Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2020-07-06
Attendance
Christopher Cinella ; Jack Eccles ; Mark Garipay ; Jen Grigoraitis ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Jeff McNaught ; Leila Migliorelli ; Robb Stewart ; Cory Thomas ; John N. Tramontozzi
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Remote Meeting Information
- Public Comment
- Orders
- ORDER-2020-135 : A request for city council approval of the temporary consolidation of polling locations to the MVMMS Gymnasium for the upcoming elections in September and November of 2020. These changes are being made in an effort to support the health and safety of residents, voters, and elections staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JULY 6, 2020 Web-based remote meeting Committee Meeting 7:15 PM , Melrose, MA 02176 The public should take notice that the Melrose City Council may, on certain occasions, have a quorum in attendance due to standing committees of the City Council consisting of both voting and non-voting members. Members attending this duly posted meeting are participating and deliberating only in conjunction with the business of the standing committee. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Christopher Cinella Chair Present Leila Migliorelli Vice Chair Present John N. Tramontozzi Voting Present Shawn M. MacMaster Voting Present Jeff McNaught Voting Present Jack Eccles Voting Present Mark Garipay Voting Present Robb Stewart Voting Present Cory Thomas Voting Present Maya Jamaleddine Voting Absent Jen Grigoraitis President, ex oficio Present
ORDER-2020-135 GENERAL A request for city council approval of the temporary consolidation of polling locations to the MVMMS Gymnasium for the upcoming elections in September and November of 2020. These changes are being made in an effort to support the health and safety of residents, voters, and elections staff during the Covid-19 pandemic. Recommend Passage City Council City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 7/7/2020 3:46 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:01 Christopher Cinella: All right, where's everybody? Good evening. This is the Appropriations Committee. The date is July 6th, that's 7-15, and pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12th order, suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law and the Governor's March 15th order, imposing strict limitation on the number of people when they gather in one place, this meeting of the Appropriations Committee 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 mmtv3.org adam clerk please call the role vice chair Migliorelli here councillor Tramontozzi
▶ 0:52 you're muted councillor Tramontozzi here here councillor mcmaster here councillor mcnaught here councilor Eccles here councilor Garipay here councilor Stewart here councilor Thomas here councilor Jamila Dean president Grigoraitis here chairman Sinella here and president I will entertain a motion public comment this time motion to open public comment second motion to open the floor for public by Councillor Stewart, seconded by Councillor Thomas. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Vice Chair Migliorelli. Yes. Councillor Tramontozzi. Councillor McMaster. Yes. Councillor McNaught. Yes. Councillor Eccles. Yes. Councillor Garipay. Yes. Councillor Stewart. Yes. Councillor Thomas. Yes. Councillor Dermaladin.
▶ 2:05 President Grigoraitis. Yes. Chairman Cinella. Yes. Yes, that's what I'm totally making me dizzy. Well, there's now a comment. Do we have anybody in the queue? Let's see for anyone in public comment who would like to speak if you could raise your digital hand. John, I had a move to get better connection. I was losing. Yeah. Well, I don't no 1 has indicated they wish to speak, nor have I received any email or phone messages. Motion to close public comment. second was your closed public economy by councillor stewart seconded by councillor thomas madam clerk please call the roll vice chair Migliorelli yes councillor Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster yes mr mcnaught yes councillor eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor
▶ 3:02 Christopher Cinella: Stewart. Yes. Councillor Thomas. Yes. Councillor Jamaleddine. President Grigoraitis. Chairman Cinella. Yes. And yes. So this is a one-order tonight continuation of order 2020-135 a request the City Council to approve the temporary consolidation of the polling locations to to the Melrose Veteran Memorial Middle School Gymnasium for the upcoming election in September and November of 2020. These changes are being made in an effort to support the health and safety of resident voters, residents voters and election staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Heard from our city clerk, we had a nice, some of us had a nice tour today of the gymnasium. I don't know if there's anybody any additional questions for the city clerk or counselor stewart
▶ 4:07 Robb Stewart: i just wanted to say to uh the council and to the public in general that um i spent um a good amount of time with ms camoza last thursday evening um speaking in regards to to this proposed change to the voting procedure. And it was well thought out. She was able to address a lot of the questions that the council as a whole had raised the last time we've met. And it is clear that number one, safety is the priority for all of the people in Melrose. Of particular concern are people that are disabled or elderly or may have some pre-existing medical concerns that they need to, she has put together, in my opinion, a very strong comprehensive plan to help everyone in those situations as well as the residents in general
▶ 5:09 Robb Stewart: to be able to vote effectively. I think the alternative ways to vote that she had put forward, Including the mail-in voting, the ability to vote early in Memorial Hall, as well as the plan that's been laid out with a diagram now. Thank you very much, Ms. Camosa, for a wonderful diagram to help us better understand how that's going to proceed throughout the day. She also, and I think this is an extremely important aspect, is she has a very strong communications plan that's going to be starting as soon as possible throughout the summer, through the election, both the primary and general election. And it's, I think, going to be able to touch all people that need to know. So it's not just a digital only, it's not just a newspaper, it's comprehensive.
▶ 6:08 Robb Stewart: And I think that's real important to be effective for all the voting members of the town. And I just want to leave this one last thought. This is to the public. These are extraordinary times. It is the responsibility of both the government and the people to accommodate these times as best we can. And so what I mean by that is we are doing the best we can to accommodate both the safety and the ability to vote. And it's important that the public also help others as best they can. If you have a neighbor that's elderly that you can either give a ride or communicate how they can vote, the alternatives, I think that's real important. If there's a way that you can volunteer your services throughout the day, that'd be cool.
▶ 7:00 Cory Thomas: But it's real important that I think that we need to recognize that in order to make this work effectively, everyone needs to be treated. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councilor Thomas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to thank Clerk Camosa as well as Joanne and Eric and Ted with the Elections Office. They did a great job over the last week updating their original plan. Not really updating their original plan, but answering the questions like Councilor Stewart said. The tour today was great. I wanna thank the DPW and members of the school department that got us into the school today to see, you know, how this would work this fall in September and November. And like councilor Stewart just said as well,
▶ 7:45 Christopher Cinella: these are extraordinary times, you know, changes might need to be made for the 2020 election cycle. I don't know if I'd wanna see this change as a permanent change, but during a COVID time, I really appreciate everything that the elections office to make you see how this would work in September, November. Thank you. I didn't see any other hands go up. Did I miss anybody? What is the will of the committee? Motion to recommend, seconded by Councilor Eccles, seconded by President Grigoraitis. Is there any other discussion on that? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Vice Chair Migliorelli? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councilor McMaster? No. Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Eccles?
▶ 8:39 Yes. Councilor Garipay? No. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Thomas? No. Councilor Jamaleddine? President Grigoraitis? Yes. Chair Sonnella? Yes. Seven yes, motion passes. that was all we had i will entertain a motion for adjournment motion to adjourn second motion to adjourn made by councillor stewart seconded by council mcnaught adam clark please call the roll vice chair Migliorelli yes councillor Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor mcnaught yes councillor eccles yes councillor Garipay yes counselor stewart counselor stewart i think you're from yes uh sorry it it paused counselor thomas yes counselor jamaladeen president Grigoraitis yes chairman sanella yes and yes during the 725.