Finance Committee — 2021-09-20
Attendance
Christopher Cinella ; Mark Garipay ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Leila Migliorelli ; Robb Stewart ; John N. Tramontozzi
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Comment
- Orders
- ORDER-2022-13 : Appointment of Sarah MacLellan to serve as Chief Assessor for the City of Melrose
- ORDER-2022-32 : A request and recommendation that the honorable City Council authorize in-person early voting for the November 2, 2021 Municipal Election in the City Council Chamber at Melrose City Hall
- ORDER-2022-33 : Calling City Election, Tuesday, November 2, 2021
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE FINANCE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 Web-based remote meeting Remote meeting 6:31 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 Leila Migliorelli Chair Present Robb Stewart Vice Chair Present John N. Tramontozzi Voting Present Mark Garipay Voting Present Maya Jamaleddine Voting Present Christopher Cinella President, ex oficio Present Non voting members present include: Councilor Thomas, Councilor Grigoraitis, and Councilor Stewart.
ORDER-2022-13 Appointment Appointment of Sarah MacLellan to serve as Chief Assessor for the City of Melrose Recommend Passage City Council
ORDER-2022-32 Election A request and recommendation that the honorable City Council authorize in- person early voting for the November 2, 2021 Municipal Election in the City Council Chamber at Melrose City Hall Recommend Passage City Council
ORDER-2022-33 Calling Election Calling City Election, Tuesday, November 2, 2021 Recommend Passage City Council City of Melrose Page 1 9/28/2021 10:21 AM
Transcript
▶ 10:17 Leila Migliorelli: councilor Jamaleddine yes councilor Garipay yes councilor thomas yes president sanella yes thank you we are adjourned stay tuned for i believe it's the finance committee's coming up next we can't just get going um all right so good evening everyone the time is uh 6 31 p.m on Monday, September 20th, 2021. This is a meeting of the Finance Committee and I am Chairwoman Lila Migliorelli. Joining me are Vice Chair Rob Stewart and voting members, Councillors Tramontozzi, Garipay, Jamaleddine and President Sinella and non-voting members, Councillors Thomas, Grigoraitis, McMaster. Pursuant to the suspension of certain provisions of the open meeting law, this meeting of the Finance Committee will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible we will post a
▶ 11:45 Leila Migliorelli: comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the city of melrose website and on mmtv3.org the public can find online access instructions to view this meeting at the city of melrose at www.cityofmelrose.org backslash remote hyphen meetings um so now is the time for public comment when anyone um from the public may comment on any of the three agenda items we have for tonight so if there's no objection i'd like to open the floor for public comment okay seeing none we're now open for public comment mr clerk is there anyone with their hand raised to speak on any of the finance committee agenda items if you're here for any public comment on finance agenda please raise your digital hand at this time i do not see anyone with
▶ 12:39 Leila Migliorelli: With their digital hands raised. All right. So if there's no objection, I'd like to close public comments. And seeing them, we're now closed for public comment. Since we have some members of the administration with us, I just thought I'd start with. Suspend emotion accepting a motion to suspend the rules so we can let them speak on the orders before us. Just motion to suspend the rules. Motion is to spend the rules made by counselor and seconded by counselor vice chair. Um, Stuart. Mr. clerk, Jim. Yes, uh, vice chair store. Yes, yes. Counselor yes. Counselor. Yes. And President Sinella? Yes. Six yes. Great. So now the rules have been suspended. And the first order on our agenda tonight is Order 2022-13, Appointment of Sarah McClellan
▶ 13:57 Paul Brodeur: to serve as the Chief Assessor for the City of Melrose. I see Mayor Broder is here to speak and Ms. McClellan. So Mayor Broder, if you'd like to kick it off. madam chair and i will be brief because this is the second time miss mcclellan has appeared before you um last time was to consider her nomination to the board of assessors and this time uh as a former role as a department head as chief assessor uh nothing has changed except that she's got a little bit more of experience um she has uh certainly mastered the the finer points of the process and as you know i believe you all received from her earlier today a certification of our property tax growth for fy21 and the in the four years before that um so we we are happy to
▶ 14:52 say we have not skipped a beat thus far and i hope that your experience bears that out as well and i ask for her confirmation this evening thank you thank you uh president snella uh at this time i would like to just motion um uh a recommendation uh to the full board of ms mcconnell's chief assessor second okay so a motion to recommend has been made by president snella and seconded by counselor Jamaleddine on discussion counselor vice chair stewart a point of order uh or Ms. Chair, do we want to offer an opportunity for Ms. McClellan to speak? We can certainly do so. She is in the virtual room. Ms. McClellan, would you like to speak at all about your appointment? I don't know if she can hear us. Ms. McClellan, can you hear us?
