple years ago and was doing door knocking and getting signatures there were any number of conversations I had where people didn't know what I was running for because they didn't know what the term alderman meant and that confusion will not exist with the term and title of City Council I

▶ 1:09:45 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: I look for every opportunity to make government feel accessible to the people who live here so that people feel comfortable coming forward and know how to navigate that system maybe that's the former seventh grade teacher in me where in the very first week of school I would call every single parent and introduce myself over the phone because I wanted them to know how to find me and I think that this name is having the name counselor or City Council is intuitive it's self-explanatory and that goes a long way toward encouraging people to be part of the governance of the city so we do have a motion I believe we have a motion on the floor made by President Lemmerman and duly seconded by Alderman

▶ 1:10:26 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Mortimer is there any further discussion all right all in favor any opposed opposed that motion carries and will be recommended to the full board our final order on the agenda tonight is order 2 0 1 9 dash 81 a home rule petition to amend section 3 dash 10 of the Charter of the city of Melrose we are still under suspension of rules and I do see on the city solicitor here Thank You madam chair Member of the committee the the order before you this evening is intended to address what we considered as an administrative team to be an operational glitch in the city charter in the current unique circumstance in which the city of Melrose finds itself and that circumstance is involving those situations where the president of the Board of Aldermen in the third or fourth

▶ 1:11:30 year of the term for which a mayor is elected becomes the mayor given the departure of the elected mayor and if you look at the proposal that's before you this evening currently as written the mayor would leave office immediately upon certification of the election result of the November 2019 election there are a number of concerns that necessitate presenting this order to you and I will share with you some of those concerns number one which is really the primary concern is that our municipal government is very much modernized now and you know the discussion about the name change as I was following it earlier sort of rung true to me that some parts of our Charter do need to be modernized and this is this is one part of the Charter

▶ 1:12:32 although this particular document is only 14 years old this is one part of the city charter that is actually somewhat outdated as well mayor of Melrose is no longer a part-time employee, which it was, as some of you know, many, many, many years ago. It's a full-time elected official, the chief executive officer of an $80 million operation with a number of wide and varying responsibilities. The concern here and the reason for this request is because there is currently no transition plan in those circumstances where the president of the board becomes the mayor what would happen in november of 2019 for those in the public who may not be aware is the person elected at the november 5th biennial city election

▶ 1:13:27 would become the mayor immediately upon vote certification there would be no time for for the administrative staff at City Hall, myself, Mr. De La Russo, Ms. Long, the HR Director, Mr. Schenner, the two public safety chiefs, to onboard the new mayor, to brief the new mayor, to make the new mayor aware of the number of issues and challenges that may be facing the city. There would also be no time for what we would consider to be somewhat of a seamless transition. It would be somewhat disruptive in that the new mayor would just take office and we would have to, unfortunately, operate in a less than efficient and somewhat clunky manner for a period of time. As the Member know, when Mayor Inferna was elected president of the board, she had about a three and a half week period of time during which she met with the senior administrative team.

▶ 1:14:27 She met with former Mayor Dolan. She was briefed on the many issues that she would be confronted with immediately upon becoming mayor. But unfortunately, I can attest to this, that simply wasn't enough time. And if Mayor Infurna were here this evening, I'm sure she would tell you that wasn't enough time to truly get transitioned into the role. So the intent of this piece is really to correct what is considered to be an operational glitch, try to create a more efficient and more effective transition process that currently wouldn't exist under the existing Charter language and we hope for your favorable action on this but I'm here this evening obviously to answer any questions that Member may

▶ 1:15:10 John N. Tramontozzi: have thank you madam chair thank you for coming in this evening to answer our questions mr. van Kemp and first question I have is procedurally how did we how did he get here with this water did anyone on this board request this order to be presented no this is a proposal that has been offered by the administration and I would I would speak to the timing of this I understand there's some concern about the the timing of this and some folks may you know raise allegations of suspicious sort of timing suspicious nature of this the reason this is being presented to you is this has been on the radar for several weeks but when the administration discovered that in addition to alderman Rita aldermanic vacancy home rule petition president

