Health, Education & Welfare Committee — 2020-08-17
Attendance
Jack Eccles ; Jen Grigoraitis ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Jeff McNaught ; Leila Migliorelli
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Remote Meeting Information
- Public Comment
- Orders
- ORDER-2021-9 : Appointment of Karen Burke to the Commission on Disability for a one-year term, to serve as the elected/appointed official member; said term to expire on the last day of February 2021.
- ORDER-2021-5 : Appointment of Paula Weiner, 25 Clinton Road, to the Commission on Disability for a two-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2022
- ORDER-2021-3 : Appointment of Erik Hutchinson, 9 Winthrop St, Apt #2, to the Commission on Disability for a two-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2022
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● AUGUST 17, 2020 Web-based remote meeting Committee Meeting 7:00 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 Jack Eccles Chair Present Maya Jamaleddine Vice Chair Present Shawn M. MacMaster Voting Present Jeff McNaught Voting Present Leila Migliorelli Voting Present Jen Grigoraitis President, ex oficio Present
ORDER-2021-9 Appointment Appointment of Karen Burke to the Commission on Disability for a one-year term, to serve as the elected/appointed official member; said term to expire on the last day of February 2021. Recommend Passage City Council
ORDER-2021-5 Appointment Appointment of Paula Weiner, 25 Clinton Road, to the Commission on Disability for a two-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2022 Recommend Passage City Council
ORDER-2021-3 Appointment Appointment of Erik Hutchinson, 9 Winthrop St, Apt #2, to the Commission on Disability for a two-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2022 Recommend Passage City Council City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 8/18/2020 4:08 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Jack Eccles: This is a meeting of the Health, Education, and Welfare Committee. I am Councilor Jack Eccles, the chair. Joining me are Councilor Jamaleddine, the vice chair, Councilor McMaster, Councilor McNaught, Councilor Migliorelli, and President Garibaitis as the voting Member, non-voting Member, Councilor Cinella, Councilor Thomas, Councilor Stewart, and Councilor Tramontozzi. Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12th, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law and the governor's March 15. From the number of people that may gather in 1 place, this meeting of the health, education, welfare committee will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest possible. We'll post an audio or video recording transcript.
▶ 0:45 Jack Eccles: Or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the city Member website and 3 dot org. Yep, I don't see Sean McMaster. Do you? Because I don't see him. No, I misspoke. Sorry. He's not here. I just want to make sure this wasn't somebody missing. Okay. Thanks. Yep. Awesome so at this time, is there a motion to open public comment? Second most open public comment made by a counselor. Jamal Dean seconded by, uh, counts. Madam chairman, yes. Vice Judge Amaladeen. Yes. Councilor McMaster. I see him there now. He just popped in, I think. Yep. I'll move on. Councilor McNaught. Yes. Councilor Migliorelli. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes. Councilor McMaster, we're opening public comment. Yes. Okay.
▶ 1:48 Jack Eccles: This is the time for just the Health Education and Welfare Committee public comment. Um, anyone who would like to speak on any of the nominees. Couldn't you raise your hand. So, everyone in the room is a member of the. Uh, city minerals employee or a. Um, nominee, so I don't see the no Member. I'm, I'm just going to unmute call in user 2. I don't know who that is. So, um, call in user 2. Would you like to speak a public comment? I'm guessing not. Awesome. Okay. Is there a motion to close? Motion to close public comment. Second. Motion to close public comment by Grigoraitis, seconded by. Councilor McNaught, Madam Clerk. Chair Eccles. Yes. Vice Chair Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor McGregor-Elley? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes.
▶ 3:01 Jack Eccles: Yes, um, 1st item up and that's tonight order 2021 dash 9 appointment of Karen Burke to the commission. Elected appointed official member said term to expire the last day of February 2021. I believe we have miss Burke as well as mayor broader in the room. We do so I'm having some, can you hear me. So I'm having some looks like technical challenges. Maybe it's I found I'm gonna make mayor broader The panelists I'm gonna try and make Karen Burke a panelist see what happens Good evening, mr. Mayor miss Bert so we can get this started you mr. Mayor Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you to the Member of the committee for considering Three nominees this evening for the Commission on Disability. As the Chairman mentioned, and as you all know from our deliberations to pass the order that created the Commission or memorialized it,
▶ 4:12 Paul Brodeur: one of the Member of the Commission has to be an elected or appointed official from within the city. And Ms. Burke stood out in my mind for a number of reasons. She obviously has a deep commitment and deep relationship with the veterans community and is connected to resources to help veterans throughout the community with whatever situation they may face themselves in and also can connect them to resources at the federal and state level if necessary. I think her service on the commission would add really an important component, an important piece of outreach to Member of our community that sometimes would need services or would need some support. I'm delighted that she's willing to step forward and offer her assistance. Thank you.
▶ 5:13 Ms. Burke, would you like to say a few words? Hi, yes. Thank you for having me. Thank you, Mayor Berger, for nominating me to try for this position. I appreciate all of your time. This is something that's very passionate to me. I feel that many of our veterans come home from their time in service and they may have both physical or mental disabilities. That is something they have to adapt their life to. And it's my job to try and help them through those things and to get them the services that they need. And we as a community, to help we as a community to embrace them and make life as simple as we can for them upon their return. I think Melrose is an amazing community and so welcoming, and I'm very happy to be a part of it.
