City Council — 2020-06-15

Agenda

1. Call to Order (46:30)
2. Remote Meeting Information
3. Minutes Approval (48:21)
4. Public Comment (49:21)
5. Communications from His Honor, The Mayor And Other City Officials (1:51:06)
6. ORDER-2020-124 : Appointment of Joseph Phillips, 1 Hillside Ave., to the Human Rights Commission for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2023. (2:00:08)
7. ORDER-2020-125 : Reappointment of Jessica Joy Buster, 164 Derby Road, to the Commission on Women for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2023. (2:00:22)
8. ORDER-2020-126 : Reappointment of Kristina Racek Pechulis to the Commission on Women for a term to expire on the last day of February 2022. (2:00:37)
9. ORDER-2020-127 : Reappointment of C. Joseph Hunt, 132 Mt. Vernon Ave., to the Historical Commission for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2023 (2:00:55)
10. ORDER-2020-128 : Appointment of Garin Boyd, 12 Mt. Vernon St., Unit 31, to the Commission on Disability for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2023 (2:01:15)
11. ORDER-2020-129 : Appointment of Elizabeth Ryan, 17 East Highland Ave., to the Historic District Commission for a term to expire on the last day of February 2022 (2:01:32)
12. New Business (2:01:48)
13. ORDER-2020-130 : Grant of Easement: 9 Brown St. (2:02:00)
14. ORDER-2020-131 : A Resolution Reaffirming Support of Racial Equity (2:06:02)
15. ORDER-2020-132 : An Order Relative to the Melrose Emergency Fund (2:11:40)
16. Orders Out of Order (2:12:00)
17. Orders from Committee (2:12:10)
18. ORDER-2020-89 : City of Melrose Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2021 in the amount of $88,397,961.08 (Eighty-Eight Million, Three Hundred Ninety-Seven Thousand, Nine Hundred Sixty-One Dollars and Eight Cents). (2:18:20)
19. ORDER-2020-90 : Reauthorization of City of Melrose Revolving Funds table as adopted by City Ordinance June 18, 2018 and further authorized by Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44, §53E ½.
20. ORDER-2020-91 : Amend Melrose Revised Ordinances, Chapter 24, Article II - Fire Department, Sec. 24-32(E) - Emergency Rescue Vehicle, to set fees for FY 21.
21. ORDER-2020-92 : Ambulance Enterprise Fund for Fiscal 2021 in the amount of $938,017.12 (Nine Hundred Thirty-Eight Thousand, Seventeen Dollars and Twelve Cents).
22. ORDER-2020-93 : Water Enterprise Operating Budget for Fiscal 2021 in the amount of $5,422,639.20 (Five Million, Four Hundred Twenty-Two Thousand, Six Hundred Thirty-Nine Dollars and Twenty Cents).
23. ORDER-2020-94 : Sewer Enterprise Operating Budget for Fiscal 2021 in the amount of $8,130,932.44 (Eight Million, One Hundred-Thirty Thousand, Nine Hundred Thirty-Two Dollars and Forty-Four Cents).
24. ORDER-2020-95 : Mt. Hood Enterprise Operating Budget for Fiscal 2021 in the amount of $1,565,259.92 (One Million, Five Hundred Sixty-Five Thousand, Two Hundred Fifty-Nine Dollars and Ninety-Two Cents).
25. ORDER-2020-104 : An Appropriation from Free Cash, account number (01-324001) in the amount of $114,200.00 to various Fire Department Accounts as set forth herein.
26. ORDER-2020-106 : An Appropriation from Free Cash, account number 01-324001, in the amount of $195,714.85 to various Police Department Accounts as set forth herein.
27. ORDER-2020-108 : An Appropriation from Free Cash, account number 01-324001, in the amount of $309,104.60 to various IT accounts as set forth herein.
28. ORDER-2020-121 : Acceptance of School Water Improvement Grant (SWIG) in the amount of $24,000
29. ORDER-2020-122 : Acceptance of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Recycling IQ Kit Grant in the amount of $30,000
30. ORDER-2020-123 : Acceptance of State Revolving Fund Sewer Asset Management Grant in the amount of $60,000
31. REPORTS - RULE 53
32. Calendar
33. ORDER-2020-84 : An Order Requesting Information Relative to Resources Available to Local Business Impacted by the Novel Coronavirus
34. ORDER-2020-105 : An Appropriation from the Peg Access Cable Fund (#2922) in the amount of $300,452.04 to MMTV and Melrose Public Schools.
35. ORDER-2020-107 : A Transfer from Temporary Debt, account number 017522-549100, in the amount of $42,000.00 to various Workers' Compensation accounts as set forth herein.
36. ORDER-2020-109 : An Appropriation from Free Cash, account 01-324001, in the amount of $331,676.55 to various Public Works Accounts as set forth herein.
37. ORDER-2020-110 : An Appropriation from Free Cash, account 01-324001, in the amount of $79,300.00 to various accounts as set forth herein.
38. ORDER-2020-112 : Appointment of David Hoff, 46 Warwick Road, to the Commission on Disability for a three-year term; said term to end on the last day of February 2023.
39. ORDER-2020-113 : Appointment of Eileen Hamblin, 150 Youle Street, to the Cemetery Commission to fill the expired term of Mark Garipay; said term to expire on the last day of February 2022.
40. ORDER-2020-114 : Appointment of Margaret Sheets, 53 Melrose St., Apt. 3D, to the Commission on Disability for a three-year term; said term to end on the last day of February 2023.
41. ORDER-2020-115 : Appointment of Dorie Withey, 286 Washington Street, to the Human Rights Commission for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2023.
42. ORDER-2020-117 : Reappointment of Anne DeSouza-Ward, 543 Lynn Fells Parkway, to the Planning Board for a five-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2024.
43. ORDER-2020-119 : An Order Amending Article VII, Section 198-20 of the Revised Ordinances of the City of Melrose, “Sustainable Food Containers and Packaging”
44. Adjournment (3:55:20)

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE CITY COUNCIL BULLETIN● JUNE 15, 2020 Web-based remote meeting Regular Meeting 7:45 PM , Melrose, MA 02176 City of Melrose Page 1 8/17/2020 12:22 PM Minutes City Council June 15, 2020 City of Melrose Page 2 8/17/2020 12:22 PM Minutes City Council June 15, 2020 City of Melrose Page 3 8/17/2020 12:22 PM Minutes City Council June 15, 2020 City of Melrose Page 4 8/17/2020 12:22 PM Minutes City Council June 15, 2020 City of Melrose Page 5 8/17/2020 12:22 PM Minutes City Council June 15, 2020 City of Melrose Page 6 8/17/2020 12:22 PM

Transcript

▶ 47:21 Jen Grigoraitis: this meeting of the city council will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible we will post an audio or video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the city of melrose website and on mmtv3.org the public can find online access instructions on the city website madam clerk can you please call the roll Councilor Sunila Councilor Eccles Councilor Garipay yeah Councilor demolition yeah also McMaster Councilor McNaught yeah Councilor Migliorelli here Councilor Stewart? Here. Councilor Thomas? Here. Councilor Tramontozzi? Here. President Kriger-Rydas? Here. 11 present. Okay, 11 present. So we have a quorum at this time.

▶ 48:21 I would entertain a motion for minutes approval. Yes, Madam President, I move to approve the minutes without reading of the May 4th, May 14th, May 18th, June 1st and June 4th meeting. So we have a motion by Councilor Sanella to approve the minutes of the May 14th, May 18th, June 1st and June 4th City Council meetings seconded by Councilor Thomas. Is there any discussion? Madam Clerk can you please Let's call the roll. Councilor Snilla. 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 Tramontozzi. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes.

▶ 49:21 Jen Grigoraitis: 11 yes 11 yes so those minutes are approved thank you counselor sanella um so at this time we'll move into the public comment portion of our meeting and this is when any member of the public can come forward and comment on any item on our agenda um that i know doing it in the digital format is a little different so i ask if you are logged in and interested in commenting that you raise your digital hand there should be a little hand icon that you can click and the madam clerk will pull you forward um we do request that public comment is limited to 10 minutes per member of the public and i believe we have quite a few folks looking to comment this evening so i will turn it over to the clerk thank you um madam president i will first call the um individuals who had

▶ 50:09 indicated through email or voicemail that they were interested in speaking and then i'll also follow through with people raising their hands and some of you are doing both which is great um so first we have a motion to open public comment so we have a motion to open public by Councilor Stewart seconded by Councilor McLeer McLeer early madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Sure. Sinella. Yes. Eccles. Yes. Garipay. Yes. Maladine. Yes. McMaster. Yes. McNaught. Yes. Migliorelli. Yes. Thomas. Yes. Tramontozzi. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes. All right, so public comment is open. There's a few people. Let me see if I can find. There's a lot of people logged in, so bear with me. Just while we're getting the tech piece squared away, if you're planning to speak in public comment, if you can please state your name and address for the record at the beginning of your comments, that would be helpful. Thank you.

▶ 51:39 So, Maya Talwar-Hebert, I found you, and I know you indicated that you wanted to speak, so I will unmute you now. Hi there, can you hear me? Great. So my name is Maya. My address is 31 Stevens Road, and I've been a Melrose resident for my entire life. I first want to thank the Council for allowing me to speak, and I wanted to touch upon the recent proposal put forth by Mayor Broder, which was to allocate money meant for new police guns towards anti-bias training. I first want to speak to those members of the Council who voted against this recent proposal. I've heard a number of the Councillors purport that they are supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, and I want to note that being a supporter means listening to

▶ 52:25 the voices of people of color. A central goal of the Black Lives Matter movement is to support the redistribution of wealth and services out of our policing and law enforcement institutions and towards community-led health and safety strategies. Listening to the voices of people of color is even more important in a predominantly white community like Melrose. Now to everyone on the council, I want to note that the call to defund the police is only half of the demand being put forth. It is also about shifting public funds to new services and new institutions such as mental health counselors who can respond to incidents without arms shifting funding to education and to housing all of which help to create security and safety for all and so yes

▶ 53:09 implicit bias training can be a part of this narrative but it should certainly not be the end-all be-all of that line the fact that melrose does not have a large population of people of color is not by accident i would argue but rather a product of the community culture and policies put in place and not put in place by our legislators policies related to over policing and criminalization for sure but also affordable housing and i'll pause there as well as food security diversity in our educators and hiring practices as a person of color who grew up in melrose i can attest to the harm that is inevitably inevitably caused by growing up in an environment where there are so few other people of color i hope that those who have heard what i'm saying

▶ 53:55 here today continue to support policies that create an environment in melrose that is open and safe to all residents in closing to paraphrase dr angela davis safety safeguarded by violence is not really safety thank you thank you next i will move on to nandini talwar i will unmute you now. Hi, thanks for allowing me to speak. My name is Nandini Talwar, and I too am a resident of 31 Stevens Road in Melrose. I've lived here for more than 30 years. And as I said to you in my letter, I am speaking today about my grave disappointment that the City Council voted to deny the reallocation of money away from police firearms and not towards the anti-racism efforts as the mayor had suggested. I do want to thank Mayor Broder and city councillors Jennifer Grigoraitis,

▶ 55:05 Maya Jamaleddine, and Lila Miglorelli for your courage and leadership in taking a stand and supporting the reallocation of funds for this essential and necessary training, not only for our police officers, but for all our city employees. I, along with so many members of our community were so moved to see the incredible representation from community members at the recent standout for racial equality in Melrose. And judging from the signs that were displayed, there was an overwhelming support for Black Lives Matter. To the city councillors who voted against the reallocation of funds from new firearms to anti-racism efforts in our city, did you miss the messages in the standout for racial equality? Did you not hear the voices of the citizens you

▶ 55:52 represent? Do you think that simply attending a vigil or a standout for racial equality is sufficient? I do not. Standing out is no longer sufficient. We need to show through our actions that we will no longer stand by and bear witness to bias and violence against marginalized members of our community that include black and brown people, the queer and trans community, our Muslim residents, those with mental illness and immigrants among others. It is essential that we listen to the voices of marginalized residents in our community. For many of these people police signal less safety not more. I want to share a little anecdote which was a very painful experience for me. I I am a physician. I'm a practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist. I'm a woman of color. I'm a lesbian. I'm an immigrant to this country.

▶ 56:55 Several years ago, I had an experience in my workplace where I was advised by my employer, by the legal department at my place of employment, and by the police department at the institution where I worked that I needed to file a police report with the Melrose Police Department regarding an issue concerning a member of the institution where I worked at the time. And without getting into details, I can share with you that I had an incredibly unpleasant interaction at the Melrose Police Department. I was treated in an incredibly dismissive manner. My concerns were treated as minor and unfounded, as though I was in the wrong office. And it was not until I was accompanied by a white male police sergeant from the institution where I worked that my concerns were taken seriously.

▶ 57:51 I share this personal story with you to tell you that despite the annual diversity training that is received by the Melrose Police Department, I am confident that part of what occurred the day that I went into the police office to file a report was related to bias. perhaps implicit bias, and I'm confident that implicit bias exists throughout our society. None of us, not even myself, is free from implicit bias. Where we spend money now will decide what kind of city we will live in for decades to come. Decreasing money for firearms and investing in diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism efforts is just a minor small step toward creating a community where all of our residents feel safe. I am interested in hearing the rationale behind

▶ 58:42 your vote. I'm also interested to learn more about the explicit impact of not purchasing new weapons for the police. I don't think $26,000 is going to come anywhere near what we need to do the work that we need to do within our community. I thank you for listening and for your time and consideration. Thank you. We'll now move on to Jason Chen. Jason, I'm unmuting you now. Okay. Thank you for the floor. Jason Chen. I live at 39 Woodland Avenue. And I have four messages for our community regarding the same issue. And the first is to my fellow citizens. We're hurting. And I'm hurting too. And I'm out protesting. I've been out five times in the past eight days. I'm also a veteran. I was not a badass Marine or an infantryman, but I was in the Navy, and on occasion I carried a service pistol.

