City Council — 2022-03-21

City Council Regular Meeting

This meeting starts at 15:18 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Christopher Cinella present · President; Jack Eccles present · At-Large; Mark Garipay present · Ward 4; Jen Grigoraitis present · Ward 6; Maya Jamaleddine present · At-Large; Manjula Karamcheti present · Ward 1; Shawn M. MacMaster present · Ward 5; Leila Migliorelli present · At-Large; John Obremski present · Ward 2; Robb Stewart present · Ward 3; Ryan Williams present · Ward 7

Agenda

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE CITY COUNCIL BULLETIN● MARCH 21, 2022 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:55 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jack Eccles At-Large Present Mark Garipay Ward 4 Present Jen Grigoraitis Ward 6 Present Maya Jamaleddine At-Large Present Manjula Karamcheti Ward 1 Present Shawn M. MacMaster Ward 5 Present Leila Migliorelli At-Large Present John Obremski Ward 2 Present Robb Stewart Ward 3 Present Ryan Williams Ward 7 Present Christopher Cinella President Present

GRANT-2022-1 Grant Acceptance of State hazardous Material Emergency Planning Grant in the amount of $3,000.00 Assign to Committee Appropriations & Oversight Committee

ORDER-2022-81 Grant Acceptance of Seventy-Five Thousand Dollars ($75,000) from a FY2022 State Budget Earmark For Economic Recovery Efforts for Small Business and Nonprofit Sectors Assigned to Committee Appropriations & Oversight Committee

ORDER-2022-82 Appointment Appointment of George Bibilos, 264 Grove Street, to the Historical Commission for a term to expire on the last day of February 2023. Assigned to Committee Health, Education & Welfare Committee

ORDER-2022-83 Appointment City of Melrose Page 1 4/28/2022 9:53 AM Minutes City Council March 21, 2022 Re-appointment of Charles Harak, 14 Country Club Road, to the Melrose Housing Authority for a three-year term; said term to end on the first Monday of March 2025. Assigned to Committee Health, Education & Welfare Committee

ORDER-2022-84 Appointment Appointment of Kimberly Marolda, 811 Franklin Street, to the Historical Commission for a term to expire on the last day of February 2024. Assigned to Committee Health, Education & Welfare Committee

ORDER-2022-85 Appointment Appointment of Thomas J. Champoux, 87 Crescent Avenue, to the Historical Commission for a term to expire on the last day of February 2025. Assigned to Committee Health, Education & Welfare Committee

ORDER-2022-86 Appointment Appointment of Linda Apple, 87 Crescent Ave, to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a term to expire on the last day of February 2025. Assigned to Committee Appropriations & Oversight Committee

ORDER-2022-87 Appropriation An Appropriation from Free Cash (Account 01-324001) in the amount of Thirty Thousand Dollars ($30,000) to Mayor Professional Services (011212-529000) to fund a professional services agreement with Municipal Resources, Inc. (MRI) for Police Chief Recruitment. Assigned to Committee Appropriations & Oversight Committee

ORDER-2022-88 Transfer A transfer from Temporary Debt Interest (017522-549100) in the amount of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) to City Clerk Recodification Services (011612-529301) to fund updates to the City Charter and Administrative Code in print and online. Assigned to Committee Finance Committee

LIC-2022-1 Surety Bond City of Melrose Page 2 4/28/2022 9:53 AM Minutes City Council March 21, 2022 Confirmation of Melrose City Clerk surety bond in the amount of $15,000.00 for the year 2022. Referred Protection and License Committee

LIC-2022-2 License - Common Victualler License: Common Victualler renewals for 2022 Referred City Council

LIC-2022-3 License - Common Victualler Licenses Not Renewed: Common Victualler for 2022 Referred Protection and License Committee

LIC-2022-4 License - Class II Motor Vehicle Licenses renewed: Class II Motor Vehicle for 2022 Referred Protection and License Committee

LIC-2022-5 License - Class II Motor Vehicle Licenses Not Renewed: Class II Motor Vehicle for 2022 Referred Protection and License Committee