▶ 5:59 Jack Eccles: And I think an opportunity like this can help me to ensure that the veteran population's voices are heard and that they're included when we're making important decisions about making sure Melrose continues to be a welcoming community for all. Councilors wishing to speak or express the will of the committee? Make a motion to recommend for passage. 2nd, motion to recommend for passage by Councilor, not segmented by Councilor McMaster. Madam clerk. Chair Eccles yes. Yes, Councilor McMaster. Yes, yes. Councilor, yes, sorry. Council President Greg writers yes yes. Congratulations miss Burke, the full council will vote on this again later this evening. can i can thank you um so coming next we're going to go to order 2021-5 appointment of paul wiener
▶ 7:13 Paul Brodeur: 25 clinton road to the commission on disability for a two-year term said to expire on the last day of february 2022. i'm trying to see i don't see ms weiner in the room i don't I don't know, maybe she might be that call-in user. Possibly. Yeah, we spoke earlier. So she may be. She did confirm. So let me, I'm gonna unmute this person again. Hi, it's Paula. Oh, hi, Paula. Can you guys all hear Paula? Hi, it's Paula Weiner. Yes, that's me calling in. Great. Mayor Broder, do you wanna take this one off again? That would be terrific. So I first met Ms. Weiner In literally baseball world, and that's kind of where we made our where we made our 1st connection and she has been involved in challenge of baseball and has helped her family navigate issues in this in this area.
▶ 8:10 Paul Brodeur: She is also for the last several years, I say, 7 or 8 years has worked at a skilled nursing facility here in Melrose and is intimately familiar with the challenges faced by our senior population. population in navigating issues of disability, either from physical disability to maybe potentially cognitive impairments. She also interestingly has a background as a legal assistant, and also working in constituent services from former colleague of mine, Chris Fallon, who's the state representative from Malden for many years. She also is intimately aware of how important constituent services are, and making that connection to help people you know where they where they're at and to help them in real time so i'm delighted that she is willing to uh step forward to serve the commission awesome
▶ 9:07 uh miss weiner yes thank you jack thank you mayor i appreciate the words um so i have I was born and raised in our town next door, Malden. I have also two disabled children. One is physically challenged and the other has autism and some mental health issues. So I do, as the Mayor mentioned, I have both on my family side and in my work life, I have involvement for advocacy for challenged folks, those with disabilities. I do also volunteer my time with the local services like the Council on Aging and Mystic Valley and Triangle and the Y. So these things have really been important to me for a very long time. So I feel it's so important to give folks with disabilities a voice and a platform and to really be a
▶ 10:11 little bit more aware in the community perhaps through some marketing a community community events to really um allow them to be a vital part of our community so that's my hope to bring to this commission thank you very much thank you thank you counselor gemology i'd like to thank Ms. Weiner for stepping up and volunteering in this role and I would like to make a motion for passage to recommend all right second second motion to recommend for passage by Vice Chair Jamaleddine and seconded by Councillor McNutt Madam Clerk can you please call the roll Chair Eccles yes Vice Chair Jamaleddine yes Councillor McMaster yes Councillor McNaught Yes. Council of Migliorelli? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Six yes. Fantastic. Thank you very much, Ms. Weiner.
▶ 11:17 Paul Brodeur: And then we have one last appointment tonight. Order 2020- Order 2021-3, appointment of Eric Hutchinson, 9 Winthrop Street, Apartment 2, to the Commission on Disability for a two-year term, said to expire on the last day of February 2022. Correct with us. Yes, I am. So, Mr chairman, by way of by way of introduction. Um, so Mr. is a long time member of the community also has a history of activism with disability issues. Including within the autism community, but also given his, he has a mobility impairment that it causes him to sometimes use a wheelchair. He not only is an advocate, he certainly is willing to share his experience with us in navigating some of these issues. I think he will be an important addition and will bring an important perspective to the commission.
▶ 12:22 I'm grateful for his service. Thank you very much. Mr. Hutchinson, would you like to say a few words? Thank you. I'm honestly thrilled to be here, and I'm so glad that Melrose is stepping forward and joining the other communities in Massachusetts that are prioritizing the needs of persons with disabilities. One of the things that I'm most interested to bring to the fore here is the idea of disability culture and disability pride. I feel that shame, because we live in a country that really unfortunately does not prioritize providing healthcare to the citizens, People have to kind of fend for themselves and disability is a part of life. Everyone has a body and your body can have things that go wrong. So I think people carry a sense of personal shame and personal failing because of this unfortunate situation where it's hard to provide health care for yourself.
▶ 13:22 So, I think it's important to kind of push back and to help people to feel proud of who they are and part of their personal experiences. And to that end, I look to the Cambridge Commission on Disability. They've done some wonderful work with, like, a film series. And I think that maybe we could take a page from their book to to bring folks together and feel good about ourselves. Thank you very much motion to recommend passage. Awesome. We have a motion to recommend for passage by Councillor McMaster, seconded by Councillor Migliorelli. Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Chair Eccles? Yes. Vice Chair Jamaleddine? Yes. Councillor McMaster? Yes. Councillor McNaught? Yes. Councillor Migliorelli?
▶ 14:17 Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Six yes. Yes, yes, congratulations distractions and and that is it for our agenda. Is there a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn back in to adjourn made by council right now. It's second by president. 1, 1, last roll call. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, absolutely. Really? Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes, right on time over to you. Chair. Yes, all right. Pull some people out. Thank you. Just give me 1 moment. Meet you hold on. It's taking forever tonight. To navigate through anybody have any issues with that? Can you hear me? Yeah. Can you see me? Am I moving? Yep, interesting. Maybe you're ready. Are you good, Chris? I am. Thank you. Recording and I meant to say, Madam clerk, my apologies.