▶ 59:37 Jason Chen: I understand the basics of firearms and managing people with firearms. I also recognize that being a cop is not an easy job. Sadly, there's lots of guns on the street, even in Melrose, and there's a lot of mental illness. And if I'm a cop walking into a situation, I would want a good service weapon that works 100% of the time. Any working person deserves good tools, including the police. my second message is to the city council and let's call this what it is it's bad timing if this was six weeks earlier we wouldn't be having this conversation over 26k our main goal now is to rebuild trust between the police and the people and first counselor master i appreciate you digging in and finding some reports to help us to help us understand that

▶ 1:00:19 Jason Chen: a nine millimeter is right for the force and i'm not a small arms expert but yes i agree you can't wrong with the bretta the glock 19 the six rp 226 or whatever you're going to and these are all good nine millimeters of the right for the job 26k is the right cost for 50 pistols a few hundred rounds and spare parts nine millimeter ammunition does save about a thousand dollars a year compared to the 10 millimeter ammunition but what concerns me is last week you tried to simplify it down to lower caliber equals more accurate equals innocent people killed on the playground and to be honest that is a bit dramatic and i think the good chief would agree if we didn't upgrade all 50 weapons now innocent bystanders would not be killed tomorrow police are trained well enough not

▶ 1:01:07 Jason Chen: to fire into playgrounds with kids second i read your fbi report or the fbi report that you referenced and several analyses of it that were reputable and saying that a smaller caliber round is always accurate is like saying a smaller car is always faster it doesn't take into account the engine the tires the design of the car the quality of its manufacturer more importantly the proficiency of its driver the nine millimeter is right for the force but not for the reasons you mentioned and the public should not be scared into spending this money my third message is to the policeman you're getting dragged through the mud for something others did to dishonor your uniform that's something that hopefully you would never do and that's not fair but i think you

▶ 1:01:49 Jason Chen: understand i can imagine you are non-plussed by the idea of implicit bias training it's wasted if it's shoved down your throat when i was in the navy i had i rolled my eyes plenty of times at mandatory training that was forced on me to check a box for the institution i even had to give terrible training on occasion to some sleepy sailors who did not want to be there for 26k in your time you should not get cookie cutter inclusion training the training the trainer should understand what you're up against and give you amazing implicit bias training. In return, I ask that you be open-minded and take it to heart and maybe after you've reflected on the training I would have a crusty sergeant or maybe your newest member come to the council

▶ 1:02:31 Jason Chen: and tell us what you thought or learned and I hope it's good. I want to know that our 26k or more was spent wisely and be straight with us and I think this would build trust with the people. my final message is for the police chief chief lyle chief we have not met you are by all accounts a stand-up chief and i hope your men and women follow you and not just do what you say and you are key to all this going forward i recommend this council give you the 26 000 for the service weapons upgrade but here's what i suggest you do with it you talk to your armor and figure out which of your 50 guns absolutely needs to be replaced you get some new weapons and ammo that rightly need for your team to be safe and you have a pile of money left over you get your officers in

▶ 1:03:14 Jason Chen: a room and you tell them they have a golden opportunity here you know the town better than anyone and you see it at its worst how would you and your officers spend that money to help people the most give that leftover money back to the city and for now tell us how to do the most good with it and i hope the council would listen and do exactly as you say and that's a patch story that would be an inspiring example for cities everywhere the police department gives part of its weapons upgrade budget back to the city to help those in need if you can rebuild this trust there's two things first the city wouldn't think twice about giving you the money you need in the future for nine millimeters or other or other equipment and second i would be honored to cover a few rounds

▶ 1:03:57 of drinks for you and your team at the vfw i haven't checked this with my wife who is also a navy veteran but don't worry i have some cash stashed under the mattress for times like these thank you thank you mr chen if mr chen is still on can you please give me your address 39 woodland avenue thank you um next i'll bring nick lowe thank you uh nick lowe from 53 ferdinand street i'm speaking this evening to express my support for the mayor's proposal of funding diversity equity and inclusion training for city employees well i completely understand the importance of maintaining and from time to time replacing and upgrading police equipment this is really a question of priorities and clearly we need to take a hard look at our

▶ 1:04:56 priorities there is a reason that events of the last few weeks have led to a massive conversation and actions being taken on a national scale that is to say implicit racial biases are real and they are deeply rooted throughout our culture and so normalized that many of us are not even aware of them myself included by the way believe me i'm new to this and this is uncomfortable will the department's firearms need to be upgraded at some point sure and a few weeks ago it might have seemed like a sensible way to use that part of the budget but that was a few weeks ago this world has changed a lot in a few weeks read the national headlines there is a crisis in this country not a new one by the way but it's a crisis we are finally talking about at scale

▶ 1:05:51 and the voices of people of color are finally starting to be heard and we as one community out of many have an opportunity to do our part This crisis will not fix itself. The only way positive change will happen is if those in power recognize it and gain the understanding of what that need to change our system is. And let's be honest. That power in America sits with white men. It sits with me. It sits with about eight out of the 11 of you. That's the reality. And it is incumbent upon us to generate that change. Why? It's because we can and we should. We can be the allies and advocates that help support that change. And that begins with knowledge and understanding. So I'm asking you to take this opportunity.

▶ 1:06:45 Let's be a city of leaders and show the communities around us that we are willing to do our part and take the first step on a long road. Let's do this training and start the long conversation that needs to happen here and every other community in this country to generate real and lasting change thank you for your time and attention thank you next I'll bring um I believe the name that says Conley clap is actually Bonnie clap who indicated that they would like to speak but they have their hand raised so I'll unmute them now go ahead good evening city councillors my name is Bonnie clap despite the fact that i seem to have registered myself as my older son thank you remote learning i live at 177 first

▶ 1:07:46 street and i thank you very much for the opportunity to speak tonight after the unity rally rally last sunday i was filled with hope as approximately a thousand melrose residents lined linfels in solidarity for black lives but less than a week later after watching thursday City Council meeting, I was filled with despair. It's Rob Bell's definition of despair that I'm going to use here. Despair is believing that tomorrow will be just like today. What filled me most with despair was the tone that was set for the meeting from the opening remarks to the line of questioning with Chief Lyle. This quickly set the stage for an anti-police debate that I do not believe is true in Melrose. I consider myself a fairly well-informed

▶ 1:08:37 community member and at no point have I ever heard an attack on the Melrose Police. I believe that friends and neighbours hold all Melrose Police officers in high esteem and think that they are doing a tremendous job keeping all residents safe. I had watched the meeting twice, both because I was shocked by the tone of it and to also understand Chief Lyle's firearm request. Chief Lyle presented his request reasonably and an upgrade to this tool of the trade did seem reasonable. What saddened me was that his request for an upgraded tool became pitted against another trade tool that the Melrose Police currently does not have implicit bias training. Many Councillors were questioning what had changed between the Mayor's original

▶ 1:09:26 request to today i cannot speak for anyone else but myself but i personally know a lot of change has happened for myself in those weeks i have gone from great grief sadness and despair that yet another black person has been killed to an individual who is working her hardest to learn understand and take small steps towards change i do not believe that i am the only person in this community in this state and in this country who is going through this process it has been a process that includes shame and granting myself grace it is understanding that actions i may have taken on may 25th are not the same actions i'm going to take today i look at the mayor's act of revisiting his may 25th request with the same grace as i would hope

▶ 1:10:16 that people would grant me i believe his memorandum reflects learning and understanding of what the needs and desires of our community and this nation are and he has acted accordingly i was filled with pride in our melrose community as i saw various posts from many of you counselors on your personal social media platforms and then from the entire city council on june 1st when you all acknowledged with unanimous support the recent national events by observing a moment of silence the melrose city council statement went on to say some may feel that what's happening at the national level has no bearing on the business of municipal government however every community is affected in some way by these issues including our own we as a council denounce racism and stand

▶ 1:11:11 united in our commitment to working toward a more inclusive community. Messages such as these are heartwarming to read and I think that it is many people's reaction to horrific events. But now time has passed and I see in my own personal life that time can do two things. It gives us a chance to distance ourselves from the event or it gives us a chance to continue to work. Continuing to work to be coming towards an anti-racist takes time. It takes time to truly listen. It takes time to truly learn. It takes time to truly practice being an anti-racist. I do not feel that it is fair for the Council to be critical of our Mayor for taking that time. Weeks after the event, the time has come to be more than a cheerleader or an ally

▶ 1:12:05 and to dig deeper and to work harder to find ways to make permanent change and to take action to give all city departments the necessary tools such as implicit bias training to make this change permanent thank you all very much for your time tonight thank you ms clapp next i'll bring sandy Sandy Dixon, I just lost her, so hold on. There we are. I'm unmuting you now, Ms. Dixon. Thank you very much. My name is Sandy Dixon and I live at 22 Martin Street. I'm going to read an email that I sent recently to the City Council. This email is in response to the June 11th City Council Appropriations Meeting where Mayor Roeder's request to reallocate twenty six thousand dollars of free cash from handgun purchases to citywide

▶ 1:13:04 anti-bias training was addressed. The police chief and city Councilor McMaster went to incredible lengths to outline the need for upgrading 14 year old handguns for the Melrose Police Department. Issues brought up by both included the fact that these guns have a 10-year warranty and have begun to fail and the replacement of these handguns is necessary for the safety of others stating that 70% of the time they missed their mark when fired. McMaster went as far as to say that if this operation isn't passed it will both compromise and quote undermine public safety and then posited a worst-case scenario of not only a school shooting happening in Melrose but an errant bullet from one of these guns hitting an innocent bystander. I just want to pause for a moment and

▶ 1:13:49 note that it was stated that it's reactionary to respond to a recent murder, and the nationwide call for change in addressing racism. But it was fair game to try to scare us all by suggesting that we might have, as he said, quote, God forbid a school shooting. I would rest my stand on the fund's allocation in a moment, but I first want to state that it's my opinion that this display by Mr. McMaster was unconscionable, and he should take a thoughtful and reasonable look at his ability to manage his emotions during these very difficult conversations. Now, it sounds like police handguns have been a problem and are a serious public health risk and they've been a risk for many, many years. If this is the case, could you please help the city understand why this item has not been included

▶ 1:14:33 in the city budget for the past four years? Why is it coming out of free cash? Why is it being asked for now? Because suddenly, according to Mr. McMaster, the proposal by the Mayor indicates that the police are being, quote, targeted and according to Mr. McNaught, this is, quote, a criticism of the Melrose Police. And somehow, not supporting this issue now, which has clearly been around for years is reactionary. A very quick and cursory look at a budget approved on December 3rd 2018 showed that when Melrose had free cash of the amount of 1.1 million dollars the police department used 163 thousand dollars of that to purchase three new police vehicles. Could some of that have been used for guns then? On June 3rd 2019

▶ 1:15:15 Melrose had 2.3 million dollars in free cash. Why didn't the police push to purchase guns then? If according to Mr. McMaster, Mr. De La Russo can quote, pick a rabbit out of a hat and finding money to support the city, why couldn't the city and police department work to secure these funds before we reach this dire program? I greatly appreciate the words of Ms. Jamaleddine and Ms. Migliorelli for stating clearly and unequivocally that this is not about disrespect of the NOLA's police department. Ms. Jamaleddine, Ms. Migliorelli, Ms. Gregoridis and Mayor Broder support citywide anti-bias training at this time. And it's clear that there's constituent support for this now. As Ms. Migliorelli stated, Melrose should, quote, put our money where our mouths are

▶ 1:15:58 as we respond to the call for change and help communities address racism, policing, and safety. The silence of the other council members, particularly those who marched at the Black Lives Matter protest last weekend, was heard loudly and clearly, and their yes votes were extremely disappointing. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, I'll bring Maureen Busby. Go ahead, Maureen. I'll bring Maureen Busby. Go ahead, Maureen. Good evening. And a special thank you to the city councilors for allowing us to speak to you this evening about this important issue. I'm paraphrasing slightly an email that I wrote earlier in the week, but for the purposes of a public meeting tonight, I'll read what I wrote with some edits.

▶ 1:16:52 I was just made to hear of last week's eight to three vote against Mayor Broder's request redirect $26,000 to conduct implicit bias training for city employees rather than purchase new weapons for the police department. And I say implicit bias training intentionally. Diversity training, cultural competency, and all those other trainings are good and helpful in some ways certainly, but what we really need is a deep dive into implicit bias for me, for you, for all of us. We do not even know all the ways in which we exhibit our bias. I think we seen enough examples in recent weeks of explicit bias on equal policing downright police brutality directed at black americans these recent horrific examples were made visible only because of videos

▶ 1:17:37 released to the public and are just the tip of the iceberg there are many more we don't see even police-involved crimes that get reported are often misreported just read the police report on injuries to Brianna Taylor? None? The blue line can be a wall of silence that protects some very bad cops. I am not saying any Melrose City employees are guilty of such brutality or such corrupt behavior. I've worked closely with Chief Lyle on a number of special projects and city programs. Just last week I dropped off, well before this discussion started, I dropped off $50 worth of Dunkin' Donuts gift cards for him to distribute to his staff at Seesaw Fit. It was intended as a modest thank you to our police department for the hard work they do day in

▶ 1:18:21 and day out to show my gratitude and my support what i am saying today is not in any way a position or statement against our police officer officers it is a statement against systemic racism which exists here just as it exists in virtually every community in this country whether we realize it or not what i'm suggesting is that we all need to understand both that both implicit and explicit racial bias exists and that while the underlying cause may be systemic bias built into every facet of our lives government faking health care education policing and on and on and on racial bias and racial inequities continue to exist because of our collective ignorance because of revisionist history taught in our schools and or because we are not comfortable confronting

▶ 1:19:10 these extremely uncomfortable issues in ways that we need to we all need this training not just the police all of us our employees board members and commission members change needs to start here in our community the operative word being start down the road we need to offer implicit bias training to all no roads residents and certainly teach it in our schools for now i'll settle for getting city employees started on the long road to understanding this complex issue but we need to start now not later not next year not sometime whenever not never no we need to start now i'm hoping you will reconsider both we can be an example to melrose residents neighboring cities and towns the rest of the state the rest of the country most importantly to our children we need

▶ 1:19:56 to show very clearly that we understand these crucial and critical social justice issues or that we're at least willing to try to and then we need to act i'm guessing there are grants that could cover the purchase of new weapons or the expense of implicit bias training that would be great but it would not send the message about what kind of community we are you can do that we need you to be the representatives and leaders we elected you to be and hope that you would be thank you ms busby and just for the record can you state your address yes 54 west highland avenue Thank you. Next in queue, we have Manjula Karamchetti. I will unmute you now. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having me. I'm Manjula Karamchetti, 24 Botolph Street. I am a proud Ward 1 resident, school counselor, former school district administrator in Malden and Lexington,

▶ 1:21:01 Manjula Karamcheti: and I'm currently the Director of Equity and Student Support at the WW Graduate School of Teaching and Learning at MIT. I'm speaking tonight in regards to Order 2020-106, free cash to the police department, but also in regards to last Thursday's City Council Appropriations Committee meeting. Another Black man, Rashard Brooks, was murdered by police with guns this weekend last week our city council had the opportunity to wait on replacing the police department's 14 year old guns and start getting serious about the need for anti-bias training in elrose i've heard the debates and discussions mayor broder's memo was last minute 26 000 isn't enough money to pay for anti-bias training the current guns are less accurate

▶ 1:21:54 Manjula Karamcheti: though that one confuses me as guns don't shoot themselves people shoot guns our city is led mostly by white individuals our schools are led mostly by white individuals and our community is mostly white as well i live off of franklin street and spend a lot of time yelling at cars that are driving way too fast up and down the street i can say that when i see cars pulled over by the police the majority of those people pulled over are people of color i pay attention and i notice every time this happens when my non-white husband goes running he says hi to everyone he encounters and rarely gets a nod a smile a hello or a wave except on occasion when our kids are with him but even that is rare at a physically distanced event in my neighborhood

▶ 1:22:42 Manjula Karamcheti: a person of color drove by in a car and someone joked that it must have been a delivery man giving takeout on a saturday night and in the schools my kids have yet to have a teacher of color and will likely grab rose high never having had one teacher of color and will still be called the red raiders with indian feathers on the boosters trailer and concession stand these may be considered my questions but they happen every day in melrose however i have had the honor of facilitating a few diversity equity inclusion and anti-racism meetings in this city and there are many many citizens who are ready willing and able to do the work that needs to be done in Melrose to make our city a city that is truly one open to all as our leaders in Melrose you have

▶ 1:23:35 Manjula Karamcheti: the opportunity to make a strong statement that you know racism exists in Melrose and that you care about people of color and you really believe black lives matter to be clear i do not believe in defunding the police but i do believe in reimagining and reforming policing so no more black and brown kids and adults have to die i ask you to vote for starting the work of anti-racism in our city and not for more guns in our city by approving the mayor's request for 26 000 to be moved from the police department to the city's hr department this money could be used to develop a multi-pronged strategic plan for addressing bias discrimination and racism in our city schools and community it certainly isn't everything but is it it is a start and we

▶ 1:24:25 need you to start right now thank you very much i appreciate your time thank you i believe we still have a few more folks in queue next we have eugenia gibbons ms gibbons i will unmute you now hi there can you hear me can you hear me yes we can okay great thank you uh good evening and thank you for taking the time to hear from me this evening and also from others from the public my name is eugenia gibbons i'm in a constituent of ward 5 and i live at 98 east wyoming ab An earlier speaker really captured perfectly what I, a black Melrosean whose loved ones are also law enforcement officers, have been grappling with since bearing witness to the false dichotomy that was presented at last Thursday's meeting.

