Legal & Legislative Committee — 2019-08-19

Attendance

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

Agenda

1. Call to Order (0:00)
2. Public Comment (0:40)
3. Motions
4. Orders (38:08)
5. ORDER-2019-34 : Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances to add Chapter 222, Article IV: Shared Mobility Vehicles (38:18)
6. ORDER-2019-82 : AN ORDINANCE REGULATING THE REGISTRATION AND MAINTENANCE OF VACANT COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN THE CITY OF MELROSE (1:43:58)
7. ORDER-2019-112 : Amend Melrose Revised Ordinances by adding Article VI, Section 198-12: Reduction in Single Use Plastic Beverage Straws and Beverage Stirrers in Business Establishments (2:17:55)
8. Adjournment (3:04:15)

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE LEGAL & LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● AUGUST 19, 2019 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:00 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 Francis X. Wright Jr. Chair Present Manisha Bewtra Vice Chair Present Monica C. Medeiros Voting Present Scott M. Forbes Voting Present Michael P. Zwirko Voting Present Jennifer L. Lemmerman President/Ex Officio Member Present Peter D. Mortimer Nonvoting Present Robert A. Boisselle Nonvoting Present John N. Tramontozzi Nonvoting Absent Kate Lipper-Garabedian Nonvoting Present Shawn M. MacMaster Nonvoting Present

ORDER-2019-34 Amending Revised Ordinances Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances to add Chapter 222, Article IV: Shared Mobility Vehicles Hold

ORDER-2019-82 Administrative Order AN ORDINANCE REGULATING THE REGISTRATION AND MAINTENANCE OF VACANT COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN THE CITY OF MELROSE Recommend as Amended Board of Aldermen

ORDER-2019-112 Amending Revised Ordinances Amend Melrose Revised Ordinances by adding Article VI, Section 198-12: Reduction in Single Use Plastic Beverage Straws and Beverage Stirrers in Business Establishments Recommend Passage City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 8/27/2019 11:44 AM

Transcript

▶ 0:00 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Good evening. I'm Frank Wright, Ward 3 Alderman. We're here this evening at 7 p.m. for the Legal and Legislative Committee of the Melrose Board of Aldermen. Under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, I'm going to let you know that this meeting is being recorded for replay on both cable access and the city's website. Motion to open the floor for public comment, Mr. Chairman. Second. need that roll call first oh very good that we will have a roll call and all the men Bewtra here Alderman Medeiros here Alderman Forbes here Alderman Zwirko here Alderman Mortimer yeah Alderman Boisselle here Alderman Trematozzi Alderman Lipper-Garabedian here Alderman McMaster here and president Lemmerman here I heard a motion for public comment by Alderman

▶ 1:13 Mortimer seconded second he's a non-voting member so second good point all by Alderman Forbes second the at this point in the meeting anyone interested in commenting on any matter that's on our agenda this evening may come forward sign in and speak on one of the three matters on tonight's agenda Dan Kretschmer from 110 East Emerson Street I'm also vice chair of the pet bike committee and a member of the traffic Commission as well back to speak on a subject we were here to speak on in February and that's the ordinance regarding shared mobility and bike share we submitted pretty detailed comments on the ordinance at that time so I won't go back into detail on those you have them and as the ordinance hasn't changed our comments haven't changed very much

▶ 2:23 either what has changed is what we sort of predicted at the time was that the vendor had to align the number of bikes on the street with demand and that certainly happened the big change is that there's been about a two-thirds reduction in the number of bikes out on the street due to the fact that that's just what the demand is on an average day there have been about 25 bikes on the streets compared to 60 70 at the beginning the other day I went out and did a survey field survey was only able to find 16 off the app that were in the city I looked to see how they were parked and where they were parked and one of those 16 bikes was parked impeding a sidewalk it was on a side Street on a hill the rest were all parked properly clearly people are

▶ 3:15 making efforts to do that the Planning Department reports that complaints have been minimal especially since they published even after they publicized the fix through see click fix and if you read the city agreement in the ordinance we did mention this before that are already on the books we feel they're more than adequate capability to enforce and address any problems so therefore we believe that the ordinance isn't necessary but we understand others might disagree and as a result the pedestrian bike committee reviewed the ordinance carefully back when it was originally submitted we had input from people with a lot of experience in the transportation field and one with direct experience in the bike share industry while much of the ordinance was fine we

▶ 4:05 identified a number of concerns including what we felt were over regulation of technologies that you know may not be clearly defined yet unclear definitions and descriptions and some inconsistencies with state legislation that was out there defining various types of shared mobility vehicles so far none of those comments have been incorporated into the ordinance it seems to remain the same and we feel that it would be you know we've heard from people saying there are some issues with line bike we want to make it better and we feel that our input would make an ordinance better if if everybody felt that that was the way to go if the board believes in older an ordinance is necessary either now or in the future we think the right way to do it is to

▶ 4:57 gather the input of key stakeholders that would include the city departments responsible for administration and enforcement and as well as other interested parties including the PBC the vendor senior citizens Chamber of Commerce and others it's not easy to regulate new technology properly and we think if it's going to be done at some point it should be done in that manner rather than just having uh an ordinance drop without that type of input thank you thank you i'm jonah kiorenza i'm uh at 515 lebanon street and i'm the chair of the ped bike committee i'm also a transportation planner i work at the u.s department of transportation volpe center in cambridge just a couple of comments to follow up on dan's comments

▶ 5:52 You know, one of the issues, one of the reasons that the Ped Bike Committee exists, one of our primary goals is to provide more transportation options, to make it safer, more comfortable for people to walk or bike if they choose, and we think that line bike is one of those options. I definitely will acknowledge that they're having some growing pains, and we have some users who may not be parking the bikes properly. But again, echoing Dan's comments, I think that there are other ways to deal with that, that the number of instances of improperly parked bikes and the resolution to move the bike slightly out of the way when the rare occasion that one has found improperly parked arises suggests that there is not a problem worthy of an ordinance of this sort of level

▶ 6:41 of severity. are some reasons that we may be seeing under utilization of the bikes one the number of bikes out there actually might be kind of low the city is capped the number of bikes through the agreement with the vendor at 75 which is down from 100 originally and of course we're well below that as we've documented in sort of bi-weekly posts thanks to information being sent to us from the planning department hovering around 2025 average bikes in the city and one of the things that may be impeding to use because we had a discussion on our listserv about this a lot of people in Melrose have their own bikes and if they choose to ride bikes they ride their own bikes but one of the things that's great about

▶ 7:29 line bike is a first and last mile connection to transit and because of the location of a lot of Melrose just sort of outside of walking distance of Oak Grove which is a much more affordable transportation option to the city than the closer commuter rail stations a lot of people might end up using lime bikes to get to and from the station particularly earlier in the morning or later in the day when the MBTA bus service isn't as regular but one of the problems is that currently lime bike is not allowed to station bikes on MBTA property which is kind of ludicrous but that is actually being worked through the channels where lime is working with MBTA and we've communicated through Emma I'm sure through the planning department are feeling that that's something that

▶ 8:13 definitely needs to be remedied at terminal stations like Oak Grove so that this can provide the service that folks might benefit from so we think that's sort of that's an area that this board could provide more support for as opposed to this ordinance thank you my name is Tom Middleton I live at two banks place and my daughter and I are both residents of Melrose and I am here to support and endorse the plastic straw law the use of items such as plastic straws that are only used once and then thrown away has been a big concern of mine for a long time I've been requesting those straws when I dine out for years only to have them given to me or to be put into my drink before I can make my request single-use items create a tremendous amount of trash on a daily

▶ 9:16 basis plastic straws are not recyclable and often contaminate our recyclable materials this isn't this increases the overall trash and disposal cost for our city and is extremely detrimental to our environment plastic straws and stirs often make the top 10 lists of items that are found during ocean and coastline cleanups so for my daughter myself for the city of Melrose and the health of our planet i implore you to support this law thank you hi good evening steve leibman 11 rigid lane um i have one brief additional comment on the proposed bike share ordinance i think before my comment it's probably appropriate for me to preface it by saying that until very recently i was on the executive management team of a bike sharing company with over 10 000 bicycles in more

▶ 10:21 than 200 cities in North America. In that role, I served as an industry representative helping cities, large and small, develop policies that were appropriate for their cities with respect to shared mobility, including bikes and scooters. Those included Chicago, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, and a whole bunch of smaller cities that are closer in character to Melrose. My comment is that while I do think it may eventually make sense to create ordinances that are specific to shared mobility and bike share in particular, I don't think that the proposed ordinance serves Melrose's needs very well. I think that the feedback mentioned by Dan and Jonah provided by the Pedestrian Bike

▶ 11:16 Committee sums it up pretty well. i would recommend is not passing the ordinance as written and instead revisiting it at a later date perhaps including some of the language from the existing uh statement work in agreement with lime thanks hi um we're here with the melrose high school environmental club and we have started this year and we're trying to be active in things like these and all of these smaller issues may seem small but they're a part of the bigger problem that we have here in melrose and with that being said um we would like to support the passing of the plastic straw law as we feel that it will set a precedent in melrose to allow people to have the option of whether to use a plastic

▶ 12:05 straw or not and by doing that that will limit the single use plus of the single plastic straw use thank you thank you thank you hi uh finn mcsweeney 160 west wyoming street my family and i just moved to Melrose in January we love it so far I'm here to speak against the bike sharing regulation as it's currently written I was thrilled to see that line bike was here when we moved here my son goes to the Y Academy he rides his bike there every single day we have a blast we are on the sidewalks every day with him. Certainly from time to time you'll see line bikes. I've never personally seen a line bike parked on the sidewalk here in Melrose, but you'll see things obstructing the sidewalk, you move them. I do bike pretty much every day. I use line bike from time to time

▶ 13:14 though. If it's raining in the morning, and I know it's not going to rain in the afternoon, maybe I'll take the bus to Oak Grove and I don't have my bike with me, so I'll line bike back. My brother visited me earlier this summer. He didn't bring a bike with him, obviously, so he used LineBike when he was here. It's a great tool to have in our arsenal. As a parent of two children, I can't stress this enough. We really need to think comprehensively about our strategy for alternative forms of transportation in Melrose. I'm sure everyone saw the article in the Post last week, New England is already warming faster than any other part of the country. We have air pollution problems here. We have huge traffic problems here.

▶ 14:02 Please, if we want to talk about legislating alternative forms of transportation, let's do it in a way that encourages smart use of them and encourages everyone to take advantage of them. They're great services. think this is just kind of slapdash and I would really be embarrassed I think to see in the paper a headline that said you know Melrose passes restriction on ride-sharing let's work together to pass something that works for everyone and that works with the other towns in the transportation network around us thanks the 34 south high street in melrose and i've been a resident of melrose for 40 years i've also volunteered to help clean up alpine by the way i'm speaking about the straw ordinance the straw and

▶ 15:11 stir ordinance i've frequently over the last 40 years helped to clean up the el pond with the friends of the el pond and each year we collect bags full of litter and much of it is plastic and one of the things I find most is plastic straws. We need this ordinance now because plastic litter is flowing into our storm drains and into our oceans. In the past two years, we've seen whales being washed ashore as countries like Italy, Thailand, and the Philippines. They died because their stomachs were full of plastic, 40 to 80 pounds of plastic. They died of starvation. It's not just whales. UNESCO estimates that 100,000 marine animals die because of plastic pollution each year. In fact, a report from the MacArthur Foundation predicts that by 2050, plastics in the ocean will outweigh the fish.

▶ 16:05 Now, this impacts me because I'm primarily a plant eater, plant-based diet, and I do get some protein from my fish. And now it's estimated that a quarter of all fish has plastic in its flesh. Now I have to hesitate about eating fish. If it's in our oceans, where else is it? A recent study by the Interior of the U.S. Geological Society Survey has discovered that microplastics are in 90% of our rainwater. I'm a gardener and I grow vegetables. If it's in the rainwater, is it getting into my vegetables? What's left? Several of the businesses here in Melrose have already transitioned away from plastic Turners and La Chara are two of them. The assistant manager of Starbucks today, I spoke to him, he told me that he thinks that they'll have no problem with complying with the straw ordinance here in Melrose.

