Health, Education & Welfare Committee — 2024-06-13
Attendance
Cal Finocchiaro ; Ward Hamilton ; Manjula Karamcheti ; Leila Migliorelli ; Devin Romanul ; Kimberly Vandiver
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Public Comment
- Appointments/Reappointments
- APPT-2024-36 : Appointment of Lizzy Barr, 12 Mt. Vernon Street, to the Human Rights Commission
- APPT-2024-25 : Reappointment of Paul Fahey, 64 Linwood Avenue, to the Melrose Public Library Board of Library Trustees
- APPT-2024-35 : Reappointment of Nancy Kukura, 79 Mt. Vernon Street, to the Library Board of Trustees for a three year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2027
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE COMMITTEE CALENDAR● JUNE 13, 2024 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:05 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 Manjula Karamcheti Chair Absent Cal Finocchiaro Vice Chair Present Ward Hamilton Absent Devin Romanul Present Kimberly Vandiver Late 7:08 PM Leila Migliorelli President, Ex Oficio Present
APPT-2024-36 Appointment/Reappointment Appointment of Lizzy Barr, 12 Mt. Vernon Street, to the Human Rights Commission Ought to Pass City Council
APPT-2024-25 Appointment/Reappointment Reappointment of Paul Fahey, 64 Linwood Avenue, to the Melrose Public Library Board of Library Trustees Ought to Pass City Council
APPT-2024-35 Appointment/Reappointment Reappointment of Nancy Kukura, 79 Mt. Vernon Street, to the Library Board of Trustees for a three year term; said term to expire on the last day of February 2027 Ought to Pass City Council City of Melrose Page 1 6/21/2024 12:10 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:02 Cal Finocchiaro: Welcome and good evening. The time is now 7 0 4 on Thursday, June 13th. This is a meeting of the Health Education and Welfare Committee. I'm Councilor Occhio, the vice chair. Joining me tonight are voting members, councilor Romanul, and president ly ex officio. This takes place, uh, takes the place of an attendance roll call and provides notice of a quorum for the record in accordance with open meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast on our local cable access channel, MTV, as well as live streamed on MTV's website. It'll be available for future viewing through the City of Melrose website meeting portal As well, we are moving on to the public court comment portion of the meeting.
▶ 0:46 Cal Finocchiaro: This is a time where any member of the public may speak to items on the agenda, in person or remotely. At this time, if there are no objections and with unanimous consent, I will open public comment. Seeing no objections, public comment is now open. Do you have anybody online? Not at this time. Anybody here since we do not have anyone online or in the chamber to speak. I'll motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Seeing no objections, public comment is now closed. Tonight on our agenda, we have three appointments. The first appointment is appointment 2024 dash 36, appointment of Lizzie Barr 12 Mount, uh, Vinton Street to the Human Rights Commission. I will motion by unanimous consent to suspend rule 37 B.
▶ 1:37 Jen Grigoraitis: This will allow non-cost members to speak. At this time, seeing no objections, rule 37 B is now suspended. So Ms. Barr and Mayor Greg, welcome. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair and committee members. I'm really pleased to be here tonight to present my request for the appointment of Lizzie Barr to the Human Rights Commission. Ms. Barr brings sub substantive experience working in diversity, equity, and inclusion as a woman in stem, where she's obviously used to not often being in the majority, um, and has substantive HR experience as well. She had volunteered to serve on the HRC and I was thrilled, um, to have her be willing to be engaged in our community and serve in this role. Thank you so much, mayor.
