Health, Education & Welfare Committee — 2020-09-10
Attendance
Jack Eccles ; Jen Grigoraitis ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Jeff McNaught ; Leila Migliorelli
Agenda
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● SEPTEMBER 10, 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 Absent Leila Migliorelli Voting Absent Jen Grigoraitis President, ex oficio Present The Health, Education and Welfare Committee is called to order by Chair Eccles. This meeting is recorded and may be viewed on www.mmtv3.org
ORDER-2021-17 Appointment Appointment of Jodi Dwyer of 85 Lynde Street, #2., to the Melrose Commission on Disability Recommend Passage City Council
ORDER-2021-18 Appointment Appointment of Emily Minton of 33 Waverly Place., to the Melrose Commission on Women Recommend Passage City Council City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 9/11/2020 12:04 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Jack Eccles: Perfect. They are being 7 o'clock. This is a meeting of the Health, Education, and Welfare Committee. I am Councilor Eccles, the Chair. Joining me are Vice Chair Jamaleddine, Councilor McMaster, and President Grigoraitis. This provides a notice of a quorum for the record. Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law and the Governor's March 15, 2020 order imposing strict limitation on the number of people that may gather in one place, this meeting of the Health, Education, and Welfare Committee will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible. we'll post an audio or video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of these proceedings
▶ 0:43 as soon as possible after the meeting on the city of melrose website and mmtv at mmtv3.org is there a motion to open public comment did we just mention who's attending tonight for the record oh yeah want me to call the roll yes chairman eccles vice chair Jamaleddine yeah counselor mcmaster here counselor mcnaught counselor migliarelli and president Grigoraitis here great thank you fair motion open public comment i'll make a motion to open public comment second motion over in public comment made by vice chair gemology and councillor seconded by councillor mcmaster madam quirk there is no uh chairman eccles yes vice chair gemaladeen Yes, counselor McMaster. Yes, president Grigoraitis. Yes, well, yes, any members of the public, I don't see anyone other than the panelists and they're broader and that's the only person that they're in the list.
▶ 2:04 Jack Eccles: Their motion to close public comment. So moved back in motion close public comment. My counselor master segment by president. Madam chair, yeah. Yes. Counselor master. Yes, absolutely. Uh, yes, well, yes. We have two items on our agenda tonight. The first is Order 2021-17, Appointment of Jody Dwyer of 885 Lyons Street, Number 2 to the Melrose Commission on Disability. I believe we have Ms. Dwyer and Mayor Broder with us tonight. Is there a motion to suspend the rules to hear from the nominee, Mayor Broder? Motion to suspend the rules so that we may hear from the mayor and the nominees. second motion to suspend the rules made by councillor McMaster seconded by president Grigoraitis madam chairman Eccles yes vice-chair Jamaleddine yes councillor McMaster yes
▶ 3:15 Paul Brodeur: president Grigoraitis yes yes perfect I see mayor I see their icons I don't see video okay if you could this wire if you could you're unmuted the air broader is see here people if you're able to access your video at the bottom your video button should be looks like a little camera it's unmuted there we go also mr chairman yeah you can take it away for the first one i appreciate it uh to you and the members of the committee i want to thank Thank you for the opportunity to address you again this evening. This committee has done a great deal of work in the recent past, vetting nominees for our very important boards and commissions, and tonight we advanced that mission with a couple of great nominees.
▶ 4:15 Paul Brodeur: Right now, we are discussing, as you know, Jody Dwyer. Ms. Dwyer has a long history in Melrose, particular with her service to the Melrose Alliance Against Violence. You're obviously very familiar with the community. She's done a tremendous amount of work outside that organization supporting the community through things like the MS Walk and some mentorship programs. And she also has an incredible background in social work. She is a licensed clinical social worker and even a brief review of her resume indicates I think the value, the compassion, and the empathy that she will bring to service on the Commission on Disability. She would be, if approved, the final nominee and her approval would allow the committee, the commission,
▶ 5:10 excuse me, to get at the important work that I know they are all prepared to do and are anxious to do. So I very much appreciate your consideration of Ms. Dwyer's candidacy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We'll turn it over to you, Ms. Dwyer, if you'd like to say a few words. I think you're unmuted. Ms. Dwyer, can you hear us? She's on a headset. It shouldn't make a difference. It's bizarre. She is unmuted. I don't know if it's the headset on, Holman. Something is strange. Very strange. Put something in the chat just to see Yeah, I think it looks like the headsets now connected, but is Dwyer. I think you're now muted. I'm going to try to chat with her. Let's see if she can at least read this. It won't let me on you.