INFO-2022-2 Informational Order for an Update on the Status of Covid-19 in Melrose

ORDNC-2022-1 Amending Revised Ordinances Amending Article I, Chapter 152-10, Licenses and Permits, General Provisions of the City of Melrose Code of Ordinances Passed

ORDNC-2022-2 Ordinance An Ordinance Relative to Small Wireless Facilities Installation in the Public Right Of Way Passed as Amended

INFO-2022-5 Appointment City of Melrose Page 3 4/28/2022 9:53 AM Minutes City Council March 21, 2022 Multiple Member Appointive Body Information (Item # 9615) Filed

ORDER-2022-78 Grant Acceptance of the FY22 Firefighter Safety Equipment Grant awarded to the Melrose Fire Department by The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Fire Services, in the amount of $18,901.80. Passed

ORDER-2022-70 Appointment Reappointment of Mark S. Robinson, 116 Country Club Rd., to the Library Board of Trustees for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2025 Passed

ORDER-2022-71 Appointment Reappointment of Carol Hoffman, 97 Cochrane Street, to the Library Board of Trustees for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2025 Passed

ORDER-2022-72 Appointment Reappointment of Nancy Kukura, 79 Mt. Vernon Street, to the Library Board of Trustees for a two-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2024 Passed

ORDER-2022-73 Appointment Reappointment of Edward Waystack, 50 Glen Street, to the Library Board of Trustees for a one-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2023 Passed

ORDER-2022-79 Appointment Appointment of Brigid Alverson, 11 Garden Street, to the Board of Registrars of Voters for a three-year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2025 Adopted

ORDER-2022-80 Request City of Melrose Page 4 4/28/2022 9:53 AM Minutes City Council March 21, 2022 Request to Approve the Melrose Housing Production Plan Passed City of Melrose Page 5 4/28/2022 9:53 AM

Transcript

▶ 15:33 have a quorum this evening uh madam clerk if you could please call the roll to prove it counselor eccles here counselor gary pay here counselor Grigoraitis here counselor Jamaleddine here counselor carm shady here councilman mcmaster here councilman Migliorelli here councillor Obremski here councillor stewart here councillor williams here president sneller here 11 present if we If we could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. And if there is no objection, I'd like to approve our minutes from March 7th Council

▶ 16:28 Christopher Cinella: without reading and seeing no objection our minutes are now approved and without objection like to open up for public comment seeing no objection public comment is now open if you could please have a seat and state your name for the record good evening my name is James Bennett I live at 45 Wentworth Road good evening president Sinella and counselors I thank you for your service and your willingness to hear my comments tonight. I am here to make a request that I never would have imagined making just two days ago and it pains me to do it now. I am requesting that you place a hold on sending to committee the orders for appointment of three candidates to the Historical Commission who are on the

▶ 17:15 agenda tonight. I should say at the outset that this has nothing to do with the character or qualifications of the three people under consideration. They They may well be the three people who should be on the Commission, and if that is the case, I will be overjoyed in the end to see them appointed. Rather, I am here tonight to object to the process, or lack thereof, that has brought us to this point. Thanks to the order filed by Councilors Grigoraitis and Migliorelli some time ago, this Council is now quite aware of the surprising number of Board and Commission Member who have served long after their terms have expired. Thanks to testimony from Director Fleischman, Clerk Foote, and Clerk Gobriel last week,

▶ 17:54 You are also aware that the city does not have a process in place to advertise openings on boards and commissions. As a result of the councilor's order, the historical commission, on which I do not serve but with whom I have a very close working relationship, recently learned that it has a significant membership deficit. At the moment, the seven-member commission is down to just two or three Member, depending on who you ask, serving their legally appointed terms in office, and it cannot form a quorum. Facing this dire situation, the commission took the initiative to advertise its openings over social media, in the Melrose Weekly News, and through a sign placed in the library. The commission had begun to review applications received through this work when it learned