▶ 1:16:00 lemmerman was also going to be proposing a home rule petition to change the name from Board of Aldermen to City Council the decision was made that as sort of a package we would present this I've had conversations with Representatives Broder have made him aware that to the extent the board wishes to consolidate these three petitions into one package he's already had conversations with House counsel they are prepared to receive that package so the reason this is being presented is we took the occasion since the board was already requesting certain revisions to the city charter to add what we considered to be a necessary change to that to that process so the motivating motivation for presenting this is the issue regarding the transition period of time correct

▶ 1:16:49 John N. Tramontozzi: is the incoming mayor an opportunity to sort of learn the ropes if you weren't understand the operations of the city there's also been some suggestion to presentation to letters received by this board one in particular suggesting and somehow this was instituted for the benefit of the current mayor, specifically that the mayor is using this as an opportunity to increase or boost her pension. Can you describe and tell me whether this is a factor that was considered at all and what the effect is regarding the pension? Yeah, I think before I answer that question, i would i have to reiterate this is about good government and trying to make transitions as modern as and efficient as we can for the city of melrose this is not about one mayor this is

▶ 1:17:50 not about mayor Infurna this could be about a mayor in 30 years who's the president of the board in a sense to the office of mayor and about the transition following that person's term So it's not about one singular person, but what I would say with respect to Mayor Inferna, when she became an alderman 20 years ago, she opted not to join the pension system. So there is no long-term pension benefit by virtue of Mayor Inferna staying in for several additional weeks to transition with an incoming mayor. There's no pension. In fact, I spoke to Ms. Long today. Mayor Inferna doesn't even take the city's health insurance. So there's no additional financial benefit that would have long-term benefit for her by virtue of this passing.

▶ 1:18:38 Manisha Bewtra: Thank you. I appreciated that clarification. Thank you. Alderman Bewtra. Thank you. Continuing on Alderman Tramontozzi point, how does the mayor feel about this? Quite frankly, she's indifferent to this. This is a recommendation that Mr. De La Russo, myself, and other senior administrative staff Member brought to her attention and outlined our recommendation that it made good operational sense to approach this. Great. Thank you, and thank you. I know we spoke this afternoon, so I think a lot of my questions you addressed in your statement and were further addressed by Alderman Tramontozzi points. as a mayoral candidate no matter how this decision goes tonight regarding this position if I win I am prepared to take office in November or in January I

▶ 1:19:30 Manisha Bewtra: believe this is a common-sense amendment and aimed at providing continuity and stability particularly for those who work here at City Hall our department heads who have dealt with in this scenario in the last couple years a lot of transition and turmoil but in any future transition of this nature would be in a similar situation I think this period allows for the mayor-elect to coordinate with the city administration on a range of issues and allows for a smoother transfer thank you I think the previous all of it answered my question question in the point that an individual probably has a he or she has a job at this point so if he or she is elected the following day he or she cannot have another job taking the position as

▶ 1:20:28 Robert A. Boisselle: mayor is that correct that's correct to the extent that the election result is certified i understand that there is a a period of time between when the polls close the votes are counted and the and the city clerk officially seals that result and that could be up to 10 days oh it is up to 10 days okay so it's not within 24 or 48 hours because under under law individuals have the right to request a recount and i believe that is a 10-day period all right so with that account so So the individual has enough time to submit to his or her employer, they're leaving their present position and working, becoming mayor of the city and so forth. Correct. I mean, I don't know about a 10-day notice to your employer that you're leaving, but

▶ 1:21:18 Michael P. Zwirko: it's usually two weeks. What I would say is even that 10-day period is not a sufficient period of time for a smooth, efficient, traditional transition. okay thank you thank you thank you madam chair before I have some comments to make before I make them I just wanted to state that mayor Infurna is an honorable mayor she has integrity and I do not think that this order in any way shape or form is nefarious or has a nefarious intent and to a certain extent I can actually see why this order is being filed but I have grave concerns about it I also wanted to just state because the comment did come up about the mayor previously being part-time back in the mid-2000s the old charter was essentially