▶ 6:36 Shawn M. MacMaster: Let's try, I'm going to unmute you manually. Let's try it like that. He sent me a message that you can't on you. How's that? The technology is the channel that is faster. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Perhaps if the Mayor is ready and the second candidate is ready, we could perhaps move on to the second candidate. If not, I'm happy to, based on the Mayor's representation and perhaps based on remarks that we all make related to Ms. Dwyer's resume, I'd be comfortable voting on that tonight if we are unable to get her on. but I think if you're comfortable, Mr. Chairman, and the committee doesn't object, perhaps we move on to the next candidate to see if Ms. Dwyer can get on. If not, perhaps we could speak to her nomination
▶ 7:42 Paul Brodeur: and certainly would not want to hold up the appointment of Ms. Dwyer this evening. I'll defer to Claire and my fellow committee members. So without objection, we can move on to Order 2021-18. dash 18 um order 2021-18 appointment of emily minton of 33 waverly place to the melrose commission on women um mr mayor if you'd like to uh give a little background on this one thank you mr chairman i would be delighted to so um emily minton and her family came to melrose in 2008 and to review the letter that she submitted, you'll understand why she is an excellent candidate for the service on the Commission on Women. She has been in private industry in areas where women don't necessarily have a big footprint and has had remarkable success.
▶ 8:41 Paul Brodeur: She has done significant work, particularly around advocacy for pay equity, uh which is continuing work as we all know um throughout the country and here in massachusetts even though we have very strong laws um around around pay equity uh i think that that um that experience that background um certainly her knowledge of hr and the workforce brings an important dimension to the work of the commission and i'm looking forward to your favorable recommendation of her candidacy thank you thank you mr mayor you can turn it over to you miss minton thanks for coming thank you so much can you all hear me okay great um so thank you so much to the committee and to the mayor um as the mayor said my husband and i have lived in
▶ 9:31 melrose for almost 12 years and we're the proud parents of two girls we have our oldest starting seventh grade at the middle school next week and our youngest starting third grade at the winthrop and you know particularly over the last decade i've been just so impressed by the amazing growth and evolution of the city and melrose is an amazing community and i've had the opportunity to contribute to initiatives primarily thus far around melrose schools so i helped co-chair the winthrop pto enrichment committee volunteered in the schools for many years and helped advocate for the successful tax override campaign in 2019. Throughout my career, I've also been fortunate to work for organizations that do employ significant numbers of female employees. However, as the mayor
▶ 10:17 said, I was in many cases one of only a few females on the leadership team. In my last external professional gig, I joined a company called Shorelight Education as the eighth employee and help the organization navigate extreme domestic and international growth as the head of hr throughout i always made sure women's voices were heard and represented including things like instituting benefits around paid family leave as well as creating and leading a women's group which also created a first annual global volunteer event some of the other initiatives included increasing the number of female students that accessed our programs and creating spaces for for women to focus on their health and well-being.