▶ 17:01 That the corporate Starbucks is already doing so in many other cities throughout the country and throughout the world. I wanted to show you a lid. Can you hand me my purse? They showed me a lid that they're using at Starbucks already, so that they don't have to use a straw. So that you get a cold drink, it's got a large opening, and they have a little piece of sticky paper that they can cover it if you want to carry it out. So it won't spill. So you don't need anything else to plug that up. You don't need a straw. So, I talked to the Bohemian coffee shop today as well, and they're already ordering lids like this. So, I urge you to pass this plastic straw water. It alone is not going to solve our problems about the ocean, but it's a step in the right

▶ 17:51 direction. I'd like to be able to tell my grandchildren that we did what we could to try to save this beautiful planet, and by doing so here in Melrose, we start here on the small level. the way the recycling committee is has gifted you each with two metal straws they're in your mailboxes and you'll find them after the meeting so you will have an alternative thank you very much hi everybody I'm Gina McNeil with the Melrose recycling committee thanks so much for considering this ordinance it's as many of you know from the work that we did as a committee on the plastic bag ordinance starting around 2015 and culminating in the passage of the ordinance in 2017 the whole issue of single-use plastics is incredibly

▶ 18:55 important we believe to just environmental initiatives and a huge priority for our committee so we were very pleased when alderman Wright proposed this stirs and straws ordinance I know you've heard from Trudy and others and probably see in the media every day lots of compelling reasons about why we need to address plastic pollution and reduce our production of single-use plastics generally so I'm gonna leave it to others and to the information you already have to speak to that I just wanted to make a couple of kind of quick points in the interest of time one of the important things they think about this ordinance is to think about it as an effort to reset the default behavior so if you think about it the default now is that everything

▶ 19:38 comes with a straw regardless of whether you want often whether you want it or need it when in fact it would make a lot more sense for straws and for probably other things in our lives for the default behavior to be that you don't get it and then if you need it or want it then you can access it this just makes a lot more sense in terms of how we use our resources how those resources are disposed of and on and on and that's really what this very common sense ordinance seeks to do Trudy mentioned that a number of the businesses were lucky in Melrose that we have some businesses that are already voluntarily undertaking the reduction of straws or substitute with more environmentally friendly options in their operations but an ordinance is really important to make

▶ 20:20 sure that those changes are permanent and lasting and not just voluntary actions that businesses do today but then if management changes or those businesses go away and new businesses replace them or what have you Melrose is seeing a lot of growth we're gonna see new businesses come in we want to make sure that everyone is complying with this this high standard and again helping us to protect our resources and then the last point I wanted to make is just speaking to the implementation process for this. I know anytime a new law comes under consideration, the practicality of how will we implement it, how will we enforce it, and what kind of resources is that gonna require is always an important consideration.

▶ 20:59 I think that the work that we did on the plastic bag ordinance and the implementation of that provides a really good template. For those of you who aren't aware, the ordinance obviously went into place last year, And the key thing that we're very proud of as a recycling committee is that there have been no written warnings or fines issued in relation to that. And it's been a really, I think, light lift for City Hall in terms of the resources required to both implement and enforce it. And one of the reasons is that we did a really good job working with City Hall of laying the groundwork and the rollout, communicating multiple times in multiple ways to businesses and residents about the what this was what was coming what it meant etc so I think we envision

▶ 21:45 that same process for something like the plastic stirrers and straws order so that we can again make sure that we kind of accomplish the goal but without creating a lot of burden or surprises either for City Hall or for the businesses and residents and all rows and again I think the plastic bag ordinance and the template we saw there is a really good testimony that we can be successful in doing the same on this ordinance thank you my name is Ryan Williams and I live at 88 Malvern Street I want to talk a little bit about all three items on the agenda first the shared mobility shared mobility ordinance I want to echo the statements of my friends at the Melrose pedestrian and Cyclist Advisory Committee made in addition I would like to challenge the

▶ 22:54 Ryan Williams: board and and your your contacts within Melrose city government to ensure that walking and biking is truly accessible in Melrose before you start finding ways to regulate new methods of non-motorized vehicle transportation for instance it would be a great start to have all of the sidewalks and intersections intersections shoveled in the winter it's a little difficult sometimes to scale the three or four foot high ice mounds that pile up at some of the locations like we shared a couple of months ago and photographs the senior center Linfels and Main Street and some of the other neighborhood intersections especially in in the back end of Lebanon and closer to the cemetery in places where I frequently walk it would be great to have the board legislate method

▶ 23:44 Ryan Williams: to enable the city to do a neighborhood traffic calming program to appropriate funds and methodology to finding ways to address some of our speeding and cut-through traffic problems certainly getting people out of their cars is key to those issues and line bike provides just that resource secondly on the plastic straw ordinance heartily support it plastic straws and plastic cutlery or a big pet peeve of mine especially when they're provided without my having to without my request or without my asking for them as an avid hiker and person who really appreciates all the wonderful conservation land that we have especially in the area where I live it really saddens me to see little pieces of plastic and straws crushed up and ground down into the dirt wherever I go

▶ 24:29 Ryan Williams: It seems like some places, Pine Banks Park or Knox Memorial Trail, if you're looking carefully, you can always find a plastic straw floating around somewhere, and that's because these objects are very small, they're very lightweight, and if you leave it up to people to voluntarily dispose of them properly, even the best intention, people can have them fall out of their pocket, or they can blow out of a trash can during collection, or they can fall through the cracks of a broken garbage bag. and they're so light and small that they just drift around and end up everywhere and finally on the vacant property ordinance I also wanted to show strong support for that because I believe that anything we can do to beautify and

▶ 25:11 Ryan Williams: provide more art to downtown Melrose would be a net gain for the city the downtown area is extremely attractive as we all know and it has a lot of great character to it and I think that the addition of a little bit of public art especially in places like the Papagino's restaurant which has been closed for quite some time and just kind of sits vacant out on a very busy and highly visible corner can add a lot of beauty and dynamic character to our city thank you any other comments my name is Robert Bell and I'm here to discuss the vacancy ordinance or to just actually make a request in relation to the vacancy ordinance which is this i think that it's only fair that the parties at interest be notified

▶ 26:18 as to what is going on with the potential regulation of commercial properties in town it would be unthinkable that we would make a zoning change that would affect commercial property owners without them all being notified in fact it's statutorily required that and when we have done any kind of urban planning initiatives melrose has always been very open in terms of process by being by starting with notifying those who are the interested parties as to what's going to be discussed very easy to get a list of commercial property owners from the assessor's office and i think that they should be involved in this process because i don't think that they have the slightest idea that they're about to have a mandatory regulation of their property done without

▶ 27:22 their input so that's just a request i think you'd be doing yourselves a favor in terms of the possible uh snapback from the commercial ownership community melrose has always operated as a public private partnership and it this max of a bit of command and control that should be done on a much more collegial level i think the idea of having art in vacant properties while landlords property owners are dealing with re-tenanting or selling is fine but the idea that if you don't sign up for it you get penalized that i think requires the input of the affected property owners if this were to be a voluntary program i think you'd see widespread adoption i think you've got to work out the liability aspects what happens if

▶ 28:29 the stuff is the art is damaged while it's on premises i don't think you can expect landlords to take over that liability and if the artists are willing to take the risk of their artwork being damaged then I think you'll find some acceptance but I think you'll find a lot of just outright scofflaw about it if you try to force it down their throats so I'm just advising you that I think it would be best to notify the property owners and hear what they have to say and work it out together like we always we still on every other urban planning issue thank you I live at 32 South High Street I've been a resident of Melrose for about 30 years and I don't have website I'm just here to endorse the straw ordinance everything I've heard I

▶ 29:49 totally endorse it my office is in Cambridge I love how Cambridge operates I love how Melrose operates when it does things and for the for the community for environment this is sort of like one of those do the right thing make us proud ask the origins thanks I'm Kim Kerrigan from 100 cottage Street and I'm here to give my full support for the straw ordinance I've been a family nurse practitioner for about 30 years and I'm very concerned about the effects of plastic on all people but especially young children and I know straws seem like so little what's the big deal but when you think of the millions of straws there are it can make an impact and I've worked a lot with behavioral change with people and it's hard when you're working with people who may be trying to eat

▶ 30:57 healthy or exercise or not smoke I'm sorry I get a little emotional but it's so it's so hard so we need to make it easy for people that if they don't want a straw if they don't have to get it and then they have to think do i want a straw and maybe it'll give them a little pause to think what would be best for their for their health and their health of their children thank you hi hi i'm lisa montori trimble i live at 11 rider avenue i'm pulling up the health care support for the plastic straw ban i'm also deeply concerned both about the environmental impacts of our very heavy plastic culture and but more recently I've always been concerned about that and the environmental impacts especially of single-use plastics somebody who cares about the environment and cares

▶ 32:11 about other creatures but I've also as a nurse and citizen been very concerned about the micro plastic issue about how these products biodegrade into really tiny plastic pieces which are now in the Arctic they're at the bottom of the ocean they're in our food chain they're in us and it's a it's a really serious public health concern that will become more and more problematic over the years in the future and so plastic straws or I think they're about 0.3 percent of the of the plastic waste that we generate but but it's a starting point for having people really think about our plastic use and be able to make behavior change and as somebody who's been trying to avoid single-use plastics in restaurants

▶ 33:01 it's really hard I don't know if you've tried to do this but you know I have to upfront say I don't want a straw and often I will forget and people give me a straw so or give me a plastic container I don't want so I think this helps give people choices and it helps create more options for people like myself who want to make a difference in a positive way and it also creates a demand for businesses to create alternatives to the single-use plastic culture that we have now so thank you for taking this up and i strongly support it and thank you for listening to my comments hi george stubbs um 111 warwick road i've been living in melrose for about 33 years now I am a member of the recycling committee but the remarks I'm making here tonight

▶ 34:17 reflect my own personal views about the reasons to pass the proposed plastic straws or the ordinance as a former environmental reporter I stay current with environmental issues and it seems that over the past couple of years not a a week goes by that I don't see news of a report or study that just provides us with a better understanding of what the very large volume of plastics in our oceans is doing to marine life. And others before me tonight have testified about that, so I think I would just go on to point out something else. According to current estimates, about 10 percent of all plastic products are recycled. are several reasons for this this very low rate for one thing our technological capacity to

▶ 35:09 reprocess these materials is very limited the the plastic industry seems to take stay several steps ahead and coming up with new uh polymers and and new things that are tough to recycle and we're not seeing the investment at the back end to take these these products back another factor is the fact is the simple fact that some people whether by accident or otherwise seem to allow their stuff to get out in the environment on a pretty routine basis as those of us who have participated in the spring cleanups have found i think one thing is certain um the wastes we do generate are overwhelming the existing waste management system and that includes traditional uh disposal like incineration and landfilling as well as recycling we are generating an awful lot of stuff and i

▶ 36:03 think it makes abundant sense to generate less so in light of all of this some people may think the plastic straws ordinance that is being proposed here doesn't go far enough but we have to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves and we have the opportunity to do the right thing here without essentially harming our standard of living in any serious way so I believe the time is right for this ordinance thank you Karen twice I live at 56 Conrad Road I've been in Melrose resident Melrose about 35 years I know you all understand the issue that we have with plastics this is a purse I am a member of the recycling committee but this is my personal plea to you as a mother and a grandmother I think that the getting rid