▶ 1:22:12 Michael P. Zwirko: thrown away and a new charter was ratified by the voters of the city of Melrose we used to have nine Member on the school committee the mayor's term used to be two years there was a whole host of changes that were effectively made and that was voted and approved and ratified by an electorate so that's just an important distinction at that time this provision was placed in and it has remained it's survived the charter review that seven people were empaneled to go through painstakingly i will add it took nearly a year to go through that process it first started with the charter review committee and then it went through this board so the purpose of a periodic charter review as outlined in the charter which

▶ 1:22:52 Michael P. Zwirko: is set to go off every 10 years is that sue you can objectively look at each provision and give it an honest look without any outside encumbrances two years ago we did just that in this review which took the better part of a year we reviewed this particular provision and understood that it was not an operational oversight yet it was an intentional act that deemed the electorate and the will of their vote as sacrosanct and supreme mayor Infurna who was legitimately elected as our interim mayor under the charter was not elected to that office by the electorate. On November 5th, 2019, and a few days after that, once this election is certified, a new mayor will be elected. The provision essentially states that now a duly elected mayor has been chosen,

▶ 1:23:37 Michael P. Zwirko: the will of the people must be honored. Further, this provision is a significant one and its intentions are clear. There is no oversight. This is not a Scrivener's error. For this body to make this change to this provision is not only undemocratic but overruling the will of the electorate that effectively approved this specific provision back in the mid 2000s I also respect that the Charter is a living document and it can and should be updated from time to time outside the automatic 10-year provision as we just did however there are some changes that if made by this body should be ratified by the electorate I feel that this one is substantial enough to require that that being said I did have one question for you you had said mr.

▶ 1:24:22 Michael P. Zwirko: city solicitor of in campen that a couple of weeks prior to this order being filed the administration was going to go forward with this but you sought to hold off while there were other orders having to do with charter amendments coming forward so could you restate I wanted someone asked on the purpose so yes I didn't exactly say that what I said was this has been on the radar for several weeks that this this issue of what's going to happen in November of 19 and once the administration learned that there would be two petitions for amendments to the city charter the decision was made to present this as well I mean I know that I've spoken with Member of this administration about this provision in 2018 I don't know if there was any

▶ 1:25:18 Michael P. Zwirko: effort to make a change at the time and in 2018 we actually had two orders before us that sought to amend the Charter too so I just I just feel that it's I can't speak to that I don't know if you and I spoke about this provision I don't recall that I can't speak to what you're alluding to or trying to imply but the decision was made where there was a package that was going to be presented that we would make this request simultaneously understood but this I mean this provision is it's not is not an operational error it might be uncomfortable but it's it's its intent is clear yeah and again I don't think there was a I also don't think I said this is a script scrivener's error or an error I referred to as an operational glitch meaning what will happen to the

▶ 1:26:07 continuity of our government after November 5th is potentially an operational glitch we will have a mayor who will not have the ability to transition in therefore we consider it to be somewhat of a glitch in an inefficiency if you will and my statement thank you for your clarification my statement points out why this is not an operational glitch that it is the intent and what the intent is born for for that specific purpose that's all the comments that I had at this time thank you madam chair thank you I just have a couple of a couple of questions but I will say you know I can't appreciate when you go over the Charter and you you read it in black and white on paper it can be difficult sometimes too and I'm

▶ 1:26:57 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: speaking only for myself because we did this and there have been I feel like a couple of times over the last year or so where you know when you're actually seeing it play out in in reality that there are these unintended consequences or situations that you you think wow I didn't didn't really think about that you know I thought I thought it through thoroughly but then you're faced with something so I can see that happening I do feel that the I don't feel that any of this is being done with any ill intent I do find it the timing and also it that it is coming from an administration in the position to be an awkward one for us to be debating I as we're talking a few things have popped up for me that I'd like to ask you about with the you know bearing in mind how

▶ 1:27:48 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: can we have as much foresight as possible as we go through the charter so is this same provision does this same situation happen to an alderman who is appointed by the board so we for example we have an alderman here who went through our process no wouldn't so it may the mayor is the only office that if there's a you know a person who has been appointed as opposed to elected in the last and I and I will say this as respectfully as I can Adam president but the the difference between oh I am assuming the office of Ward alderman or alderman at Lodge and the you know the need to have an understanding of the issues being dealt with on a day-to-day basis and being an incoming mayor are very different absolutely I completely agree that

