Protection & License Committee — 2020-12-14
Attendance
Christopher Cinella ; Mark Garipay ; Jen Grigoraitis ; Jeff McNaught ; Robb Stewart ; Cory Thomas
Agenda
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE PROTECTION AND LICENSE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● DECEMBER 14, 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 Robb Stewart Chair Present Christopher Cinella Vice Chair Present Mark Garipay Voting Present Jeff McNaught Voting Present Cory Thomas Voting Present Jen Grigoraitis President, ex oficio Present
ORDER-2021-50 Appointment The appointment of Gail Infurna, 12 Mt. Vernon St., #41, to the Traffic Commission, for a five year term; said term to expire of the last day of May 2025. Recommend Passage City Council City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 12/14/2020 8:54 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:01 Robb Stewart: Good evening. Today is Monday, December 14th, and the time is 7.01 p.m. This is the Protection and License Committee meeting, and I am Councilor Stewart, Chair of the Committee. Present at tonight's meeting are voting members Vice Chair Cinella, Councilor Garipay, Councilor McNaught, Councilor Thomas, and President Grigoraitis. And we have 1, non voting voting member, counselor. So, for the remote meeting, we have a statement to read pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12. 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law general ledger chapter 30, a section 18 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 Protection and License Committee will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible.
▶ 1:09 Robb Stewart: We will post an audio or video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of those proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Melrose website and on mmtv3.org. And with that, may I entertain a motion to open public comment? Motion to open the floor for public comment. Second. A motion to open the floor for public comment made by Vice Chair Cinella, seconded by President Grigoraitis. Madam Clerk, could you please call the roll? Chair Stewart? Yes. Councillor Cinella? Yes. Councillor Garipay? Yes. Councillor Thomas? No. Yes. President Greger-Wright is? Yes. Councillor McNaught? Yes. Great. Public comment is now open. Is there anyone in queue to speak? So let me check.
▶ 2:12 If anyone would like to speak, if you could raise your digital hand. Let's see. I don't see. There's a check. Yes. The gentleman that would like to speak, let me unmute Mr. McSweeney. Mr. McSweeney, can you hear us? Can you hear me? Yes. Sorry, the app has changed a little bit. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you everybody. Fin McSweeney, 160 West Wyoming Avenue. Just wanted to touch briefly on the nomination on the agenda tonight. Not specifically about Ms. Interna, who I don't know. I've never spoken with. The council recently had a pretty, what I thought was a pretty thoughtful conversation with the administration, the appointment of the HR director, and about how the city posts its openings, and how it recruits for its openings.
▶ 3:21 And I thought that the conversation was pretty candid. Pardon me, I'm getting a lot of feedback here. Can everyone go on mute except for Mr. McSweeney? Sorry to interrupt. Everybody is on mute. Is it me? Is that better? Can you still hear me? That's better. Okay, great. As I was saying, I thought the council recently had a pretty thoughtful conversation on the appointment of the HR director, a pretty candid one about how the city posts for these openings and how the city recruits for these openings. And obviously, this is not a position within the city it's an appointment to a board but the boards and commissions are important too and like I said this is really not about the specific nominee
▶ 4:16 who I don't know anything about except that you know she's a former commissioner former city council or former mayor so I think that anyone would would probably agree that this is not checking the boxes in terms of getting new voices into some of these roles so just in light of the what I thought was a really good conversation with the administration about HR director if there is anyone from the administration tonight to speak to the appointment I know that the mayor put out a call to the public earlier this year about board vacancies I'd personally be interested in hearing not just about you know how many people applied for this particular opening which you know which is an important one it's an important public facing one it's where a lot of people that a lot of
▶ 5:07 residents go to the traffic commission um or are appointed to the traffic commission when they have traffic safety issues in the city which as we all know are very common um but but you know also more generally about um appointments to to the boards and commissions and and how the city is doing um soliciting interest so that's that that's it um thanks everyone for your time i appreciate it thank you mr mcsweeney is there anyone else who would like to speak i don't see anybody else motion to close public participation second we have a motion to close public comment made by council Garipay seconded by president Grigoraitis madam claire could you please call the role chair stewart yes councillor sanella yes councillor Garipay yes councillor
▶ 6:02 Robb Stewart: mcnaught yes councillor thomas yes and president Grigoraitis yes six yes thank you ma'am tonight we have uh one order before us we have ordered 2021-50 which is the appointment of gail inferna of 12 mountain vernon street number 41 to the traffic commission for a five-year term and the said term is uh set to expire the last day of may of 2025. um i believe we have um a few folks to speak uh to this appointment this evening uh and with that may i entertain a motion to suspend the rules motion to suspend the rules second motion to suspend the rules made by count by Vice Chair Sinella, seconded by Councilor McNaught. Madam Clerk? Chair Stewart? Yes. Vice Chair Sinella? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. President Grigoraitis?