▶ 37:12 Francis X. Wright Jr.: of plastic straws and stirrers is one of the easiest things we can do in terms of eliminating some of our plastic use I think it's a no-brainer I urge you to please pass this ordinance thank you is there anyone else who would like to comment on any of the three items on tonight's legal and legislative matters agenda motion to close public comment second motion to close public comment by Alderman Forbes seconded by Alderman Zwirko all in favor of closing public comment aye public comment is closed we'll move on to the orders first of three orders on tonight's agenda order 2019-34 amending Melrose revised ordinances to add chapter 222 article 4 shared mode I'm sorry shared mobility vehicles although Medeiros thank you thank you very much chairman Rita I am

▶ 38:37 Monica C. Medeiros: the maker of this order this has as you recall was submitted at the end of November for our first December meeting we discussed it briefly back in February and then this is the first time it's come up since then at the time when I first submitted this order it was somewhat after the line bikes had first kind of been massively deployed throughout the city and I think as you can see in the ordinance here in our IQM to the photos of the way some of the bicycles were deployed by the company I received you know many constituents complaints that this was enforced you can see for instance one of the pictures of the bicycles right across the sidewalk walk right in front of the hospital an area where you know many people who may have their own mobility

▶ 39:38 Monica C. Medeiros: issues on the way to the bus stop there it wasn't the best thing so i've found that you know we sh we license and this is a very common sense thing we license every other entity that uses our public roadway you know we license we allow vehicles to come and go we have regulations for things like taxicabs we license taxicabs we license livery truck livery car drivers people like uber for instance the individual licensees we license by bus companies who use our roadways and it seems to me that if we have all of a sudden you know corporations coming in and trying to use our public roadways that we should have some regulations in place later did I learn that the mayor had signed a statement of work with the MAPC and with this company

▶ 40:42 Monica C. Medeiros: to do business on our streets but I don't see without any kind of regulations anything that would prohibit many companies from using our public roadways and I think it's really important that we have clear standards in front of us so what we have in this ordinance is a set of definitions i again i reviewed many ordinances from all across the country to find in as close as arlington and as far across the country as california to find something that would cover all of the different options and most notably the key provisions here that it would provide some kind of licensing for the company for the company it would require that in the business areas in which mobility for pedestrians is really of the utmost importance that it would provide that the city designate designated station

▶ 41:42 Monica C. Medeiros: areas where the bicycles would be kept in the business areas so this ordinance serves to make sure the roadways are and the sidewalks in particular are kept clear of bicycles or other shared mobility vehicles and to make sure that we're sort of you know maintaining our desirability aesthetically just bicycles not a strewn everywhere but in the downtown area that they have a place where they belong this would not in any way prohibit people from using line bike or unless of course we license a different company instead of line bike it would not prohibit anybody from using a shared mobility vehicle it would not prohibit anyone from driving the bicycle to their home it just says if you leave it unattended for more than 72 hours the company has to pick it up and rebalance

▶ 42:42 Monica C. Medeiros: it and bring it back to one of the designated station areas I think it's very reasonable you'll see that there are provisions in here for allowing if bicycles were left say for instance blocking a handicap ramp the police could actually ticket the company for the bicycle doing so just like they would ticket the vehicle's owner if it was a rental vehicle and you know that may not be the case it may be easy for somebody to just move a bicycle I've been around and have encountered the bikes on the sidewalk I've done my best to move them but sometimes there are people who are unable to physically move a bicycle they don't have that physical capacity they may be just weaker they may be in a wheelchair or with a walker they may be you know have their hands

▶ 43:49 Monica C. Medeiros: with a young child and need to get their stroller down the street and I think it's important that we have some standards for how our roadways are used so for that matter I had suggested this we had requested members of the Planning Department to appear here today and to give us an update as to some ride data the last that I had showed that maximum we had when we were back in February the maximum number of vehicles in use at any one time was 40 and I know we had members of the bike and pedestrian committee here tonight who gave different numbers the planning department was unable to come and I have not received any additional information Thank You Alderman Bewtra Thank you. First, I just wanted to acknowledge that I really appreciate Alderman Medeiros work on this. I can see that you did research many different ordinances and put a lot of thought into it.

▶ 45:01 Manisha Bewtra: I also really appreciate both at our February 4th legal and legislative meeting as well as tonight the Melrose pedestrian and bike committees diligence on reviewing the proposed ordinance and comments on ridership and experiences from transportation planning perspective back in February the office planning and community development provided a really informative presentation on the initial lime bike pilot including a lot of ridership statistics and some of the things that i was impressed by were one there was a representative of lime at that meeting and they were extremely responsive to our questions as were the planning office and we learned that the planning office does get have access to a dashboard that provides that ridership information i believe on a monthly

▶ 46:06 Manisha Bewtra: basis um i think the the big update tonight is that we have been now provided with the memorandum of understanding with the metropolitan area planning council and 16 metro boston cities and towns as well as the statement of work between the city and lime and i think those documents really helped to fill in the gaps in information we had back in February I do appreciate that this order as well as the order filed by alderman Mortimer 2019-32 back in February created an impetus for a presentation from the Planning Department and I think if there is a lesson here it's just that you know we have that we could have communicated proactively and going forward I would to see us communicate proactively on new programs such as line bike early and often

▶ 47:03 Manisha Bewtra: ultimately i'm opposed to this order i believe that the mou and statement of work sufficiently address coordination with line bike and additionally melrose ford our community's vision and comprehensive plan which i helped to create when i was a project manager at mapc includes a goal to promote active transportation including walking and biking increasing facilities for bicycles and pedestrians through exploration of a bike share program is among the action steps listed in the plan and I'm really pleased to see we've made progress on this recommendation my main concern with the dockless bike share system has been when people park their bikes as you mentioned alderman Medeiros in the pedestrian right away

▶ 47:47 Manisha Bewtra: making our sidewalks inaccessible and I confirmed with the city that these bikes should be parked off the sidewalk on the curbside either on the grass next to the curb or in the street furniture area and commercial districts and I think it's incumbent on us as the city and as residents of the community to really model that behavior if we see a bike in the road to move it to the curbside to help out our neighbors who may not be physically able to move them out of the but I don't think that that's on on the system those rules and regulations are very much addressed in the statement of work already this didn't come up tonight but I I've heard some chatter in the community too about a docked system

▶ 48:29 Manisha Bewtra: versus dockless and ultimately docked by bike systems are only effective in really densely populated areas so that's not really a proper solution for us I i think we should be doing everything we can to to uh incentivize ridership rather than than depressing it and i think in a largely residential community like ours something like a docked system would be too costly and impractical i think that dockless bike share and other shared mobility vehicles are in a great step in the right direction and another thing we hear a lot about is complaints about traffic congestion these programs get cars off the road provide an active transportation option that allows users to get more exercise and provide a

▶ 49:21 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: public health benefit and cut greenhouse gas emissions because a lot of the trips taken would otherwise have been in a car if we say we care about our environment we should be supporting innovative and responsibly implemented programs like this one and not stifling them thank you president thank you mr. chairman given that it's 750 we have a full board meeting scheduled for 745 after this one and I anticipate we'll have lots of discussion on each of these orders I actually don't believe that I can make a motion but would recommend that we recess to the full board so that we have our 8 p.m. hearing on time and dispose of that and then could come back to committee if that's the will of the board to recess second on discussion I would I was in queue and I would like to

▶ 50:20 Francis X. Wright Jr.: just have perhaps two minutes before we recess if that would be allowable before kind of the continuity of this is broken if if I could only because we do have the public hearing and I was looking for an opportunity to break. You're in queue, President Lemmerman in queue, Alderman Forbes is in queue, both before you, so I think we need to, what I would like to let all those present know is that under our rules, if we have another meeting scheduled on the same evening and we reach the time which that meeting is supposed to start, we have to start that meeting within a half an hour we can open it and then we can recess it and we can return to the meeting we're originally in in this case we do have a

▶ 51:11 Francis X. Wright Jr.: public hearing scheduled to begin at 8 so we need to also consider that but we will open the meeting of the full Board of Aldermen and once we get through the initial phase of that we will return to this meeting so if you could bear with us for several minutes while we do that we'd appreciate it thank you thank you and we have before us a motion to recess this this meeting of the legal and legislative committee all in favor hi good evening the hour being 7 53 on August 19th 2019 I call to order this meeting of the full board of the Melrose Board of Aldermen I don't think you could call the roll please Alderman Bewtra here I'm in Boisel here Alderman Forbes here Alderman Letter Garabedian here Alderman McMaster here Alderman Medeiros here Alderman Mortimer

▶ 1:23:07 Francis X. Wright Jr.: anticipate and it's an unknown factor anyway so thank you further discussion we have a motion made and seconded to recess the full board meeting all in favor aye aye any opposed we are now in recess we're going to reconvene the legal and legislative committee meeting um having recess for the purposes of opening the full meeting of the meeting of the full board of aldermen which is now in recess itself we will return to the discussion amongst the members of the board of aldermen of order number one which is proposal to amend And I'll always evaluate his ordinance, Chapter 222, Article 4, Shared Mobility Vehicles. A couple of old, three old, Alderman in queue. However, the two ahead of you, Alderman Mortimer, are not in the room at the moment, so we'll look to you for your comments.

▶ 1:24:11 Peter D. Mortimer: Thank you very much, Alderman Wright. Yes, I'd just like to say it was mentioned earlier that in the spring I had brought forth an order Asking the administration, the mayor's office to put forth a lot of information regarding these bicycles. I think that has been done, I think it was not done, it was not brought out with a lot of transparency and there wasn't a lot of communication about it initially. We have received a lot of complaints about sidewalks being blocked. Amazingly, after I filed the order, I filed asking for more information. Suddenly the number of line bikes that littered the sidewalks seemed to be cut in half. I think it served its purpose and made the line bike company a lot more responsible.

▶ 1:25:02 Peter D. Mortimer: So I was happy that that happened. I've been monitoring the situation because I'm around Melrose constantly in a vehicle, on foot. And on a bicycle, and I think the situation as well, so I don't think we need to do any further. I think my ordinance went far enough. I think this one goes a little too far, and I'd just like to say one of the things that's come up a lot, and it's obliquely related to this, is people are talking about we want to put people in vehicles. We want to have less cars, we want to have people using their cars less. But if we want to have less cars in Melrose, we should never get rid of the ban on overnight parking. Because then we'll have tons of more cars in Melrose, and that means less people opting to use bikes.