▶ 1:28:36 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: would have been the next thing that I said but I'm just trying to think through the various ways that we have our elected officials coming into the their jobs and how we deal with that when it's not the it's now April and this would have to pass completely through and be signed by the governor by October correct do we over for so early October five and a half months correct and I understand your question I think I also want to just stress that if it's not passed by October whatever the date is at the end of the day because it's not about a single mayor if it passes in december or january of 20 or whenever the legislature can actually take it up and get to it and the governor can sign it we will have made the change that we

▶ 1:29:36 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: the administrative team think is necessary so that this scenario doesn't happen uh the next time and this has never happened before right i mean it hasn't pointed out this is a newer this is a relatively new charter document and so this circumstance has never arisen and i think the odds of this happening are in the future relatively remote but we always want to prepare for you know remote outcomes okay um i do have i'm skeptical of this going through in the amount of time just knowing the process and knowing you know looking as i have recently done looked at a lot of um other cities who have gone through a home rule petition um i'm not sure i saw that any of them have done it quite that that quickly um so i could be wrong but i you know if we're looking to

▶ 1:30:30 Monica C. Medeiros: do this for this particular situation the understanding that you know it could happen in the future but as you said it's very unlikely um that is a concern for me fair enough the timing on this um the ideal would be for passage to occur and apply to this situation as well as all future situations but if that ideal doesn't happen and it only passes in time to apply to future situations then we would still again as an administrative team consider that to be an accomplishment sure okay that's all i have for now thank you alderman Medeiros thank you uh i won't belabor this too much i am a strong no on this proposal i feel it's of the utmost importance for a mayor who is elected by the people by the voters to be allowed to take office

▶ 1:31:28 Monica C. Medeiros: as soon as possible many of you know in December of 2017 I filed an order for a one-time exception to the Charter not not a change to the Charter but at one time exception to allow for a special election when we knew and had the foresight that we were going to have a vacancy in the office of mayor prior to the two-year mark left in the term and I felt at that time as I do now that it's very important to have a mayor who is elected by the people in that position and you know that's regardless of whomever that person should be and you know this is something that's in the Charter that was voted on by the people by the voters in 2005, this change, and leading up to that change, there was a pretty extensive

▶ 1:32:26 Monica C. Medeiros: process with the Charter Commission, and you see the language in this portion of the charter as to how the mayor in this situation, the new mayor, would take office. It's very different from any other situation and i believe that that was absolutely purposeful and intentful and that was what was meant by the authors of this charter that it's not simply an operational glitch i think lastly that any time when we get into changes that the charter is one of the most it's like our constitution i know i've said that before it's one of the most important documents if not the most important document that we have that we operate by that we set the rules for that we we move forward with and when we get into a situation

▶ 1:33:21 Monica C. Medeiros: when we have something that is benefiting and in this case there is i mean there would be a financial benefit to the sitting mayor and that she would receive two more months of salary which is a substantial amount of money. We're looking at like $20,000. That's a substantial figure. We're looking at somebody in a specific term and we're looking at the specific person. This is not the kind of way that we should be debating issues of our charter. They should be looking at the greater issue. If we want to look at this for the future and say maybe we should not have this happen again in the future I do think it was very intentful and meant for that person who was elected by the people to take office immediately you know upon certification of course of the results I

▶ 1:34:19 Monica C. Medeiros: think that was that was the intent I think I still support that intent I definitely do so still support that intent but this changing things when they benefit an individual rather than just the office is is not the best way to operate and ultimately I think this is something that's important for the voters to speak they already spoke in 2005 and voted for this provision in the charter which was reviewed again in a pretty lengthy review and I believe this wording is intentful and meaningful and I don't support this change thank you you may not know the answer to this question but I'll ask it anyway do you know when the administration was aware of the operational glitch when did it come into was it a few weeks ago or was it some point I mean I would have been

