City Council — 2020-04-06
Attendance
Christopher Cinella ; Jack Eccles ; Mark Garipay ; Jen Grigoraitis ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Jeff McNaught ; Leila Migliorelli ; Robb Stewart ; Cory Thomas ; John N. Tramontozzi
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Remote Meeting Information
- Minutes Approval
- Public Comment
- Communications from His Honor, The Mayor And Other City Officials
- New Business
- ORDER-2020-77 : An Order to Provide Motor Vehicle Excise Tax Relief
- Orders Out of Order
- Orders from Committee
- REPORTS - RULE 53
- Calendar
- ORDER-2020-67 : Renewal of Surety Bond of City Clerk, City of Melrose in the amount of $15,000.00 for the year 2020
- ORDER-2020-66 : A Resolution for State Action to Combat Nip Bottle and Single Use Water Bottle Litter
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE CITY COUNCIL BULLETIN● APRIL 6, 2020 Web-based remote meeting Remote Meeting 7:45 PM , Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Maya Jamaleddine At-Large Present Jen Grigoraitis President, ex oficio Present John N. Tramontozzi Ward 1 Present Jeff McNaught Ward 2 Present Robb Stewart Ward 3 Present Mark Garipay Ward 4 Present Shawn M. MacMaster Ward 5 Present Cory Thomas Ward 7 Present Jack Eccles At-Large Present Christopher Cinella At-Large Present Leila Migliorelli At-Large Present
ORDER-2020-77 Resolution An Order to Provide Motor Vehicle Excise Tax Relief Assigned to Committee Appropriations Committee
ORDER-2020-67 Surety Bond Renewal of Surety Bond of City Clerk, City of Melrose in the amount of $15,000.00 for the year 2020 Placed on File
ORDER-2020-66 Resolution A Resolution for State Action to Combat Nip Bottle and Single Use Water Bottle Litter Passed City of Melrose Page 1 4/23/2020 2:26 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Jen Grigoraitis: Good evening. The time is 7.15 on Monday, April 6th. The meeting of the Melrose City Council is called to order. I am President Jen Grigoraitis, pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 orders, pending certain provisions of the open meeting law, and the Governor's March 15, 2020 order imposing strict standards on the number of people that may gather in one place. This meeting of the Melrose City Council is being conducted via remote participation. no in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in the governor's executive order a recording of this meeting will be posted on mmtb3.org and cityofmelrose.org as
▶ 0:48 soon as possible following its conclusion will the clerk please call the role counselor sanella Can you unmute your mic quick? Councilor Eccles. Councilor Garipay. Councilor DeMoledine. Councilor McMaster. Councilor McNaught. Councilor Migliorelli. Councilor Stewart. Councilor Thomas. Councilor Tramontozzi. Here. President Grigoraitis. here 11 present right so we have 11 members present which is the necessary quorum so the council may proceed counselor sanella did you have a motion for meeting minutes madam president i have before me the council minutes from january 13th 21st january 10th and the 24th and march 9th and i move to enter them into the record without reading we have a motion from second motion from councillor Sinella seconded by
▶ 2:15 Jen Grigoraitis: councillor Tramontozzi to enter the meeting minutes into the record is there any discussion I see none can you please call the roll snilla yes councillor Eccles sir garape yes councillor Jamala Dean councillor McMaster not councillor Migliorelli yeah councillor Stewart councillor Thomas so Chimitose yes president Grigoraitis? Anonymous? OK, we have 11 yeses, so the motion passes. This time, we're going to move to public comment, which is where any member of the public wishing to speak regarding any item on tonight's agenda may do so. And just for those following along at home and my fellow counselors, I want to clarify how public comment is working in this format. We have encouraged members of the public
▶ 3:24 Jen Grigoraitis: to email citycouncil at cityofmelrose.org in advance if they plan to speak and the city clerk has a list of residents that have indicated they would like to do so and will then cue them accordingly to speak if you are watching from home and have not indicated that you would like to speak but wish to do so please utilize the chat feature in webex to let us know that if you have difficult to using that feature but would like to please send an email to city council at city of melbourne.org for real-time tech assistance at this time i'll entertain a motion to enter into public comment motion open public comment we have a motion made by councillor stewart seconded by councillor Migliorelli to enter into public comment madam clerk can you please call the role
▶ 4:12 Thank you. We have entered into public comment. Madam Clerk, can you please cue the public commenters? Yes, the first public comment will be given by Gina McNeil. Ms. McNeil, I'm making you a panelist right now. Give us a minute for it to display. Hi, it's Gina. Can everyone hear me? Yes. I guess I should also ask, am I on video as well? Not right now. Okay, good. Good to know in terms of making funny faces. Thank you, everyone. Can you just give your address for the record also, just a normal comment? Thank you. Absolutely. So, Gina McNeil of 97 Maple Street in Melrose. And I'm here this evening to comment about the resolution to amend the state bottle deposit law. First, I just want to thank the Council for putting forth this resolution.