▶ 18:35 that the mayor, who was fully aware of that ongoing process, had selected his own candidates without consulting anyone on the commission itself. In fact, no one on the commission was even aware that nominations were being made tonight. the city code as it is currently written. The mayor is free to follow whatever process he would like to appoint candidates for boards and commissions. So it is important for me to tell this council that this has not always been the case here in Melrose. I was appointed to the historical commission in 2012 after I responded to an advertisement in the Melrose Free Press. I submitted a resume and a statement of interest and was interviewed by that commission. I later

▶ 19:13 learned that they then ranked the candidates and established two tiers of membership. Two of us were nominated to be full appointed Member and were subsequently interviewed by Mayor Rob Dolan and then were appointed by this council, then the Board of Aldermen. Other candidates who were not ranked as highly were not turned away. They instead became associate non-voting Member who acted as a pool of talent from whom to draw future appointed Member, which did in fact happen. This was a wonderfully collaborative system that respected the expertise and professional judgments of that commission and worked well for years. And just as an aside, I should mention that we just had Brigid Alverson here.

▶ 19:52 She went through a similar process. That is a partisan appointment in case the public isn't aware. I, in my capacity as chair of the Democratic City Committee, sent out notice of that appointment. I received applications. That committee voted on it, and then we got the wonderful result you see here tonight. So in that case, that's actually how it worked. All that I am requesting here tonight is that the City Council hit pause on these nominations so that the Historical Commission and other boards and commissions in concert with this City Council can work out a modus vivendi with the Mayor and establish a procedure for appointments that is collaborative, professional, open and respects principles of diversity,

▶ 20:33 equity and inclusion. more in keeping with the process that introduced me to service in city government 10 years ago for these reasons i ask that these nominations be held for 45 days thank you thank you mr bennett no one else in the audience do we have anybody online there is no one online mr president really all right without objection we will close public comment and public comment is now closed we do not have any public hearings this evening but we do have some new business grant 2022-1 acceptance of a state hazardous material emergency planning grant in the amount of three thousand dollars that'll go to the appropriations and oversight committee order 2022-81 acceptance of seventy five thousand dollars from fy 2022 state budget earmark for

▶ 21:23 economic recovery efforts for small business and non-profit sectors that'll go to the Appropriations and Oversight Committee. Order 2022-82. Appointment of George Vibilis, 264 Grove Street to the Historical Commission for a term to expire on the last day of February, 2023. That will go to Health, Education and Welfare. Order 2022-83. Reappointment of Charles Harrock, 14 Country Club Road to the Melrose Housing Authority for a three-year term, set term to end on the first monday of march 2025. that will go to health education and welfare quarter 2022-84 appointment of kimberly kimberly mart mardola 811 franklin street to the historical commission for a term to expire on the last day of february

▶ 22:16 2024. that will go to health education and welfare order 2022-85 appointment of thomas j champox 87 crescent avenue to the historical commission for a term to expire on the last day of february 2025. that will go to health education and welfare order 2022-86 appointment of linda apple 87 crescent ave to the melrose human rights commission for a term to expire on the last day of february 2025. that will go to appropriations and oversight order 2022-87 an appropriation from free cash account 01-324001 in the amount of thirty thousand dollars to the mayor professional services the account number uh zero one one two one two dash five two nine zero zero zero to fund a professional services agreement

▶ 23:16 with municipal resources incorporated for police chief recruitment that will go to appropriations and oversight order 2022-88 a transfer from temporary debt interest zero one seven five 22 dash five four nine one zero zero and the amount of ten thousand dollars to the city clerk recodification services zero one one six one two dash five two nine three zero one to fund updates to the city charter and administrative code in print and online that will go to the finance committee licenses license license 2022-1 confirmation of of monroe city clerks surity bond in the amount of fifteen thousand dollars for the year 2022. that will go to protection and license license 2022-2 license common victual renewals for 2022. that would go to protection