▶ 1:35:22 aware of this at some point in the past clearly right I just you know I couldn't pinpoint just thinking from the timeline that it was aware to the timeline that it's being brought before us I wasn't sure if you were you were aware of when this was discovered or initially talked about you know I heard Alderman's work or refer to conversations in 2018 I frankly you know have a number of conversations with Member of this board i i simply don't recall when or if those conversations happened um i will say even if they did at that time you know no decision had been made to propose a standalone request to amend the charter this decision was made at this point in time because there were two other petitions that were going to be on your agenda so the decision was made to

▶ 1:36:15 as a package make this request simultaneously understood yeah um and again i just have to stress this is not about an individual this is actually this has nothing to do with mayor Infurna she just happens to be sitting in the chair this has to do with as i said earlier and i i'm repeating myself but you know i take great exception to allegations that this is about enriching one individual this is about making our charter work better from an operational standpoint that's strictly and solely what this is about and i understand that and i agree with you i'm not making any of those allegations okay what i'm looking at is just the process as a whole all right so i think we all became familiar with section 3-10 of the city charter in january of last year and i remember

▶ 1:37:06 Scott M. Forbes: the polarizing debate of people saying that they wanted to change the city charter right there because they didn't agree with the process and they wanted to have a special election and there was a lot of debate and public comment about that they people didn't think that the process was fair however the response to that was is that the charter was the binding document and we needed to have a set of guidelines and if you agreed with it or disagreed with it this is what we had to go on and so we accept that as the rule of law and that's how these decisions took place and i was all for that so for me you know 14 months into the mayor's term with seven months left she served two term two-thirds of her term so for me it's if we

▶ 1:37:49 Scott M. Forbes: had to respect the the charters the binding document and at the beginning of the term then i would be more inclined to respect the charter at the end of the term and anybody that's a that's running for this office uh should be aware of the time constraints that are going to be involved and they should make those arrangements with their employers i would imagine months and months in advance to have those conversations when you're going to hold a title such as the mayor of a municipality so that that's how i look at it i would be inclined not to support this order thank you mr mcmaster thank you thank you mr van camden for being here um just to to piggyback on on alderman forbes line of questioning can you just help me understand

▶ 1:38:35 Shawn M. MacMaster: the timing of this a bit more when was a decision affirmatively made to send this order before this board you know i don't have an exact time alderman uh three days well it was submitted on your agenda for monday so probably within the week or two week period leading up to that agenda okay what type of discussion occurred before that was there lengthy discussion within the administration about doing this or was it an idea that somebody within the administration whether it's the mayor somebody else came up with and then decided to put this forth they were ongoing discussions about this but understand there are ongoing discussions about a number of initiatives on a daily basis at city hall so i can't i can't really tell you on march 29th

▶ 1:39:43 mayor Infurna you know and mr delarusso myself and whoever else would have been involved made it made a decision and put it in writing that we would go forward with this with this measure because i simply don't have that recall tonight was there was there any outreach to any member of this board about the administration's intention to put this forward i've had conversations uh recently with Member of the board i don't know who uh on this board has also had conversations with the mayor or others about this issue correct okay so for example i i had a conversation with alderman Boisselle in person alderman Bewtra by phone prior alderman prior to monday night sir I I don't recall that I don't know so you once served as an elected official

▶ 1:40:34 Shawn M. MacMaster: in a municipality correct yes okay so I just ask you for to indulge me and for a moment if you put yourself in our shoes and this comes down three nights ago before us as an order number order number two zero one nine dash eighty with no context no accompanying memo doesn't seem like there was any outreach before Monday night about this to help us contextualize this and the first we're hearing about it is essentially tonight at the first we're we're talking about it is tonight it moved very quickly so it feels as if it just fell in our laps and now we're being asked to debate it and make a decision on it and And you can imagine how Member of the public feel about this, that they were smacked over the head with this

▶ 1:41:27 Shawn M. MacMaster: around the same time that we learned about this. So with all due respect, to me, the order has a foul smell attached to it. It really does, and I say that with all due respect. It has a stink attached to it that emanates from a lack of transparency, a lack of context and candor, and a lack of public discourse. Charter changes need to be proposed with adequate notice and advance explanation to the public. And we had listening session after listening session after listening session about the override, as we should have. Yet this is an issue that strikes at the heart of governance, and there has been no discourse. Now, do I think this is some noxious and nefarious plot by the administration? I don't.