▶ 11:01 As the mayor said, we also were one of the early adopters of Boston's 100% Talent Compact, which is an employer pledge to take concrete, measurable steps toward closing gender gaps in wages, as well as representation in their organizations. And I led our company's efforts on equal pay and represented the organization at several events with the Boston Workforce Council and Boston's Mayor, Marty Walsh. After many years of working a demanding job a global organization, I made a really difficult decision to leave the corporate world and prioritize my family. Right now, I'm very fortunate to partner with several organizations as a consultant, which allows me to continue to stay engaged in the field, but also provide a better
▶ 11:43 Shawn M. MacMaster: work-life balance. I feel like I intimately understand the struggles many working mothers face, and I'm really passionate about the commission's mission. So I'd love the opportunity to partner with other women in Melrose who are passionate about these same issues that impact women and girls and continue advocating for equity for women thank you very much for your consideration thank you thank you mr kevin thank you for being here tonight thank you for stepping up and being willing to volunteer um on the women's commission uh it's always nice to see award five a resident um being nominated i appreciate mayor broder's uh work there's been a number of um great nominees put forth over uh the course of his administration so far uh from uh from ward five so i appreciate
▶ 12:34 Shawn M. MacMaster: that mayor um miss benton if you can maybe talk a little bit about how your uh hr experience as shorelight um lends itself to uh your future work on uh the commission specifically with respect to some of the hr related uh issues on which you've worked the mayor referenced and so did you pay equity but maybe sexual harassment other types of salient issues that come up in the HR world and maybe how you might draw from that experience in raising awareness or responding to issues in notice sure I mean sadly when you've had many years in HR you've sort of seen the gamut so I have experienced all of those things you know having to go through sexual harassment investigations you building benefit packages from scratch um looking at pay equity um from you know across an
▶ 13:32 Shawn M. MacMaster: organization thinking about how to diversify leadership teams um so i think you know hopefully i have experience in a lot of different areas that i can you know draw from as well as resources um externally um and i think you know hric is a partner to organize to all different parts of the organization so um you know i look forward to partnering with other commissioners both on the women's commission and potentially other commissions as well as leadership within melrose to draw from resources and advocate for women excellent thank you i'm excited to speak perhaps in terms of perhaps engaging our immigrants who do live uh in the community uh based on the the global reach of uh the organization where
▶ 14:26 Shawn M. MacMaster: you know you spent a considerable amount of time but perhaps some of uh that work uh you know will be takeaways that you can apply here towards interacting with uh you know young people from foreign countries and uh you know engagement recruitment and whatnot and perhaps ensuring that um you know their voice is being heard um you know in the city and uh that we're working with them uh as a commission and over time you know there's representation as well so i'm looking forward to seeing perhaps what you might be able to uh to bring in that area as well and i'm pleased to uh support your your uh nomination uh tonight thank you uh vice chair jamali i would like to thank you emily for stepping up and um to serve our community um it's uh such an impressive um
▶ 15:22 Jen Grigoraitis: resume and recommendation letter so thank you so much and i'm looking forward to see uh what your term is gonna bring thank you chairman eccles and thank you ms minton for being here I have had the pleasure of working with Emily on many school-related initiatives since we both have children at the Winthrop School and have seen the dedication and precision that she brings to everything that she puts together. And I also have the opportunity of knowing her in a professional capacity. Her consulting company has a contract with my employer, so I'm regularly able to see the skills that she brings to her job in working on HR. So, I'm incredibly excited to have her joining the commission, I believe, due to the fact that we have a pre existing professional relationship. I will abstain from voting, but I wholeheartedly support this recommendation. Thank you.
▶ 16:24 Jack Eccles: Vice chair, I would move a motion to recommend. Point of information, I just want to be clear. Do we, do we have a quorum? So, my understanding is that it's 3 of 5. If, if, you know, if president. Has an extension that I checked with Christian prior. So, 3 or 5, we do have a quorum for that. Thank you for clarifying Mr. chairman. I'll 2nd, the motion at this time. Thank you. Motion made by Vice Chair Jamaleddine, seconded by Councilor McMaster. Madam Clerk? Chair Eccles? Yes. Vice Chair Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. President Grigoraitis abstains. That was three yes. Congratulations, Ms. Midten. You'll be voted on at the next full council meeting. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think we can go back to order 2021 dash 17. I believe it's joined and we'll be able to hear from.