▶ 16:13 She is, we're trying to get her in here. Okay. Mr. Clerk, is this with something on your end, or is it on her or i i don't know it says uh it gives me the opportunity to mute her but uh she says that she's muted so i'm not sure okay um given that any question counselor Jamaleddine um considering pro you know possible having having that she is okay No, I can't hear you, but we can see you. Still can't hear you, but we can see you, just so you know. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you now. Okay, okay. Thank you. Sorry about that. Okay, so thank you, Mayor Bruder, and thank you to the committee for your time this evening and for your consideration, again. I'm very grateful for this opportunity.
▶ 17:57 As you may know, I've been working as the interim chief assessor in Melrose since June of this year. It's important for municipalities to consistently have an assessor in place. The assessor is responsible for determining the fair and equitable evaluation of all real and personal property in the city. We work with the Department of Revenue on certification of values, and we're responsible for setting the tax rate each year. During my time here as an assistant assessor, I worked and learned under the great mentorship of the previous chief assessor, Chris Wilcock. I took many training courses and assessment procedures and practices, and I earned my designation as a Massachusetts Accredited Assessor.
▶ 18:37 This certification is a requirement of the Chief Assessor position. I also maintain active memberships with the Massachusetts Association of Assessing Officers and the International Association of Assessing Officers. These organizations provide extensive education and training to assessors and also keep us updated on the changes in laws and best practices that apply to assessment and property tax. My main focus for the assessing department is to continuously provide excellent customer service to our residents and taxpayers. I realize that the citizens of Melrose come from every walk of life and many different backgrounds, so it's important to me to provide equitable service to the people who interact
▶ 19:16 with our office. We regularly examine and refresh our best practices for customer service. I have registered recently to attend an effective leadership workshop next month, which is offered by the International Association of Assessing Officers. It's focused on building diversity, equity, and inclusion from a foundation of emotional intelligence. Another goal that I have for the department is to continuously improve our processes and the methods that we use to do our work. the pandemic created a challenge in the way that we conduct some of our regular operations. As you may recall, Chris Wilcock implemented technology solutions such as aerial mapping and the use of web-based services. I intend to continue identifying and implementing new
▶ 20:02 technologies to improve the functions in our office and the services that we provide to the community. I really enjoy working with and serving the Melrose community. Having worked as the assistant assessor here for four years, having had the mentorship of Chris Wilcock, having achieved the technical training and certifications required, the chief assessor role is a natural next step for me. Again, thank you, and I'm very excited for this opportunity. Thank you, Ms. McCollin. And there is a motion on the table to recommend. It's on discussion. Any counselors with questions for Ms. McCollin? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, could you take the roll? Chair Migliorelli. Yes. Vice Chair Stewart. Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi.
▶ 20:58 Leila Migliorelli: Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. President Cinella. Yes. That's six yes. Great, so the order passes committee and um will be heard uh likely at tonight's full council meeting thanks so much miss mcclellan thank you i look forward to working with you all right so the um second order on our agenda is order 2022-32 a request and recommendation of the honorable city council authorized in-person early voting for the november 2nd 2021 municipal election in the city council chamber at Melrose City Hall. And I believe we have our city clerk, Ms. Foote, here with us tonight. Ms. Foote, if you have some remarks regarding this order. Sure, thank you. I know we're under suspension, so I would just like to say, obviously, we want
▶ 22:00 to do everything we can to encourage voters to get out there and to get into City Hall if they so choose to, offering them, again, early voting in person here in City Hall, in the City Council chamber um the dates will be published should the committee so recommend and the council so adopt and um it's now fully accessible we do have the um handicap accessibility is not a non-starter at this point it's the doors have been completely fixed and i'm looking forward to favorable recommendation great thank you um vice chair stewart madam chair at this point i'll make a motion to recommend second motion to recommend made by vice chair stewart seconded by Councilor Jamaleddine on discussion Councilor Tramontozzi uh thank you madam chair um when does the early
▶ 22:57 voting begin sure thank you Councilor Tramontozzi it's going uh the proposed dates are saturday October 23rd from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., again on Monday, October 25th from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday 9 to noon, and then again 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. to offer the most varied hours so people can come after work or on the weekend should they so choose. So I assume that those hours will be posted on the website? Absolutely. We're going to send, should this be favorably recommended, did a individual postcard with all three ways to vote, which would be in-person, by mail, and then on election day. Okay, there's no appointments necessary. You can just walk in on those dates. You just need to be a registered Melrosean voter.
