City Council — 2024-01-16
Attendance
Cal Finocchiaro ; Mark Garipay ; Ward Hamilton ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Manjula Karamcheti ; Leila Migliorelli ; John Obremski ; Devin Romanul ; Robb Stewart ; Kimberly Vandiver ; Ryan Williams
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Reading of the Minutes
- Public Comment
- Communications from Her Honor, The Mayor And Other City Officials
- New Business
- LIC-2024-8 : Gasoline and Storage Licenses post deadline Renewals 2023
- ORDER-2024-18 : Calling a Presidential Primary Election Tuesday, March 5, 2024 from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School gymnasium complex
- ORDER-2024-19 : Authorizing officer detail assignment to the polls for the 2024 elections
- INFO-2024-5 : That the Superintendent of Melrose Public Schools John Macero and Director of Finance for Melrose Public Schools Kenneth Kelley appear before City Council to provide an update on the current status of the Melrose Public Schools Fiscal Year 2024 Budget.
- Expiries
- Rule 53 Reports
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE CITY COUNCIL BULLETIN● JANUARY 16, 2024 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:46 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Cal Finocchiaro Ward 6 Present Mark Garipay Ward 4 Present Ward Hamilton At-Large Present Maya Jamaleddine At-Large Present Manjula Karamcheti Ward 1 Absent John Obremski Ward 2 Present Devin Romanul Ward 7 Present Robb Stewart Ward 3 Present Kimberly Vandiver Ward 5 Present Ryan Williams At-Large Present Leila Migliorelli At-Large Present
LIC-2024-8 License - Gasoline Storage Gasoline and Storage Licenses post deadline Renewals 2023 Assigned to commitee Protection and License Committee
ORDER-2024-18 Calling Election Calling a Presidential Primary Election Tuesday, March 5, 2024 from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School gymnasium complex Assigned to Committee Finance Committee
ORDER-2024-19 Election Authorizing officer detail assignment to the polls for the 2024 elections Assigned to Committee Finance Committee
INFO-2024-5 Informational That the Superintendent of Melrose Public Schools John Macero and Director of Finance for Melrose Public Schools Kenneth Kelley appear before City Council to provide an update on the current status of the Melrose Public Schools Fiscal Year 2024 Budget. Assign to Committee Appropriations & Oversight Committee City of Melrose Page 1 1/17/2024 5:10 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:05 Leila Migliorelli: Good evening. The time is 7 46 on Monday, January 16th, 2024. This is a meeting of the Melrose City Council's Call to order. And I am President Lyla, merely in accordance with Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. This meeting is being v broadcast and recorded by Melrose Cable Access tv, and will be available for viewing in its entirety on MMTV and through the city website Link. Madame Clerk, will you please call the role Council Ro? Here. Councilor Gareg? Here. Councilor Hamilton. Here. Council Aldine. Here. Karen Shady. Councillor Reky. Here. Councillor Stewart? Here. Councilor Email. Here. Council Van DeVeer. Here. Councillor Williams. Here. President Mere Moore Here. Why am I, uh, that is 10 Present. Okay.
▶ 0:56 Present. This serves as a quorum. For the record at this time, please rise if you are able to join in the Pledge. Pledge of Alle Agency Pledge, A pledge of 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. At this time, we are going to, um, take a special moment to do an oath of office for incoming elected officials who are unable to join us, uh, last Monday night. So, um, the clerk will preside over the, um, oath for counselors, Hamilton and Reky. Can you raise your right hand? Please? Repeat after me. And state your name. I, I, John Reky Hamilton. Do solemnly swear Do solemnly swear That I will faithfully.
▶ 1:55 That I will faithfully and impartially and impartially discharge and perform. Discharge and perform. Perform the duties, the duties of the office of, of the office of, of Ward, ward two At large. For the city of Melrose. For the city of Melrose. City of Melrose. To the best of my ability. To the best of my ability. And understanding and understanding according to the constitution, according to the Constitution And the laws of the United States. And the laws of the United States. And of this commonwealth. And of this commonwealth. And the laws. And the laws. Charter. Charter and ordinances. And ordinances of the city of Melrose. The city of Melrose. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you,
▶ 2:42 Leila Migliorelli: Adam. President. Uh, can, can I, uh, make a motion for a three minute recess so the councilors can take some pictures with their family that are here. Uh, motion for 15 minutes. Second. Second. Made by Councillor, seconded by Councillor Stewart. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? We are now recessed for a few minutes for pictures. All right. We're back in session. Um, at this time I will motion to approve without reading by unanimous consent, the minutes from our regular meeting on December 18th and then the organizational meeting on January 8th. Seeing no objection, those minutes are now approved. Um, now I'll motion by Anna's consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing none, we are now open for public comment.
▶ 3:28 Leila Migliorelli: This is the portion of the meeting where anyone can speak on any item on our agenda. And I don't think we have anyone here, anyone online. There are no participants online at this time. Alright. Um, if there's no objection, I'd like to close public comment. Seeing none, we're now closed for public comment. Um, next on our agenda are communications from her honor, the mayor and other city officials. None. Um, suspend the rules. Suspend the rules. Oh, sorry. Um, now since we have the mayor here with us and other city officials, I'd like to, um, uh, be motion by unanimous consent to suspend the rules. Seeing no objection, the rules are now suspended, um, for members of the administration to make remarks.