▶ 2:25 I really appreciate the time to be here with you, um, right now and appreciate this opportunity. I've been passionate about public service my whole life. Um, I've lived in Melrose for the past three years, and I've worked in human resources for seven years and spent about five of them working in DEI. Um, so I believe strongly in the H c's mission to, um, like resolve res, resolve disputes that might have an element related to, uh, racial, religious, or ethnic prejudice, but also to develop programs that promote diversity, um, and also to have respect for others regardless of their differences. Uh, so I remember applying and seeing that this role was open and thinking that it was, uh, an absolutely perfect combination of
▶ 3:11 Cal Finocchiaro: what I could bring and what the city needed. And so I am, I really appreciate the opportunity here. Great. Um, do I have to suspend a rule for me to speak? Um, yeah. 21, 21 C. At this time, I'd like to make a motion to suspend Rule 21 C for motion by unanimous consent. Motion by unanimous consent. Um, thank you so much for doing and volunteering for this role. Um, I looked at your resume and you have a ton of, uh, experience and we appreciate you peop uh, people like you in our community for stepping up and, you know, volunteering for something like this. So we appreciate it. Thank you. Um, what is the will of committee? Yep. On discussion. Um, I just wanted to ask, uh, first of all, I wanted
▶ 4:01 Devin Romanul: to echo my colleagues, uh, uh, comments. Thank you so much for throwing your hat in the ring and being willing to, uh, serve our community. Um, I wanted to ask just out of curiosity, what are you, you know, what are you seeing in the DEI field especially, um, you know, either in the public sector, in the private sector, is like the spotlight has frankly shifted, um, you know, pretty far in the DEI, uh, world from where it was just a couple of years ago. And so, um, anyway, what, and what are you really excited to be doing on the cons on the committee? Excuse me. It's a great question. And honestly, I I, I'm seeing a lot of division in DEI and what I find most important is being able to empower and advocate for those who are disempowered
▶ 4:44 and disenfranchised, but also doing it in a way that others who, who might feel like they are not included, know that they are. And to know that when we embrace diversity, we, it's for the benefit for all parties. Like inclusion benefits, everyone. And I think that's a conversation that it, it needs to happen. And that's sort of the frontier that I see. So when I go to work every day, what I try to focus on is making sure that we are centering the voices that haven't been centered historically, but we're also doing it in a way that shows that bringing in widening that circle benefits all parties. So it's not like we're favoring one group over another 'cause it's, it, that's not what's happening.
▶ 5:36 What's happening is we're sort of making a rainbow with more colors. Like, we've had this rainbow and it hasn't had all the colors in it, and we're just expanding our rainbow. Um, that's what I see. Great. Yeah. Thank you. Thank You. Motion to recommend to the full council. Second. Okay. We have a motion to recommend by Councilor Romanul, seconded by President Elli Exofficio. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. This motion carries. We move to the next full city council meeting. Um, Ms. Barr, you do not need to appear this at the city council meeting, but of course, you're welcome to if you so wish. Thank you for being here tonight. Thank You all. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're moving on to our second appointment.
▶ 6:29 Cal Finocchiaro: Appointment, uh, 2024 dash 25. This is a reappointment of Paul Fay, 64 Linwood Avenue to the Melrose Public Library Board of Library Trustees. Um, this is a reappointment. Mr. Fay has served three years on the library board of trustees. Um, What Is the will of the committee? Motion to recommend? Second. Okay. We have motion to recommend by President LER Exofficio, seconded by Councilor Romanul. Um, What is the will of committee? What Is the will of the committee? Oh, all in favor? Oh, all In favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. My brain. My brain just shut off right there. Um, What did mine? Okay. Um, so that will move to the full council meeting, um, and passes. I consent. Um, we're moving on to a third
▶ 7:33 Cal Finocchiaro: and final appointment of the evening. Appointment 2024 dash 35, which is a reappointment of Nancy Kura, 79 Mount Vernon, uh, street, the library board of trustees for a three year term, said term to expire on the last day of February, 2027. Um, what is the will of the committee Motion to recommend? Second, We have a motion to recommend by Councilor Roal, seconded by councilor, I mean President Ary Exofficio. Um, All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That we will move on to full counsel. Um, we have now reached the end of our meeting. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second Motion adjourn made by Council Roman, seconded by President Elli ex officio. All in favor? Aye. A. Aye. Any opposed?