▶ 24:30 and license license 2022-3 licenses not renewed common victualer for 2022 that will go to protection and license license 2022-4 licenses renewed class 2 motor vehicles for 2022 that will go to protection and license license 2022-5 licenses not renewed class 2 motor vehicles for 2022 and that will go to protection license uh we don't have any communications from his honor we do have some unfinished uh business uh this evening info order 2022-2 order for an update on the status of covid19 um we have uh mr chewie if we uh without objection um like to suspend rule 37c so we could hear from our health director so seeing no objection our rules are under suspension hi everyone thank you for having me tonight thank you so um i wanted to start off

▶ 25:40 with some good news and possibly end on kind of a mysterious note tonight we are in a kind of transition stage right now we are moving from the pandemic to the endemic stage in coven 19. i want to start off with some good news so the cdc has helped us create a tier system where we can we can look at our look at our coveted rates in our local community and really better understand which which metrics are the most important for us to gauge where we're at i think one of the important things i want to make sure everybody remembers is that covet is still around we are lucky enough right now to be seeing very low levels um but later on i'll be talking more about the kind of larger context that we're that we're

▶ 26:27 operating in so the major indicators that we're looking at for cover 19 levels in the community the first the first threshold that we're looking at is the number of new cases per hundred thousand in the last seven days and so the threshold being fewer than 200 cases and greater than 200 cases currently we are at 78 cases per 100 000 and so we fall well into the fewer than 200 200 cases and so the next set of indicators that really help us gauge what the level of covet transmission is within the community it's the new it's the new admissions per hundred thousand and so we want we want to be able to make sure we can keep track of co-ed emissions of the hospital this is important for our hospital overload we want to make sure that we still have room for folks in

▶ 27:20 emergencies and other conditions currently we are at 1.1 percent utilization of inpatient beds for covid and so we are below 10 which is the threshold for low and so we're also looking at the we're looking at the number of staffed inpatient beds as well as the inpatient bed utilization and so we have 3.7 hospital admissions per 100 000 right now with all that being said we fall squarely in the low transmission category according to the cdc definition and this is all based on as well middlesex county data because we do have a lot of cross travel and communication with surrounding communities melrose's positivity rate right now is 1.1 percent something we want to keep in mind is that this positivity rate and a lot of testing statistics that we're seeing at

▶ 28:15 the state level is very much dependent on the number of tests and how much testing we are doing as a community recently we've seen in the last seven days a 20 percent decrease in number of case testing rate in melrose and so we want to make sure that with this low percentage of positivity we still want to make sure that we we know that there is still covet data out there that we want to take into consideration one of those factors is the vaccination rate we are we are seeing over 80 percent in individuals with two doses of the vaccine however with the cdc change in definition of fully vaccinated and up to date that does include the booster for those that are eligible so those that are five months out from their last shot currently we are seeing lagging

▶ 29:03 lagging numbers in terms of boosters in Melrose, and so we're actually seeing the 75-plus group with some of the highest, with 70% of them receiving boosters. Other age groups are slower to follow, 12 to 15. Some of those age groups are starting to become eligible for boosters. We're only seeing about 36% booster rate, and 16- and 19-year-olds is 54%, and others are just over 40%. Something that I want to stress is that we're seeing Omicron develop. We have another strain that we're seeing as the BA2 variant. This variant is sweeping across overseas and we're seeing a large number of new cases. And so we do not have definitive data right now to suggest that this new variant, which is a sub-variant of the original Omicron strain, we do not have definitive

▶ 29:59 data that it is any more deadly however we are seeing that it is much more infectious and so this all comes back to a number scheme so if we are seeing one in a thousand in terms of deaths if we have you know 200 000 cases because of the new infectious rate we want to be able to make sure that we're still stressing the importance that there are still lots of deaths attributed to this even if the death rate is low and so we want to make sure that we are staying vigilant one of those ways is to continue to encourage encourage vaccination recent data has shown that we are seeing waning immunity for those that are either four months out from their booster or more than five months out from their original two-dose series this waning immunity is important