▶ 1:25:18 At the end of the day, this really comes down to, as I believe it was Mr. Chen said, timing and the restoration of trust, required clarity around the urgency of the need Chief Lyle requested be met, the efficacy of training, and how best to leverage the small amount of money at our disposal to meet multiple needs and to have the greatest impact. Like many, I would have supported the proposed reallocation of 26K from replacement firearms to citywide implicit bias training, and I was also disappointed by the initial vote. However, as inopportune a moment as this is to be purchasing new firearms, they are 14 years old. and so it wasn't actually the outcome of the vote that i found so disheartening

▶ 1:26:04 even though that would not have been my preferred choice instead what was most upsetting during the 40-minute discussion was the inflammatory rhetoric and hyperbolized what-ifs and worst-case scenarios used to mischaracterize the request as anti-police those were offensive and unnecessarily divisive ironically they also underscored the need for investment in the equity and inclusion training and services that triggered the discussion in the first place i commend counselors mcnaught Jamaleddine and Migliorelli for attempting to refocus the conversation when given the opportunity and for reminding all that supporting the police and working to make the city's administrative departments more diverse equitable and inclusive are not mutually exclusive endeavors

▶ 1:26:50 I do not envy the position you all find yourselves in this evening. Whether you're considering holding firm on your vote or changing it, I ask you to consider to what end. If you hold firm, please consider the recommendation made by Mr. Chen to balance meeting the immediate needs of the police department in accordance with Chief Lyle's request and longer-term goals. Similarly, if you change your vote, please consider that reallocation for an unspecified purpose will do nothing to move our city closer to confronting structural racism here which is a commitment that you have all stated you share implicit bias training is the call that continues to be made and while implicit bias training is a valuable professional development tool on its own it will not meet the

▶ 1:27:36 challenge of confronting systemic racism it needs to live within a larger framework that guides the city's equity work that framework needs to see clear outcomes and must include the integration of resources and planning towards achieving measurable results i'm concerned that simply reallocating the 26 000 now without specifying that those dollars be used how those dollars be used will simply check a box it will ultimately be an insufficient amount invested inadequately and that in the long term is more unacceptable than authorizing replacement of firearms in the immediate term regardless of how this vote goes this evening the real con a real conversation needs to be had about how this body the

▶ 1:28:21 administration and members of the community can and will work together to ensure that the city budget reflects the values of this community and the shared commitment to fully integrate equity diversity and inclusion into all aspects of decision making several of you asked last week what has happened in a few short days to change course to that i would respond nothing and also everything our community is well positioned to lead by example and demonstrate what is possible with commitment and collaboration as counselor migliorelli said it's time to put our money where our mouths are i urge you to please do so thank you thank you next i will unmute manisha budra hello good evening all um nice to be with you this evening and thank you for the opportunity

▶ 1:29:19 Manisha Bewtra: to comment um i'm noting that we've had one two three four five six seven eight nine i think people comment among those five and now six um are people of color including me and i feel like that That should tell you a little bit of something about who's being heard and who's not in in the vote you took last week. And I'm hoping that you'll reconsider. I just wanted to note that it's unfair to make that this an attack against the individuals on our police force. I personally have an excellent relationship with Chief Lyle as well as many other Melrose Police Department officers. My personal sense has been that these folks signed up for this job because we do want to protect and serve. So, I do care about keeping our officers safe from harm.

▶ 1:30:13 Just as I wish for all in our community to stay safe. To stay safe from harm, as we're all talking about, there's a nationwide conversation. Happening right now on the nature of policing. we've underfunded other aspects of community needs and diverted resources to policing from the federal level down to the local, from city to city, and state to state. The things that our police officers are expected to respond to should not all be within the scopes of their jobs, though I do thank them for shouldering so much for us. And just because this might be a nationwide trend, I know we must also look at the realities of Melrose as well. It can be both true that our officers have shouldered too much with

▶ 1:31:01 not enough resources while also supporting the effort to reallocate some funds. It's unconscionable that our police headquarters is a dated building that is not handicap accessible in addition to the needs of our fire stations and we do need to address our public safety capital needs. That said, that doesn't mean that reallocating these funds is inappropriate and I believe that it's worth this initial investment in implicit bias training. Again, reiterating some of what folks before me have said, last week's comments by the counselors who voted to move forward with the original free cash appropriation request rather than investing in implicit bias training as well as I would say some of the silence by other counselors, were largely disappointing

▶ 1:31:56 at best. It was isolating and frustrating to hear racially coded language, sexist language, as well as other exclusionary language. These comments themselves pointed to the need, as I think Eugenie had just said, for implicit advice training, because in saying them, either didn't hear the dog whistles you were using or perhaps you didn't care. But I know all of you and I want to believe that you do care and you just don't see. You don't live in different skin. I implore you to consider the experiences of people who do. Furthermore, our police here in Melrose are not free of bias either. While canvassing last summer, I spoke with many Melrose residents, largely people of color, who pointed to experiences with racial profiling they either experienced themselves as long time

▶ 1:32:48 or recent residents or that they witnessed. I want to emphasize that there's a difference between racism which is sort of talked about as a binary if you're either racist or you're not versus what we've been talking about which is anti-racism. We all live in a culture that we are a bit blind to at times. The racism is there and it's lifelong work to eradicate it. I think you all know that I have done a lot of this work and I know I have my own biases with regards to all the isms, including racism. Furthermore, there's a difference between diversity training and implicit bias training. Again, diversity is about just learning that there's different people. Implicit bias is partially about looking within and learning how much of this culture

▶ 1:33:45 that we've absorbed and what can we do to do better. I appreciated Councilor McNaught statements about wanting a more substantial investment, and I agree. This is going to be an ongoing effort with systems change, but at the same time, I want to thank Councillors Michael Urelli, Jamala Dean, and Grigoraitis for supporting the effort to reallocate those funds because we've got to start somewhere. And thank you to Mayor Broder as well for getting the ball rolling. It's neither too late nor too early for us to start doing the right thing. Thank you for the opportunity to comment. Again, it's Manisha Bhutra, 330 Grove Street. Thank you, Ms. Bhutra. I believe that is the end of our speakers for public comment.

▶ 1:34:36 If there's anyone else online who wishes to speak, if you can please make yourself known. President Greger, a few more people have raised their hand. Thank you. I will bring, let me just double check, Jennifer Appleyard on next, I believe. Her name is getting cut off. Yeah, that's right. This is Jennifer Aplio. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Okay. I'm a resident of Beach Ave, 158 Beach Ave in Ward 7. Thank you for the opportunity to join you tonight. I would request that the City Council not appropriate funds to the Police Department weapons upgrade, as has been referenced, and instead repurpose those funds to anti-racism, anti-bias, implicit bias training. specifically given the times that we're in with wide support against unchecked police power

▶ 1:35:38 particularly against non-white residents of communities across the country the unequivocal evidence of deep-seated institutional bias across our society melrose as well as across the country and the deep pain that black and brown community members are feeling due to police brutality that they really frankly can't get away from videos of or stories of and reference on a on a daily basis I believe it's extremely poor choice to proceed with this funding of these weapons upgrade at this time and further if the city council is serious about anti-bias and deconstructing institutional racism that is an effort that takes skill practice and thoughtful reflection and And frankly, there's no time to lose. And so I would urge the City Council to vote with the women of the City Council last week who voted to support this funding change.

▶ 1:36:31 Thank you for your service to the City and for hearing me tonight. Thank you. President Grigoraitis, we have Jerry Moroz next. I will unmute you, Mr. Moroz. Hi, thank you for hearing me tonight. I want to talk about two topics. want to talk about the topic that all the other speakers have talked about but also some about water and sewer um first it's unfortunate that this issue has been framed as this false dichotomy that it's either one or the other um you know we've been spending weeks and weeks talking about an 88 million dollar budget three million dollars of free cash um what are the priorities um you know the mayor didn't make this a priority in his budget nor in the free cash proposals and

▶ 1:37:19 And we all understand what's changed in the last few weeks and why this might be an important thing, but to put it in the context of a defund the police type of an issue, I don't believe was appropriate or desired for the community. Melrose has defunded our police for years and years and years. There's no disputing that. The problem is that we haven't used the money that we save from defunding the police to do something real for the community. Use the money on a lot of feel-good things a lot. We use the money on a lot of things that really don't go to the core of solving the problems in our city. But they feel good, they sound good. There's a lot of surface politics in Melrose that we want to make it look good.

▶ 1:38:16 Don't we look marvelous? Rather than digging into some of the core issues that we can solve. We do have a real class inequity in Melrose, and in our politics it's prevalent. I spoke with you about that last week. The water and sewer rates are not the mechanism by which we should be funding our city, but yet our city has for many years overspent its authorized amount of spending by putting a tax on the rate payers in Melrose. It was interesting, after the meeting last week, I happened to look at the direct expenditures of personnel in the water and sewer department are about 1.473 million. The indirect expenditures are $150,000 more than that, 1.623 million. Much of that 1.623 million, as I've argued before, is basically a money grab by the city

▶ 1:39:20 the ratepayers in order to fund things in the city that the city wasn't honest about wanting to prioritize and fund. This kind of, if you will, subvert taxation or a lack of prioritization of what our city wants to do and not do, because we go after money like that, is what needs to end. On top of that $1.623 million, there's another $400,000 to $500,000 that the city charges its rate payers. And again, it's a regressive tax. The people who use the most water are not necessarily the people with the highest property wealth. And the premise of our state and its funding is that property wealth is what pays the bill from municipalities. It puzzles me that Melrose in the politics here is always just floating on the surface

▶ 1:40:31 and it's not digging in in the water and sewer realm to inflow and infiltration issues. Nobody cares, has cared about that. Nobody cares about investing to make the city better. Nobody seems to apparently care to be honest with the population about what we're doing and how we're spending the money and this idea of false premises that comes up with the supposed trade-off between ammunition and implicit bias training. You know, I have heard this so many years, I'm sick of it, that I remember for years and years, you know, in a $28 million school budget, the whole budget was boiled down by the school committee and by the superintendent to, oh, well, can we afford an elementary library media specialist or can we afford another wellness teacher at the

▶ 1:41:24 middle school again it was a false dichotomy what I wish would happen and this is for the next year's budget is that maybe through the year the City Council have conversations about each department and what they do in the relative priorities of funding various things including implicit bias training including diversity training and that we figure out in advance what the priorities are of the city, and then we craft a budget that reflects those priorities with some authenticity. Whether we're talking about handguns, ammunition, or implicit bias training, it's only going to be a few more months before we have another $3 or $4 million of free cash sitting there waiting to be spent. We're spending about $3 million of free cash right now. And

▶ 1:42:23 yes, the timing was unfortunate, but there obviously was something else that could have been reduced to some degree. And I won't even give them the respect by saying what types of things, but we put a lot of money into things that were not required, were not necessary, we did them anyway and the danger of doing that is that when you have something real that comes forward something important and that we want to make a priority we've already wasted the money and the money is no longer there because we spent it I hope that every bit of money that we spend and as you as you go into your budget conversation tonight I know it's basically a rubber stamp for you guys that you know you wanted you want to keep what you have

▶ 1:43:05 because you've been over it before in terms of the city budget in the water and sewer but I hope if anything this budget conversation from what's going on with the the issue that everybody is so vocal about tonight is that there is a deeper way a more sophisticated way a more nuanced way of having conversations that get to the core of what's important instead of staying on the political surface of what looks nice and wonderful and will you get a lot of good fluffy emails about so I thank you for the whole budget process of listening to my conversations and my positions I was certainly I got I have to say I was disappointed that last week when I raised the issue of class bias the water sewer rates that not one of you picked up on that directly and had a

▶ 1:44:02 conversation about it I come here to make my input into the public process trusting that that input will be well received and considered I in from conversation last week it didn't sound to me that any person even tried to consider it or brought it up explicitly to consider it and if you just dismissed it out of hand without addressing it I find that is disrespectful so I'm always willing to engage about the issues that I raise and I think a couple of the city councilors who have contacted me and I appreciate the contact and the time that they've spent to learn about what I say I want to say that the argument that oh we'll do something with it next year I've heard that for six or seven or 20

▶ 1:44:49 years in Melrose so if you don't do it today don't assume it's gonna get done anyway thank you for your time and have a good night thank you mr. Moreau's just for the record can you state your address please sorry I mean I'm you didn't know mr. Moreau's are you still there yeah 62 Mount Vernon Street is what I said thank you very much anyone else madam clerk we have Alistair me Alistair move hold on one second all right mr. Mook you're unmuted no you're not yes you are okay now yes sorry I didn't plan to speak tonight I think a lot of people spoke a lot more eloquently earlier tonight instead of many of the things that I've been thinking um I I do want to push back a little bit on my friend

▶ 1:45:50 and neighbor Jerry Mraz though that he the way he presented this is that that the issue was presented as to the to the council's counselors as being a an issue of defunding the police I don't I don't think it was presented that way I think it was presented as a how do we spend the end of our free cash in the budget issue and when it reached the council is when it became framed as a this is either you're for the police or you're not which was unfortunate and I think my sense in talking to some counselors and and talking to folks around town is that very few people feel very happy about how things went at the meeting on Thursday I don't think anybody wants to be cast in the role in Melrose of being

▶ 1:46:36 somebody who's pushing back against anti-racism training at the same time it seems like there's a need here to be listening closely to the community and paying attention to national events and I want to just bring up to two sort of logistical points one is that it's absolutely true that twenty six thousand dollars is not enough to pay for this kind of training this kind of this money is that it would be a down payment on a larger spending that we're gonna have to do down the road. And the fact that it's not a full amount isn't a reason not to put money towards it. At the same time, as Eugenia Gibbons said earlier, this money can't be just spent willy-nilly. Throwing money at the problem will not solve it. There is absolutely a need

▶ 1:47:27 across city departments for implicit bias training as part of a larger framework of anti-racism work and I think it's important to to make part of the story that people in town are aware of is that Melrose has had two civil rights investigations in our schools in the last six years that that doesn't jive with most of the towns in this area it points to the fact that we've had real systemic problems in Melrose around issues of racial bias and discrimination and it wasn't just the incidents in the classrooms it was also how it was handled citywide and the those those cases were expensive they cost the city money and at least in the first case the civil rights suit that was brought Melrose was found guilty of that infraction so this is obviously much

▶ 1:48:25 bigger this is not this is not about the police in Melrose and and I haven't talk to anybody in Melrose who feels like that is the focal point. This is about the fact that we have an almost completely white city government, an almost completely white school administration, and almost no teachers of color in the classroom or on the police force. And if there's no people of color in the room to help point out things that any of us who are not people of color are not going to see then we can't know what we don't know so one way forward is for the city to start thinking more seriously about how to create some diversity in our city government and in our schools which is sometimes easier said than done but another really important piece of that

▶ 1:49:14 is to think about what implicit bias training can do to help us avoid these situations in the future because Melrose police don't want to run into these situations where they're accused of civil rights infractions. Melrose teachers certainly don't want to be in a position where they find themselves being sued by the State Department of Education. So this isn't punishing anybody. This is about giving our city workers the tools they need to help avoid these situations and to be in a better position in the future to be to be able to serve our residents of color that is all uh i'll say and i didn't say my address sorry i'm at 63 nowell road depending on who you ask now or no thank you madam clerk do we have anyone else in queue

▶ 1:50:16 i believe that is everyone all right at this time i'll entertain a motion to close public comment motion to close public comment second we have a motion to close public comment by Councilor stewart seconded by Councilor sanella madam clerk can you please call the role Sorry. Councilor Sinella? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Tomaladean? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. president Grigoraitis yes 11 yes 11 yes so public comment is closed we will now move on to communications from his honor the mayor and other city officials yeah Councilor Garipay

▶ 1:51:16 can we take a five-minute recess okay five-minute recess um do we i can't remember if we have to actually for a five-minute recess second account so motion for five-minute recess by Councilor Garipay seconded by Councilor Tramontozzi um so that would put us back in session at nine um let's say 9 15. madam clerk can you please call the roll Sanella? Yes. Eccles? Yes. Garipay? Yes. Jamaleddine? Yes. McMaster? Yes. McNaught? Yes. Zingarelli? Yes. Stewart? Yes. Thomas? Yes. Tramantozzi? Yes. Grigoraitis? Yes. 11 yes. 11 yes. So this the council is in recess until 9 15. Thank you. all right so we are back from recess and we'll move on to item five on the agenda communications from his honor the mayor and other city officials madam clerk of committees can you please read

▶ 2:00:06 these communications quarter 2020-124 appointment of joseph phillips one hillside ave to the human rights commission for a three-year term said term to expire on the last day of february 2023 This order will be referred to the Health Education and Welfare Committee. Order 2020-125, reappointment of Jessica Joy Buster, 164 Derby Road, to the Commission on Women for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February 2023. This order will be referred to the Health Education and Welfare Committee. Order 2020-126, reappointment of Christina Pachulis to the Commission on Women for a term to expire on the last day of February 2022. This order will be referred to the Health, Education, and Welfare Committee.