▶ 17:47 We'll see if we can back on the phone, see if this works. There's the wire I'm going to unmute you. Can you hear us? I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes. Oh, good. I'm on my iPhone now. Sorry about that. I'm not sure why it won't that's my camera. No worries. If you can take the floor for a few seconds and say, talk about your nomination. Great. Thank you for the nomination. Like Mayor Broder said, I am a clinical social worker. I am currently working as an oncology social worker at Brigham and Women's Hospital with inpatient cancer patients. And I also live with an invisible illness, multiple sclerosis. So both professionally and personally i have always been a strong advocate for disability rights
▶ 18:39 Shawn M. MacMaster: from everything for medical mental health emotional health so this is something i'm very passionate about and i'm really excited for this opportunity to do more in our own community additionally i've served on the mave board for 10 years and i have lived in melrose now for four years. So, I definitely appreciate being a part of this community and look forward to doing more. Thank you very much, Ms. Dwyer. Are there any councillors wishing to speak at this time? Councillor Master? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Dwyer, for being here. I know Ms. Dwyer from Miller's Alliance Against Violence and her professional work at her prior job at Miller's Wakefield hospital. So I'm excited to see her stepping up.
▶ 19:32 Shawn M. MacMaster: Ms. Dwyer, thank you for your willingness to take on more. Normally, you know, looking at somebody's resume who is involved in so much in the community in terms of extracurricular activities, I would ask about time management from but from knowing you and having worked with you in the community and at the professional level, I know that you put 125 percent into everything that you do which will be a benefit to this new commission because as the mayor knows there's a lot of work to be done that's why he prioritized this as one of his first issues upon becoming mayor so I know you will hit the ground running and I think really be able to serve in a leadership role just really for the purposes of asking a question for the
▶ 20:24 Shawn M. MacMaster: public watching at home. The one question I'll ask Ms. Dwyer is maybe how you see your experience as a social worker both formally at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital and now working in Boston in terms of your interactions with vulnerable populations, how you see that as being an asset and perhaps something from what you can draw as a commissioner. Thank you Sean and yes I see my professional experience is a huge asset for this commission. I think the work I've done both at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital for seven years with very vulnerable patients and now in Boston with cancer patients has given me a lot of experience with advocating for all different types of people with both visible illnesses and invisible illnesses. It's brought to light a lot of health equity issues
▶ 21:20 and things that need to be um advocated for for people that don't always have a voice and then i think you know having the personal experience of living with an invisible illness also gives me insight into what it's like for people that have you know a variety of of medical or mental health issues so i think the balance of the two is is a huge asset thank you mr wyer and thank you again for stepping up president thank you mr chairman thank you ms dwyer for being here and for bearing with us through the technical issues um i just wanted to acknowledge that i'm thrilled to have a ward 6 resident being nominated thank you mr mayor um your resume is incredible the depth and breadth of professional experience that you bring to this um and thank
▶ 22:14 Jen Grigoraitis: you for sharing your personal story that that takes courage to to be out there on something like that and thank you for helping all of us learn from your experiences and i also just want to acknowledge that you were also the owner of finley the award-winning dog and while i'm sure that was not a factor in your nomination um i'm proud to have finley's mom joining this commission so thank you for being here tonight and i make a motion to recommend for passage The motion to recommend from President Grigoraitis. Second. Seconded by Vice Chair Jamaleddine. Chairman Eccles. Yes. Vice Chair Jamaleddine. Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes. Four yes. Awesome. Congratulations, Ms. Meyer. Your nomination will be voted on at the next full City Council meeting. Thank you for coming.
▶ 23:09 Jack Eccles: thank you councillor master yes point of personal privilege uh uh mr chairman i just wanted to mention that councillor mcnaught just having difficulty uh getting on this evening we did send a message so i just wanted to put on the record that he was attempting to get on has had some difficulty um thank you thank you councillor master um seeing no one else that's it for our agenda for this evening. Is there any motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Second. Motion to adjourn made by President Grigoraitis, seconded by Vice Chair Jamaleddine, Madam Clerk. Chair Eccles? Yes. Vice Chair Jamaleddine? Yes. Council Member McMaster? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. Or yes, i work on tech issues with i.t for our next meeting thank y'all good night everyone