▶ 30:45 to understand that we have less protection against initial infection but the vaccines have still shown great efficacy in preventing hospitalizations and severe disease so we want to make sure that we We are still advocating for folks to get the booster when they are eligible, and we want to make sure we're still stressing the importance of mask wearing. I think in recent times, we've been seeing that mask wearing has become politicized. We want to make sure folks understand that this is still an effective tool. While we do not mandate masks, we still want to make sure that we can mitigate risk. So when you're in a high risk environment, when there's inadequate social distancing, and if you are at higher risk because of pre-existing conditions, we want to make sure that folks

▶ 31:32 will still consider wearing a mask to protect themselves. We are seeing this BA.2 variant increase in different parts of the world. And I want to stress that as part of our surveillance, we don't know how this is going to impact us. that the delta wave when it first came there was an increase overseas and then we saw a similar increase here so we usually lag behind slightly when these new variants come out this may also be the case i'll make the example right now right now in china and hong kong we're seeing massive increases in covet cases this may not be the case here because they appr they initially approached a zero zero covet policy wherever you know all co all covet cases were considered

▶ 32:21 very dangerous and they tried to limit them as much as possible here we have a larger proportion of individuals that have had covet in the past and so what's important to understand is that our situation is different we have a lower vaccination rate and we have a lower booster rate than in the uk and which is seeing that rate that wave right now so we will be keeping track of this data in terms of the vaccination rate we'll see positivity rates and we're also keeping track of wastewater surveillance which the cdc is readily providing any questions thank you thank you for being with us tonight um you know for the second time and i appreciate all the effort that you bring to help our city you know get through this pandemic

▶ 33:09 Maya Jamaleddine: as a follow-up on our question from our last meeting we've you know I asked if there is any mandate for city employees to get vaccinated I want to know if the rate has increased in terms of the vaccination for our employees and if we are mandating from what I remember it was a conversation that we're going that way yes so thank you for your question currently we do not have a vaccine mandate for employees in the city we have general data that we're trying to gather from city employees schools are a little bit different schools you know school staff there is a mandate for vaccine or test general city employees do not have that vaccine mandate though we've had a lot of high self-report percentage and so we're trying to get more

▶ 34:06 Maya Jamaleddine: of that data we're trying to make sure that we can have a better grasp of how many employees are vaccinated we know that they're you know along this last search there were also you know increased cases in city hall so at this time we don't have we don't have complete data on that and um do we know what is um being on the way of making a mandate i know that we were going that path from the way that the discussion went last time uh was um i wouldn't say promise but was kind of a plan to go that way yes and we have we have discussed a vaccine mandate for the city for city employees before one of the things we're running into is we're seeing that because the severity is not as high with this omicron variant and we haven't been seeing death rates or

▶ 34:57 Maya Jamaleddine: hospitalizations increase we haven't been able to justify putting in a vaccine mandate i think part of that is the legal challenges as well of mandating vaccines for city employees so we've run into that struggle as well so i would like to ask here we are asking our residents to get vaccinated but our employees and our body we're not doing it ourselves so it's kind of sending very conflicting message and that raised a lot of questions for me so i would encourage you to work on that it's something that really raised some concern um thank you so much thank you any other counselors with questions counselor Migliorelli thank you for being here again um just a question about i know the importance of boosters is becoming obviously more evident like you talked

▶ 35:49 Leila Migliorelli: about um how what are you doing to communicate to residents what's the health department's plan to communicate to residents about the important the importance of getting boosters and or are you doing anything doing any other clinics booster clinics and have you found those to be effective yes so i think in the past we've shown that our booster clinics have been very effective right now we are a bit understaffed and so we want to make sure that we have the resources to keep the health department open to keep other functions as well in terms of getting the news out for other booster clinics we've had success in the region so medford and malden have been providing vaccines for regional efforts as well so we've been able to send folks that way we've been making making