▶ 2:00:55 Order 2020-127, reappointment of C. Joseph Hunt, 132 Mount Vernon Ave, to the Historical Commission for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February 2023. This order will be referred to the health education and welfare commission. Order 2020 dash 128 appointment of Karen Boyd 12 Mount Vernon street unit 31, the commission on disability for a 3 year term. Said term to expire on the last day of February 2023. This order will be referred to the health education and welfare committee. Order 2020-1.9, appointment of Elizabeth Ryan, 17 East Highland Ave, to the Historic District Commission for a term to expire on the last day of February 2022. This order will be referred to the Health, Education and Welfare Committee.

▶ 2:01:48 Shawn M. MacMaster: Agenda item 6, new business. Order 2020-130, grant of easement 9 Brown Street. Councilor McMaster? Thank you, Madam President. At this time, I would be seeking immediate consideration on this order. So we have a request for immediate consideration by Councilor McMaster. Are there any objections by the Council? Seeing none, this order is before us. Thank you, Madam President. This order is an easement request that I have filed on behalf of Jim and Dana Wilson who live Ward 5 at 9 Brown Street. For those unfamiliar with what an easement is, it's a legal request for permission to use land owned by someone else. In this case, the Wilsons are seeking relief from the city to repair a large 100-year-old retaining wall that collapsed on New Year's Eve and landed

▶ 2:02:51 Shawn M. MacMaster: on the sidewalk there on brown street when mr and mrs wilson had the property surveyed before rebuilding out of an abundance of caution they learned that the wall again which had been built more than 100 years ago is inside city property despite this the wall does not interfere with the sidewalk or pose any sort of obstacles to pedestrians when it's intact i would also attest that the wall does not interfere in any way with the butters as there are only five homes on the street and the property is somewhat isolated the wall also connects to a garage as well so the the garage is a stone wall that connects to um to the wall and uh essentially that's a garage that they use for their vehicle so it's not just a matter of

▶ 2:03:45 Shawn M. MacMaster: having a retaining wall, it's also in part necessary in order for the use of that garage and the structural integrity that is needed in order to park there and the safety that's related to that. I would note that the administration is in support of this order. If this asked that is granted through the mayor and attested by this council as the ward counselor, I'm asking that it be approved. Mr. and Mrs Wilson have been eagerly trying to get the surveying work done, which they've been doing now for multiple months in order to make the repairs, which they can't legally make or they they could. could but then they would certainly be encroaching on city property there could be certain legal consequences for that as we consider this i just did also want to acknowledge the city solicitor

▶ 2:04:45 Shawn M. MacMaster: uh mr van campen as well as director of public works miss paracas ellis both of whom did an incredible amount of leg work on this and uh who uh worked uh with the nilsons and with me uh in order to gather all the information needed to come before you tonight uh a type of work i think as Consular Tramontozzi knows is significant and we wouldn't be able to get where we are today without the work of Mr. Van Campen and Ms. Paracas-Ellis so at this time Madam President I would make a motion for passage of this order second that motion okay we have a motion for passage by Consular McMaster seconded by Consular Tramontozzi do we have any discussion okay seeing none madam clerk can you please call the roll counselor snell yes counselor eccles yes

▶ 2:05:39 counselor Garipay yes counselor Jamaleddine yes counselor mcmaster yes counselor mcnaught yes counselor migliorelli counselor yes counselor thomas yes counselor chairman tozy yes president Grigoraitis yes 11 yes 11 yes the order passes thank you counselor mcmaster uh madam clerk of committees order 2020-131 a resolution reaffirming support of racial equity uh Councilor Jamaleddine um thank you madam president i would like to uh recommend for um immediate consideration okay so we have a request for immediate consideration by Councilor Jamaleddine do we have any objections seeing none this order is before us Councilor Jamaleddine thank you um counselors and thank you madam president um this resolution is uh sponsored

▶ 2:06:50 Maya Jamaleddine: uh by me and by and co-sponsored by uh counselor jack echoes um it's a resolution uh reaffirming support of racial activity whereas is the policy of the city of maros to uphold the human rights of all persons regardless of race color religious creed national origin sex age ancestry sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital, family, or military status, source of income or disability. And whereas the Massachusetts Chief of Police Association representing police chiefs in all 351 cities and towns and most college campuses denounced the egregious actions taken by four members of the Minneapolis Police Department whether by action or inaction that resulted in the death of George Floyd on May 25th 2020 and whereas on May 31st

▶ 2:08:00 Maya Jamaleddine: 2020 Mayor Paul Broder, Police Chief Mike Lyle and Superintendent Cindy Seymour released a statement noting their sadness and outrage at the death of Mr. George Floyd and whereas on June 5th 2020 the mayor announced that his office and other city departments would be devoting the next two weeks to focus on how city services can contribute to creating a more rash racially just and equitable community and where as the Massachusetts police officers have thoroughly embraced the six pillars of the principles embodied in the final report of the president's task force on 21st century century policy policy and remain committed to professional conduct democratic policy and procedural justice for all people and whereas racism hurts everyone and has had a profound effect

▶ 2:09:02 Maya Jamaleddine: on children and adults, whether in our everyday interactions with others at work, school, or in our neighborhood and communities, and whereas many of the residents of Maros have organized in response to the killing of George Floyd and have committed to standing up against social injustice. Be it resolved that the Maros City Council will work with the police department alongside community leaders and advocate to understand the steps the police department has taken and can take to provide effective public safety while ensuring accountability not only to the City Council and mayor's office but to the public as a whole and the community of Maros and be it further resolved that the Maros City Council will affirm that black lives matter and reaffirm our

▶ 2:09:59 Maya Jamaleddine: motto one community open to all by taking a pledge stating as an individual committed to social injustice I stand against racism and discrimination of any kind I commit to a lifetime of promoting peace justice freedom and dignity for all people in my community and in the world Thank You madam president Thank Thank you, Councilor Jamaleddine. Councilor Eccles? Yep. Thank you, Madam President. It was – thank you. I would like to thank Councilor Jamaleddine for her leadership on this. I was proud to co-sponsor, and I think it's important to have something like this submitted into the record of the City Council, you know, for future reflection. Thank you so much. Thank you. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to place on file, unless there's any other discussion.

▶ 2:10:55 Jen Grigoraitis: motion to place on file we have a motion to place on file by Councilor Migliorelli seconded by Councilor Eccles madam clerk can you please call the roll Sinella, Eccles, Garipay, yes, Jamaleddine, yes, McMaster, yes, McNaught, yes, Migliorelli, yes, Stewart, yes, Thomas, yes, Tramontozzi, yes, Grigoraitis, yes, 11 yes thank you I believe we have one more order a new business order 2020 dash 132 in order relative to the Melrose emergency fund this order will be referred to the Finance Committee okay we will move on are there any orders out of committee there are not okay and we will now move on to orders from committee just like to make a motion to suspend rule 13 so we have a So motion to suspend rule 13 by Councilor Cinella, seconded by Councilor McNaught.

▶ 2:12:24 Jen Grigoraitis: Is there any discussion, Councilor, yes, Councilor McMaster. RULE 13, can we just state that for the record? CERTAINLY. SO RULE 13, WOULD YOU LIKE TO READ IT, COUNCILOR CINElla? AYE. AYE. DURING DEBATES, IF OBJECTION IS MADE THERETO, NO MEMBER SHALL SPEAK TWICE TO THE SAME QUESTION WITHOUT LEAVE OF THE COUNCIL, NOR MORE THAN ONCE IF ANY OTHER MEMBER WHO HAS NOT PREVIOUSLY spoken desires to speak. No member shall occupy more than five minutes in total while speaking on any question where debate is unlimited. A person designated by the presiding officer shall keep strict accounting of the time occupied by any member and shall inform the presiding officer whenever a member's time has expired. Without leave of the council, any member must

▶ 2:13:07 thereupon stop speaking until the council begins consideration of another subject matter. thank you is there any additional discussion yes counselor mcnaught just like to say that the reason i seconded the motion is i think we know that we've had a lot of discussion here tonight and i think we know that we have probably quite a ways to go um so suspending that rule makes sense thank you thank you so we have the motion to suspend rule 13 by counselor snell seconded by Councilor mcnaught if there's no additional discussion madam clerk can you please call the role sanella yes eccles yes Garipay yes Jamaleddine yes mcmaster yes mcnaught yes Migliorelli stewart yes thomas yes Tramontozzi? Yes. Grigoraitis? Yes.

▶ 2:14:21 Christopher Cinella: 11 yes. 11 yes. So the motion passes. Rule 13 is under suspension. Madam President, we'd also like to make a motion just to be more efficient joining the 13 orders we have before us plus the four orders from appropriations strictly We, you know, for purposes with the intent to divide them back, just to avoid having to do 17 roll call votes, you know, so then we'll divide them back and then we can discuss them one by one. So second that too. Okay, so we have a motion from Councilor Sinella seconded by Councilor McNaught to combine orders 1 through 13 on our existing agenda in addition to the four orders that were recently approved by the most recent Appropriations Committee solely for purposes of discussion.

▶ 2:15:15 So joining them. Yep. Then we bring them up from committee and then we divide them back so then we can go one by one. Okay. Is there any discussion on that motion? Just just a point of order just for clarification. So, it's a motion to co, join all those orders for the purpose of removing them from committee. Correct? Yes, we join them. Sorry. Yeah, just we have to vote to join them then vote to bring them up then vote divide them back. Yeah. Correct. All right, are we all ready to do that? That roll call? Okay. Madam clerk, can you please call the role? Councilor Sinella? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Jamal Medin? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Migliorelli? Yes.

▶ 2:16:14 Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. 11 yes. 11 yes. The motion passes. Councilor Sonnella? Madam President, so I make a motion to bring them up from committee. So we have a motion to now bring all those orders up from committee. I believe it's 17 in total. Okay, do we have a second for that motion? Seconded by Councilor McNaught. Is there any discussion? Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Sanella. Yes. Eccles. Yes. Garipay. Yes. Maladine. Yes. McMaster. Yes. McNaught. Yes. Migliorelli. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Thomas. Yes. Tramontozzi. Yes. Grigoraitis. Yes. Eleven yes. Eleven yes. Okay, so those orders are before us make a motion to divide them back we now have

▶ 2:17:32 Christopher Cinella: a motion to divide them back by Councilor Sinella Councilor McNach and I get a second second sure excellent all right is there any discussion Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Sinella? Yes. Eccles? Yes. Garipay? Yes. Jamaleddine? Yes. McMaster? Yes. McNaught? Yes. Migliorelli? Yes. Stewart? Yes. Thomas? Yes. Tramatozzi? Yes. rigorous yes yes 11 yes so these orders have now been divided back so we will begin with order 2020 dash 89 that is present yet that's our city's operating budget $390 7961 8 cents this order comes from the Appropriations Committee recommendation at this time like to make this motion to reduce the bottom line by two hundred fifty thousand dollars with a new bottom line of eighty eight

▶ 2:18:42 Christopher Cinella: million one hundred and forty seven thousand dollars nine hundred and sixty one I second that motion on discussion madam president I feel that this cut gives the mayor an appropriate amount of money to begin the real work that needs be done in our community on the topic of implicit bias training and just to give a little bit of background this conversation began when i reached out to the mayor prior to last week's meeting and i presented an idea for implicit bias training which the chief presented in january to the mayor there was no buy-in from the mayor at this time and i cannot be more clear that the chief was on board with this and in fact had already gone down this avenue pursuing opportunities

▶ 2:19:27 Christopher Cinella: and we put it by his training back in january six and a half months before the mayor even took an interest in this topic which was this past thursday night in which this council was notified shortly before that meeting and i will motion later to attach the proposal that was addressed to the chief january 17th to the record for the public to examine so this this motion to reduce the bottom line by 250 000 to give the administration an appropriate amount of money to start the process and on the other hand the mayor's proposal would amount to a 28 investment per city employee amounts to about two large cheese pizzas at a local pizzeria so i would ask you mr mayor and members of this council do we want to make your investment

▶ 2:20:20 Shawn M. MacMaster: company compared to the cost of pizza or do you want to make a true meaningful investment of a quarter million dollars choice is yours so matters before us now you're muted how's my mouse so we have a motion before us to reduce the bottom line by 250 000 that has been made by Councilor Sonella seconded by Councilor Tramontozzi on discussion. Councilor Migliorelli. Can I just ask a point of information? I'm sorry, Councilor Migliorelli, just so I'm clear. The $250,000 reduction to the bottom line, is that an aggregate or is that targeting one or more particular departments? Just so I know. That is an aggregate. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. My apologies, Councilor Migliorelli. Councilor Migliorelli. Yes, point of clarification through the President. What memo are we referring

▶ 2:21:28 Christopher Cinella: to in January? And was this memo detailing $250,000 worth of implicit bias training? I'm just a little lost in Councilor Sinella's comments here. To the President, if I may respond. Councilor Sinella. This is a quote that the Chief had received in regards to the implicit bias training simulator which i had discussed with them there that's that's so just to kind of prove the point that the chief had already been working on this and was ignored and when we had discussed perhaps swapping the firearms out which we'll be talking about later on you guys see that too Councilor Migliorelli are you so so this proposal was not we're reducing the bottom line the motions to reduce the bottom line by 250 000

▶ 2:22:27 Leila Migliorelli: but that's not based on the proposal by the chief that was for this 20 000 to actually do more than what the mayor is talking about Councilor Migliorelli um I'd just like to take a moment to kind of go back because this is all very interesting and something that maybe perhaps could have been addressed at Thursday's appropriations meeting. At that time, I mean, we had or since that time, we've received countless emails, calls, we've heard them, you know, some of them tonight asking, as we heard that night, I was horrified by some of the comments that were made for me. It's not the vote that was so shocking, but the words that were spoken in the virtual chamber that I found to be most disappointing.