▶ 5:49 I think that this is an example, we've seen it many times, where it takes a lot of persistence and effort at the local level to see action at the state level. So I appreciate that Council taking a leadership position in bringing this resolution forward. So the Bottle Deposit Law is something that's been around for a long time, since 1983. i want to comment in my um my comments are in support of the resolution tonight and one of the reasons i support it is um uh because the the bottle deposit law while it's been around since 1983 is just as relevant and critical to the current and future um control of our waste and in massachusetts and nationally as it was when it was was when it was first introduced
▶ 6:43 1983 so i just want to provide a little bit of context around that um i think that with uh something like a local resolution it's easy to maybe think of it as a small thing but it's actually part of something that's really big and important um and that's because the bottle deposit law is part of an example of a policy that falls under the broader umbrella of extended producer responsibility also called EPR. So EPR is kind of the essentially believed to be like the way forward to deal with a lot of the waste disposal and recycling challenges that we have in the U.S. and the world today. So I'm just going to take a minute and explain what EPR is and why it's useful. So essentially under the idea of extended producer responsibility, the producer
▶ 7:32 is given a significant responsibility for how the product and the packaging they create are disposed of post-consumer so right now with the exception of bottle deposit laws there's essentially no responsibility put on producers or products to about how their products can be disposed of so that's why we have lots of products that can't be recycled or reused really at all there's no processes for doing that we have excess packaging and excess packaging that then can't be recycled in our curbside programs there's really sort of unfettered uh producer leeway on on how they do this and what's happened is that as we're getting more and more of this material produced the cost of disposals that well all along the cost of disposal has been borne by us right the local
▶ 8:23 municipality and the taxpayer that's funding that municipality and what we're seeing now is you know more and more products being produced often highly disposable products that have short lifespans and and create even more waste and we're also seeing the cost of waste disposal go up quite significantly so i'm sure everyone's seen how recycling programs are getting more and more expensive some municipalities can't be for them anymore same is happening with trash and landfill or landfill and incineration costs in massachusetts and around the country and we know that in melrose when our contract with jrm is up next year we're going to see it's almost guaranteed we're going to see a significant increase in the cost of our trash to be incinerated and our recycling program
▶ 9:10 to take it so we kind of have this situation where um without laws like better deposit laws and broader extended producer responsibility we're going to have producers making more and more products that create more and more trash and our costs are going to keep going up significantly so really have to it's we've gotten to this point where we really have to act as a country at every level to do something about it and that's really where apr comes in producers or consumers and policy makers need to push producers to take responsibility for the waste that their products create. And just to point out an example of that, some of you may be familiar with federal legislation that our own Congresswoman Catherine Clark unveiled back in February of 2020 called
▶ 9:57 the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act, which, and I quote, will shift the burden of waste to where it belongs on the corporations that produce this waste. And bringing it back to tonight's agenda, one of the key points in this legislation is a $0.10 national refund, national deposit program for all beverage containers. So any type of material, no matter what's in that container, $0.10 refund on it. So I mentioned this as an example to say that auto deposit laws are just as important and just as relevant today as they were when ours was first introduced in Massachusetts in 1983. And we know that the policy in Massachusetts works right over the 37 years that it's been around it has literally diverted billions of