▶ 1:25:52 Scott M. Forbes: So if green is what we're about, don't get rid of the ban on overnight parking. Thank you very much. Thank you, Alderman. Alderman Lemmerman, did you have anything else to say? I did, no, thank you. Thank you. Alderman Forbes. Thank you. um you know reading through the order i'm all about accessibility and trying to find alternative forms of transportation but i'm kind of coming at this from a different angle because from a personal experience and being around my street which is now more and more becoming a cut-through area to get to oak grove i look at bicycles that are on the sidewalk and i always ask myself who has the right-of-way a mother with a child in a carriage or a bike that's in the middle of

▶ 1:26:30 Scott M. Forbes: the sidewalk I I still can't get over it there's been bicycles down at the bottom of my driveway blocking my car that I had to move and I understand that it's it's the right thing to do to lift these bikes and take them out of the way but if no if there's no accountability then we're just assuming that behavior is normal and if the person or the company that's responsible for these bikes simply doesn't do it because we're doing it because it's in the best interest of our community well I have an issue with that I think there needs to be a greater conversation of how we can do something about that do I believe in that that would docking stations be be an alternative sure did that do they have to be just in the docking station or out no I don't think so but I think

▶ 1:27:15 Scott M. Forbes: there could be a benefit from that I think we could have a conversation about that but at the end of the day you know I always think of I always think of the woman in the stroller that had to go out into the street because she had to avoid the bike and that's the image that i can't get out of my head so is there any type of enforcement from the bike company that allows them to do the right thing because it's a moral issue for me at that point um accessibility getting to and from lessening traffic i agree with everything that was said tonight but that's just really the one hiccup that i can't get over and especially as the win as winter time comes and people find it more difficult to travel if these bikes are still

▶ 1:27:53 Michael P. Zwirko: out there who's responsible for it is it me because i didn't go outside and do the right thing or is it the company so that's where i have the hiccup on it i'm i'm swayed to support the order because of that although i i also would like to see it held in committee so there could be a further discussion because i think that both sides could come together and maybe find an alternative so thank you thank you thank you mr. chair so we actually learned a little bit more tonight with when this order came back up since we've learned in February just a moment ago and the full board during the public hearing we learned that there will be a tour with mass in motion and some other members of the planning department as well as engineering to try to enhance

▶ 1:28:44 Michael P. Zwirko: maybe some areas where there could be some bike storage some lots for them I also wanted to note and I said this in February that when we talk about bike the types of models that are available right now in the marketplace for types of bike share programs whether they're docked or not there's still a lot of fluidity in terms of where this market is headed and the stations themselves tend to be very expensive they require subscription plans by users as was noted earlier by a colleague they tend to be in more urban areas they also generally want to operate in areas where they're contiguous because as we started to notice in Melrose back in the probably about a year and a half ago line bikes were available in Malden but they weren't available in Melrose and they

▶ 1:29:33 Michael P. Zwirko: were the bikes were being placed in Melrose because people would grab them from either Malden station or other areas and we would deal with the burden but we wouldn't have any of the direct benefit so it was incumbent on the Planning Department to look at this and say geez you know we should really enter into the pilot program they did that in concert with the bike ped committee ped bike committee excuse me and we also learned tonight that the amounts of the bikes across the city have gone down due to market forces so I think that the company itself is not only responsive they're not in the business of losing money they certainly want to adapt their own business model to the benefit not only to the consumers in the in the community but also for their own

▶ 1:30:08 Michael P. Zwirko: wherewithal if there's less bikes than they have less of I would imagine they would get less complaints and less issues in dealing with responding to a misplaced bike or even a damaged bicycle I also think that the enhancement that was made to the see click fix app is very helpful just like when we're calling out potholes or leaky pipes or lights that are out the ability to use see click fix to address a line bike issue it is also helpful and then furthermore I think we need to still learn a little bit more information from the Planning Department in terms of their dashboard when we met in February and the like line bikes came out it was winter time and the usage was down I think usage is up certainly want to see not only the usage but complaints that

▶ 1:30:54 Michael P. Zwirko: have been received a lot more of the statistics that were addressed in public comment tonight and I know people that use this as their means to get to work there's a high school student that I'm friendly with who doesn't have access to an automobile because he can't drive and his parents work so he takes a line bike to Oak Grove so he can get to assembly square to work so there is an economic development issue here as well the bikes are used certainly for the benefit of the individuals and then I would like to see and this is a question for the maker of the order through the chair as to what has changed in the ordinance what is maybe proposed to be changed and in light of some of the comments regarding

▶ 1:31:32 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: definitions that were made at public comment as well or if there's an impetus to maybe change some of the statutory language in the ordinance as well those are my comments Thank You mr. chair thank you thank you I'm not a member of this committee but I just thought it might be helpful to note that we do have an ordinance on our books it's number 198 dash 2 subsection B that says no person shall place or cause to be placed on any sidewalk footwalk or crosswalk any object whatsoever so as to interfere with the convenient use of the same by any person traveling there on and it exempts building materials placed by the permission of the city engineer so we do have already a local prohibition on blocking sidewalks that presumably can be enforced without this

▶ 1:32:22 Manisha Bewtra: particular ordinance I just wanted to flag that for folks thanks for the first time thank you um I think you to alderman liberal garabedian on referencing that ordinance additionally in the statement of work there is a provision that says any bicycle that is parked incorrectly shall be reparked or removed by the vendor within three hours if notified between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays not including holidays and at all other time within 12 hours of receiving notice again I had a conversation with members of the Planning Department on how how responsive the vendor has been with complaints and any issues related to parking the bikes blocking sidewalk right-of-ways and they indicated that the vendor has been very responsive so I

▶ 1:33:22 Manisha Bewtra: think while I hear that it shouldn't all be on us as the city I think it has also been the responsibility of the vendor to address those concerns the other thing I wanted to do is so in between our switching of two meetings a member of the pedestrian and bike committee forwarded an email via Emma Schnur from our planning department that was sent to all of the the folks all of the community points of contact that are part of this bike share program with the weekly statistics on ridership which go and I'm sorry our email we're in the middle of changing servers or something so I can't seem to access it on my desktop but I got it on my phone but we have ridership statistics from a week in sort of the last week in July here that I've forwarded to the clerk of

▶ 1:34:30 Monica C. Medeiros: committees and I'd like to make an a motion to attach that to the order so motion to attach that no worries motion to attach the line what weekly lime update week of 8 5 to this order second the motion attached to supporting documentation the motion before us to attest the communication second day by Alderman Forbes on discussion on discussion yes I just wanted to say I'm i'm glad that you were able to receive that information and i just want to mention again that i did request the ridership data from the planning department as well as the number of complaints that we had received and unfortunately i was told that they didn't have time to respond so i'm glad that there is some information out there thank you thank you any other

▶ 1:35:35 Francis X. Wright Jr.: all the men on discussion from the chair am I correct that we amended our rules that any communications now are supposed to be attached to the order or am i making that up I'm making that I had filed something a while back but it didn't go through all right we have a motion before us all in favor aye opposed or passes the communication will be attached to the oil any other discussion on this item i was full thank you i'm sorry yeah yeah on after the motion i was straight up yeah i want to thank all the millipa garabedian for pointing that out um i had omitted i had that in my notes um and also in our ordinances it's also illegal to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk in melrose that's something now of course

▶ 1:36:36 Peter D. Mortimer: if you're uh if you're going around the cemetery for example on sylvan street the police probably aren't going to stop you unless you encounter a pedestrian and the courteous and reasonable thing for a bicyclist to do is to either stop or go onto the street if it's safe to do so but it's probably never a good idea to ride your bicycle downtown on Main Street on the sidewalk unless it's three o'clock in the morning like when I can't sleep that I do a little extra patrol for the police but that's that's something we have that these ordinances are already in the book and right now it does appear that I totally sympathize that if somebody's pushing a stroller it should be pretty good there's been a line but a couple of line bikes in my neighborhood and they're on

▶ 1:37:27 Peter D. Mortimer: a street corner one is at the corner of Waverly where it's a five-way intersection and there's a mailbox there there was another one at the corner of Mount Hood Terrace and Slayton Road where it's sort of out of the way and from what I see you know I'm sorry to hear that there was an incident where it was cleanly blocking a sidewalk where people were doing it and hopefully with a little prodding the company will smarten up I don't think we need to go as far as this ordinance but from what i've seen in just uh observation from just being around and i understand it's anecdotal but anecdotal doesn't mean it's always wrong um it seems like the company has smartened up and um i think uh maybe just a few reminders we'll keep it going because

▶ 1:38:14 Scott M. Forbes: this this is a good program um as alderman's worker pointed out and members of the bike head bike pet committee have pointed out um and uh they don't want the bad pr so i think uh i think this thing's on the right track thank you very much alderman thank you for the second time thank you and i'll be brief and i think alderman mortimer and alderman Letter garabedian proved my point because we have ordinances that restrict things you can't ride bikes on the sidewalk and you're not supposed to lay your bike down in the sidewalk that impedes a pedestrian the problem is is that no one's around to enforce them you know who's who's who's going to enforce it we have a police department that's 25 percent understaffed so we're all supposed to drive

▶ 1:38:56 Scott M. Forbes: 25 miles an hour around here but everyone says that everyone's speeding because there's no cops who enforce these things so again this is a conversation that probably needs to be had if you're looking for data all of them are dearest i would say we hold this thing in the committee until you get your data so at least we have something in which to measure it by i wouldn't want to sit here and vote yes or no on it right away without having everything in front of me so i can make a well-informed decision so if i had and i'm not sure if this is something that my colleagues in this committee would agree with me or not but i would make a motion to hold this in committee until we have the proper data and we should make a well-informed decision at that

▶ 1:39:31 Monica C. Medeiros: point in time i think we'd all feel more confident so i make that motion to hold it in committee alderman forbes moves that we hold this item in committee seconded by alderman medeiros any discussion on the motion just uh old member just one uh final quick uh that mentioned to answer alderman's work post question about definitions and so uh when we had and just so i think the kid media understands our work to amend and modify this is to happen inside this uh this chamber and so we can't we're prohibited by open meeting law from making and discussing this amongst ourselves outside of this chamber so we come here and that's where we would make amendments so first so that's just a process thing it's kind of

▶ 1:40:23 Monica C. Medeiros: counterintuitive to how we do business anyplace else but in the public and to make sure that we abide with open meeting law we make sure that we have our discussions and deliberations in public So just in terms of the definitions, the questions that came up at the last meeting from the Bike and Pedestrian Commission, again, saying that the motorized definition could lead to abandoned zip car, but the very first sentence of this ordinance that I've proposed in the definition of shared mobility vehicles, which is the very first one says any wheeled device and specifically says other than an automobile so it's i think that's addressed in the very first sentence and i'm not i haven't heard anything moving forward from the state legislature the the what i've heard about

▶ 1:41:19 Robert A. Boisselle: licensing and anything related to these kinds of vehicles has come from different municipalities taking action within their municipality so that's that's where i believe that's our role and it's our role to govern what happens on the public way and i'll support waiting for some additional data thank you thank you any other discussion alderman Boisselle uh before we finish and table or hold this in committee in the beginning when this contract was signed with the memorandum of understanding with MAPC we were we gave them a number of about a hundred bikes so they could respond to the vendors in the initial number of bikes each vendor will operate according to the system when they launched this now in the

▶ 1:42:16 Monica C. Medeiros: upcoming new regs were saying 60 did we sign any sort of contract with the vendors or with it with the for a solid number of a hundred that we have to do each year or do can we make that number change every year thank you so my understanding is there is a statement of work that's been signed with as far as I am aware of and what I've seen that's been signed it said 100 via 100 right units which I was not aware of at the time of making this order I we heard tonight that the number is much lower that's being six you're looking for 60 according to these regs and according to I believe mr. Kretzner had said the number was even lower on I'm not sure whether or not they've signed a new memorandum of understanding or statement of work my understand I have requested

▶ 1:43:13 Francis X. Wright Jr.: that again from miss Gaffey because my understanding that was only going to go until May of this year and now I think something has been extended and I'm I'm just not sure waiting for information okay maybe while we're having this in committee is to have legal to have a look at it and see if there is some sort of contract involved at that point that we have to stay with 100 for so much time so thank you thank you chair any other discussion on the A motion to hold this matter in committee. Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Opposed. The item will be held in committee. Item two, tonight's agenda is order 2019-82, an ordinance regulating the registration and maintenance of vacant commercial properties in the city of Melrose.