▶ 2:23:19 Leila Migliorelli: I think we can say that, you know, we're now all of a sudden $50,000, but my gosh, I was shocked. Shocked by the rhetoric that started that night for anti-police. The discussion kicked off with an inflammatory quote from the New York Police Benevolent Association president, then followed up with such comments such as everyone's trying to shame the police the police are the targets for losing funding despicable acts by bad apples the death of george floyd was horrible but and that last comment really struck me um the version of which was repeated several times and it says we empathize with the struggles of black people but not enough to give up something for it we're cool to sign on to statements saying that we will commit to anti-racism efforts but

▶ 2:24:03 Leila Migliorelli: we're not willing to defy the status quo to do so as i said thursday night we can both criticize and support our public institutions including police are not sacrosanct no one is flawless and everything can be approved um i i cannot cross or make sense of those comments that were made last week and what is before us now it it really seems like a leap here um but let me continue So, the inconvenient truth of progress is that it will come at a cost and maybe that's why progress is so slow. On Thursday night, we had before us a discussion of a $26,000 allocation of free cash, not to cut the police budget. So, the outrage over defunding the police, which was referenced that night, was a false narrative.

▶ 2:24:48 Leila Migliorelli: narrative. The total amount of proposed free cash allocation in the police department was $195,714. That included roughly $169,000 for new vehicles and overtime. $26,000 represented 13% of the overall portion of free cash proposed to go for the police. Never mind the fact that the police department is $5 million, taking $26,000 is hardly a significant step towards defunding the police. also the repeated refrain last week of what changed is a strange question yes the mayor had originally approved the request for 26 000 for guns which was shared with the council previously but before it came time to vote he requested an amendment to respond to the national events ahead of us the proposal for 26 000 was to go towards anti-racism efforts in the city

▶ 2:25:38 Leila Migliorelli: so i guess the answer to what changed is absolutely nothing other than the fact that our cities trying to make progress and regarding those guns prior to april 2020 no officer had discharged their weapon in the line of duty for 30 years over 30 years think about that for the last several weeks we've been debating ad nauseum about the most minuscule line items questioning departments over every little detail to get them to justify their expenses and now all of a sudden when there's a proposal to use free cash not a budget cut for equipment that's not regularly put into use that's just a bridge too far the conversation really needs to shift from thinking that just because there's a proposal to address anti-racism efforts in our city instead of funding

▶ 2:26:19 Leila Migliorelli: new guns that it means that we have we think our police has a problem let me be clear training is not a punishment for poor behavior it's a production to to prevent poor behavior and that's basically what we got on thursday night racism and bias is systemic in order to change that we need to mitigate against it i've taken implicit bias training and it's not out of self loathing but a desire to do better better so again the narrative was spun out of last week's meeting was reckless and inappropriate the proposal was not a reproach of the police it's a small step forward for our city was the mayor's proposal a comprehensive and robust move towards dismantling systemic racism in our city no for the record my vote on monday was not an acceptance of this money

▶ 2:27:02 Leila Migliorelli: that this money would solve all our problems but i do think the proposal is one small piece towards a much needed overall investment in diversity inclusion and equity initiatives my vote was to grab at the money that was put in front of us and take it because we are down to the wire in the allocation of free cash we only have until june 30th and next year's financial situation will be grim and i know as i stated on thursday night we have such a narrow window of attention on this matter because just as quickly as people were gripped by the horror of the murder of george floyd it will float out of the collective consciousness and be replaced by something else So while I certainly hope this isn't the case, history has proven this to be true every single

▶ 2:27:41 Leila Migliorelli: time. So those who criticize the support of the proposal for not thinking big enough, maybe I accepted it because I weighed all of that in my mind. The narrow window of time we had before us and my inherent skepticism that any big change will come from this moment because we've been here before and we will unfortunately be here again. We are not going to solve systemic racism in this city over the course of a few weeks, but we can take a step forward. Just to wrap up, no one around this virtual table has the faintest idea what it's like to go for a jog in your own neighborhood and not be sure if you're going to be attacked because of the color of your skin. None of us knows what it's like to rehearse with their sons exactly what you need to do

▶ 2:28:19 Leila Migliorelli: if you get stopped by the police just to prevent getting beaten or worse. But some of us here do understand fear, the fear of not being safe while walking alone at night. Some of us here know what it's like to be intimidated or gaslighted when we speak our minds and even a smaller number of us knows what it feels like to be the other because the color of our skin or the religion we practice i invite my fellow counselors for a moment to examine their privilege and then consider the content and tone of the conversation last week and i also ask my colleagues again to join us not in words but accident action to make change in our city i think it not only do we need to invest money but that means that we can also

▶ 2:29:01 Leila Migliorelli: create and put forward policies that will be more equitable for our community and that issue goes far beyond any type of training that could be provided if you are going to critique without taking a meaningful step forward yourself then you're no better than the people who are ignoring the societal problem we have in front of us let's be on the right side of history here and i will just then repeat again i i find it interesting that this proposal or the thought or the plan did not come up last thursday night that the rhetoric was started and just allowed to go on i mean it was shocking it was hurtful and it was uncalled for and i think i invite you again to think about how you started and the words that you said and how that they could be perceived

▶ 2:29:42 Jen Grigoraitis: and then down to flip and sort of cut the bottom line 250 000 i i just find this is strange thank you thank you counselor migliorelli i have several counselors in queue however i do want to ask for a for a point of clarification from Councilor Cinella as the maker of the order. It's my understanding that we can't just cut the bottom line but you'd have to recommend which budget lines you're cutting from. So is I just, if you could clarify. No, I don't, we can do an aggregate. Okay, that's not my understanding but perhaps we can seek confirmation on that. All right, Councilor Eccles. Thank you, Madam President. Actually, that was something that I would like to bring to our attention. I believe we might have the CFO in the audience.

▶ 2:30:29 Jack Eccles: I don't know if he's willing to speak. It is concerning to me to be cutting a 2% increase into 1.4% increase. The 2% increase already being the lowest increase we've had in quite some time. So I'm concerned about the lack of specificity and possibly with some clarification from Mr. Del Rosso, I would be helped, but I'm a little concerned Based on the many of the increases are contractual where the cuts would come from. I am concerned that it could be cut by whole city services. So I'm kind of curious as to what a full bottom line cut would have as an impact when disaggregated amongst the various city departments. So it'd be helpful to hear from a member of the administration on this. Thank you, Councilor Eccles. Madam Clerk of Committees, I can only see the top of your head. I think you're nodding it. Oh, yeah.

▶ 2:31:25 Shawn M. MacMaster: sorry city auditor is in the room sorry about that point of water yeah point of order you'd have to get thank you uh madam president you have to make a motion to suspend the rules uh to hear from any of the the uh city personnel at this point correct that was my yeah make a motion to suspend the rules we have a motion to suspend the rules by Councilor eccles second we have a second by by Councilor Migliorelli. Is there any discussion? Councilor McMaster. Thank you, Madam President. I'm not, of course, adverse to hearing from Mr. DellaRusso, but I'm just trying to get a sense of, is he gonna be offering his, I mean, he has years of experience, obviously, as auditor, but this sounds like this might be a legal question

▶ 2:32:21 Shawn M. MacMaster: that may even have to go above Mr. Van Campen might have to be interpreted by the attorney general's office if there's if there's you know some dispute my i i would think and again this is without hearing what what mr de la rusa would have to say is that any cut whether it's fifty thousand dollars or two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in aggregate would seem to me to be more favorable to the administration than a cut that would target specific departments because it would allow the mayor to make that determination so again this is not hearing from without hearing from mr delarusso or getting a legal opinion on this it would seem that it it shouldn't matter if it's an aggregate or if it's targeted at particular

▶ 2:33:11 Shawn M. MacMaster: departments because at the end of the day the money still exists it's like having uh you know a household where there's so much money you have in the bank but you're budgeting for your Expenses for the year, if you need to tap into that money, it's there and I do hear what council is saying. There's certainly some reason to hear about any. Overall concerns as it would relate to the potential impact on the city and some of the issues that that I've been raising and constantly been raising throughout the last month or so. But I just really a surface level look, it doesn't seem like. it would be unfavorable for any amount if the mayor had the flexibility to determine what to do with that money. So I just say that before we vote. Thank you, Madam President.

▶ 2:33:59 Thank you. So we have a motion before us to suspend the rules made by Councilor Eccles and seconded by Councilor Migliorelli. Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Councilor McConaughey. Councilor Sinla. No. Councilor Eccles. Yes. Councilor Garipay. Councilor DeMoledine yes Councilor McMaster Councilor McNaught no Councilor Migliorelli Councilor Stewart yes Councilor Thomas no Councilor Tramontozzi no president Grigoraitis yes it's one two three four five six no six no believe one two three four five six yes six no okay so the motion fails so next in queue we have Councilor Thomas president grace do you have me I didn't have my hand up I thought you had your hand up Councilor Thomas so next in

▶ 2:35:28 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Councilor McNaught, I will add you next in queue. We have Councilor Jamaleddine. Thank you so much, President Grigoraitis. I would like to start by apologizing for all our residents and constituents. We failed you. We failed providing, we misled you actually by not providing the real reason why we are proposing or the mayor proposed this implicit bias. We fail to explain that we are not against buying or purchasing guns, but we are prioritizing right now. Point of procedure, Madam President. What order are we discussing? So, we are discussing order 2020 dash 89, which is the budget. We have a motion before us to cut the budget by 200, the bottom line of the budget by 250,000 dollars, which has been duly seconded.

▶ 2:36:36 Shawn M. MacMaster: That is what we were discussing. I will ask counselors to contain their comments to this proposal to cut the bottom line of the budget. Which I believe comes with a recommendation for where it can go. Okay, so Councilor McMaster. Just in fairness to Councilor Jamaleddine, I think where she's probably going with this is similar to where Councilor Cinella went and Councilor Migliorelli. I think that is probably making the case for, we can't necessarily separate the appropriations matter that's before us later that I think we've all been prepared to talk about from the motion to reduce bottom line because it it's essentially one in the same thing now considering the counselor um sanella's motion so i think in in fairness to council of Jamaleddine and i would expect

▶ 2:37:30 Shawn M. MacMaster: uh others i mean one way or the other i'm going to speak on it whether it's now or later but i just i i think that's where council Jamaleddine was going and my apologies council jamalina i don't mean to speak for you but i just wanted to make it clear that i think that's where you were going and my apologies as well Councilor i just i didn't understand if we had gone if we had moved on or not so again i'm sorry thank you council mcmaster thank you Councilor stewart i will turn it back over to Councilor Jamaleddine i will ask everyone if to please wait unless it is something absolutely critical until the counselor who has the floor has finished speaking thank you at this time i would like i would like to explain to our constituents

▶ 2:38:16 Maya Jamaleddine: people that voted for us and people that believe and trusted us and put trust in us that we believe in our police department we know that they're trying their best to serve us we these people that serve in the police department are our neighbors They are people who lived with us in this community. Training is not disrespect. Training is not mistrust. Training is opening the door for those people of color that started speaking up and coming before us and sharing their painful experience with us. Opening the door for them and tell them that we are here to hear them we are here to understand less than two weeks ago we all stood outside holding signs and promised people of color that we're gonna listen to them

▶ 2:39:18 Maya Jamaleddine: we apologize for all the time that passed and we promised them that moving forward we're gonna start listening to them and we failed our first test we failed listening to their concerns is this how we listen to them by buying guns is this our priority right now again we do need guns but we can wait on it what we do need the most right now is to show them that we are willing to open the door and listen to them. What we need right now is to tell them that we are sorry. We didn't hear you all these years because this topic, and correct me if I'm wrong, were never opened by any city councilors before. This is the first time and Maru's made the history by opening this topic and telling people of color we are here to listen to you we

▶ 2:40:21 Maya Jamaleddine: are trying our best to improve ourselves and start listening to you and that's when people of color trusted us and came forward and said send us tons and tons of emails I am so sorry for all the people of color for for staying quiet all these years and not coming and not feeling comfortable to come forward and sharing with us their experiences. It was extremely uncomfortable and extremely painful for me to sit in with and holding myself while listening to Mrs. Talwar and other people of color sharing all these experiences and what we did. We are trying to to to fight and show our leadership by saying a 26,000 is not necessary to cut to get to the training this is what we get we're gonna tell

▶ 2:41:26 Mark Garipay: people of color you can wait and get more pain and experiences while we buy guns that's how we're gonna protect you or that's how we're gonna protect white people. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilor Jamaleddine. Next up, I have Councilor Garipay. Thank you, Madam President. I was going to save these remarks until a little later, but in light of the motion that's before us, I think it's appropriate now. I just want to go over kind of a timeline. Last Thursday afternoon, I received an email at about one o'clock, 102 actually regarding um a sudden change um of the mayor's position for funding the police service weapons unfortunately because we you know we all have full full-time jobs i did not uh i did not

▶ 2:42:21 Mark Garipay: get to read the memo just until just before 6 p.m and that's the time our meeting started this is not the first time our mayor's office has submitted pertinent information to this council just hours before a vote that has to be taken. This practice and the practice of that administration must stop. It is not fair to the City Council or to the residents of Melrose. Every one of us should have the time to review all the pertinent information in order to properly prepare to make a well-informed decision. I'd like to ask the Mayor why a topic like this training which he claims to feel so strongly about did not warrant an appearance before him after that sudden change in front of the city council on thursday i want the public to understand my position on implicit

▶ 2:43:13 Mark Garipay: bias training i am in full support of this type of training for the whole city all city employees but i believe this needs to be a comprehensive plan by a comprehensive plan i mean the mayor must identify a qualified company review all the curriculum commit to a time frame fund all aspects of the training and implementation mr mayor this is not a time for political grandstanding in our city it's time to bring all stakeholders together and develop an approach that will be the foundation that our community can build on and move towards racial equity over the last four days I, along with other councilors, have received many emails that have questioned my beliefs and my integrity. Many residents have expressed

▶ 2:44:04 Mark Garipay: disappointment. I've lived in Melrose my whole life. My family has had a name that with an unblemished reputation in this community until now. I'm disappointed by this administration's unwillingness to partner with all the City Council members on this issue. This has caused division in this council and within our community i think it's time mr mayor you owe this the city of melrose an apology for the way this turned out thank you chancellor mcnaught thank you madam president as you all know i like to um speak slowly so that was why i was in favor of suspending uh i think it was rule 13 earlier i forget the number but um i also want to give some background to how we got here and um and interesting that i'm going after council

▶ 2:45:00 Jeff McNaught: Garipay in this because i have some of the same points to make that he does and first i want to say that i'll vote to cut the bottom line by an aggregate of 250 but i'd go much further than that and i do find the 26 000 that was proposed to be an insult and to be a political stunt and to not contact each and every councilor in advance of that move. Instead, having nine out of 11, a brand new city council grappling with that as we get to our computers. The night of a vote for money that he asked us to vote on. Mr. Mayor, you. You asked us to vote on it just days earlier. That's what people were referring to when they referred to a timeline. It had nothing to do with the brutal murder of George Floyd or anyone else.