▶ 10:42 containers from landfill and being littered so we know this policy works it just needs to be modernized to fit the kinds of beverages that we have today when it was introduced in 1983 and this law has not changed since 1983 there just weren't plastic water bottles and nips containers being sold by the millions in massachusetts every year so again i really commend the council and i hope that you'll vote tonight to pass on this resolution um you know it's a small part of what is really a big and important solution that we need in the state and the nation today so thank you thank you madam clerk next up is mr stubbs can we see him don't see him let's try that again oh that's not who i want very good um somehow he uh does not appear to be here anymore i don't know
▶ 12:13 if we lost him in the process of shifting him over i mean i i he's i see he has a square oh he got there okay it just was like really slow okay um hold on yeah he should be here okay sorry about that i think it's just really delayed i think his mic is muted there we go okay sorry about that mr stubbs can you hear me now yes okay thank you um yes my name is george stubbs and i live at 111 warwick road here in melrose uh i'd like to thank the council for the opportunity to voice my support for a resolution in in favor of amending the bottle redemption law in Massachusetts. In my experience, there have been a variety of claims made by those who oppose expanding the bottle redemption law, but two general
▶ 13:13 categories of claims seem to come up over and over again. One, that the bottle redemption law that exists today is archaic. Two, that we now have curbside recycling programs to handle polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, bottles which is what as I understand it an expansion of the bottle redemption law would be primarily designed to address with regard to claim one it's not clear that to me anyway what is meant by archaic as miss McNeil pointed out our bottle redemption law here in the state has been enforced for quite some time to be sure but it is working the bottles covered under the existing law are returned to retailers at high rates or making their way into curbside bins and are not littering our roadsides fields parks and waterways as for claim
▶ 14:10 to regarding curbside recycling programs an abundance of evidence suggests that a significant volume of pet bottles is not being captured by these programs to take one example of this evidence in its recently released 2020 state of curbside recycling report uh the recycling partnership that's a national partnership that that that serves to help boost and support the improvement of curbside recycling programs uh in this report the partnership reported that uh measured in terms of participant material capture rate by weight curbside programs are covering only 55 percent of pet models measured in another way in terms of whole city capture rate by material weight that capture rate as the recycling partnership
▶ 15:01 founded for pet bottles is about 40 percent now as noted these figures are by weight other studies using different methodologies or parameters put the recycling rate for plastic water bottles at around 30 percent and sometimes the figures are even lower um the bottom line here is that a very large number of plastic bottles are not captured by our recycling system as it is currently structured i've sort of focused my remarks here now on the litter problem other studies show that recycling pet bottles at a higher rate would have other environmental benefits such as reduced energy use and greenhouse gas emissions the point is something needs to be done to substantially improve our recycling system as it relates to pet bottles and bottle redemption
▶ 15:50 laws have proven to work thank you thank you mr stubbs madam clerk do we have anyone else in the queue we had another resident indicating their interest in speaking but i do not see them in the queue do we have anyone else who's indicated their wish to speak in public comment i'm checking one last time to for our email just to make sure that no one has sent in a request i just checked Amy there's nothing in the email okay then motion to close public comment we have a motion to pose public those public comment by counselor Stewart seconded by counselor Eccles madam clerk can you please call the roll um counselor Sinella yes counselor Eccles yes counselor Garipay yes counselor Jamaluddin counselor Jamaluddin can you unmute your mic
▶ 17:17 Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor McNaught. Yes. Councilor Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Thomas. Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi. Yes. President Grigoraitis. 11 yes. Madam President. Yes. At this time, I would make a motion to add the citizen correspondence that we received relative to this order, order number 2020-66 to the record. okay we have a motion by council mcmaster to add some correspondence we received seconded by councillor thomas do we have a discussion okay madam clerk can you please call the roll Yes. Sinella? Yes. Eccles? Yes. Garrapay? Yes. Jamaluddin? Yes. McMaster? Yes. McNaught? Yes. Migliorelli? Yes. Stewart? Yes. Thomas? Yes. Tramontozzi? Yes. Grigoraitis?