▶ 1:44:11 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: thank you chair Wright and my colleagues for continuing to have a conversation about this proposed ordinance I spoke at length about it when we talked about it in May I believe on May 13th and just to review I brought this to the board for your consideration after significant research and outreach not only looking at municipalities around Massachusetts and the country that have vacant commercial property registration ordinances in Massachusetts there are more than 40 but also doing significant outreach with stakeholders in the community including with the Chamber of Commerce numerous business owners several large commercial property owners several brokers who represent commercial property owners so certainly those

▶ 1:45:03 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: perspectives were taken into account and certainly informed the work that I did as we've discussed the primary goal of this ordinance is to maximize our commercial sector we don't have a large commercial sector here in town but we have a great one and it's very important to our quality of life to our revenue stream and so I want to make sure that we are doing everything in our power and have the tools in our arsenal to maximize it so again there are a few basic initiatives that are captured by this proposed regulation one is that it would require it would trigger a requirement to register with the city if you're a property owner and you have property that sits vacant for a hundred days and at that point in time the city would provide an online centralized

▶ 1:45:55 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: inventory for anyone looking for commercial space to go to to see what is available second it would also provide an opportunity to spotlight our vibrant arts community and improve the streetscape for the neighborhood for the neighboring business owners some of whom we've heard from on the public record for shopping etc I thought last time when we met the public comment that we received from one of the residents here and in town was particularly impactful you may recall he is a former zoning board member he's a land use attorney he's lived in Melrose for 15 years and he currently oversees Lowell's ordinance for commercial property he mentioned that we don't have a lot of commercial property probably a couple hundred in Melrose so that for him that actually

▶ 1:46:49 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: meant that there's a greater impact when we do have a storefront sitting vacant it's more noticeable he also shared that he expects the administration of this ordinance for City Hall to be largely minimal not a daily weekly demand on time maybe monthly and his feeling was based on his own personal experience of overseeing an ordinance in a very large city and being a resident and a neighbor of hours that this would have a low burden low burden for a positive impact you'll see that since we last met I have suggested for your consideration one change to the proposal taking into account the feedback that was so helpful and that you will provide him so I would suggest that we narrow our target on

▶ 1:47:44 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: commercial property to those that have visible storefronts on the ground level because those are the ones that are most noticeable to our constituents that we hear about the most they're also the ones that most impact the neighboring business owners and the streetscape itself the other thing that I would draw to your attention is that we did receive a few additional letters and one that has been added to the public record came from Melrose Arts we heard from Melrose Arts at our our meeting in in May but this letter puts more meat on the bones by being very explicit that that nonprofit organization would actually stand ready to assist City Hall in the components of the public art and so far as things like helping connect property owners to artists who are interested in

▶ 1:48:37 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: that space so that the property owner can select from among some several options assisting the artists with installing the art there and Miller's Arts is a great nonprofit to handle this because as we all know they do the window walk and by the way that provides a great template for things like indemnification they have a waiver form that they ask artists to use before artists put art in windows and artists take on that responsibility and recognize that there is always a little bit of risk perhaps so I think we've got some good templates for this type of arrangement so I think I'll rest there and I'm happy to answer any questions it's point of information is that a motion to amend I don't know if I can make a motion I'm not a member of this

▶ 1:49:21 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: committee oh that's correct all right yeah so thank you all the middle break our obedience any other alderman on discussion I would just move to amend so we can include the letter from those arts second action your men moves to amend the item to include just discussed seconded by Alderman Forbes what point of order I believe it's attached already um the email is yeah this is the one from Deb Corbett yes it is it's part of the problem through the chair it is part of the public record I think we received another letter in support today from a constituent who lives on the corner of Vinton and Emerson that it's not part of the record yet but that could be added if it is the will of the committee

▶ 1:50:14 Peter D. Mortimer: point of information I'm not asking about the letters of support those I'm asking about the change that it would only be storefront or storefront properties that's a substantial change the support then that's not really and I'm not a member of this committee either otherwise I would have made the motion that alderman's work oh just did but I'm talking about that it's going to apply to storefronts only so I meant to include the correspondence but all the men water is excuse me alderman Mortimer is correct there is an item that is attached to the order it's an amended provision of the ordinance itself written by the drafter the maker of the order alderman Letter Garabedian so at this time i move that the order be amended as proposed in that the item attached which is

▶ 1:51:07 Francis X. Wright Jr.: at least from what i'm seeing is the uh it's the draft um 814 19 klg revised vc pro ordinance draft just as a procedural matter and i appreciate your motion um can we go back and can we have the original motion since it was to add something that we don't need them added we have that second um somebody take back the second and then we'll also i'll take back the second second okay okay and now we'll take your new motion and we have a second on that from alderman forbes that satisfies alderman mortimer and do we have any discussion on that Alderman Medeiros. Thank you. Some of this, and this was some of my concerns at the last meeting, is that we, and I appreciate that we're only talking about businesses that have storefronts,

▶ 1:52:09 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: but it seems like an undue burden on some businesses and not other businesses, and this way we're not treating all the businesses the same. same what is a business to do if they don't have it if they don't have a storefront you're saying that they don't need to comply with this fee and registry I said is that my understanding of what making this amendment does it only through the chair I don't know am I okay to answer that question or there was will you yield to the maker of the motion a maker of the order sure yes so that is the intent the idea is that there are many reasons why a property might become vacant but in all cases when there is a storefront the negative impact on the community is clear we can potentially lose revenue tax revenue as

▶ 1:53:04 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: a commercial property sits vacant if it's a restaurant for example neighboring business owners can feel impacted because the shopping experience becomes less enjoyable and people will comment and maybe be less likely to patronize businesses that are open it can pose health risks in terms of a you know vermin or spills or things that can happen when a building is left unattended or perhaps public safety concerns as well but to the to your point actually the last time we met you had mentioned you thought it was unfair that a property owner who could not display art because he or she does not have windows or other exterior space that would be appropriate for public art would be forced to pay the vacancy fee I took that into consideration as you may

▶ 1:53:56 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: recall this is based largely on Arlington's ordinance that was put into place about four years ago they they apply it the public art component to all excuse me they apply the fee requirement to all commercial property so even if in the case of a business it doesn't have windows they would just that business owner would have to pay a vacancy fee but I heard your concern about the fact that an owner wouldn't have an option without windows and so I made this proposal in a way to be responsive and also to recognize that commercial space that has exterior facing windows plays a different role in the panoply of commercial properties that we have here it is it's highlighted in a different way and it when it sits vacant and unattended the blight that it can create

▶ 1:54:52 Monica C. Medeiros: is different from an interior office space that no one sees when they're walking by thank you so on this motion to amend the order I appreciate making the change but I'm still concerned that we're treating some business owners differently than other business owners and in light of not having the city solicitor here or someone to sort of weigh in on that in terms of making the amendment for as a committee voting member I guess I'm going to vote no it at this time although it's I'm not necessarily voting now thank you thank you all there was all the Forbes on the motion to amend the item thank you I had some back and forth you know before I came into the meeting of how I was gonna either support this or or be against it but as we sat here in discussion and I

▶ 1:55:46 Scott M. Forbes: think I think attorney bills points that he made here were valid however the one thing that I can't get out of my mind is the Caruso's property that property has been there for so long and it's been vacant and it is in squalor and no one is allowed to go in there because you don't know even know what the condition of the building is it's probably a teardown but no one's been able to go in it and it's been unsaleable however if this ordinance were in effect there would have been at least some minimal standard that would apply to it in the terms of the requirement to display such items like that so in an essence and and I understand that this may not be something my colleagues would agree with

▶ 1:56:28 Scott M. Forbes: me but if you're able to go in there and display the art it would be a motivational factor for that person who owns that property to kind of take the right steps and do the right thing now this is a community been waiting for that property in particular to come online for decades so I think if this is something that could jumpstart it now you know the $400 annual fee I'm not sure about that maybe that's something I'm not sure if that's what you found in your in in your research through other municipalities and if that's a common number or not but to me it just makes sense where we can push property owners in the right direction and at the same time try to be more mindful now storefront properties are the most desirable properties they have window

▶ 1:57:09 Peter D. Mortimer: displays this is your walk-in traffic so I can understand how that would be more appropriate than say a second or third floor you know unit that doesn't have any windows of display cases so that's really the angle that I'm looking at it I would be in mind to support this order just based upon that example that I just mentioned here tonight so thank you Thank You Alderman Forbes Alderman Mortimer thank you very much Chairman Wright I'd like to further Alderman Lipper-Garabedian point in response to the comment that these this This law may discriminate against some business owners, all laws discriminate. You tell a 17 year old kid he can't vote, he can't buy alcohol, he can't buy marijuana, he's discriminated against in comparison to the kid who's 22.

▶ 1:57:57 Peter D. Mortimer: Tell somebody who's 23 they can't run for US Senator, you have to be 25 to run for US Senator, all laws discriminate. Tell somebody they have to be 35 to run for President, can't run for President if you're 32 years old. All laws discriminate, some businesses are different than others. In some places in Melrose, you have to have 50 feet of frontage to build a house. Other places you have to have 75 or 100, that's zoning. All laws discriminate, of course we're going to discriminate and treat some business owners differently than other business owners. Some businesses can only be in certain zones and not other zones. It used to be that you had to have 100 seats to serve hard liquor in Melrose if you were a restaurant.

▶ 1:58:40 Peter D. Mortimer: Now we change that to 50, and if you wanted to sell beer, you had to have 50 seats, and we changed that to 25. All laws discriminate, and they discriminate. Discrimination is a word that's gotten a bad name through the last three, four decades. But discrimination and discernment is what makes a better community. Good management is what we want to do. so sometimes discrimination has a bad connotation but sometimes it's better to discriminate for the benefit of the public welfare and to have the best possible city we can have thank you very much Thank You Alderman Mortimer Alderman Boutreau thank you um I appreciate the amendments to the the original order I think they were really responsive to some of the conversation

▶ 1:59:34 Manisha Bewtra: we had back in May and just recalling that you know I know I had spoken with folks who work in economic development as well as planning for arts and culture as well as a former Main Streets director and I think we had a really great conversation at that time should anyone want to review that meeting not to belabor all of that I think the fact that Melrose Arts is eager to partner with City Hall makes me more inclined to support the order I think it's been sort of I've I've been kind of waffling back and forth in the sense that I I hear the concerns around administrative burden why certain types of businesses versus others but I think my major concern is really that based on I guess my worry

▶ 2:00:31 Manisha Bewtra: that folks in the community think it's going to do something that based on the specifications of the ordinance as it stands it wouldn't do that some of our buildings that are currently vacant appear vacant in downtown or elsewhere throughout the city are under agreement and thus wouldn't qualify for placement of art under this proposal and that really it would only apply to maybe one to maybe a couple more buildings around the city so in a moment I'd ask to if through the chair I could ask the maker of the order to address that but I think you know on that note if Melrose Arts is also open to potentially on a more voluntary basis work with some of the and partner with City Hall and these other vacancies that exist on Main Street between Essex and Grove Street

▶ 2:01:29 Manisha Bewtra: which is I think the vacancies that other than Caruso's that look bring most people think of as sort of relating to the vibrancy of our downtown that could be really interesting for us so I guess through the chair I'd like to ask the maker of the order if she can address kind of this issue of perception of what the order would do versus what it really is which businesses that would actually impact today through the chair Thank You alderman Bewtra I think that's a really good point to raise because we I want to I think that that's just a fair point so as you know the vacant a vacant property as it would be defined with this amendment would be a commercial property with a visible floor storefront on the

▶ 2:02:17 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: ground level that is not legally occupied as abandoned or is not used for a period of at least 90 consecutive days and is not under active construction or ongoing active rehabilitation renovation or repair subject to an active building permit and so you're right that a couple of the higher profile quote-unquote vacancies that we've seen downtown might certainly wouldn't fall under that definition currently because there were acting active building permits that existed for them I believe of course it's possible that they sat vacant for a while before there was a an active building permit in which case perhaps this would have been triggered so that before the permit was actually pulled you know I recall at last year's summer stroll the business owner who helped

▶ 2:03:06 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: sponsor that was frustrated that at that point in time the Moynihan Plaza had been vacant for quite a while and it's still not reopened so it is possible that that property could have had art in the windows during that summer stroll as the owner of the property was working through whatever permits permitting process he was going to pursue so yes it won't solve every every issue that we see it won't maximize every perhaps commercial plot but it would certainly start a conversation it would impact some of the properties that we've noted including my colleague alderman Forbes it would open up a dialogue with the city that doesn't currently exist among property owners and to your point as well I mean I think my spirit the spirit of this proposal is to enhance that