▶ 36:30 Leila Migliorelli: sure that that's widely available through communications and so there is still readily available boosters out there and we're still trying to make that communication clear i can't say for sure that we're going to have any booster clinics you know in the near future we have to make sure that we have the enough staff for that but they are available and we can partner with the state vax bus to bring that back as well okay great yeah if it's i mean i think i've read that obviously if you've had two shots in it's not that much that's not that much harder to convince to do a third shot versus people who haven't been vaccinated at all so it seems like a good strategy to pursue is to um increasing the number of residents who have booster to get booster shots

▶ 37:10 Christopher Cinella: yes thank you anybody else what is the will of the council motion to place on file second motion to place on file made by councillor Grigoraitis seconded by councillor Migliorelli any discussion seeing none all those in favor aye aye any opposed okay motion passes thank you thank you all right reports from committee um councillor Jamaleddine thank you mr president i would like to um pull order out of order order 2022-79 appointment of bridget alverson 11 garden street to the board of registrar of voters for a three years term set term to expire on the last day of february 2025. okay and do we have a second second second okay motion made by councillor jamala dean to pull order 2022-79 up seconded by councillor grigoraitis all those in favor aye any opposed

▶ 38:22 seeing none so this matter is now before us okay mr president this order came with a recommendation for passage from the finance committee and i would like to make a motion for passage second motion made for passage by councillor jamal adin on 2022-79 seconded by councillor Garipay any discussion seeing none all those in favor aye any opposed okay for passes now reports from committees that are on our agenda ordinance 2022-1 amending article 1 chapter 152-10 licenses and permits general provisions of the city of melrose code of ordinances counselor Migliorelli uh thank you mr president this comes with a recommendation for passage from the legal legislative committee and at this time I motion for passage second motion for passage made by councillor Migliorelli

▶ 39:33 seconded by councillor Eccles madam clerk need a roll call on that councillor Eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor Grigoraitis yes councillor Jamaleddine yes councillor Karamcheti yes councillor McMaster yes yes councillor Migliorelli yes councillor Obremski yes councillor stewart yes councillor williams yes president sanella yes 11 yes ordinance 2022-2 an ordinance relative to small cell small wireless facilities installation in the public right-of-way councillor Migliorelli this um comes with a recommendation for passage from the um legal legislative committee but um councillor stewart would like to offer an amendment i believe okay do we need to pull it from committee first it's already out of committee so i will uh defer to you if you

▶ 40:32 Robb Stewart: wanted to amend before thank you mr president and thank you through the chair to uh council miguel there was uh some small discussion after the fact regarding process uh for how the application actually goes through the city administration as well as one administrative area and the third is a indemnification so the summary of these amendments that I would like to propose the first one is changing anywhere in the ordinance where it says coat dash locate to co-locate to match up with the definitions section of the ordinance and that was per recommendation of city solicitor the second is editing the language to spell out which city staff is responsible for which parts of the application process

▶ 41:26 Robb Stewart: to make it more clear how that process works and the third amendment is the addition of indemnification language and proof of the general liability language including the language without pollution exclusion and again this was fully written by Councillor I'm sorry by City Solicitor Phillips and with that I'd like to make a motion for these amendments so a motion to amend this order made by Councillor Stewart seconded by Councillor Jamaleddine any discussion on these okay seeing none Oh just a clarification for those of us who NEW WHERE CAN WE FIND THE TEXT COPY OF THESE CHANGES THERE'S SOME THEY'RE VERY VERY CLEAR YOU KNOW THE DEFINITIONS UM THE BIT ABOUT INSURANCE AND INDEMNIFICATION I IS THERE IS THERE A WAY THAT

▶ 42:19 WE CAN ACTUALLY SEE WHERE THE WHERE THE CHANGES THAT ARE BEING RECOMMENDED IN WRITING OR DO WE JUST SPEAK ABOUT IT AND THEN IT BECOMES THE FINAL ORDINANCE BUT LEE DID YOU EMAIL US OUT COUNCILOR STEWART I UNFORTUNATELY DID NOT GET A CHANCE TO EMAIL IT OUT THIS AFTERNOON I RECEIVED THIS MESSAGE from uh council of phillips today night i'm city solicitor phillips today and and uh i was not able to get the email out uh inappropriate time so my apologies to answer your question any other questions on discussion seeing none all those in favor aye aye any opposed okay so the amendments passed so this order is now before us as amended there's any what is the will of the council motion to pass motion for passage made by councilor Stewart seconded by