▶ 1:42:16 Shawn M. MacMaster: I don't think that at all. I don't know if this was an oversight. I don't know if it's born of ignorance. I don't know if it's a disconnect from public sentiment. I don't know if it's arrogance. I don't know if it's poor counsel that was offered to the mayor. I don't know if it's a lack of political astuteness. I don't know. Whatever the reason though, is this should have been handled in a different way. That being said, I'm troubled because I understand the importance of transition. As somebody who's worked in state government for an elected executive office holder in my prior position, I went through three transitions with three different administrations and I see the value in it. I understand that good governance calls

▶ 1:42:58 Shawn M. MacMaster: for a seamless transition that affords adequate time for the incoming official to assemble a team. And if I was running for mayor, and I can just speak for myself and I have no intentions of running for mayor, but if I was running for mayor, I would wanna ask for the resignation of every department head, give them an opportunity to reapply, to sit down and talk with them, to have a transition team, and to start to really think carefully with my transition team about the direction of my administration. So I understand it. I completely value the process. I think it's essential. And that's why I'm torn, because i'm struck with the importance of a transition and a distaste in my mouth about the process so that being said i don't know quite what i'm what i'm going to do i'm i'm not sure

▶ 1:43:59 Shawn M. MacMaster: but i just i i think it's something when we come down to the vote i'm going to have to vote at that time based on how i feel at the moment but i'm i'm troubled but like i said i understand the importance of transition these things take time good governance calls for it and i do think the next made mayor should be entitled to coming in and the reigns of government being transitioned in a way that gives them the opportunity to start their administration in a way that's not hasty so thank you madam chair thank you mr van canada um before we circle back any other on motion to speak for the first time i'll just say a couple words but i don't be brief um i appreciate that the change probably doesn't have

▶ 1:44:54 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: fiscal implications for the city so it's true that mayor inferna would um have a salary for two more months but we wouldn't be double paying because there wouldn't be another mayor in so that doesn't change things for us fiscally i appreciate that she didn't take a pension so she's not that's not at play and and not even health insurance so um so although it wouldn't have the change wouldn't have fiscal implications i just have concerns like some of my colleagues about the optics of changing our foundational document in what feels like a really reactive manner rather than the careful deliberation that's divorced from any particular set of facts or individuals and I think we've heard from a couple of our colleagues about the

▶ 1:45:39 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: thought that probably went into this particular provision as you all know I tend to try to bring to your attention how other cities are doing it I didn't have a lot of time to do that tonight or leading up tonight but I did see that Beverly our neighbor just to the north has the exact same provision as we have in our charter and differentiates between a mayor who's serving and the the type of mayor we have right now versus one who was elected. And I don't think it's an overset, I don't think it's an operational glitch. We may decide it's not the best policy for us, but I would rather do that in a very thoughtful, careful, again, deliberation that is not being pressured by a particular set of facts.

▶ 1:46:20 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: I appreciate that this won't be overnight entirely, although it will be a very quick turnaround, but under chapter 54, section 137 of the general laws, we do have to wait until the vote is certified. So that gives us a little bit of breathing room. And then like all other voters of the city, I'll just have to look very carefully at the candidates for mayor and think about who makes the best case for letting us know that they're gonna be ready on day 10. And I do appreciate that there are real, there's a real policy debate here in terms of what would be the best, most principled way to approach this but I don't feel comfortable making a change like this in this type of manner I think it should be done again outside of the

▶ 1:47:08 John N. Tramontozzi: the immediate circumstances and within the general way in which we would approach a charter change Alderman Tramontozzi thank you madam chair I too too I'm a little concerned about and I can see both sides and the importance of a transition but the troubled that this wasn't recognized sooner but I think you know the voters reckon I think that the the charter clearly gives the the say to the book you know the voters and people wanted to elect their mayor and the elections are important to the people you have six months before this occurs is there any possibility you the administration can get together put together provisions for a transition you have incredible talented staff Member in the administration I could