▶ 7:12 Paul Brodeur: Yes. Six yes. Thank you Madam Clerk. I believe we have um we have the Mayor um yes let me bring him and they'll make him in the panelist mayor burda can you hear us we can hear you mr mayor yes thank you mr mayor for joining this evening uh thank you mr chairman i appreciate the opportunity to uh to be before the council uh and i want i want to thank uh mr mcsweeney for raising uh that issue because it is important one and it does frame the discussion a little bit We did do a solicitation for openings for all board and commission slots early on in the administration and did get a couple of folks who were interested in joining the traffic commission. And Mr. Pateri, I hope I'm saying his name right, also expressed his interest in stepping down when his term expired.
▶ 8:33 Paul Brodeur: That is why we have the opening here today. As some of you may know, when the then Board of Aldermen asked the legislature to create this traffic commission, there were certain boundaries put around who was eligible for certain slots. Two of the slots of the five that the mayor can appoint have to be what's called resident members of the business community and the folks who stepped forward at the time are not members of the local resident business community. That did narrow the pool a little bit. As you all know, the person I'm recommending tonight, as Mr. McSweeney mentioned, is former Mayor Inferna. Now, Mayor Inferna did serve as the, again, then board of all the men representative to the traffic commission uh for many years he certainly
▶ 9:36 Paul Brodeur: has a a passion for it uh constituents for for a long long time and is someone who during her service on the commission uh really put in a lot of time and research by that i mean would visit sites would talk to folks and um it would try to make the best decision i would not suggest that everyone would ever agree with any decision any appointee has ever made um but that due diligence and openness was really important to me also it's important to know that while um mrs inferna um was you know affiliated with the city government for a long time and is still i'm happy to say doing some contact tracing uh for the city she does has been a long time member of the norris chamber of commerce during uh during her time both as an employee of
▶ 10:36 Paul Brodeur: melbourne's wakefield hospital and i can't remember the name of the skilled nursing facility she worked that after that but continues to be a member of the chamber of commerce and is also a member of the board of trustees of melbourne's wakefield healthcare which is um as you all know a also a member of the chamber so she would fulfill uh that resident business slot that i suspect this is my first appointment to the traffic commission i am not sure that that requirement has been followed diligently in the past um that i'm going to tell we have a terrific traffic commission with some really incredibly highly talented folks with engineering and traffic planning experience But the ordinance and the state law are what they are.
▶ 11:25 I would offer you for your consideration, Mrs. Inferna as a business resident member of the traffic commission. I believe she is with you today. I hope obviously you're happy to answer any questions. Mrs. Inferna is available to make a brief presentation to also answer any questions. I'll bring her in. Thank you. This is in front. I'm not sure if you can hear us a little bit of a leg tonight. Good evening. This is in front of thank you for joining us this evening and welcome to the protection license committee. Can can you hear us? Okay, we can't hear you yet, so I'm unable to unmute you. There we go now, can you hear me? We can hear you loud and clear. Great. Great. Well, welcome Madam Mayor. If you wish to make a statement and also entertain any questions afterwards, that would be appreciated. Thank you.
▶ 13:08 Gail Infurna: Sure. And as always, it's always an honor to come before you, even if it is via Zoom. And I want to thank you all for your service. And these are challenging times. um you were challenged when you came in as a as a body that's you know nine out of eleven were new and then we have a covet thing but you've all done well and i thank you for that um i believe you all have a copy of my resume as well as a memo um that i sent you and i also want to thank mayor broda for his kind words and i think he explained everything there is to say on that and certainly if there are any questions i'll be glad to answer are there any questions from the committee are there any questions from non-voting members and what is the will of the committee
▶ 14:11 Robb Stewart: i would motion to um approve a second we have a motion to approve uh uh order 2021-50 by vice chair sanella seconded by councillor mcnaught madame mcclure chair stewart yes vice chair sanella yes councillor Garipay yes councillor mcnaught yes councillor thomas yes president Grigoraitis yes six yes the the recommendation passes okay and i think that's the only one uh May I entertain a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Second. We have a motion to adjourn made by Vice Chair Cinella, seconded by Councilor McDutt. Chair Stewart? Yes. Vice Chair Cinella? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor McNaught? Yes. Councilor Thomas? Yes. President Grigoraitis? Yes. 6, yes, stay tuned for 7, 7, 7, 15, 15. Sorry about that. I've got to do one thing.