▶ 43:15 councillor Ligley-Earley any discussion seeing none all those actually we need a voice vote on this one councillor Eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor Grigoraitis. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. Councilor Karamcheti. Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Obremski. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Williams. Yes. President Sinella. Yes. Eleven yes. Okay. Order 2022-78. Acceptance of the FY 2022. I think we skipped one. 22-5. In full order 2022-5, multiple member body, appointed by body information, item 9615. Councilor Grigoraitis. Mr. President, this order comes from the Appropriations and Oversight Committee with a recommendation to place on file, and at this time I would motion to place on file.

▶ 44:31 Second. Motion to place on file made by Councilor Grigoraitis, seconded by Councilor Migliorelli. Any discussion? No? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. any opposed okay order 2022-78 acceptance of the fy 22 22 firefighter safety equipment grant awarded to the melrose fire department by the commonwealth of massachusetts department of fire services in the amount of eighteen thousand nine hundred and one dollars and eighty cents mr president this comes from the appropriations and oversight committee with a recommendation for passage and at this time i would motion for passage second motion for passage by councillor Grigoraitis seconded by councillor Jamaleddine any discussion seeing none um all

▶ 45:18 those in favor aye any opposed order 2022-70 reappointment of mark s robinson 116 country club road to the library board of trustees for a three-year term set term to expire on the last day of february 2025. uh this comes from the health education welfare committee with the recommendation for passage and at this time i move for passage motion for passage made by councillor eccles on the order second second by councillor williams any discussion seeing none all those in favor aye aye aye any opposed okay okay order 2022-71 reappointment of carol hoffman 97 courtrain street to the library board of trustees for a three-year term said term to expire on the last day of february 2025 comes from the health education welfare committee with a recommendation for passage and i move for

▶ 46:21 passage motion for passage made by councillor eccles seconded by councillor Garipay any discussion seeing none all those in favor aye any opposed okay that passes order 2022-72 reappointment of nancy kukura 79 mount vernon street to the library board of trustees for a two-year term set term to expire on the last day of february 2024. this comes from the health education welfare committee with a recommendation for passage and i move for passage motion for passage made by councillor eccles seconded by councillor williams any discussion seeing none all those in favor aye aye aye any opposed all right order 2022-73 reappointment of edward wastack 50 glen street to the library board of trustees for a one-year term

▶ 47:19 set term to expire on the last day of february 2023 this comes from the health education welfare COMMITTEE WITH THE RECOMMENDATION FOR PASSAGE AND MOVE FOR PASSAGE SECOND MOTION FOR PASSAGE MADE BY COUNCILOR ECHOLS SECONDED BY I THINK COUNCILOR CARM CHENEY ANY DISCUSSION SEEING NONE ALL THOSE IN FAVOR AYE ANY OPPOSED ALL RIGHT EXCITING GROUP TONIGHT ORDER 2022-80 request to approve the melrose housing production plan councilor Grigoraitis mr president this comes from the appropriations and oversight committee with a recommendation for passage but the recommendation was not unanimous so i would respectfully request a roll call vote so that we can all be on the record yep at this time i would uh motion for passage motion for passage

▶ 48:12 Robb Stewart: made by council Grigoraitis seconded by counselor eccles any discussion seeing thank you thank you mr president um i just wanted to clarify uh what i was talking about the last time that we were here through the chair as you recall um i had brought up the the question about the funding coming from the state and the the people that represented the housing production plan they indicated that it no it came from local funding sources well i looked into it and it turns out that we're both partially correct so i just wanted to be clear to the council so that there's no misunderstanding about what i was talking about the funding comes from two separate distinct sources one is uh basically levy against the um taxable revenue on your property so if you have a