▶ 1:48:15 John N. Tramontozzi: see that the transition can be made smoothly put your heads together sit down you get six months i'll put in but bring forth to this this board a an outline of what the administration plans to do and i think it's something that we could support then so i don't think we really need to try to change the uh the charter provision if um the the minds can get together and uh and be creative you've got six months to do it so well i think you can do it did you want to take on that challenge mr. van Kampen well I'm here this evening on the proposal that's before you and the transition to the extent the Charter language remains unchanged the transition will happen you know at the mayor's level so in the absence of a change to the city Charter will we will

▶ 1:49:10 Michael P. Zwirko: abide by current language well thank you thank you madam chair I'll be brief you Winston Churchill once said that democracy is the worst form of government, but it's better than all the alternatives. And sometimes bad facts make bad law. Sometimes people make bad law. Not trying to step into the shoes of the intent of the voters, but it seems to me that it was pretty clear that the will of the electorate was more important than the will of the administration, especially with this provision. so I just I really want to just stress that point here because this is very deliberate as chairwoman Letter Garabedian stated there is another municipality north of us that mirrors the same provision so this could be

▶ 1:50:07 Michael P. Zwirko: common and and I also think that we haven't used the same consultant in Beverly that drafted the Melrose Charter yeah that's probably why the language is reflective and the thank you for that and the I think we have a provision in this charter to where you can't even alter the mayor's salary in the last 18 months of that mayor's term and the reason for that timing is because well I mean it's the reason for it is because of the same issues that we're debating here this evening it's six months out of any election and you're kind of like moving the goalposts so again I don't think and there's it's a it's a factual statement that there is no benefit here in this case and I understand that this is for future mayor's as well but this could be done through another process at

▶ 1:50:56 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: another time I think we need to as all of us have benefited from the electorate because we're here we need to defer to the electorate in this position as well and I really think that it's very important that there are there will be honored as it was when they approved this specific provision thank you president Lemmerman thank you I have struggled a lot with this one and up till this very moment because I 100% believe that this was brought forth with you know complete intent to fix an issue that was spotted I don't think that there's any nefarious intent behind this at all I don't think as mr. Van Kamen has pointed out several times this has anything to do with one particular person I absolutely believe that this happened because we were given the

▶ 1:51:57 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: clarity of being put into a position and frankly I agree with you that this is a problem where I'm struggling is that when we as a board voted because we had to because the Charter told us that we had to when we chose a mayor for this city there were a lot of voters in the city who felt disenfranchised by that process and who wanted us to change the Charter under duress so that we could make the process what it what they wanted it to be in that situation and we chose not to do that we said the Charter is what it is it was intentionally written that way we are obligated to follow it in this situation we may want to look at it going forward but this we cannot change it under these circumstances and that I leaned on that and that made me feel comfortable with

▶ 1:52:52 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: my vote and it made me I always felt like we did the right thing I feel like we would be going back on that conviction by doing this this evening it's it's a very similar situation it's we're seeing an issue we're we're living with it now so we see the details of it and we have a charter that dictates how we proceed um and we can either change it in the moment almost as an emergency because we're seeing it or we can live with it and perhaps we'll revisit it um i could live with my vote back then because i felt like we followed procedure I don't think I could defend my vote to change it this evening under these circumstances I would welcome us reviewing it in the future but I just feel like I would be doing a complete flip-flop from early

▶ 1:53:47 Monica C. Medeiros: last year thank you Auderman Medeiros thank you and I just want to make clear that I'm not making any allegations and I'm not sure if that's how it came across but most certainly there is a situation here that we're in the middle of where we're the sitting mayor if if extended in term by changing this provision that she put forward would receive two more months of salary and that and because of that it creates an appearance of a conflict and it you know and it's not something that I don't think is the right way to move forward with these kinds of changes it's similar to what happened when we voted to change the mayor's salary in the middle of the sitting mayor's term where it became more about that one individual than about the office and I think that's that