▶ 2:03:58 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: partnership in that communication so you'll see the last paragraph of section mentions that any property owner of commercial property anyone could submit information about a vacancy at any time to the city and the city would include it in our inventory so you don't have to wait a hundred days before you submit it to the city if you'd like the city to start letting people know right away you could if your property owner that doesn't have commercial storefront property but you'd like to still be included in the inventory you could do that too if you have some office space that no one can see from this from the street but that you nonetheless would like included on our one-stop shop web page that can be added as well thank you thank you president lemon thank you

▶ 2:04:45 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: mr. chairman I think a lot of my thoughts have already been summarized by my colleagues but I was one of the people when we discussed this before that expressed concerns about places that were not on the street and did not have a storefront being subject to a fine and so I wanted to thank the maker of the order for your responsiveness to that in this suggesting this amendment and I think that you know there this is the kind of order or ordinance potential ordinance that I think it's it's not needed until it's needed and then when it's needed it's something you're gonna want to have and we you know as Alderman Forbes mentioned there is one property that is kind of always stands out as the example and so and to to have it and not need it there's there's no harm there so

▶ 2:05:42 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: I I just want to sort of highlight that proactive thinking on the on the part of the maker of the order and think thank you for that and for addressing the concerns to try to amend this in a way that that is responsive so thank you for that and I am I think I'm unlikely to have a vote on this tonight unless there were well there will not be a tie so I won't be able to vote on this tonight but I am happy to support it when it comes to the full board any other discussion this is on the amendment correct on the amendment yes seeing none we have a motion before us to amend the order to include the language discussed by Alderman and make a motion all in favor of the amendment of the item aye aye opposed the amendment passes we're back to discussing the item as a

▶ 2:06:45 Michael P. Zwirko: whole any further discussion on the items all the means to work though thank you mr chair um there has been a lot of work that has gone into this it's been good work and i like to see us get together and kind of discuss this but this is now the second hearing at the legal and legislative committee where we've kind of batted this around and i think I think it would serve us better even that the there's been a lot of discussion by non-members non-voting members of this committee to place this in a committee of the whole before this goes before the full board it will allow for another hearing on this order as amended and it will also allow everybody to participate with a vote so with that I'd like to move to transfer this to the

▶ 2:07:36 Scott M. Forbes: Appropriations Committee as amended second we have a motion before us by Alderman Zwirko to transfer this item from the legal and legislative committee to the Appropriations Committee do we have any discussion on that motion Alderman Forbes thank you I wouldn't be inclined to to support that I feel like that there's been dialogue here everyone's gonna be able to talk again once it becomes before the full board it won't be able to vote accordingly i'm not sure if we need to have two more votes on it i think we could send this to the full board this evening and then there will be another roundtable discussion if if they need to at that point in time but i think by then i think all of us would be able to make a well

▶ 2:08:21 Peter D. Mortimer: informed decision so i would be inclined to oppose that thank you thank you alderman forbes alderman mortimer thank you very much chairman wright um i'm not sure that a motion is allowed under our rules because which committee an order gets sent to is under the purview of the president that's the president's one of the powers and responsibilities of the president so to send it to another committee within a committee it could set a type of precedent of course it could be a distinction without a difference because as we all know here the committee recommendations are non-binding so it wouldn't matter and I also appreciate the thoughts of Alderman Forbes that we have talked about this a lot we could send it up to the full

▶ 2:09:15 Peter D. Mortimer: board and then lay it on the table at the full board and then it wouldn't have to bounce to another committee we could just have it at the full board and then everybody could have a vote on it so perhaps that would be a more expeditious efficient way to handle this would be just to send it up to the full board without recommendation. Or to send it up to the full board with a recommendation when it will be before all of the aldermen at that point. Thank you, Eleanor Mortimer. Any other discussion on the motion from the chair? I will say, and I haven't looked at this in a while, but I believe under our rules, there is an allowance for committees of the whole and it does not require the go to the appropriations committee that we could call a committee as a committee of the whole

▶ 2:10:11 Michael P. Zwirko: but it would require us to look at the rules certainly could take a recess if somebody would like to make that motion all the minutes to work well i wasn't going to make the motion i just wanted to make a statement on my motion okay um okay just for the discussion yeah any other anyone else for the first time seeing no one all the Missouri go for the second time the reason for my motion was really out of deference to the maker of the order I wanted the ability of the maker of the order to help lead and move further if she so felt given that it's a strange posture to not be a voting member of the committee given an ordinance always falls to legal and legislative so it was really a motion out of courtesy

▶ 2:11:05 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: understanding then maybe the appearance that a dual vote on something made may seem superfluous it was really meant in in a friendly fashion so that's the only comment I wanted to make on discussion on the motion I really appreciate that Alderman's work oh I don't have a strong feeling either way I would note that I I don't know I chair the Appropriations Committee so I don't know if that becomes a little complicated since as a chair I typically try to allow you all to facilitate the conversation I certainly can handle that at the chair level but I really I guess as as the folks most of you on legal and legislative are veterans of the board I would defer to you on whether you think it which direction you think makes the most sense whether to go ahead and vote

▶ 2:12:02 Shawn M. MacMaster: this out to the full board or to refer it to appropriations I will follow your lead and I appreciate the sentiment behind the motion very much any other discussion on the motion I'll make master for the first time thank you mr. chairman I've been reticent to speak on this order and on the other matters that have come before this committee because I'm a non-voting member but I do agree with Alderman Forbes that we'll have an opportunity if this goes before the full board tonight at which time I will speak on the order and willing to engage in further discussion so I again even though I'm a non voting member I would like to see it go before the full board this evening and at that time I'd be prepared to speak on it Thank You mr. chairman the other discussion on the

▶ 2:12:49 Francis X. Wright Jr.: motion seeing none we have a motion before us to remove the item from the legal and legislative committee and place it in the appropriations committee members of the legal and legislative committee all in favor aye opposed opposed opposed the opposed have it so the i the motion fails so we are back to the item itself We have any other discussion on the item? Alderman Medeiros. Thank you. Now, further on the actual merits of the order, I do still have a lot of concerns about this. I appreciate Alderman Lipper-Garabedian attention to the matter and to trying to address some of these properties. As I think Alderman Forbes pointed out, there are a few that are, you know, really stand out that have been vacant for a long time.

▶ 2:13:59 Monica C. Medeiros: and at the same time I just I have a lot of hesitation with this I feel like this could be we could get the same desired results in a voluntary means without creating this registry I do think if if the city solicitor were to weigh in and say this is okay just for visible storefronts I think that is a little bit better I'm a little bit concerned about creating a registry of vacant property and letting the whole world know sometimes that there's spaces that are unattended and vacant I think sometimes that can invite people to know where to squat or where to have a rave or where to you know whatever they they might like to do that would not be legal I think that the you know I know there's some discussion at the last meeting of this being an economic development

▶ 2:14:54 Monica C. Medeiros: proposal but I think it's actually sort of the the opposite because I think sometimes in my experience in you know this kind of industry that if there's a property that is vacant it's normally not the desire of the property owner for it to be so and oftentimes there are financial reasons that are they've got actually put into financial hardship so I think creating a $400 you know registry fee is is a little bit hefty but I also think that this has a lot of burden on some of our already very busy departments you know we have the building inspector who would be the primary enforcer of this in the building department and they're already honestly overworked as I talked to them people are waiting very long times for permits to build they've gotten so far that

▶ 2:15:47 Monica C. Medeiros: they've closed the office on Friday to the public and I don't really think that you know respectfully I don't think that the building inspector has time to sort of be like the the art police in this and I think it's I think there's willingness from the art community I think that it's also something that behooves us to speak to some of these property owners and I think they would be very willing to in many cases to actually display art in some that I've been able to speak to through some of the real estate agents. There are already real estate listings on the MLS, the multiple listing services, where people can list their property for sale and I think we could do this in a voluntary capacity.

▶ 2:16:39 Francis X. Wright Jr.: Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Medeiros. Any other discussion? Hearing none, I would move to recommend for passage as amended all the Mizrako moves for passage of the item sorry what was that again all the men's workout moves for passage of the item as amended second we have a motion for passage as amended by all Mizrako seconded by alderman Bewtra any discussion on that hearing none all in favor aye opposed opposed the item will go to the full board recommended by this committee we have one more item from the on the legal and legislative committee it is for 2019-1 12 to amend Melrose revised ordinances by adding article 6 section 198-12 reduction in single-use plastic beverage straws and beverage stirrers in business establishments if i may from the chair

▶ 2:17:58 Francis X. Wright Jr.: as the maker of this order discuss it for a moment i would appreciate allowing me that this idea first came to me last winter throughout the dinner and up on the North Shore and I've ordered an iced tea and the waitress came to deliver the beverages and said that if I would like a straw I should I would I could request one they'd be happy to give it to me but that they were no longer just giving out straws to with each beverage and that similar to what this ordinance reflects that you were asked to keep your straw were you to get a refill so that caused me to stop thinking along that line I looked at what other communities have in Massachusetts and beyond and as a result they came up with this order which would ban plastic stirrers and require a

▶ 2:19:11 Francis X. Wright Jr.: plastic straws to be only given out when requested by a patron plastic straws will not be banned they will be available it's important to have them available members of our disability community require them in order to enjoy a beverage and so we want them to be available to them I believe as many members of the public who spoke this evening believe that while this is not a cure-all to the plastic issues we have in our world that is a small step we can taken the right direction is a small step that other communities in the Boston area have taken and it's one that we can join if you saw 60 minutes last night they visited Midway Island which is as it the name indicates Midway between Hawaii and the Southeast Asia it is an unoccupied island that has been

▶ 2:20:19 Francis X. Wright Jr.: since World War II. Every year containers, like container ship containers, are filled with the plastic that ends up on the shores of that unoccupied island. None of that plastic originates on that island. It is thousands of miles from America and thousands of miles from Southeast Asia and yet it is filled with plastic. Some large, some small. They also We also showed, we do have representatives of, I believe, the interior department on that island. And they showed how if you take a sifter and you go through the sand and you sift it, that you will get tiny pieces of plastic, which are continually, as a result of being out in the environment, And on the beach, in the water, being eroded into microscopic particles that do not go away.

▶ 2:21:22 Francis X. Wright Jr.: They just become part of our environment. And as we heard tonight, can be taken up and become part of the rainfall, and most likely end up in our food supply. So that's all being studied now, however, I think we can take this very small step. It does not require, again, people not to have a straw. It just puts them in a position where they have to think about whether they actually want and or need a straw. The order would be enforced by the Board of Health, the Health Department, and the first offense would result in a warning. second offense $25 third offense $50 I think establishments in our community are already taking steps as we heard to act in this way which is you know laudable and I applaud them for that but I think as a community we can also take

▶ 2:22:33 Manisha Bewtra: a stand as a board in the city to say that we want to move in this direction and I think we set an example not only for other communities but for our children thank you for giving me this moment and I open it up for discussion thank you thanks for sponsoring this order and I particularly appreciate that you did consider some provisions around accessibility and people with disabilities because from what I've heard in other communities that's usually the the major sticking point for bands and it's great to hear that a lot of our local businesses are already you know starting to use reusable straws or or reducing the use of plastic one-time use plastic straws as it is which is fantastic the other thing that I mean it's kind of quirky that came that I

▶ 2:23:35 Manisha Bewtra: thought of I ultimately wholeheartedly support this order by one particular type of business that we don't that none of our existing Melrose's businesses wholly depend are fully dependent on is a for bubble tea or boba is a beverage that is straw dependent but I did a little bit of quick research on that because I know for example in Malden there is a number of of businesses where that's the main thing that they sell and Taiwan which is where bubble tea originates I believe has also made a move to eliminate one-time use plastic straws so to me I think it's it's very much worth us as passing this and and creating the incentive in our small way for the market to catch up for those you know quirky particular uses that might be straw dependent I do actually have a