▶ 49:10 Robb Stewart: if you pay a thousand dollars a year in taxes for your property it's a certain percentage of that so if it was one percent it would be ten dollars um in addition when you go to the registry of deeds every time you submit a document to the registry of deeds there is a fee that goes to the cpa fund and that goes into a state treasury and that collects and it's either 25 or 50 fee depending on the kind of document that it is in addition to that trust fund at the end of the fiscal year the state as is at its discretion may also contribute for example this past year governor baker contributed 10 million dollars to that fund and that fund that state trust fund gets distributed to cpa but that is getting paid from everybody in the state so we're both correct

▶ 50:03 Robb Stewart: but i just want to you to understand why i feel there's a disparity in equity because there are people that are paying into this fund in towns that may not be as affluent as others that receive no benefit from that um additionally when uh when i and i talked to this gentleman chase mack over We're at the Community for Preservation Coalition, who basically runs a website that talks about all this. Very nice, talking for about 20 minutes on this. There's accelerators, depending on the percentage that you tax at the local level. So the state will give more money to people that have a higher percentage. And Cambridge, since the succession, has always had the max of 3%. So they have been getting tremendous benefit

▶ 50:55 Robb Stewart: over many years. So just wanted to clarify that, Mr. President, for the council and for the public on how that works and where I really, it's not such an easy decision for me because on a local level, it sounds great. You know, you tax people 100 bucks a year and you get all this free money. But from a more moral and equitable standpoint, It's not so clear because the more affluent towns, and there's only about half, I think there's 177 cities and towns in Massachusetts right now that take advantage of this out of 351. So there are half of the cities and towns that get no benefit, including Melrose, that get no benefit from this. And a lot of it is because it goes to vote, a lot of people will not want to pay more taxes.

▶ 51:48 Ryan Williams: to me it feels like it's not fair so i just want to make that point mr president thank you councilman a discussion through the chair um i wanted to provide a little bit of feedback through the chair so first of all the community preservation act deeds surcharge has been around for 20 years it's paid by everybody in the state we have all probably paid it at some point or another the community preservation act has exemptions for low-income households for seniors it has other exemptions that can be voted on by the public and I have also talked to the same gentleman at the Community Preservation Act Coalition and he drew up some numbers for me about a year ago when I was exploring this issue before I joined the City Council and the figure

▶ 52:29 Ryan Williams: that he gave me based on the average Melrose home assessment was about $56 a year it's not a tax it's a surcharge which is you know a distinction and possibly in semantics but the the difference is that it doesn't go up um and the city can't increase it after it is implemented um and so the the way that it works is we pay 56 a year on average into our property tax bill and then the state gives us back all of that money and on top of it they uh throw in something like 26 to 30 i don't believe that there are any cities and towns that are paying into the cpa that are not getting cpa funding back um if they're paying into it they're getting it in melrose it would be about a million dollars a year all told for affordable housing okay thank you council records

▶ 53:20 Jack Eccles: thank you mr president um i i as i mentioned the other night was the counselor on the advisory committee i'm really looking forward to moving into the implementation phase of this and regardless how anyone votes tonight we all have a responsibility to shape the future of housing in melrose and we're going to be the 11 of us will be involved in that so for those with concerns i look forward to kind of working through the public process of making any zoning amendments or or any of the other implementation steps and i look forward to working with you all on that okay anybody else on discussion madam clerk call the roll counselor eccles yes councillor Garipay no councillor Grigoraitis yes councillor Jamaleddine yes councillor karam chetty yes

▶ 54:09 councillor mcmaster yes councillor Migliorelli yes councillor Obremski no councillor stewart no councillor williams yes president sanella no that's uh eight yes no sorry seven yes okay uh we do not have any expires anybody reporting under Rule 53. And I will let you say in a moment, motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second. Motion to adjourn made by Councillor Garipay, seconded by Councillor Stewart. All those in favour? Aye. Any opposed? I don't think I can say that. Have a good night.

City Council — 2022-03-21

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