▶ 1:54:44 Monica C. Medeiros: stuff it gets messy when we do that and it creates the appearance of a conflict and it's not the best governing you know I do consistently believe that you know the will of the people is the strongest and most important force in this city and should be honored and you know any this has been in the language that's been in the Charter for you know since 2005 I I have personally been very much aware of it and you know certainly as someone who is a candidate and who may take office immediately after transition of just certification of the votes it's it's a short amount of time and it's a lot to grapple with but it's something that you know you do think about and think about what would happen to the

▶ 1:55:44 Monica C. Medeiros: staff and you make plans for and we have a lot of very qualified people who work for our city government who are department heads and who are other leaders and chiefs and and executives and I believe they work for the the best of the people of Melrose every day and I don't believe that they would not brief any incoming mayor of what was going on and the critical issues of the city I certainly imagine it would be a little bit bumpy and I think that any transition would be bumpy and in fact it's possibly better to begin that bumpy process in November than it is to begin in January when a new mayor should be preparing a budget and getting ready to present those things moving forward so again I just can't support this tonight thank you thank you mr. van

▶ 1:56:46 Manisha Bewtra: Kampen if you could just I know you've said the same things over and over again but maybe go into a little more detail regarding what this would mean for the folks working in City Hall if we kept the language as is particularly I think when we spoke this afternoon you mentioned things that the mayor would need to be briefed on security concerns things like that if you could just give us a little more detail in terms of what that transition would look like this is really about the incoming mayor and Alderman Medeiros just was referenced the bumpiness of not having a transition period and that in January there would still be bumpiness if I if I heard her correctly we're trying to create an environment of transition that makes the next mayor as successful as possible on

▶ 1:57:45 day one not on day 72 in office and in order to do that we have and when i say we i'm referring to the professional administrative team here at city hall have determined that building in some form of a transition makes the most sense to ensure that individual whoever it may be whether they're in this room or outside of this room is successful that's our ultimate goal at all times and the success of the next mayor is the success of the city and therefore it's in the best interest of the city so I'm submitting to you and I've heard a number of comments this evening and I respect every member of this body but there is absolutely no ulterior motive other than to ensure that the next mayor is successful and whether you don't like the timing of this or feel it it stinks

▶ 1:58:38 Manisha Bewtra: or there's some other you know nefarious objective underlying it it's simply not true our goal as an administration is to make sure the next mayor is successful on day one thank you I hear all my colleagues concerns I had the same concerns which I think you allayed when we spoke earlier this afternoon to a great degree I think the optics are very awkward at best it's unfortunate that this order came to us without a more detailed memo things like that or you know clarity in terms of where it came from and how it came to be and I very much respect the concerns my colleagues are bringing up in this regard I think the way I've been approaching this is what do I think would be the best outcome for the city absent all of I guess the drama surrounding this

▶ 1:59:45 Manisha Bewtra: particular order and that is how I came to the conclusion that I'm I want to support it absent also this awkward situation I'm in of this coming forward after I've declared my own candidacy I I've thought about this particular language prior to tonight it didn't totally sit well with me then and like the administration I didn't bring it forward and I take responsibility for not you know bringing this forward as an order prior to the conversation we're having right now but that said I think it it weighs on me knowing that that the folks who see see what happens in City Hall day in and day out very much think that this is an important it is very important to have a transition period and I just wanted to reiterate my position thank you motion not not to

▶ 2:00:44 Shawn M. MacMaster: pass we have a motion recommend not passage by aldermen's work oh seconded alderman Forbes is there any further discussion after listening to mr. van Kanden who's a very effective in his argument I would be inclined to support it understanding the very clear concerns that I that I have about process but I again I do think that it's in the best interests of our city government I agree with Alderman Bewtra and it's something that I would support so I would not support my colleagues motion here but I just wanted to make it clear after listening more to Mr. Van Kanden and listening about it and again having had experience going through transitions that I do think there's a significant benefit to that time thank you madam chair all in favor of the motion before

▶ 2:01:51 us aye opposed opposed that motion passes I think it's eight to two thank you thank you for being here tonight motion to adjourn second the motion to adjourn me by aldermen's work go seconded by alderman Forbes all in favor thank you

Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2019-04-11

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