▶ 23:48 Leila Migliorelli: Of course, thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you, Madam Clerk and Madam Chair. Any other questions? Right, so motions on the table by Vice Chair Stewart, seconded by Councilor Dramaluddin. Mr. Clerk, can you take the roll? Chair Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor, Vice Chair Stewart. Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi. Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. President Sinella. Yes. That's six yes. So the order passes committee will be heard um probably later this evening and uh also related to elections the third and final order on our agenda tonight is order 2022-33 calling a city election for tuesday november 2nd 2021 um i think this is fairly self-explanatory if uh if you have anything you want to add
▶ 24:54 Mark Garipay: this is just a required state and date it's uh polls will be open at 7 a.m till 8 p.m the day the election the warrant has been posted on the bulletin board as well as on our website in compliance with all state law vice chair stewart i'm sure i'd like at this point i'd like to make a motion to recommend counselor derby i'm sorry yeah i was on discussion sorry okay okay quick question for the city clerk uh you had mentioned uh in the last order that uh mailer would be going out we did a few weeks back change to single polling location uh what uh what else is the plan to uh on the schedule to uh to publicize this for the residents of the community other than other than a mailer or is there going to be multiple mailers there's a whole
▶ 25:43 communications plan there will be the banner in city hall that will go up two weeks in a row regarding the temporary consolidation there will be articles and all the local press um we're trying to get a schedule of six individual articles they will be posted on our website i'm going to reach out to the school committee chair to see if they can also do a little public relations regarding that to their user group and then it will be on our website as well uh thank you i mean i'll second that if there were no more i'm sorry sorry yeah we're okay i'll say well let's just say the motion has been made by vice chair stewart seconded by counselor gary pay on discussion counselor Jamaleddine with questions thank you um i was uh just gonna make suggestion if we can
▶ 26:29 Maya Jamaleddine: also share it with um different departments has uh in addition to um the um council on aging so that uh different population can be reached in addition uh working collaborating with the different commissions like human rights commission and commission on disability so that they can also publish that and advertise for it as well sure that's a great suggestion actually we're also going to be at the council on aging senior fair myself and the elections administrator to be on hand with all of our information as well thank you thank you any Any other questions? All right, seeing none. Mr. Clerk. Chair Migliorelli. Yes. Vice Chair Stewart. Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi. We'll get back to Councilor Tramontozzi.
▶ 27:41 Councilor Garipay, yes. And Councilor Tramontozzi. YES. COUNCILOR GIMALA DEAN. YES. PRESIDENT SINALA. YES. THAT IS SIX YES. SO THE ORDER PASSES COMMITTEE AND WILL BE HEARD LATER TONIGHT. THANK YOU, MS. FOOT FOR TALKING TO US ABOUT ELECTIONS. ENTERTAIN A MOTION TO ADJOURN. AT THIS POINT I'LL MAKE A MOTION TO ADJOURN. SECOND. MOTION TO ADJOURN MADE BY VICE CHAIR STEWART SECONDED BY seconded by Councilor Tramontozzi mr clerk please call the roll chair mcgrady yes vice chair stewart yes Councilor Tramontozzi yes Councilor Garipay yes Councilor Jamaleddine yes president sinella yes six yes are now adjourned and on to uh legal and legislative committee i'm just giving it one minute so we're at 6 50 according to my clock all right uh mr clerk are we ready to go we are