Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2021-07-19
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
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JULY 19, 2021 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:00 PM 562 Main Street, 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 Jeff McNaught Chair Present Jack Eccles Vice Chair Present John N. Tramontozzi Present Shawn M. MacMaster Present Mark Garipay Present Jen Grigoraitis Present Leila Migliorelli Present Robb Stewart Present Cory Thomas Present Maya Jamaleddine Present Christopher Cinella President, ex oficio Present
RES-2021-4 Resolution A Resolution for Expanding Access to Local Government in the City of Melrose City Council City of Melrose Page 1 7/22/2021 4:26 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:04 Jeff McNaught: Good evening. The time is 7.01 p.m. The date is July 19th, 2021. Beautiful summer evening here in Melrose, Massachusetts. First time I've been back in this chamber in quite some time, as many others. Great to see everybody back again. This is a meeting of the Appropriations Committee. I am Councilor McNaught, the chair of that committee, and in lieu of a roll call attendance, joining me this evening are Vice Chair Eccles, Councilor McMaster, Councilor Migliorelli, Councilor Garipay, Councilor Grigoraitis, Councilor Jamaleddine, Councilor Stewart, and President Sinella. And Councilor Thomas is walking in as we speak. This provides notice of the quorum for the record, and in accordance with the open meeting law, this meeting is being recorded and broadcast on our local cable access channel, MMTV, as well as being live streamed through MMTV3.org.
▶ 1:11 Jeff McNaught: The recording will be available for future viewing through the City of Murrow's website and on MMTV3.org. For the folks at home, this is the portion of our meeting where any member of the public may come forward, now physically, to speak to any item on our agenda. This is the public comment period. So at this time, if there's no objection, I'm sorry, Mr. President? There's also remote access. And there is also remote access via WebEx. if you go to the city's website you can get directions in participate remotely which is a great segue into why we're here this evening if there is no objection I will move by unanimous consent to open the floor for a public comment and seeing no objection we're now open for public comment do we have
▶ 2:03 Paul Brodeur: any Member of the public here to speak to the Appropriations Committee agenda this evening being joined by Mayor Broder for public comment we also have Council Tramontozzi Tramontozzi no no I was waiting for me to have a seat good evening I was waiting for you our arrival before I sat down much appreciated all sorts of cameos this evening I want to I really just want to take a moment to thank the Councilor and the whole council for the intention behind this I think it is a great idea and it is to build on some of the unfortunate but successful experiments we had with our technology and while i'm not authorized by the school committee to speak on behalf of the body tonight i do want folks to know we're thinking about this that
▶ 2:53 Paul Brodeur: the school committee like the city council is in fact going forward with the with the combination of kind of traditional meeting with the ability for remote participation starting at our last full meeting last month so thank you for doing this thank you mr mayor can we just get your address for the record 562 main street thank you did you verify that do we have anyone else uh present who would like to speak to the appropriations agenda do we have anyone on webex who would like to speak to the appropriations so if anyone there's one person as an attendee if you could just raise your digital hand i I can unmute you there was nobody in Webex however we do have a couple of letters that need to be read to the record okay and can we read those in now
▶ 3:49 yes mr. Clark dear counselors Grigoraitis and Migorelli as chair of the Melrose Commissioner on disability I want to express my strong support for the resolution for the expansion on a permanent basis of remote participation during meetings of the City Council school committee other appointed boards and commissions and similar bodies the opportunity to publicly participate in meet in meetings remotely allows for greater and more diverse public participation and stronger government transparency and accountability remote participation provides both convenience but also allows for participation by many individuals who for a variety of reasons cannot otherwise participate including some individuals with disabilities as efforts to allow remote
▶ 4:34 participation move forward it is important that such efforts are fully inclusive and maximize accessibility for those with disabilities the Commissioner on disability welcomes opportunity to work with the city to ensure that is the case thank you for the opportunity to support this resolution chair Huff Commissioner on disability thank you to make concern my name is Rilda Kiesel and I'm the chair of the Melrose Commissioner on women I'm writing in support of councillor Jen rigoritis and councillor Lila McGirelli's resolution to promote remote access for all boards, commissions and committees. As the chair of the Women's Commissioner, I am keenly aware that women often bear responsibility for child care in the home and how this may affect one's ability to engage in civic meetings.
