Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2022-07-18
Attendance
Christopher Cinella ; Jack Eccles ; Mark Garipay ; Jen Grigoraitis ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Manjula Karamcheti ; Shawn M. MacMaster ; Leila Migliorelli ; John Obremski ; Robb Stewart ; Ryan Williams
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Comment
- Orders
- ORDER-2022-154 : Appointment of Tesfay Aradom, 126 Green Street, to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February, 2025.
- ORDER-2022-153 : Appointment of Randall Carter, 50 Mystic Ave, to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February, 2025.
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JULY 18, 2022 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:58 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Jen Grigoraitis Chair Present Leila Migliorelli Vice Chair Present Shawn M. MacMaster Present Jack Eccles Present Mark Garipay Present Maya Jamaleddine Present Robb Stewart Present Manjula Karamcheti Present John Obremski Present Ryan Williams Late 8:03 PM Christopher Cinella President, ex oficio Present
ORDER-2022-154 Appointment Appointment of Tesfay Aradom, 126 Green Street, to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February, 2025. Ought to Pass City Council
ORDER-2022-153 Appointment Appointment of Randall Carter, 50 Mystic Ave, to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February, 2025. Ought to Pass City Council City of Melrose Page 1 7/20/2022 1:06 PM
Transcript
▶ 50:10 Jen Grigoraitis: to the full console. Thank you so much for being with us tonight. Thank you. Thank you committee members motion to adren. If there is no objection. We are now a journey. It is Monday, July 18th. 2022. The time is 7:58 pm and this is a meeting of the Appropriations and oversight committee. I am counselor gregoritis your chair and joining me tonight are Vice chair. Migliarelli and counselors McMaster Eccles garapay. Tamaladene Stewart Carm shady obremski and president sonella X officio. This is me. A sorry. This meeting will be recorded and broadcast live on mmtv in accordance with the open meeting law. And we've also provided notice of a quorum for a record at this time. I will motion by unanimous consent open public comment.
▶ 51:30 Jen Grigoraitis: This is the period of our meeting or any member of the public can comment on an item before us. We do not have anyone. In person and we are experiencing technical difficulty with the remote link. So I will motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Presidents and I'll do you wish to pause at this moment to do. preparations or you want to keep going Sweet feeling counsel open counsel. Yeah. Sure. Okay, so let me keep going keep going. That's all right. Yeah, keep going. So we have two orders before us tonight. The first is order 2022-154 appointment of tesfaye, aerodynam 126 Green Street to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three-year term said term to expire on the last day of February
▶ 52:16 Paul Brodeur: 2025 and while mayor Broder and our nominee get settled at the table. I will entertain a motion to suspend the rules so movements. Second so we have a motion to suspend the rules made by President Cinella seconded by councilor Cassidy all in favor any opposed. All right. The rules are now suspended mayor Broder. Welcome the floor is yours. Thank you very much. Once again, I couldn't be more excited to bring Dr. Ardon before you if you're consideration as an appointee to Human Rights Commission if you have had a chance to review Is resume you'll really see an extraordinary amount of training passion. I would say bilingual but that would really sell you short and that's really not fair. Quite frankly for you to be able to
▶ 53:09 Paul Brodeur: to hear directly from him. But again, you'll see he has a deep training both in you know, educationally with his PhD in Psychology, but also has a real depth of experience. in Immigration and Refugee issues in particular around Eritrea it's really kind of a an opportunity that dropped in our lap when we started to circulate this position a little bit to get some really an outstanding individual who can make unique unique contributions to the work of the Human Rights Commission and so doctor if you'd like to say a few words, that would be terrific. Thank you for those kind words Mr. May. Yeah, my name is testify ardome. I actually just moved to Melrose about a month ago. Maybe a little bit longer currently. I'm
▶ 54:11 a professor of psychology as Roxbury Community College. I've also traveled abroad to Eritrea and Ethiopia and the Sudan doing some work with World displaced populations particularly children. Making sure that their rights are protected. In addition to that. I've also been involved for a very long time. I came to Boston back in 1972. I was a very long time ago and since then I've been involved in making sure that the rights of people particularly the right to sell determination. Is protected on a larger scale but within that? that You know people are not discriminated because of their differences in terms of religion faith. Social class or whatever the case is. Here in the US did work. About for 10 years. I was the