▶ 2:24:40 Manisha Bewtra: couple of I one amendment I'd like to make in one that I'm not quite ready to make but wanted to discuss the second just latter being the one I'm not quite ready to make is I saw that your the initial order includes city events I am curious about you know wanting to maybe add also purchasing of one-time use plastic straws are not allowing the purchase of straws by the city or by our schools as something we could potentially add to this ordinance but the other modification that I'm ready to make is asking if if folks would be amenable to adding plastic hot stoppers slash splash sticks these are again I couldn't find like a one official name I think they're typically called splash sticks but they're I know at Starbucks for example there's like the little hole

▶ 2:25:44 Manisha Bewtra: in the lid and there's this little gadget you can put to cover up the coffee it keeps the heat in your beverage and it also prevents it from splashing hence hot stopper or splash stick I personally have found them to be very convenient but they're also so not necessary in the grand scheme of all of the challenges that one-time use plastics create so so therefore I'd like to make motion to amend the order to add everywhere it says plastic straws and plastic beverage stirrers to add to change that to plastic straws comma plastic beverage stirrers comma and plastic hot stoppers slash plastics throughout the order and then add a definition for plastic hot stoppers less splash sticks so I guess first I'd like to make motion to amend the order as

▶ 2:26:52 Francis X. Wright Jr.: such but if you'd like me to read out like specifically the language I can do this my concern over Bewtra is it may not be as easy as you've stated it to so amend the ordinance I'm not so sure those references are always side by side and there was a definition for a straw a definition for a stirrer whereas you wouldn't be adding a definition for those items that you're describing but yes I would leave it to you can make your motion and then if you get a second then we can discuss it as a committee I'm sure I will make a motion and if it gets a second I will read what the order would look like so motion to amend to consider adding plastic hot stoppers and splash sticks to the order well as we

▶ 2:28:10 Manisha Bewtra: work through this I think it's just something worth us considering again I'd say even as much as stirs have no particular they do not need to be made of plastic I've seen alternatives to these flash sticks as well some businesses will use a little sticker which again is made of paper and some adhesive so it's an opportunity for us to think again here's another kind of low-hanging fruit single-use plastic that we could eliminate I certainly don't want to hold up the existing proposal from passing because I think it's it's important we start moving forward on some of these plastic reductions but that's where I'm coming from with it thank you thank you thank you mr. Chairman. I'm sorry. Alderman Forbes was ahead of you. My apologies. Alderman Forbes, my apologies to you as well.

▶ 2:29:09 Scott M. Forbes: Thank you. Sorry for cutting you off, Alderman Search. It's okay. All right. I'm going to approach this at a different angle here. I do not support this order. I know it's probably not the most popular view in this room. As a consumer, I spend $15 to $20 a week at Dunkin' Donuts, and I don't like paper straws. straws every time I have a paper straw all I taste is cardboard in my coffee so as a consumer I don't like the alternative if you can provide a product that is equal to or better than the one that's being replaced I'm all for it however if if you don't and it's inferior and I'm going to use the bags that Shaw's an example because I was all for the the bag ban I talked to the recycling committee I wholeheartedly supported it you look at the bags that

▶ 2:29:57 Scott M. Forbes: come out of Shaw's they're very underwhelming and they were disappointment I think we all have the mindset that we were expecting something that was you know an expectation that didn't measure up where I was expecting a bag from with the same type of quality as a Whole Foods or Roach Brothers I have brown wrapping paper if you put a box of pasta in it the bottom collapses some of them have no handles so when you create an underwhelming product consumers are disappointed I think that I don't know if it's the technology or the product I just don't think that it's there yet but for me that's the way that I think and I know that my opinion is my opinion but everyone else is entitled to their own

▶ 2:30:34 Scott M. Forbes: and I always encourage that so for me I would just simply say that any retail place that offers a plastic straw that you would offer a paper straw out to alternative and let the consumer decide and let the laws of capitalism play itself out if for some reason over time people for prefer paper straws over plastic straws the retailer is not going to order plastic straws anymore and it's going to just naturally trend in that direction but why not just offer both at the same establishments if we're going to be offering both at the same establishments anyway and it's just you're asking a different question then why not just do it that way I don't see a need for the ordinance I do see and I understand that there's different technology that comes in here I recycle

▶ 2:31:19 Michael P. Zwirko: home i'm all for it and again i'm all for reusable bags but i feel like that we can do something without an ordinance here so for that i i'm going to uh i'm not going to support this ordinance tonight thank you thank you my apologies hey mr chairman yep um so first i just wanted to say to alderman butcher i did not second your motion because i think that the best place to probably make that motion would be in the definition section so you may want to expand the definition of plastic beverage stirrer maybe if you change that definition you could have an amendment that seeks to capture what you're trying to do so there's there's probably a way to get there because I would support adding on those heat blockers or stirring sticks or just I

▶ 2:32:07 Michael P. Zwirko: think there's a way to do that just not the way that you proposed for what it's worth so we are way beyond the point in human society where we should be using plastic straws there are alternative products that are available they may not be available at the consumer point of sale but I myself have stainless steel straws some are collapsible they fit on your keychain you can port them places with you and they they do not bend like a plastic straw they can bend like a plastic straw they do not break or tear like a paper straw and they don't taste like cardboard so there are alternatives that are actually superior to plastic straws that are available and it's not just market determinants because the amount of consumption of plastic is the problem and we need to do

▶ 2:33:05 Michael P. Zwirko: everything that we can in order to reduce the use of plastic and if we need to force it on the market then so be it because we are way beyond time and we are seeing this plastic everywhere it's all-consuming we have a throw-it-away mentality that we have alternatives that are that are better than what's being proposed or proffered at point-of-sale and they also vary in size and shape and they can adjust for even use of bubble tea so I've gone to cocktail bars where I've gotten bamboo straws I've gone to restaurants where I've actually been given the option of a stainless steel straw I've gone to restaurants where don't offer straws at all there are alternatives we just need to to use them and I think that we're at a point where we can no longer say that the way that

▶ 2:34:03 Michael P. Zwirko: been doing things is is appropriate because it clearly is not especially the amount of trash that we're not able to even recycle in most cases especially with respect to these plastic straws i appreciate the order that's been filed by alderman wright in this regard i would even be amenable to expanding it as was previously proposed i just think it needs to be done in a the definition section a little bit differently but this is something that we need need to move forward on so that's all I had to say at this time thank you very much chairman Rita I agree with everything that alderman's workout just said I'd also like to point out that you still can under this ordinance ask for a plastic straw that's your if that's your preference you can still enjoy that

▶ 2:34:49 Peter D. Mortimer: preference under this ordinance you can walk into Dunkin Donuts and say please give me a plastic straw with my iced coffee and they will and they can under this ordinance so that that's not a problem if you really want it you can still get it that's and something else I've talked to members of the recycling committee who was still here and something I noticed while we were discussing this over the summer is that in Dunkin Donuts they serve a lot of plastic products and I agree with everything you said about what this is And Alderman's Worker said, time is way past. But they don't have a recycling bin at Dunkin' Donuts. And I'm going to see, and it's in Ward 6, too. So I'm going to see what we can do to make that happen.

▶ 2:35:37 Peter D. Mortimer: Because they serve the big cup with iced coffee and the medium cup and the small cup with iced coffee. They got the straws for people who are going to ask for them. And now everyone gets one automatically. And they also serve bottles of orange juice and bottled water. that everybody walks over and throws them right in the trash barrel. I've taken some ones that are near the top or just on tables and I throw them in the back of my car. And then when I head down to the Y, because City of Melrose does things pretty well, there's a plastic recycling bin right out in front of the YMCA. So I'll take the plastic bottles that I collected from the tabletops at Dunkin' Donuts and put them all in our recycling bin, and I'm going to see if we can work with Dunkin' Donuts,

▶ 2:36:30 Peter D. Mortimer: the Skravanos Corporation, and the managers there, Claudia and Anu, and see if we can get a recycling bin right on site, because people are just throwing tons of plastic right in the trash. And I don't know, I don't think they have a place where they pick it out like they do do with some recycling single-use recycling pretty sure they don't do that but I'll find out and that's something else we can do because you're absolutely right and alderman's work goes that you're all absolutely right chairman Rita and you're absolutely right alderman's work oh this is this is a step in the right direction that isn't too tough to swallow you know it's easy it's easy enough thank you thank you any other alderman

▶ 2:37:15 Monica C. Medeiros: Alma Medeiros thank you so as I've been out and about I've been going into a lot of businesses and I've been asking them you know has anybody talked to you about this plastic straw ordinance and inevitably the answer that I've been getting is no and one of the things that I hear out there that people are frustrated with sort of in general is that you know a lot of times decisions are just made from City Hall or from government without any discussion with the people that are involved and are affected and I know that the recycling committee had passed around frequently asked questions and I know they've spoken to some businesses but there's still many many businesses that have not been spoken to and from those that I do speak to some they have different

▶ 2:38:13 Monica C. Medeiros: perspectives most of them are willing to look at this and and some of them have already changed their on their own change their way of doing things that they don't know they don't give out straws unless somebody asked for them some of them have in fact changed to paper straws some of them really just had no idea about it they're not necessarily interested but they're not necessarily opposed some of them have some different situations as well so in just looking at this and that the straw factor I really again similar to the other ordinance I feel like this is something that the straw is one piece of the puzzle but I think that we could really do so much better to eliminate single-use plastic and single-use the single-use mentality in general if we

▶ 2:39:08 Monica C. Medeiros: We took a proactive approach, and a voluntary approach, but a proactive approach, and went out and talked to the businesses about their own specific things. We just talked about Dunkin' Donuts, but the straw is one little piece of that plastic cup that has my iced coffee in it an awful lot of the time, but we should be talking to them about looking at switching to paper cups instead of plastic cups, thinking about those lids from I went to Cafe Nero a couple of weeks ago and had the paper straw only experience however the the before I had realized it the cup was one of those new lids where you don't need to have a straw it's so much thicker in the plastic that's involved that that I think that you know if we went back and

▶ 2:39:58 Monica C. Medeiros: worked proactively front with you know business by business I think we could get a lot more voluntary change and a lot more significance than than just simply the straws and I think there are things that we can and should do at the city level to look at these hot spots like I've gone out and you know help clean up El Pond and you know there's a lot of different trash there I have found some straws we found other different things as well but inevitably I see on the weekend there's so many people there for sports activities you see the trash barrel and it's filled with single-use plastic things whether they're you know Dunkin Donuts cups whether they're single-use water bottles whether they're juice cups and I think you know our friends at the recycling

▶ 2:40:45 Monica C. Medeiros: committee can correct me on this but I think and we should follow up with this later but I think if we have a dirty sink used iced coffee cup unless you bring it home and rinse it out and then put it in the recycling I think if it's still has the residue of the coffee it's considered to be contaminated and not really truly recyclable at that point but what we could do to eliminate some of that is if we put in water stations at these hot spots like at El Pond like at the common so that there was a place that people could get clean water we have to keep it clean we can't be like the you know old water bubblers of old that were disgusting and frankly that's why people wanted a bottle of water because it was cleaner but if we added these in strategic areas and people knew

▶ 2:41:35 Monica C. Medeiros: that they if they were going to go you know have a soccer game that they would have a place to fill up their own reusable water bottle I bet you see a lot less trash and a lot less cups with straws in them down at El Pond and a lot of other places and I think you know I appreciate you know I know Alderman Wright is trying to do you know his part here I I just again you know we talked about the enforcement issue and and you know I can't see that our Health Department can really take this on any more than I think our building department could take on the previous order and I appreciate this I mean I'm committed to going out and working with businesses to find ways for them to voluntarily you know look at their plastic consumption and and bring it