▶ 2:45:48 Jeff McNaught: and I'll state it again there there is there is police brutality and rampant in this country there's a systemic change that needs to happen in so many more institutions than just in our law enforcement institution I'm not gonna reread last week's speech but what the mayor did was got into the end of the room and I don't think it's fair to say with who but a couple of city counselors he drafted this thing it seemed like that day sent it down i myself didn't get to see it until i'm sitting down for the meeting if you look back i'm highlighting making notes thinking what is this i don't i don't understand this what why would you do that to even a seasoned council never mind and a council of nine out of eleven brand new members who have dealt with

▶ 2:46:42 Jeff McNaught: getting information late not at all I mean I say this I was gonna say that it was unforgivable what was done by our mayor but it's not I won't say that because I want us to work together I really really want us to get by this and I think we've all been put in a horrible position by him he is after all a career politician and the two people who drafted this or or had tough conversations with him are not and um but this stuff needs to be pointed out um we are here we are in this situation and i know that a lot of people are applauding the mayor for trying to give 26 000 out of the appropriation that he intended to give to the police, he's being applauded for that. And I think his intentions were right. I want to believe that. But I do believe he did this for political gain. It was

▶ 2:47:47 Jeff McNaught: advantageous. It was days earlier. I'm not giving him the benefit of the doubt that certain incidents or more reflection just made him decide to go after that 26,000. It was the last night we had to vote online items except for tonight where we approve the total budget or we don't it was the last night it was a desperate attempt at political game and I'm sorry mr. mayor I have supported you since the moment I first heard you speak but you need to hear these things because sending us information at the 11th hour sending no information other times it's become your signature move with this city council at first i thought he's new we're new um but it's just it happens every time withholding financial information has become part of your signature also it's been it's been pulling

▶ 2:48:44 Jeff McNaught: teeth throughout what should have been a very very easy budget process for you this year where you did only increase it to two million two and a half million i'm not even sure the exact amount and it was mostly contractual cba raises um and other raises that the super majority of the council wasn't challenging you on we weren't challenging you on giving merit increases to your staff that frankly doesn't get paid enough to begin with so um we were stalled by you we were told that we'd have to wait weeks and then it would take teams of people to come up with the information that mr delarusso graciously provided after working on it over a weekend from a friday to a Monday. And that helped things hum along a lot faster in the budget process. But when

▶ 2:49:38 Jeff McNaught: you did what you did last Thursday and just kind of walked away, you left this council in a really, really bad situation. And look at where we are now. I will bet we all wish last Thursday didn't happen. I know I wish it didn't. I wish I was included on a discussion about what the mayor's intentions were because I think we could have collaboratively all come up with something a hell of a lot better than the situation we're in now. I'm not done. I think it's critical that the public understands, Mr. Mayor, that you present the budget, not us, because that came through in a lot of emails that I received this weekend. People saying, why don't you do this with the budget? Why don't you add? We don't get to add money.

▶ 2:50:33 Jeff McNaught: That's your job. You presented us with a budget on May 14th. You did not include a penny toward any racial equity ideas, brainstorming, training, nothing. It showed up on the last night you could possibly do it for us to vote on, stumble over, and look like fools because we all look like fools. Don't first think that it's not factions of people all over the city saying that the three people who voted no are fools and the eight people who voted yes are fools we all look like fools and that's not our fault that's on you mr mayor and you do owe not just us an apology you owe the community an apology the situation we're in right now is your fault and why don't i care to call you out like this because i'm not a career politician

▶ 2:51:25 Jeff McNaught: i'm not in this to use council Garipay's uh term i'm not grandstanding i'm telling you the truth you left us in a really really bad situation on Thursday and then you went the whole weekend and I think you knew what you did and you still didn't reach out to anyone and say hey I'm sorry it went down that way no one I'm not going to complain about the emails that I received from people because I I can't say that I can even attempt to understand their pain and what they're going through and what that yes vote must have felt like but i can say that i should try to understand it and i'm not going to cancel any of those people that i do feel like you've canceled me and i ask that you change your mind because i'm open to having conversations with anyone that

▶ 2:52:18 Jeff McNaught: emailed me and beyond i think i think the whole council is we have to be if we're serious about this again I don't think the 250 is enough I said that in the last meeting if we wanted to be serious and I'm gonna make this call again mr. mayor you need to hire a department you need a director of community engagement and equity you need an assistant director you need staff for them you can't hire someone and say go out there and fix Melrose we have to be serious about this and it's not going to change overnight and that i hope that's what some of the 250 can go towards because that's not going to start a department for you so um i mean i do believe uh even mr miraz was probably pretty accurate when he said we're going to have a few million dollars in free cash in just

▶ 2:53:07 Jeff McNaught: a few more months again so let's uh let's put the budget where your mouth is mr mayor because you haven't so far um and it pains me to to speak this way um about a man that um i really wanted to be our leader in the city and i think can still do a good job but um you owe us an apology and you and you need to start doing some bridge building within the council um and within the community because i don't think it's just me who knows that you put us in this position i'm getting there we do i just we do have other counselors in the queue so do you want to um no i really just want to get through it and then let other people get through what they want to get through um and i'm trying not to believe it or not trying not to beat a dead horse so i apologize it feels that way

▶ 2:54:13 Jeff McNaught: i i think that the biggest part that people need to understand is um the surprise of that memo Thursday afternoon is what put us here and and call on your mayor and ask him why it went down the way it did the answer can't just be that it came to Paul that day or that week that this was the right thing to do I'm just not I'm sorry if you're gonna believe the mayor all the way on this one I've got a couple bridges for sale I really do I'll say it again because I think it has to He said, Mr. Mayor, you spoke to a couple of city councilors. You didn't reach out to everyone. Why? I mean, maybe we suspend the rules a little bit because I do think we should hear from Mr. De La Ruzzo after this council's had a chance to talk.

▶ 2:55:14 Jeff McNaught: Maybe the mayor can explain some of this. Maybe he can convince me as to why I might be wrong on everything I'm saying, but I doubt it. And again, this is an $89 million budget that we're approving, hopefully approving. um when i saw the 26 000 i saw it as an insult and when i saw where it was coming from i'm being honest it wasn't that i was it was blue the blue line versus black lives matter it was what a slap in the face to take that out of the police department because look what it looks like optics matter mr mayor if we haven't noticed that now we never will um i'll just say that the When I first saw the memo, when we first had our vote, when we all went home feeling like total trash that night, and there's nobody who can say that they didn't.

▶ 2:56:17 Jeff McNaught: I was really mad. It was maddening and now I'm just going to say it's really saddening because we created divides not only within the city council, but within the community. And there's a conversation ongoing now which could have been so much more productive and instead here we are. and that's not on any one of us. I know people think it was because of the vote. It's not, it's because of you. You put us in this situation. Councilor McNaught? Yep. Are you, I do, I have Councilor Tramontozzi. I'm gonna wrap up and again in a moment, Madam President. And I wanna say the next thing because I honestly don't know who wrote the memo for the mayor, but I can't get off of how much the language within the memo is, it cancels itself out,

▶ 2:57:35 Jeff McNaught: it's hypocritical, it's just, it's not a very well-written memo. But there's a line where the mayor says, our actions and policies, it's on the second page, if anyone's looking at it, our actions and policies must reflect the results of our research and discussions and not the other way around. In the paragraph above that, it says, I make this request without having identified a particular vendor or service, knowing simply that we will, in all likelihood, require outside expertise and professional services in order to achieve our goals. So what research did you do? I don't see how any of that makes sense. None of it made sense. One moment, Madam President. I'll say this. I do not think that the mayor wanted this situation to happen.

▶ 2:58:38 Jeff McNaught: I don't think he's a horrible person I'm just telling you why we're here that has to be said and and we really really if this isn't something I'm just saying and and and this isn't a direct insult at the mayor because I can't do it I don't think anyone here can or that there's anyone on the city's payroll who can you're not the person to shepherd us through this moment you're not we need we do need to hire special expertise and you can't just throw it on the Human Commission to say go ahead and you know find us a good firm that can come in these are quick decisions that are not gonna work out well if we don't have expertise in there and again I don't know if there's anyone on the Human Rights Commission that that can do this work but I also don't know that we can

▶ 2:59:31 Jeff McNaught: have them do that work for the city we need some real help because we we're we're off on the wrong foot here, folks. I mean, it's like Thursday night to me is if we were in a bad car accident and the mayor walked away from it and acted like it didn't happen. That's what it feels like. We're all in the car together. Councilor McNaught, I have two additional counselors in queue who have yet to speak. I just want to be mindful of your colleagues. Sure. I would just ask Mr. Mayor that in closing that you'd be more transparent going forward, that you'd be less reactionary. That happens a lot. There's an order tonight that was on the books to get transparency into the Melrose Emergency Fund. That's been requested for approximately a month and a half.

▶ 3:00:42 Jeff McNaught: No response. Councilor McNaught, I do want to remind you that we're focused on the budget. I do believe the order related to the Melrose Emergency Fund is outside the scope of this current discussion. Okay, I won't talk about that anymore then. It is related, the relevancy is transparency. I think you see the theme here. And again, I just, I ask that people really think about when people discuss the timeline, they weren't saying that minds couldn't change in a matter of days because of what was going on in the world. We know that's not true. We know they can. This just looked like a very poor attempt at some political gain and I'm really sorry that we were all left, you know, holding the bag and, but that's all I have to say.

▶ 3:01:42 John N. Tramontozzi: Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor McNaught. Councilor Tramontozzi. Thank you, Madam President and members of the Council. I'll be brief. I'm just saddened that we seem, as a city, to be split and we need to come together. I'm in favor of citywide implicit bias training, but encompassing all the departments in the city, including the fire, police, city council, mayor's office, schools, etc., we need a framework in place. need a broad, widespread, thought-out program of citywide anti-bias training. We need to give the city workers the tools they need. Let's come together. Here's an opportunity to the council to give the funding that is necessary, that I feel is necessary, and would

▶ 3:02:54 John N. Tramontozzi: be available to come from the city general operating account on the free cash that is made has been made available in earmark for this fiscal year so we have the we have the availability to do so let's send the administration the resources necessary to put together this broad sought out program and i believe that the 250 000 uh that we're suggesting is a good framework for the city to develop this program and um and i think the mayor can do so and we'll get the cooperation of all the city workers all the departments and we all can come together and get this in place um so that's all i have to say thank you thank you all thank you council chairman tozy Councilor thomas thank you madam president

▶ 3:04:02 Cory Thomas: as i stated thursday night in this virtual city council chamber this council has been very vocal in our united stance against terrible actions of police officers in minnesota that led to the murder of george floyd i firmly believe that americans from all walks of life need to come together now continue to educate ourselves and move forward for the greater good of all regardless of race gender sexuality or religious beliefs i did not hear anyone on the city council say they were against implicit bias training in fact all the counselors that i have talked to are for implicit bias training for all melrose municipal employees the mayor's memo last thursday afternoon called for 26 000 to be transferred to human resource 2 and i quote invest these funds in

▶ 3:04:45 Cory Thomas: our department of human resources so we may contract with a vendor to provide the city with the training policy review or recruitment help we may need i agree with mayor broder that there is a need for additional training specifically implicit bias training even though that term was not used anywhere in the mayor's memo mayor broder admitted that the city of melrose had yet to contact any training vendors and that we are asking for assistance with the human rights commission to identify potential vendors and particular needed services the reality is we do not even know if the 26 000 requested last week would be enough to cover city-wide and city-wide implicit bias training for all municipal employees if we want to make

▶ 3:05:28 Cory Thomas: wholesale changes to our community in matters of race and tolerance that is what we need implicit bias training for all municipal employees a much larger commitment to 26 000 is needed and that is what i'll be voting in favor for tonight lastly there have been people who have taken this opportunity to watch personal unfounded attacks on myself and other members of the city council while disappointing i'm buoyed by the many who are supportive of our vote because they've taken the time to look at the issue and understand that this is this vote is appropriate and necessary it's not a vote for any anything against for it it's not a vote for or against anything other than supporting the fine members of the melrose police department thank you thank you Councilor

▶ 3:06:10 Robb Stewart: Thomas, for the first time, Councilor Stewart. Thank you, Madam President. For the motion that's on the floor, I'm inclined not to support it for the very reason that we are debating some of the issues that we're facing over the last week or so. I know that a lot of us feel the frustration of having received information fairly late in the game um and i do have a prepared statement which i will be speaking to when we get to the police order um but concerning this i feel as though if we force this upon the mayor we're sort of we're doing the exact same thing and i'm not comfortable with that um i'd rather work with the mayor to find out how we can develop a comprehensive plan. I'm not inclined to play his hand and back him into a corner. So,

▶ 3:07:13 Robb Stewart: from that standpoint, I think the intention of all of us is fairly on the same page, but we need to figure out how to get there and work a little bit more together in terms of getting there uh because um you know as some of us feel we're getting to be very polarized that's not a good way to govern or legislate uh a budget going forward and i hope that you know after we get through tonight um we're going to be able to work a little bit more constructively all of us including the council the administration uh and uh the you know the the support of all the different perspectives within the community to address some of these very serious issues that we're facing. So, you know, I do appreciate the,

▶ 3:08:08 Shawn M. MacMaster: the approach, well, not the approach, but the intended outcome of putting together a real program. I just don't think this approach is the right way to go forward. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor Stewart. Councilor McMaster. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, members of the Council. Like others, I have prepared remarks. I won't save them because I do think they relate to the motion that's on the table. But before I get into those remarks, I've been taking notes as people have been talking, members of the public, as well as my colleagues, and I just first want to apologize to those who are hurting right now. particularly our communities of color in Melrose, to residents in Ward 5, and to my colleagues and friends, Councilor Jamaleddine and Councilor Migliorelli.

▶ 3:09:06 Shawn M. MacMaster: Anything that I said the other night, I can't imagine as a white man, like the seven other counselors who voted in support of the police appropriation can imagine how our words were interpreted because we don't we don't come from communities of color we're white men in a privileged society so i i recognize that um and i regret the impact that words or how questions were asked um were interpreted because certainly i don't think it was the intention of anyone to be offensive uh to um those who we are elected to serve and those who place their their trust in us as their uh their leaders um but i do think and this has been referenced by other counselors tonight and i don't offer this as an excuse but more of an explanation is that we really were

▶ 3:10:06 Shawn M. MacMaster: thrown this this topic was thrown to us at the last minute which did allow um or didn't allow really the adequate time to maybe communicate in a way that recognized what our communities of color are facing and to perhaps have a more constructive conversation and do what I think it is that we all want to do. And the problem is that with what's happening now, which personally, you know, it really has made me sick to my stomach in terms of the division that I think this has caused is that it could have been completely avoidable and it could have been avoidable because all of us know how the mayor's office operates not just this mayor but Council of Tramontozzi and I can attest to the prior administration

▶ 3:10:58 Shawn M. MacMaster: and Council of Tramontozzi to administrations before the administration before that is that when there's a matter that's important to the mayor there's an issue that the mayor cares about the mayor gives us notice because the mayor wants to get us on board mayors do that that's what and everyone knows this because all of you have been called into the mayor's office in small groups right to talk about things that are important to the mayor or the mayor will call not at the last minute if he even bothers to call and say I want to talk about this and and this was not done in a collaborative collegial way and it has put all of us in a very terrible predicament, has put this community in a horrible position. And I think

▶ 3:11:43 Shawn M. MacMaster: it, frankly, it's crippled this mayor's term in office. It really has. And I think Consular McNaught is right. Hopefully we can all come together. And I think Consular Stewart was very eloquent in what he said, is that we all want to do what's right for the city. And I think we can come together. That's our responsibility. Our responsibility is not have hurt feelings but at the same time we do have to recognize what played out here the other night and that again caused there to be an issue that shouldn't have been an issue so i just wanted to start with that before i get to my remarks and uh again just reaffirm how how regretful i am at uh you know what has happened in the community and any hurt that

▶ 3:12:29 Shawn M. MacMaster: anything that i said which certainly wasn't intentional but i can understand um listening to people why it has hurt them, just very apologetic for how those words came off. But Madam President, just in terms of what I was prepared to say is that we have witnessed over the last few days in this city a failure of leadership. Leadership isn't about disingenuously dodging important issues out of political expediency and punting on those issues to City Council. Leadership isn't about putting targets on the backs of other elected officials. Leadership isn't about smoke and mirror campaigns and cheap publicity stunts. Leadership isn't about planting and cultivating the seeds of division in a community. Leadership is about finding sincere and productive ways to solve urgent

▶ 3:13:28 Shawn M. MacMaster: problems leadership recognizes the value of collaboration and is willing like my battery is running low so if i if i end up getting cut off you know why and i'll attempt to get back on but just to put that out there leadership recognizes the value of collaboration and is willing to work across branches of government to affect change true leaders are willing to accept the political pressure and ultimate consequences of doing what's right and doing it the right way. All the noise that has been created by Mayor Broda's actions over these last four days is a distraction to what we all want, racial equity. Mayor Broda's reckless and irresponsible actions have clouded the issue at hand. Make no doubts about it.