▶ 5:36 Beyond child care, there are many other factors that may prevent someone from attending an in-person meeting. Throughout the pandemic, the Melrose Commissioner on Women has noted that our meetings and our events were more accessible and better attended due to the remote availability I fully support the resolution to continue to have this access for those unable to attend city meetings in person thank you Rilda Kissel do we have anyone else in queue if there is no objection I will move by unanimous consent to close public comment public comment is now closed we'll move on to our only business this evening and the Appropriations Committee meeting which is resolution 2021-4 a resolution for expanding
▶ 6:25 Leila Migliorelli: access to local government in the City of Melrose this resolution is sponsored by Councillor Grigoraitis and Councillor Migliorelli and at this time we'll turn to Councillor Migliorelli thank you Mr. Chairman I'll just go ahead and read the text of the resolution whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has created conditions requiring municipalities to enable remote participation in and access to open meetings and whereas this council recognizes that resident engagement in local government in melrose has meaningfully increased due to remote participation allowances during the pandemic and whereas many residents cannot attend in-person meetings due to family school and work obligations and whereas residents with disabilities can face particular and
▶ 7:08 Leila Migliorelli: additional challenges to accessing in-person meetings and whereas barriers to civic engagement are substantially lower when residents can participate in open meetings via remote means making government more effective and accessible to all people and communities now therefore be it resolved that the melrose city council in an effort to provide increased transparency and engagement of residents and local government will provide the public the opportunity for remote participation when public comment is on the agenda of the city council's meetings to the best of the city's ability methods of remote access the city may provide may include but are not limited to telephone internet or satellite enabled audio or video conferencing or any other
▶ 7:48 Leila Migliorelli: technology such remote participation in public comment will be available to the public without subscription toll or similar charge be it further resolved that the Melrose Council City Council encourages other multi-member bodies in the city such as the school committee and other appointed boards and commissions to make similar arrangements for remote access for and participation of the public at their meetings and hearings to further ensure that the residents of melrose have equal access and the ability to engage at all levels of government thank you councilman council Grigoraitis thank you chair mcnaught i just wanted to um briefly say that we filed this resolution um in the kind of weird period between the governor having declared the end of the state
▶ 8:34 Jen Grigoraitis: of the emergency and the state legislature not yet having extended our ability to have remote meetings and it's the where this body meets is really a matter of state law and the discretion of the mayor but the ability to allow the public to both participate in terms of being able to watch our meetings and be able to speak in public common is something that we have a fair amount of flexibility around and I just want to thank everyone on this council because I think we made the transition to remote meetings pretty seamlessly I know that wasn't the case in all municipalities I think everyone here really embraced that and I don't to lose that i also want to thank president sanella school chair mcandrew and city clerk
▶ 9:11 Jen Grigoraitis: foote for the past several months they've worked really tirelessly to come up with the setup that we now have to ensure that any meeting held in this room can can have remote participation by the public and i encourage the boards and commissions that use this room to take advantage of that tech setup that we had put in place and i just i had one resident who back in march of this year she's a nurse she works the night shift she wanted to watch a planning board meeting because it was going to directly impact her neighborhood and she was able to watch the first part of the meeting on her phone while she was on the t what what goes better with the tea ride than a planning board meeting and then she was able to watch the rest of it the next day when it appeared on the
▶ 9:51 Leila Migliorelli: mmtv website and i just think we have to think about how we continue to allow our residents to access local government so i i hope that you'll all join us in this resolution we obviously don't have the purview over what other boards and commissions do but i think we can set a really good example and again i want to thank our leadership for for setting up the tech to do so thank you councillor Grigoraitis thank you mr chair just to add on um i think as i think that uh ms kissel the chair of the women's Commissioner pointed out that um the people who often get left behind in the ability to participate in remote participation are those who work nights such as the example counselor Grigoraitis just shared with us as well as parents who are trying to juggle you know work and after
▶ 10:37 Leila Migliorelli: school activities disabled seniors so offering this hybrid approach is something we definitely want to encourage the other boards and commissions to do because i think many people don't realize that once we have gone back in person that that remote even the remote viewing isn't necessarily accessible um by the public so i think it's something that um we want to just encourage the rest of our boards and commissions to take part in and i feel like i've set a good example of that on the council thank you council mcgill early and council Grigoraitis for bringing this forward and um you know we'd be remiss if we didn't acknowledge the job that our former uh clerk of committees and now city clerk kristen foote has done in shepherding us through this
▶ 11:20 Jeff McNaught: crazy year of remote uh meetings so thank you uh for that um you know i'm just now realizing i don't know if i feel more vulnerable now or when i was at home in my closet so um but i think i was more comfortable at home so thank you clerk foot um uh thank you again that's all the business we have for this evening so at this time i'll entertain a motion to adjourn oh we have to act on it no right motion uh motion to place on file that's right sorry getting ahead of myself motion to place on file made by councillor Grigoraitis seconded by councillor Tramontozzi we'll go with council Migliorelli madam clerk will you please call the roll chair mcnaught yes vice chair eccles yes councillor Tramontozzi yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor Garipay yes councillor Grigoraitis yes councillor