▶ 2:42:26 Robert A. Boisselle: back down and you know see which ways that you know whether it's and I think lacquer char is a great example where I see that they have paper straws but they also have bamboo straws available for purchase and and to do options like that to find ways to reduce the plastic usage and but I think as much as I appreciate your efforts i i'm not going to support this order at this time thank you alderman Medeiros like alderman Medeiros i stopped in a number of restaurants and businesses in melrose and so forth and asking the question has anyone talked to you concerning about the banning or not using straws plastic straws and a number of them are saying not from the city but we're hearing it it from our corporate offices a lot of the franchises or just businesses

▶ 2:43:23 Robert A. Boisselle: themselves are moving away from offering plastic straws to their patrons or customers and again these regulations are the purpose is this basically to reduce the distribution the single-use plastic straws and leaving it up to the restaurant or business to offer a plastic straw if asked for so basically and even in the definitions of business establishments we have more exemptions and actually businesses that we're trying to well we're not even trying to educate them we should be educating these people to begin with and straw ordinance and self is not a ban it's just trying to reduce the amount of plastic straws that are being used in Melrose I think in the enforcement aspects of the regulations since this is

▶ 2:44:28 Robert A. Boisselle: not being banned and we're just trying to help the environment I think the first offense may be a notice with education if these businesses are not told how to do it or why they're doing it why it should be done it should be a notice in education a second offense a written warning hey we've educated you you should be trying this in the third offense instead of a monetary put a little incentive suspension of their license for 15 days or 30 days maybe that you get them to step forward to be a little more aggressive and not offering plastic straws and it's a good aspects again we're trying the purpose of this regulation is to reduce the distribution of single-use plastic straws and not to ban them in Melrose Thank You mr. chairman thank you for the

▶ 2:45:38 Manisha Bewtra: first time thank you I will attempt to make the amendment as suggested by Alderman's work oh and ask that if I am not quite doing that the way requested that maybe I get a second anyway so that we have an opportunity to discuss it so I'd like them to because I do have the full language of how I envision this addition of plastic hot stoppers and splash sticks to be throughout the the proposed ordinance and I can read that in full if upon discussion but so motion to add a definition for plastic hot stopper slash splash thick which it would be as follows this would be in addition to plastic beverage straw and plastic beverage stirrer plastic hot stopper slash splash thick means a standalone device intended for one-time use used to plug the opening of a

▶ 2:46:46 Manisha Bewtra: beverage lid for the purpose of keeping the liquid inside hot and to prevent it from splashing and made predominantly of plastic derived from either petroleum or a biologically based polymer such as corn or other plant source plastic hot stoppers slash splash sticks include compostable and biodegradable petroleum or biologically based polymer stirs splash sticks hot stirs hot stoppers slash splash sticks but do not include hot stoppers slash splash sticks that are made from non-plastic materials such as but not limited to paper sugar cane wood wood and bamboo so you can see what I did was basically add a definition but use the same language that's above for plastic beverage stirrer and the reason

▶ 2:47:36 Michael P. Zwirko: I did that it's just because there are actually two different plastic things so I'd like to make that motion to add this definition motion has been made by Alderman Bewtra to add the language he just discussed so I'll second it on discussion okay so the motion has been made by Alderman Bewtra to add that language which he just stated has been seconded by Alderman Zwirko Alderman Zwirko on discussion of the motion yes thank you so I'm supporting this I said I i would like it to be included um i just so i'm i'm supportive of adding it i just thought that it should have tweaked the definition of plastic beverage stir so it folds in you don't have to then tag the definite the actual new section in throughout the rest of the ordinance do you see

▶ 2:48:45 Michael P. Zwirko: what i'm saying i do so through the chair can i speak directly to alderman's work in response I'm happy to support it I still think that it's incomplete because we need to further amend the ordinance itself to now include the clause plastic I don't even know what you've called that have a hot blocker so that needs to fall throughout the rest of the ordinance so I'm supporting it with you in unison in with the spirit of the wanting to add that extra piece of plastic but there's still work that needs to be done in the motion my recommendation was as you amend the actual definition of stir to include the stick and that way you don't need to change the rest of the trickle-down language in the ordinance

▶ 2:49:34 Francis X. Wright Jr.: itself but yeah discussion should be through the chair I apologize no and it's okay just you're looking at each other like you're gonna have a conversation and the discussion goes to the chair it's for all those present both both on the committee and here in the chamber so understood I support the motion I wanted to make those comments through the chair noting that I still feel it's thank you any other discuss any other alderman for the first time on the motion and the other alderman on the motion and apologies for procedural missteps and for thank you for so the reason I mean I think I hear you on adding I hear aldermen Zorco on the adding this language to plastic beverage stir I think the reason my suggestion would be to add a third definition and

▶ 2:50:52 Manisha Bewtra: add plastic hot stopper slash plastic would be because it is a different thing it's not used to stir the beverage and ultimately once this ordinance is on the book I think we want to make it as clear as possible so throughout this ordinance the way that amendment would read would be the title of the ordinance being reduction and single-use plastic beverage straws beverage stirrers and hot stoppers slash splash sticks in business establishments and then with the first whereas whereas plastic straws comma strike and plastic beverage stirrers comma and plastic hot stoppers less plastics often are used just for a few minutes but take hundreds of years to break down and then making that same change of comma strike the word and so it's instead of plastic straws and

▶ 2:51:54 Manisha Bewtra: plastic beverage stirrers it's plastic straws comma plastic beverage stirrers comma and plastic hot stoppers slash plastics basically we would be carrying that through the first all of the four whereas statements and then in the therefore statement and under purpose and intent and then add the definition that I read earlier and then under use regulations would be a B add a new C and reorder the existing C and D to make them D and E but adding effective December 1st blah blah blah I think ultimately the main reason I'm suggesting that it's I just think it's a different item but I'm open to however the committee would like to dispose of this at this time thank you thank you following putra um clerk of committees yes do you understand what the amendment is or will you be

▶ 2:53:10 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: able to recapture it i'm going to request it in writing sure i'll be able to request it and apologies again that i've had email issues um so i haven't been able to send this out to the committee but thank you alderman liberal garabedian motion yes on the motion um and i'm obviously not a voting member but one option could be to change the term plastic beverage stirrer to plastic beverage stick and then just include the definition you already have of stir which is a stick and it sounds like the type of item that alderman Bewtra has raised for our attention is also sometimes called a splash stick so we could just change the term we could sell a plastic beverage straw then you could have a second defined term which is plastic

▶ 2:54:01 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: beverage stick which you could continue by reading means a device that is used to mix or stir beverages or and this is where alderman Bewtra language comes in which forgive me I don't I didn't write it down but it describes what that the purpose of that stick is and then comma intended for one time only one time used and it continues from there so we could change it just to from stir to stick and stick would incorporate both the definition of a stir and the definition of a hot stopper slash splash stick and that might streamline the edits because nothing else would need to be edited so that's just a suggestion for the committee the other discussion on the motion there Hearing no other discussion on the motion.

▶ 2:55:00 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Opposed. Opposed. Opposed. The motion fails. Back to a discussion on the item itself. Do we have any other aldermen for the first time? Any other aldermen for the second time? or get obedient so I'm not again not a voting member but I will just share that I appreciate chairman Wright bringing this proposal to this committee and eventually to the full board depending on the will of the committee I would be in support of this I like that it sort of encapsulates the nudge theory of encouraging a certain type of behavior or choice but allowing choice to remain for consumers so I think that's a really nice way to frame a regulation like this and I also have heard from a couple members of the committee that adding

▶ 2:56:18 Francis X. Wright Jr.: this additional one-time use plastic use is something that would be captured in spirit of the ordinance as well so i would say that i would certainly consider that as well thank you anyone else for the second time i just have a few comments of my own after hearing everyone's comments again i would reiterate this is a choice to help reduce the use of plastic straws some people don't want straws i've never in my adult life I generally wanted a straw when I've ordered an iced tea or a beverage that might come with a straw. I usually take it out, I lay it down, and I've seen many people do that. People who want them can get them. It's not a major ask. It's simply, it wouldn't surprise me if you find that staff will say, would you like a straw with that?

▶ 2:57:23 Francis X. Wright Jr.: And that may happen, but we've heard that too many are given out. It's important to keep in mind, when you talk about the plastic cups, when you talk about other plastic items, many if not most of those are recyclable, straws are not recyclable. As for the businesses in the community, I know that the Chamber of Commerce has been contacted. I know that it was on the front page of the newspaper. I know that they could have been here tonight. I know that they could have written to us. We have received many written communications from residents of the community, and we have received many written, I'm sorry, not have received, but we've had tonight appear before us residents of the community. No one from the business community came forward to speak in opposition to us.

▶ 2:58:10 Francis X. Wright Jr.: As far as I know, no one in the business community contacted us as a board and opposed this. The chamber has been notified. They have obligations. They are members of this community. We do not have to run to them. We don't run to everyone else when we pass an ordinance. I don't understand why I have to run up and down Main Street and talk to everyone when I wanna do something. I just don't understand this. I believe this board and any other elected official in this city is elected to lead, not to follow. That's my philosophy. As far as enforceability goes, there are plenty of ordinances on the books that are not fully enforceable because we don't have the staff. That should never be a basis for not moving

▶ 2:58:58 Francis X. Wright Jr.: this community forward, in my opinion, all right? We don't do it with speeding. We don't say, we can't enforce speeding, so let's have it. It's the Autobahn, go the speed you want. We don't do that. We put something in place, and like all other laws, we count on the good residents of this community the good business people of this community to comply we try not to go out and enforce i'd much rather see them be educated i'd much rather see them comply because they choose to but it's those scoff laws that we may ultimately have to enforce against so i think that it's it's really an obligation of this board to continually look for ways to move our community forward and to improve the environment in which our children grow up in and if if that's not the

▶ 3:00:00 Francis X. Wright Jr.: choice this community wants to make like other communities around us we're all we're asking to do in this case is something very small is to reduce the exposure to something which the world is fast becoming aware of is going to become an environmental disaster potentially when we don't know what to do with this plastic it doesn't decompose it sits on the bottom of our oceans it sits in our woods it sits on our beaches it's decomposing it's turning into microscopic particles that we don't know how they're going to affect our lives our food chain so that's why i put this forward i saw an opportunity i had faith in and the members of this board to ask the right questions and ultimately make a decision that they think is

▶ 3:00:51 Francis X. Wright Jr.: in the best interest of this community and i hope that both this committee and the board as a whole will pause and consider what this ordinance this proposed ordinance is intended to do a small step in the right direction to reduce the community's use of a plastic that is not recyclable and hopefully allow people to stop and take a step in the direction of taking some small num small measure of plastic out of the um consumer stream and perhaps that will be a start in a long road to reducing plastic overall thank you any other discussion you want to take another stab at this I know I voted against my earlier motion because I liked alderman liberal Garipay obedience suggestion and wanted to take a minute to see what that would look

▶ 3:01:50 Manisha Bewtra: like so I would like to make a motion to replace the word stir with stick and and amend the definition of plastic beverage stir to plastic beverage stick adding so that it reads plastic beverage stick means a device that is used to mix beverages or to plug the opening of a beverage lid intended for one-time use and made predominantly of plastic derived from either petroleum or a biologically based polymer such as core corner other plant source plastic beverage stick includes compostable and biodegradable petroleum or other or biologically based polymer stirs hot stoppers and splash sticks but does not include stirs hot stoppers and splash sticks that are made from non-plastic materials such as but not limited to paper sugar cane wood and bamboo so to

▶ 3:02:50 reiterate what I'm doing is replacing the word stir with stick in the definition adding or to plug the opening of a beverage lid and adding hot stoppers and splash sticks in the list of items included so motion to amend as stated and I'd be happy to send the clerk of committees exactly which sorry if that's clumsy motion by Alderman Bewtra as stated second seconded by elements work Oh discussion on the motion hearing none on the motion all in favor yes opposed opposed as the fifth member of the committee opposed okay on the item any other discussion hearing none on the item members of the committee all in favor aye aye opposed as the fifth member of the committee I'm a vote in favor the item will go to the full board recommended

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