▶ 3:14:22 Shawn M. MacMaster: Turning this into a sideshow of men versus women, white versus black and brown, moderates versus liberals, old Melrose versus new Melrose, and police advocates versus police critics. And now, counselors versus one another, friends versus one another. What I find extremely troubling is that the mayor, who just a few days ago was being questioned for not doing enough on this issue, is being praised. The division that has been caused over these last four days, the venom that is being spewed on both sides of this issue, was purposely unleashed by the mayor to pacify some in this community as a result the mayor has shamefully scapegoated the melrose police department and i make no apologies let me just say for supporting the police and the

▶ 3:15:09 Shawn M. MacMaster: gun appropriation i apologize for what i regret and the way it was interpreted but i make no apologies for that vote because i feel strongly about it that scapegoat of the police department it pitted neighbors against each other in order to fund a training program that 26 000 won't come even close to funding in the name of implicit bias training eight of us are being explicitly labeled as insensitive and tone deaf to the issue of racial justice i find that shameful mr mayor let's talk about the facts for a moment every single one of us would have reported supported a request for implicit bias training had it been genuine had it not unfairly targeted our police officers had it not been a token amount to appease those in the community who contacted

▶ 3:15:55 Shawn M. MacMaster: the mayor and we know we were cc'd on all those emails that were sent to the mayor the mayor by his own words in thursday's patch article said that it was his idea not the police chiefs to purchase new firearms but now the mayor has conveniently wrapped himself in the warmth of the security blanket quilted by the misguided notion of defunding or refunding we choose to call it the Melrose Police Department we all seem to know with the exception of Mayor Broder is that training every city employee will be extremely costly at $26 which has been proposed by the mayor we'd be devoting less than $30 for every one employee trained to train one police officer when you account for overtime and backfill because public safety personnel can't be

▶ 3:16:45 Shawn M. MacMaster: expected to train when they're working a shift will be anywhere between fifty three dollars an hour and eighty seven dollars an hour depending on rank so with forty eight police officers that's the the amount of police officers who we employ for a four-hour training that would be a minimum investment of two hundred and twelve dollars per officer or ten thousand one hundred and seventy six for just patrol officers alone when you add sergeants and lieutenants the total departmental cost for one four hour training would be $21,323. Yet the mayor wants to devote less than $30 per city employee. That doesn't even cover an hour of training for a single patrol officer. Think about that for a minute. If that doesn't demonstrate the spuriousness of his request, I don't know what does. What could the mayor have done if he was sincere about funding implicit bias training?

▶ 3:17:41 Shawn M. MacMaster: He could have identified a sufficient amount of money in the nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars in free cash He sent down before us the other night, but he purposely targeted the police budget We could have signaled to the public into this council that he'd reassess each department in the FY 21 budget and pursue a series of Transfers that this council would likely approve Let's be with a genuine and sincere investment in this issue must go further It will require tough and uncomfortable conversations, earnest self-assessments, and most importantly, a willingness to do the work that will ensure that equity is valued, achieved, and sustained at every level of city government. So let's not fool ourselves into thinking that this is just about investing in a one-time

▶ 3:18:29 Shawn M. MacMaster: implicit bias training or that the training is in itself a panacea. This has to be about changing the culture. It has to be about creating a new norm. The conversation needs to also focus on cultural competency, cultural sensitivity, about recruiting for diversity in municipal government, about having city-wide policies that promote and demand equity in government across all city departments, about considering ideas for alternative models of accountability to investigate claims lodged against public employees for any type of misconduct in any city departments. It should be about making sure that our motto of one community to open to all amounts to more than just words, that the identity of this community is not restrained by the city's

▶ 3:19:17 Leila Migliorelli: Victorian ethos, but liberated by our commitment to move forward. I find it hard to believe that we all don't want the same thing. I challenge us to get there. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor McMaster. Councilor Migliorelli. Sorry, I'm going to take my time too. So, let me compose my thoughts. Well, I'm in 100% agreement that the 26,000 isn't enough. I'm still a little confused by some of the conversation that's going on right now, because it seems like the anger and fury The councillors are sharing tonight are in regards to the mayor's memo and his quick turnaround. I also received not a lot of time with this memo, maybe a little bit sooner than all of you. Maybe I'm feeling there's some implications here that perhaps I was involved in drafting it. I was not. I was contacted by the mayor out of somebody who was actually

▶ 3:20:29 Leila Migliorelli: Proactively contacted him about doing this training. I've been talking about this since I was on the campaign. Have any of you, I don't under, I feel like I'm equally frustrated frustrated with both the mayor and. Everyone else here, no one else has stepped forward. It just seems like. You're blaming the mayor and I don't know where all of you have been with your proposals either. So. Shame on everyone then, I guess. It's still not. I thank you, Councilor McMaster for your apology. I appreciate it. I think that to say that Mayor Broder caused some of you to use the words that you used on Thursday night is sort of a little bit ridiculous. We could have had a conversation that night. I was ready for a conversation to kind of get into the weeds of this.

▶ 3:21:19 Leila Migliorelli: i would have welcomed a conversation for any of you to say you know this isn't enough let's go back and forth but it led out of the gate um with just a complete anti-police stance and put the rest of the counselors on a sort of defense mode you didn't give us an opportunity to have a conversation it was speech after coordinated speech after coordinated speech to to do this and it was it it it stifled the conversation so well i you know critiques of mayor broder side that's your beef with with him that mine is the sort of the inflammatory language you all used to get there and i think while we have this you know interesting proposal to cut across the budget i would i wanted i asked the mayor have been asking the mayor when i asked from him i think maybe

▶ 3:22:09 Leila Migliorelli: three weeks ago is can you find the money can you please find the money for this i don't know if anyone else did i asked him that this is what he came up with i in good faith assumed that this is this is where it is and frankly i'm sorry i i get the that we don't want to harm our police i don't want our police harmed i wouldn't have voted down the entire order um the guns it just seemed to me we we're gonna have to make tough choices someone is going to have to lose something so i ask everyone to think who who do we think is going to lose here are we just saying that the police can't lose are you prepared to tell our kids that they can't lose who's going to lose and if you want to put that back on the mayor and have him do that work that's one thing but if we're

▶ 3:22:50 Leila Migliorelli: having a discussion here we really need to look at ourselves we've been going through this budget for the last month we've been looking line by line everyone is the majority of the council has been motioning to move the bottom line i think under the assumption that this budget is tight so what do we do i spent time today going through the free cash assessments and sort of struggling with the ones that we have in front of us where can we cut i've gone through the line items again looking where can we cut i don't to me it seems like you're all focused on the mayor broder's political stunts but this seems like a political stunt backwards too i i would love to have a conversation have any of you gone through you know motion to cut the bottom line 250 000 fine but

▶ 3:23:32 Leila Migliorelli: But have you looked, is there anything you feel like that could be cut? Do you really feel like our students can suffer this loss? Where do you wanna look for this? So to me, yes, 26,000 isn't enough. Are we looking at items that maybe we don't need? Maybe I would say the guns fall into that category. Maybe other things fall into that category as well. But please, I just ask you to take some accountability for the language used and realize that that did hurt people that hurt your fellow counselors and that's not mayor broder's fault that's the language you chose to use that night so um welcome to continue conversation i would rather move past this conversation about language and mayor broder and get to get to talking about the topic at hand thank you thank you Councilor

▶ 3:24:26 Jen Grigoraitis: Migliorelli i'm gonna okay we uh Councilor mcmaster was having some technical difficulty and he's back but i cannot believe i'm going to say this but this is the hits of 2020 keep on coming i believe according to the city clerk we are about to run out of disk space for recording this meeting um so which i i find very concerning and i'm sure you all do as well so i wanted to bring that to everyone's attention um and i'm not entirely sure what our options are other than to motion to adjourn and continue this conversation otherwise we would run the risk of the meeting not being recorded Madam President yeah we have a motion on the floor now let's let's at least do that rule on that motion and then we'll take the next step so we do have other

▶ 3:25:19 Jen Grigoraitis: counselors in queue for discussion before we move so my concern is that we run out of disk space before i don't know how we track the disk space um that so i'm happy to continue until we run out but there are other counselors in queue so we're not i don't believe we're ready to move on that motion so i'm just checking with the city clerk if um president Grigoraitis right now i just was checking just because this has gone so long and i know that this platform has limited disk space we're not i haven't received any notification that we're um close but when i looked we have just about 10 of the amount left so i just don't want to you know i prefer to just give you a heads up now but i think you as soon as you can continue until

▶ 3:26:06 Jack Eccles: it stops recording um if you would like okay if you can please interrupt if you can please interrupt us if it stops recording all right thank you counselor eccles can i just add one thing i'm sorry i have something from the i.t director he said 20 minutes possibly just he's not sure though sorry for interrupting all right thank you Councilor eccles thank you madam president um so it seems that we're we're approaching two issues here and it would be nice to be able to reframe the discussion around the motion on the floor right now so right now as Councilor Migliorelli just pointed out we're talking about the mayor's communication style and we've heard a lot about that that is irrelevant to the 250 000 cut that has been proposed to the

▶ 3:26:52 Jack Eccles: budget that is what we're talking about and that is why i motioned to suspend the rules to hear from the city cfo i think it would be very helpful to understand how that would impact or whether or not it is legal to do such a process for example on june 14th or may 14th we started this budget process with the mayor presenting to us and we have since gone line by line by line and department by department and analyzed each expense when we cut 250 000 down the bottom line we essentially give the administration unilateral control to reappropriate those funds and i'm not even sure that they're allowed to do that that is why i wanted some input from the city cfo or the city solicitor because i think that i am concerned that as we try and disaggregate these

▶ 3:27:40 Jack Eccles: cuts they will affect essential city services i think that when we're talking about the order further down the agenda um that's enough that's another discussion and i think that maybe there are some regrets from the vote and i think that mayor broder was forthcoming in the fact that 26 000 was not enough i don't think to compensate but of 26 000 being insufficient we should cut 250 000 from the bottom line from the budget um without hearing from the administration first. I don't know how it's going to affect the schools. I don't know how it would affect the different departments of whom we've all heard from every single department head. And as Councilor Migliorelli mentioned, move the bottom line time after time.

▶ 3:28:21 Jack Eccles: We've had people concerned about raises for non-contractual employees. Those cuts would essentially be evened out by this investment, which is fine by me. But I think that it's interesting when disaggregated where these cuts are going to end up and that is a concern of mine and i'm not inclined to support this motion as a result i think that we're talking about two different issues here we're talking about the free cash appropriation for the police and we're talking about a 250 000 cut from the bottom line of the budget and that's what we're talking about right now and i think that that's an important way to frame this discussion is that we can fund on the implicit bias training, and we should, but I'm not sure giving the administration unilateral,

▶ 3:29:08 Jack Eccles: unilateral, you know, I don't even know how it works, honestly. I don't know what happens when you cut $250,000 from the bottom line of the budget. That is why we go through for a month, department by department by department, and make cuts, because we are thoughtful about the expenses in each department. It is a waste of everyone's time to wait for that entire process to be over and then cut $250 from the bottom. In what seems to be a situation of being frustrated from hearing from our constituents about an order that was on the agenda on Thursday, I have taken the time to reflect and discuss with constituents about that order, and I was planning on having a discussion about that order specifically. So now we're going to

▶ 3:29:51 Jack Eccles: talk about funding implicit bias training by a bottom line cut of a budget that was already bare bones, where the school department already was not able to make the investments in social emotional learning that they wanted to. We are cutting off of the bottom line of a budget that we have seen from the DPW director and the superintendent, cuts have already been made. I don't know where the administration goes with their $250,000 cut, and I don't even know if they're allowed to do that. That is why I suspended the rules to try and hear from the CFO. So at this time, I'm not inclined to support this motion. And I think that another thing is that the mayor, while I was frustrated to receive that memo

▶ 3:30:27 Jack Eccles: at 1 p.m., I was at work until 5.30. I think that it's frustrating. And if anyone wants to file an order to discuss the mayor's communication with the city council, I think that that would be beneficial for everyone. I don't think cutting off our nose to spite our face by cutting $250,000 from the bottom line of the budget, specifically because we were upset about the ongoing of thursday i've heard so much about discussing that order on thursday when right now we are discussing a 250 cut from the bottom line of the budget that is what this discussion is about and i think that the mayor was forthcoming in saying that investing in police firearms right now while in this while the city is in the midst of determining how how to respond

▶ 3:31:09 Jack Eccles: meaningful to the ongoing systemic barriers black people and other people of color face would be misguided it was not that the mayor thought that 26 000 was going to abolish racism in melrose it was that the mayor thought that a firearms investment was not appropriate we as the city council have the decision power to say that we disagree with them and that's what we ended up doing and we were going to take another vote tonight on that same thing so we don't this isn't about the mayor we this is the city council and we are discussing the budget and later we'll be discussing free cash appropriations so i think that to make this all about the mayor and his communication style right now we're talking about free cash appropriations and a

▶ 3:31:52 Robb Stewart: budget and i would prefer to debate the merits of the budget and the free cash appropriations and at this time i will not be supporting a 250 000 cut off of the bottom line thank you madam president thank you Councilor eccles Councilor stewart Councilor stewart yeah there we go just trying to find my unmute button thank you thank you madam president i just uh really quickly a point of clarification i believe that if we do cut 250 000 from the budget that 250 000 does not become available for spending elsewhere it just means this is this is my understanding you need to get confirmation on this but my understanding is is it's just that the city has $250,000 less that they can spend. So the point of that motion would be that,

▶ 3:32:54 Maya Jamaleddine: you know, he would have to go, the mayor and his administration would have to go find $250,000 and that's it. It's not like that money could then be used for anything other, any other purpose, it's gone. So that's that's how I and have interpreted it and we should be mindful of that. I wish also confirmed. Thank you Thank You Councilor Stewart Councilor Jamala Dean Thank You madam president. Um, I would like to say that I agree with all my counselors at my fellow counselors that The whole whole city Department's needs implicit bias But let me tell you As I included in my resolution that the mayor have, have started and devoted the next two weeks to focus on our city departments and to, as I mentioned.