▶ 55:15 Secretary of an organization based in DC but with the with an affiliate here in Boston securing the rights of people particularly in South Africa. This was before Mandela was released and we did some work there we try to Educate people about people's rights and so on and so forth. Luckily, I'm interested in making sure that people's rights are not just protected but are also Advanced so we need to elevate. And try to be an exemplary Society in terms of protecting and Advising people's rights with regards to a number of issues. It could be as simple as public transportation or it could be as complicated as financing and so on and so forth. Keeping him in mind that. We have differences but there's more
▶ 56:14 Maya Jamaleddine: than more things that unite us than divide us. I mean, that's that's my policy. Thank you. Thank you very much for being here. Are there any questions from my colleagues counselor jimaldine? welcome to manfall With the community, so we appreciate that as the mayor mentioned your resume impressive and all your experience. I'm sure it's going to be very valuable to our community. We do have a good number of immigrants refugees and undocumented in our community with your great experience. How would you be able to serve this population through this new role on the Human Rights Commission? well This serving as a member of the commission. Obviously, it's a new. It's a new experience for me. So. I'm ready to learn.
▶ 57:19 with whoever wants to work with me with my colleagues, but in terms of protecting the rights of people who are immigrants. I think the first thing that I would do is to educate them to make sure that they are they can easily become You know. serving citizens, you know whether whether they do it by through education, you know protecting their families protecting other people's rights and become lower abiding productive citizens. So that being the goal we can help them individually or collectively towards that goal. So the first thing is obviously education for them to know about things that they have to know about the city for example enabling them to navigate as effectively as possible through the system and supporting
▶ 58:27 Maya Jamaleddine: families who like their children to be educated one thing I find among immigrants that they value education a lot. they do and You know knowing that then in my mind, I would say how can we protect and advance that to a level will there their children will become law-abiding citizens and also leave a productive life. That's great. I'd probably you know, I'm an immigrant as well and I did do receive calls or requests from immigrants that you know, they do have some concerns about you know, navigating through the system sometimes or difficulties. So this is a great way to to support this population by educating and reaching and Outreach. We do have a lot of resources such as you know, Temple Beth Shalom and other churches and
▶ 59:41 the library as well. They do support our immigrants through, you know different ways. So this is also a great way to collaborate with this is just a suggestion. Yeah. Thank you so much for stepping out. Yeah. Can I add a point? Yeah, I would say. You know having a center where immigrants could just freely visit and share their experiences and also share, you know, learn more about how the system and the services working here from one central place would be very helpful. because being an immigrant is not it's not easy, you know navigating through the system is what keeps people from actually ensuring that Their needs are met. So having a center. that may be Publicly supported, you know either by
▶ 1:00:44 Paul Brodeur: the city or whoever and then for the immigrants to know that they have a place where they can go to and then have some information that they need in order to move forward. Thank you so much, and I'm looking forward to you know. steps and Hope fully see some activities around us. But if you don't like a little bit of an update, that's a little bit off topic is with the expansion of our ability to provide social services or social worker Services. We have seen an increase in those kind of inquiry. I'm happy. Just I mean, we're still figuring it out a bit but we have been very successful in helping folks that present with real immigration status related issues in terms of really housing Healthcare
▶ 1:01:34 Maya Jamaleddine: among other things. So that is and you know, that was something that you've been long long been an advocate for and we're starting to make progress. Yes. Definitely. I agree with you definitely there is a progress. I I do have some consider Sometimes some immigrants Unfortunately. They do not they're unaware of this service that we have in our city and it takes just a question for them to learn that we do have the service so would appreciate that that we can just push it through and just you know do this Outreach to educate them like You know our great candidate just mentioned that we do we do this Outreach and educate that's trust incredibility, too. Yes always work in progress. Well, thank you so much.