▶ 18:27 Yes. 11 yes. 11 yes. The motion carries. Thank you. 11 yes the motion carries thank you counselors all right at this time we'll move into communications from his honor the mayor clerk of committee to receive the patients we may have there are none today okay we have no communications we will move on to new business order 2020-77 in order to provide motor vehicle excise tax relief okay and this order will be referred to the appropriations committee do we have any orders out of order we do not we have any orders from committee not do we have any reports under rule 53 counselor Eccles I would just like to let everyone know that the school committee will be doing their first remote meeting tomorrow night and
▶ 19:20 Jen Grigoraitis: they'll be going through the deliberations for special ed and and Technology and Materials and Supplies. This is the first remote meeting. Thank you, Councilor Eccles, and I do know they'll be using remote public participation as well tomorrow night. Do we have any additional reports under Rule 53? Okay, do we have, we do have orders under the calendar, Madam Clerk of Committees. Order 2020-67, renewal of surety bond of City Clerk, City of Melrose in the amount of $15,000 for the year 2020. Okay, Councilor Migliorelli? Yes, this order comes from the Council from the Finance Committee with a recommendation to place on file. Okay, we have a recommendation to play. Do we have a motion to place on file?
▶ 20:12 Motion to place on file. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion to place on file by Councilor Migliorelli, seconded by Councilor Sonnella. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none, Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Councilor Sonnella. Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor DeMoledine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Ciamantosu? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. 11 yes. We have 11 yes. It's unanimous. The motion's . Do we have any other orders under the calendar? Order 2020-66, a resolution for state action to combat nip, bottle, and single-use water bottle
▶ 21:20 John N. Tramontozzi: litter. Do we have Mr. McNaught? This order comes from the Legal and Legislative Committee, recommended for passage out of that committee. So, we have a recommendation for passage by Council. 2nd, 2nd, is there any discussion? Yes, thank you. Madam President. I just wanted to just say that, as I mentioned, and when this matter came up at the, at the committee hearing that. I don't think that this matter is appropriate for the use of resolutions and I'm not necessarily against the principle of what the resolution stands for and expanding the program. I just simply don't believe that these matters or the resolution is proper in this situation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Given that we have more people probably maybe tuning in
▶ 22:36 Leila Migliorelli: tonight than we did at last week's committee, I just want to recap. The resolution was first brought forward at the February 24th council meeting and asked for immediate consideration but was then moved to committee. And since that time, since last week, we've had about 10 emails from constituents, which are now read into record, in addition to the two people who spoke tonight um last week we had a robust debate and as i said then um while it may have passed um as a result of this being sent to committee i believe the impetus behind the resolution still stands um back in february we heard from constituents who were concerned the council's move to expand liquor licenses would add to the prevalence of um littering
▶ 23:15 Leila Migliorelli: bottles around the city so in response to those concerns i drafted the resolution based on research that the bottle deposit bill actually works at reducing litter and that many other communities around the Commonwealth have done similar resolutions to support this legislation so I spoke with our office who gave us encouragement to or this resolution and believe that you know the city has already taken steps to reduce plastic waste by legislating a ban on plastic bags and polystyrene and it seems to be sort of you know a no-brainer for the council to support similar efforts at the state level and from the shows public participation tonight and online, I think we've heard from our community that it's important to them for us to do
▶ 23:55 Cory Thomas: so as well. Thank you. Counselor Thomas? Sorry about that. Thank you, Madam President. I was happy to co-sponsor this resolution, and I wanted to thank Council of the League for drafting it. Sorry, there's some feedback there. The amount of public support in favor of this resolution made it clear that we as a city, state, country, and a global community need to do a better job reducing wasteful practices and we should be rather embracing sustainability. I believe that by adding a deposit to single-use plastic water bottles and small amount 50 milliliter nip bottles we will be encouraged in recycling. As Greene Melrose stated previously before in front of the City Council, 80 percent of bottles that have a deposit on them are more likely to be recycled
▶ 24:53 and those without something resolution thank you thank you do we have any other discussion okay madam clerk can you please call the roll councillor snella yes councillor eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor tamala dean yes councillor mcmaster Yes. Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? No. President Kriger-Wrightus? Yes. Nine yes. Nine yes. Two no. The order carries. This time I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. I guess nine yes the order carries this time I will end your pain a motion to adjourn to adjourn you have a motion to adjourn made by counselor Eccles, second counselor Cinella. Madam Clerk can you please call the roll? Cinella. Yes. Eccles.
▶ 26:03 Tarapay. Yes. Jamala Dean. Yes. McMaster. Yes. McNaught. Yes. Chiarelli. Yes. Stewart. Thomas. Yes. yes yes yes this meeting is adjourned thank you all and please be well you well thank you