▶ 3:33:57 Maya Jamaleddine: All right, bear with me, or the city departments would be devoting the next two weeks to focus on how city services can contribute to creating a more racially just and equitable community. Is the two weeks enough? I don't think so. Is the $26,000 enough? I don't think so. But is it a good start? Yes, indeed. That's what we need. We need to show people of color that we are willing to start by correcting ourselves. And who do we start with? do we start with a school that currently we don't see nationwide any problem with it but we do see nationwide a problem with the police department so to set a good example and to show a good leadership we start with where other cities and other towns are having this problem and we show them that we are

▶ 3:34:55 Maya Jamaleddine: ready to face anything we are willing to correct ourselves even if we don't have the problem although the email showed otherwise but we are willing to correct ourselves and we are willing to learn that said I wanted to thank counselor McMaster for acknowledging and for apologizing thank you so much for having the courage and correcting because all of us are we're not flawless and we are we all make mistakes and it is good and show good leadership to acknowledge that and try to correct it however I want to tell you that this is lesson one an implicit bias to show that we didn't buy by so by asking these questions you didn't know that the impact of people of color the impact of your questions on

▶ 3:35:57 Maya Jamaleddine: people of color and if we had this implicit bias we would know and we wouldn't ask these questions so I would like to take this as a moment of learning learning moment and start by correcting ourselves and reflect on what we did and hopefully we'll be able to get the right decision I think we should not waste our time to go after and accuse each other or go after the mayor I think we all have a good dwell. We are learning. I am not here to defend any one of us Neither the mayor, but I think we all have good. Well, and we are learning from our each other mistakes So let's move on and show our community a good leadership Really reflect and show our community. We are united and work toward it. Thank you so much

▶ 3:36:53 Jeff McNaught: Thank You Councilor Jamala Dean Councilor McNaught thank you madam president and councilman jamal dean and councilman Migliorelli i i want to say that i agree with a lot of what you said um and i think most of us here do um not all of us here do we want to work together we want to get past this um my personal feelings on how we got here are just that um it's not uh an insult against anyone in this virtual room um but i do want to say uh And we did move bottom lines multiple nights saying we could revisit them at the end. We did mention that many times. We said, okay, well, we can move it now and we can revisit this at the end. So I don't want the public to be under the impression that we never committed to taking a hard look at things again in the end.

▶ 3:37:46 Jeff McNaught: And that really meant the whole budget. So it looks like the technology is striking down on us again. so I'll be very brief I'm I'm I would support this 250 I would also support if we need more time maybe tonight was the wake-up call that we all needed I'd love to buy a cup of coffee and talk about things but maybe the right thing to do is adjourn and ask the mayor where we can find more than $26,000 or really what a better plan is because there is a better one and that's all I'll say because I don't eat up all the cloud storage thank you Thank You council McNaught Councilor McMaster Thank You madam president I think everyone has raised very valid points tonight if the motion were to go forward I'd be

▶ 3:38:45 Shawn M. MacMaster: inclined to support it because I do it shouldn't be a matter of twenty six thousand dollars or two hundred and fifty thousand dollars but i'd rather make an investment in a quarter of a million dollars and frankly had two a quarter of a million dollars come before us i think we've all shown an equal commitment to this issue to want to fund it um what i think what is concerning is that and i understand what what council of Jamaleddine is saying but i'm not comfortable uh signaling to the public that will fund twenty six thousand dollars for implicit bias training that amounts to seedlings that we're not able to flourish and that's what concerns me i think that sends a very dangerous uh message to the community that we're making an investment um and

▶ 3:39:36 Shawn M. MacMaster: even if even if we do that and even if that puts the mayor in a position where he has to come up with it i'd rather you know use um the really the power of this council the mayor will come back with something better because right now it's it's 250 000 from the bottom line or it is essentially um the the appropriation that was before us which i think all of us think is is Is not adequate, so that is, I think what we have to consider that the option is, if we don't go forward on this motion, I think the appropriate thing to do is to say to the mayor, you figure out to us. How you are going to fund this in a way that does the topic justice. because consulate mcnaught said earlier 250 000 probably isn't going to be enough i agree

▶ 3:40:26 Shawn M. MacMaster: but i don't know what that number is and i think we can figure that out we also have to be mindful that that you know the training we do for some department not going to be necessarily the same implicit bias training that we do for the police department these trainings will need to be customized for the audience so we need to figure out that point as well and i'm not suggesting that the mayor is going to come before us and say that he has all the answers but he has to give us us something better than $26,000 that is earmarked out of the police, because we can't do justice to this topic, which is something that we all want to do. So I think that's the option. Come back to us with something that is genuine, with something that we can all get behind,

▶ 3:41:06 Shawn M. MacMaster: with something that can bring us as a council together, can unify us, and hopefully start to make things better for this community and mend the fracture that what the mayor's done has caused. So I think that's the other option here. We hold the budget. We hold it. The ball is in the mayor's court. Send us something that is genuine. Send us something that is thoughtful and let's all get behind it. Let's all support it. Who wouldn't support it? And the last thing I would say is that when it comes to the number, the Council of Tramontozzi has identified a minimum. And I know this is a separate debate, but let's just think about this. A minimum, because we didn't get all the information we asked for, of $150,000

▶ 3:41:50 Shawn M. MacMaster: in salary increases. So if every city employee did not get a salary increase, not including those that we are contractually obligated to give out, if we didn't give out those salary increases that are completely discretionary on the mayor, we'd have a minimum of $150,000. If we didn't give out the sick leave incentive, that is it's a bonus that the human resources director conceded to that in response to the request for information that I sent is it's not a conversion. It's not, you know, you don't use use time and you lose that time and you get paid. Essentially what it is, is you get to keep your time and you still get $600 per employee. So if we look at the six hundred dollars per employee, noncontractual employee, if we look

▶ 3:42:40 Jack Eccles: at a minimum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, we can get there in a way that doesn't affect city services. All it does is affect salary increases. So, you know, the mayor should look at that. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor McNaught. Is there anyone wishing to Councilor Eccles? I would just like to say kind of again, I don't believe that a hard look at the budget is a $250,000 cut off of the bottom line. I think a hard look at the budget is what we've been doing for the last month, going line by line, department by department. And I think that when we talk about a hard look at a budget or a thoughtful way to cut the budget, I don't think that is $250,000 off of the bottom line.

▶ 3:43:28 Jack Eccles: I think that if we all as a council affirmed our values that we didn't feel that it was necessary to cut non-contractual employees. And maybe we've had some changes of heart. To me, I just think that a thoughtful look at the budget is not a $250,000 cut off the bottom line. I do think, and this is kind of a separate procedure, if we wanted to talk about the mayor resubmitting something, I know something that is actually 100% confirmed in precedent is that if we were to deny all free cash orders on the agenda tonight, plus $2 million, he would have to submit and maybe be able to resubmit with an appropriate amount, whatever he deems or we deem appropriate for implicit bias training. If we were to go through and deny them all, there's enough time in the fiscal year for

▶ 3:44:24 Jack Eccles: him to reformulate and possibly come up with enough money to fund implicit bias training or some other type of anti-racism effort. I think I am personally uncomfortable having not heard from the CFO and not knowing where these cuts are going. There's no accountability when we take the bottom line off of this budget. There's no one to say, and that's why it's written in Mass General Laws and our city charter that the budget goes through the city council, department by department and line by line. That's why we do this. And so there's no accountability when we send it back to the administration. And I don't think many of us even understand how that process works. I have never heard of it happening in in city history. If somebody would like to share a precedent for this.

▶ 3:45:06 Jack Eccles: I will happily listen, but I think that what 1 thing we're thinking about, and when we think about being thoughtful, and when we think about proposing new things. The 250,000 are cut off the bottom line is not thoughtful if we wanted the free cash orders to be resubmitted. We could do that. And that would be something where the mayor could come up with more money than just $26,000. He could revisit with his department heads in the short time left in the fiscal year. That's just a suggestion because I don't feel comfortable cutting off of the operating budget. And to go to the councilor Stewart’s point, I don't even know if those funds are available when we cut off the bottom line of the department.

▶ 3:45:41 Jack Eccles: And I don't know if any of us do, if someone would like to speak to that, I'm happy to hear it. But I think that, you know, when we talk about cutting off of the bottom line, We don't know where it's going to come from in the whole reason that we have a city council is to prioritize and analyze, you know, things like the budget or free cash out allocations. So we could, we could, we could ask the mayor to redo the free cash allocations because after tonight, if we were to approve all of those, the free cash balance is zero. If we approve all four or five free cash orders on the agenda tonight, but there is about for my back of the napkin calculation, $915 million in there that we could ask the mayor

▶ 3:46:18 Jack Eccles: to resubmit with them with an amount of money that felt sufficient um but at this time i'm not inclined again having not heard from a member of the administration having not i don't i don't having not heard any real set precedent for cutting off the bottom line and not an individual department i'm not inclined to support this because again i would like there to be some accountability from the administration i i don't know where those cuts are going to come from when when we send it back. So thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor Eccles, Councilor McMaster. Thank you, Madam President. I'm sensitive to the issues Councilor Eccles raised. I think it is a thought and a measured approach,

▶ 3:46:59 Shawn M. MacMaster: but we are where we are right now. And that's not, if the motion was withdrawn, then I think we could look at something differently, which what I would suggest is that the mayor provide us a memo with at least at least 48 hours notice explaining to us the options and what he proposes i'm not comfortable of not voting on the free cash appropriations without knowing plans i'd like to know plan a plan b plan c i'd like it to be in a memo and i don't want it sent to me in the afternoon before our next meeting if we have a next meeting when i get home and log on after work and try to interpret all of it and with the topic that was before us in the firearms thankfully it's a topic that i can speak of because of my professional background had it

▶ 3:47:50 Shawn M. MacMaster: been something else i wouldn't have been able to to you know be as prepared and ask the type of questions but i'm not comfortable on a finance issue that might be you know council with senella or or others you know absorbing information at the last minute which has been indicative of this administration so i the option that i think and again if if the motion goes forward i'm supporting it if the motion is withdrawn i think we we have to demand as a council and our president can advocate for us a minimum of 48 hours notice for a memo and that will allow us time to prepare and to ask questions of the the auditor in the city solicitor and frankly i don't want to hear from the mayor on this i want to hear from them because i'm i am tired of the politics and like

▶ 3:48:36 Shawn M. MacMaster: councilman mcnaught said we're not in this because we want to be career politicians we'll take whatever political consequences come with the decisions that we make. We want to go to bed at night, and I've said this before in this chamber, Consul Tramontozzi knows it, is put our heads on the pillow, at least I do, and I think you all do, and sleep with a clear conscience. So this is not an easy question before us. We want to do what's right, but it can't be a forum where the mayor comes in and says just what he wants to say. He's come before us, and I know he's new, and I give him the benefit of the doubt, but he's not an expert on this he's conceded to that so we should hear from in the future the city

▶ 3:49:12 Mark Garipay: solicitor in the auditor and if we have questions for the mayor himself then we can hear from the mayor but that that is the best way I think to do this you know again it goes forward I'm supporting it I have no problem if the motion is withdrawn and if it is I think that's what we what we demand of the administration thank you madam president Thank You Councilor McMaster Councilor If the motion is withdrawn, I think we have to hold the administration accountable to come back with some concrete answers. I mean, we have a mayor, that's their position, that's their job, they're supposed to manage the budget. So, if we do hold it to Councilor McMaster's comments, we should require them to come back in front of us.

▶ 3:50:07 Jeff McNaught: with concrete information and ideas on how to make this happen. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Garipay. Councilor McNaught. Thank you, Madam President. I just want to say I share the same sentiment. I'm fine with holding the budget for now and asking for a new plan. I think we've made our point that we wanted something more serious, right, as a council. Everyone's acknowledged that 26 isn't enough. Some of us have acknowledged that it's a start. I want more of a start, but I was initially inclined to vote for the 250, but Councilor Eccles has made some great points and Councilor Stewart, and if we're unsure of what happens with that when we cut it, I think the responsible thing to do would be to wait.

▶ 3:51:02 Jeff McNaught: And before we run out of cloud space, again, I hate to keep talking about that, but it's going to happen. happened before um i think that we should make some sort of uh whether we're going to remove the motion a motion to adjourn but we've got to act quickly because we want this to be recorded and there's still 57 other attendees in the room watching this so um i'll stop there that's my piece i will withdraw my motion just a point of order yes council chairman um the law requires us to act on the budget within 45 days of the of our receipt of the budget and i'm sorry i'm not good at the calendar math but uh maybe we can but through the to the president that asked yeah clerk where we at yeah and i believe counselor sanella when he planned out the

▶ 3:51:52 Jen Grigoraitis: appropriations committee meetings thoughtfully added in some time to ensure that we so i I feel relatively confident. We're not at 45 days, but if I'm happy to have that confirmed, I'm getting a head nod from the clerk of committees. I believe it is the 25th of June. If I'm doing my math correctly. Thank you. And thank you for that point of order, Councilor Tramontozzi. So I believe, Councilor Sinella, you were looking to withdraw your motion. Withdraw my motion based on hearing back from the mayor on what his plans are, and the fact that we're supposedly gonna run out of cloud space. So, we, so the motion has been withdrawn and I believe the will of the council is for the administration to come to us. And I would argue council McMaster give us more than 48 hours, even more than 40 hours notice with a different plan.

▶ 3:52:43 Jen Grigoraitis: We will obviously need to schedule an additional council meeting to do that. This was our last schedule meeting. So we will work to get that. Scheduled I am going to ask the clerk for an update update on the cloud space or whatever it is. Point of procedure, I believe Councilor Tramontozzi was the seconder on that motion, if that's correct, and he would also need to withdraw. Yes, I would withdraw the second. Thank you. So we've had Councilor Sonnella and Councilor Tramontozzi withdraw their motion and their second. How are we on storage space? So far I've not gotten any notification. Um, I will tell you that the last time I received notification, they're out of this space for hours. So, um, we can continue. I just, I don't know at this point. I'm still getting.

▶ 3:53:39 Shawn M. MacMaster: The same, it's not, it doesn't go down in, um. Minute increments, it's just a file size. So. Um, I don't know, I don't have the agenda in front of me, but if it's just a free cash appropriations, it might be official to adjourn because I'm sure that 950,000 dollars would be part of whatever the mayor may may propose to us. Also want to just recognize for his motion and consulate trim and shows you for. you for what was just second I do want to commend a council of Sonoma me and I haven't necessarily been on the same page our first term together on on multiple issues but I do think it is an act of courage to be able to say let's make a genuine investment and I think there's been some tough talk here tonight but I

▶ 3:54:32 Shawn M. MacMaster: think it's been fruitful in that we're at a better place where we want more than twenty six thousand dollars and frankly it's two hundred fifty thousand is the right number maybe maybe not maybe it should have been more as Councilor mcnaught said uh if it wasn't for council of sanella uh at least um raising that um i don't think we'd get to the point where we can really begin the work that needs to get done so thank you uh Councilor thank you Councilor mcmaster council uh madam clerk uh i just received notification from the and the IT director that we should adjourn now. Okay, so given our pending technical issues, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. We have a motion to adjourn by Councilor McNaught,

▶ 3:55:20 Jen Grigoraitis: seconded by Councilor Stewart. Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Councilor Cinella. 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 Tramontozzi? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. 11 yes. 11 yes, the motion carries. We are adjourned, so we will be providing additional detail on the next time that this full body will need to continue these discussions. Thank you all, be well.

Original documents

• Minutes (CivicClerk PDF)
• Agenda (IQM2 PDF)
• Bulletin (IQM2 PDF)
• Minutes packet (IQM2 PDF)
• Agenda packet (CivicClerk PDF)
• Agenda packet (IQM2 PDF)
• Other (CivicClerk PDF)
• This meeting on the city portal