▶ 1:02:29 Jen Grigoraitis: Passage made by councilor Cassidy seconded by Vice chairman glorelli. Is there any discussion? Seeing none all in favor why any opposed that passes unanimously? Thank you very much Dr. Thank you, and this will be recommended to the full Council. Thank you for being here tonight. So we have one more order before us tonight, which is order 2022-153 appointment of Randall Carter 50 Mystic Ave to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three-year term said term to expire on the last day of February 2025. Evening Mr. Carter and welcome and Mr. Broder, we're still under suspension of the rules. So take it away. Thank you. Madam. Chair Mr. Carter compared to Dr. Aradamus a long time. Well Mel Rosine haven't
▶ 1:03:20 Paul Brodeur: arrived there. I want to say in in 2019. He brings more than just a fabulous haircut. I will say he he reached out to us. He reached out to the administration as a fairly new member to the community and expressed his passion for social justice for for commitment to Dei wants to see that grow in the community. I think I've fair to say both from the government side, but also from the from the community as a whole and we certainly welcome and that enthusiasm he's also in his workplace done a lot of event planning and I know from our friends that are currently sitting on the on the on the commission that having folks that aren't just committed to the ideals but committed to the work and sometimes the blocking
▶ 1:04:19 Paul Brodeur: and tackling the nuts and bolt of delivering plans delivering that Outreach. It's really going to help their work tremendously. I'm excited to offer him feel consideration rentals like to say a few words. Absolutely. Thank you Mr. Mayor and thank you to the members of the council for for your time and consideration. I guess I'll just I'm sure you might have some questions, but I just wanted to give a brief brief biography about myself. I'm originally from Cambridge I grew up there and went to school. I have a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Colgate University. I also have a master's degree in education from tour University, which is a you know, it's a college in New York after I graduated. I spend
▶ 1:05:03 a couple years as an elementary school teacher in Brooklyn and I also gain my my Master's at the same time. I came back to Boston and I spent about six years at a small science nonprofit called adjean where I started in customer support, but then moved into Tech transfer technology transfer, which is like a small Niche area of intellectual property that Kind of kindled my interest in in the law. I'm actually a trained paralegal. I took a course. I very recently took a job at MIT. I work as an intellectual property coordinator for their open learning department. And what I do most of my job is helping professors and you know their postdocs and everyone put their course materials online. And so that's not explicitly a
▶ 1:05:52 you know like a Dei or a human rights issue, but I guess one way that it kind of dovetails into the Human Rights Commission is that I think the reason that these things were founded by MIT was kind of to Leverage The the democratizing power of the internet, which is really why it was basically invented and has since been I think as we've all seen seized by um some some Bad actors and used to some pretty bad ends, but I won't I won't digress too much that's kind of my Spiel and basically yes as the mayor said I moved here about two years ago with my fiance who was originally from Melrose and I only recently learned of the HRC. I was poking around on the Melrose City website as I am want to do and I thought it aligned with
▶ 1:06:37 my interests. I'm as I stated in my statement of interest. I'm extremely passionate about social justice and equity and inclusion and I seek appointment to this Commission because I love Melrose already and I want to make it an even more inclusive and you know, welcoming place to live so Hope that wasn't too long-winded. That was perfect. I'm glad you came to your senses and came back from New York. Yes. Yeah. No, I was never the Red Sox hat was on all the time. We'll forgive you the transgression. Are there any problem but everything good any questions for my college counselor Williams? So I'm Excuse me. Very interested to hear you talk about the internet. I happened to think that a number of the Battlegrounds we face right now on social