▶ 4:16 Jen Grigoraitis: Mayor Greg, welcome. Thank You. Good evening everyone. Congratulations to you all. I'm joined by Lauren, M**k, my chief of staff. Um, I'll be very brief. I just as we begin this term, wanted to say that I look forward to working with you all. Um, I'm still learning, you know, my, the ins and outs of the building and getting things like laptops and phones, but also I'm hoping to use this section of the agenda to provide you all with some interim updates and items that don't necessarily require action by the council, but I think are helpful for you all to know as you move forward in your work. So, I was not able to get this in on time 'cause I just got electric letterhead today. But, um, so I have you have a hard copy memo that we'll add
▶ 4:56 Jen Grigoraitis: to the electronic record, but just going forward, it's a way to give you some updates on what's happening. Either myself or Lauren will be here for meetings so that if you so choose to hear from us, we will be available to answer questions. Um, and just wanted to flag the two items before you to that. I wanted to let you know tonight are that we did receive some reductions to earmarks we received in the state budget last year. One is for police radios and one is for work at the Milano Center. A third earmark, which is for work on the gazebo, has not been impacted. Those decisions are made at the state agency level and certain state agencies handle the governor's request for reductions in different ways.
▶ 5:36 Jen Grigoraitis: So we're, um, unfortunately gonna lose about $50,000 in state funding that we will be looking to make up either through ARPA or another funding source so that those projects can be completed. Tomorrow night is the governor's State of the Commonwealth where she will talk about her budget message and then we will be waiting later this month for her budget to come down. So we'll start to get the beginning building blocks of what the FY 25 budget will look like from the state. And we're happy to share as much of that information with you all. I know you also have information coming to you from MMA and other sources. Um, and then on a lighter note, I just wanted to let you all know, as I believe you do
▶ 6:12 that Patrick LaRusso will be retiring from his service to the city after I think over 30 years as our CFO auditor, which is a huge watershed moment for this community. Um, we will be honoring him with a gathering for current and former city staff, um, later next week. So we'll get details of that to you all via email. So just be on the lookout. Um, and we're really appreciative of his service to this community. That's all. I'm happy to answer any questions or Any questions for the mayor. Thank you for having us. Thank you for joining us. Right. So next up is new business filings by the Honorable Mayor License 2024 dash eight gasoline and storage licenses Post deadline renewals 2023. This goes to protection license
▶ 7:05 Order 2024 dash 18, calling a presidential primary election Tuesday, March 5th, 2024 from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM on Tuesday, March 5th, 2024 at the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School Gym Museum Complex. This goes to finance Order 2024 dash 19 authorizing officer detail assignment to the polls for the 2024 elections. This also goes to finance. And next we have filings by the members of the Honorable City Council. Info 2024 dash five that the Superintendent of Melrose Public Schools, John ero and Director of Finance for Melrose Public Schools, Kenneth Kelly, appear before City Council to provide an update on the current status of the Melrose Public School's fiscal year 2024 budget. Okay. In accordance with section two seven
▶ 7:59 Leila Migliorelli: of the Melrose City Charter Charter, an affirmative vote by the council's required before an informational order can proceed and requested staffer required to appear. Therefore, I will entertain a motion for immediate consideration for info. 2024 dash five, the Superintendent of Melrose Public Schools', John ero and Director of Finance for Melrose Public Schools, Kenneth Kelly, appear before the city council to provide an update on current status of the Melrose Public Schools' fiscally 20 20 24. 2024 Budget Motion for Immediate Consideration made by Councillor Gepe. Thank You Madam President. At this time I make a motion for immediate consideration for this honor. Any objection. Right. Seeing none the order is now before us.
▶ 8:42 Leila Migliorelli: All in favor of requesting that the Superintendent of Melrose Public Schools and John Ero and director of Finance, Kenneth Kelly, appear before the council to provide an UPS update on the current status of M-P-S-F-Y 24 budget. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Right. Seeing none, that motion passes and this order will be sent to appropriations. Please note to remain in compliance with the charter, all questions must be submitted by counselors to the Clerk of Committees no later than this Thursday evening before the Monday evening meeting. All right. Um, and that will be at our Appropriations and Oversight Committee. I dunno if I said that. All right. Expiries None. Reports under Rule 53, um,
▶ 9:29 Leila Migliorelli: for new counselors, rule 53 or for counselors who serve on a committee commission, council board or other working group and attends a meeting of such committee commission, council board, or other working group, that member shall report back at the next regular meeting of the council as to the actions taken on all matters on the agenda of said body. So seeing as this beginning of the year, I don't know that anyone's attended any of those meetings yet. So that will close. So now we are on to Adjournment and Chair will make a motion to second motion to adjourn Made by Made by Councilor Stewart. Second by Councilor Repe. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Right. We are now adjourned.