▶ 1:07:26 Ryan Williams: and human rights issues are online and if they are not exclusively online from dedicated keyboard Warriors, they are often found out online. For example, we had a group of neo-nazis D. You know this. Yes at Oak Grove. That's right Oak Grove. They got off the train gotten their cars and drove through where who knows Melrose probably but The first and best way to find that information was on Instagram. Twitter and what would you your thoughts be on how the Human Rights Commission could use that information use more of an online presence keep track of these happenings. Keep track of the trends of the things being said online on social media. Sure. Yeah, that's a great question. I think you know whatever the ends
▶ 1:08:25 are. I think that the HRC would do really well to have as strong of a social media presence as it can I think that's especially in these days is by far the most effective way to engage people. I mean, you know, I read that that Weekly Melrose paper, but I don't think a lot of people do I'm probably the youngest people person who does but yeah, I think you know it for especially for you know, I'm I'm 32. I'm a millennial. I'm not a huge social media user but I feel like I do understand how to leverage it and how to do Outreach and make posts that are gonna be attention grabbing and get into the algorithm and and what have you so I think there's a lot of positive ways that it can be be leverage in terms of announcing events
▶ 1:09:08 and and just kind of increasing awareness of of issues that that are germane to the council but to your more central question about How can it be used to monitor or perhaps do more when there are? issues such as a gathering of neo-nazis who came from Boston and got off at Oak Grove and or any kind of You know hate speech or something like that. I was on the Melrose website today and I think I just saw that there was a video incident of maybe a public works employee who might have said something homophobic. I haven't seen the video. I just saw the mayor statement. And so I mean things like that are incredibly important. I mean, we're in a day. We're in an age where you know, 30 years ago that just would have gone by
▶ 1:09:53 unpunished. So I mean, unfortunately, I don't have a super solid answer as to what the council's role should be to leverage that. I mean, I'm I think there's a line to be walked where I don't know if we should be policing or how actively we should be monitoring it but I think keeping an eye on it and and bringing issues that rise to the level of certainly of legal action, but also of you know suspected or alleged. you know issues that that threaten the the Equitable and diverse You know sort of spirit that we want to elicit in this town. I think those are those are certainly in our purview and Yeah, I think it's a great idea for us to at least look at that and kind of discuss I would say frankly,
▶ 1:10:46 you know, I'm just a perspective member at this point and I won't pretend to know all of the inner workings of the commission yet. So I would love to hear from some of the more seasoned members of the commission especially ones who are attorneys and and have a really good understanding of I mean, the last thing I'd want to do as a human rights commissioner would be to overstep my The Authority that I'm given, you know into you know, that just would look bad for me for the commission for the city like I'm very Very aware and very concerned about even just the appearance of impropriety or overstepping I can already hear people who would detract, you know saying like there's woke police or something like that that would spread like wildfire on the internet, you
▶ 1:11:26 know, so something like that, you know, yeah, like who you know, who knows you never know what the internet just has a mind of its own. So yeah, I would say I have some measured optimism about the commission's ability to to track certainly happenings like that which are to me infuriating and and disheartening and I don't know a whole mix of negative emotions Randall doesn't know I suspect is that several members of former? HRC commissions. Oh cool cool. I don't think I did know that although the clerk might have we met outside. I think she might have mentioned something to that effect. But my mind kind of went blank before I was sitting out here. But yeah. Thank you. Any other councilor Stewart man? I'm
▶ 1:12:07 Jen Grigoraitis: sure I'd like to recommend Mr. Carter disappointment to the full Council second. So we have a motion to recommend made by counselor Stewart seconded by councilor Williams. Is there any discussion seeing none all in favor any opposed that passes unanimously so you will be recommended to the full Council. Thank you very much for being here with us. Thank you so much. Thank you consideration. Thanks. You have a motion to adjourn made by counselor garapay seconded by counselor Eccles all in favor. Aye we are adjourned. Good. evening welcome to the July 18th city council meeting. Time is 8:22 temperatures 115 degrees and humid. I am counsel. Cinella. This meeting is called to order Madam clerk. If you could please call the roll counselor Eckles.