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City Council — 2024-09-09

City Council Regular Meeting

This meeting starts at 43:20 in a recording that covers several meetings.

Attendance

Cal Finocchiaro present · Ward 6; Mark Garipay present · Ward 4; Ward Hamilton present · At-Large; Maya Jamaleddine present · At-Large; Manjula Karamcheti present · Ward 1; Leila Migliorelli present · At-Large; John Obremski absent · Ward 2; Devin Romanul present · Ward 7; Robb Stewart present · Ward 3; Kimberly Vandiver present · Ward 5; Ryan Williams present · At-Large

Agenda

  1. Call to Order (43:21)
  2. Reading of the Minutes (44:46)
  3. Public Comment (45:06)
  4. New Business (1:32:55)
  5. APPT-2025-3 : Appointment of Jonah Chiarenza, 515 Lebanon Street, Apt. 2, Melrose MA 02176, to the Traffic Commission. (1:33:25)
  6. APPT-2025-4 : Appointment of Andrew Paul, 83 Damon Avenue, Melrose MA 02176, to the Traffic Commission. (1:33:57)
  7. APPT-2025-5 : Appointment of Kara Oberg, 11 Tappan Street, Melrose MA 02176, to the Traffic Commission (1:34:27)
  8. APPT-2025-6 : Reappointment of Jeffrey Parenti, 29 Trenton Street, Melrose MA 02176, to the Traffic Commission. (1:34:41)
  9. Unfinished Business (1:34:53)
  10. APPRO-2025-1 : An Appropriation from Contract Stabilization (#84042) in the amount of $363,000 (Three Hundred Sixty Three Thousand Dollars) to Department of Public Works (#014023) for the replacement of Melrose High School Skylights. (1:35:01)
  11. GRANT-2025-3 : Acceptance of Field Demonstration Project Area: Age Friendly/Dementia Friendly Capacity Building in the amount of $10,000 (1:35:40)
  12. GRANT-2025-2 : Acceptance of Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan Update grant from MEMA/FEMA (1:36:25)
  13. Expiries (1:37:07)
  14. APPT-2025-1 : Appointment of Areeba Zakir, 185 Franklin Street, Unit 2 Melrose, MA to the Commission on Women (1:37:15)
  15. APPT-2025-2 : Appointment of Barbara Rotger, 25 Dyer Avenue, Melrose, MA to the Commission on Women (1:37:44)
  16. Rule 53 Reports (1:37:58)
  17. Adjournment (1:38:54)

Minutes

CITY OF MELROSE CITY COUNCIL BULLETIN● SEPTEMBER 9, 2024 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 8:14 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 Present John Obremski Ward 2 Absent 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

APPT-2025-3 Appointment/Reappointment Appointment of Jonah Chiarenza, 515 Lebanon Street, Apt. 2, Melrose MA 02176, to the Traffic Commission. Assign to Committee Public Works Committee

APPT-2025-4 Appointment/Reappointment Appointment of Andrew Paul, 83 Damon Avenue, Melrose MA 02176, to the Traffic Commission. Assign to Committee Public Works Committee

APPT-2025-5 Appointment/Reappointment Appointment of Kara Oberg, 11 Tappan Street, Melrose MA 02176, to the Traffic Commission Assign to Committee Public Works Committee

APPT-2025-6 Appointment/Reappointment Reappointment of Jeffrey Parenti, 29 Trenton Street, Melrose MA 02176, to the Traffic Commission. Assign to Committee Public Works Committee

APPRO-2025-1 Appropriation City of Melrose Page 1 9/12/2024 4:39 PM Minutes City Council September 9, 2024 An Appropriation from Contract Stabilization (#84042) in the amount of $363,000 (Three Hundred Sixty Three Thousand Dollars) to Department of Public Works (#014023) for the replacement of Melrose High School Skylights. Passed

GRANT-2025-3 Grant Acceptance of Field Demonstration Project Area: Age Friendly/Dementia Friendly Capacity Building in the amount of $10,000 Passed

GRANT-2025-2 Grant Acceptance of Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan Update grant from MEMA/FEMA Passed

APPT-2025-1 Appointment/Reappointment Appointment of Areeba Zakir, 185 Franklin Street, Unit 2 Melrose, MA to the Commission on Women Appointed

APPT-2025-2 Appointment/Reappointment Appointment of Barbara Rotger, 25 Dyer Avenue, Melrose, MA to the Commission on Women Appointed City of Melrose Page 2 9/12/2024 4:39 PM

Transcript

▶ 43:33 Leila Migliorelli: September 9th, 2024. This is a meeting of the Melrose City Council and I'm President Melli, uh, presiding in accordance with the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. This meeting is being broadcast and recorded by Melrose Cable Acts tv and will be available for viewing in its entirety on MMTV and through the city website link. Madam Clerk, will you please call the role Council Ro Here. Council Oppe. Here. Council Hamilton? Here. Council Maladin. Here. Council Karen Treaty. Here. Councilor Reky Council Here. Councilor Stewart? Here. Council Vandiver. Here. Council Williams. Here. President Melli Here. That's 10. That's a quorum. For the record at this time, please rise if you are able to, uh, span the pledge

▶ 44:20 Leila Migliorelli: To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. Nation one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Um, at this time I'll motion to approve without reading by unanimous consent. The minutes from the August 19th full counsel meeting. Seeing no objection, those minutes are now approved. Um, I will next open by we motion by Nana's consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objections, we are now open for public comment. This is the portion of the meeting where anyone can speak on any item on our agenda. Just a reminder, public comment is an opportunity for the public to share their thoughts. The council will not be responding.

▶ 45:12 Is there anyone in public tonight wishing to speak in public comment? Yeah. Please approach the table and you can state your name and, uh, city for record. Megan McDonough for 180 5 Main Street. Um, I just wanted to come down to just say on the record, I know it's not really a space for this, but I hope that you'll allow me to just make a comment. Um, I know that people are gonna be appointed to the traffic commission and those are, those names will be presented to you tonight. I just had, um, I wanted to just make Brad comment about boards and commissions and that's, um, I saw recently that I don't know if Lily Martin had done it, of her own inspiration or if it's a move that's being made by the mayor's office,

▶ 45:57 but maybe sometime in the last year, on the week ahead email, somebody had listed all of the openings and I said, wow, that's great. You can see it right there. You don't have to dig for it, you don't have to find the chair, you don't have to. Um, and I was just wondering if for greater access to people joining these boards and commissions and to encourage it, if there could be greater transparency, um, with, you know, in 30 days you have 30 days to apply for this opening 45 days. Is that something that could come from the chair, submitting it to the city council, the chair submitting it to the mayor's office? I know that there's, there would be some sort of chain of, you know, communication that would have to be determined

▶ 46:37 because boards and commissions are governed in different ways, whether it's by state or, or um, or internally by the city. But I feel like we are making all these policy updates and we're trying to be more accessible and, you know, is that a conversation that could happen? So over the weekend I was able to reach a number of the council that's here just to start asking those questions and I asked those questions to the mayor's office today. Um, and I actually heard back from more than half of you, which was amazing and said that that that does seem like something that could somehow be talked about somewhere, you know, whether that is just asking to the mayor, um, or if that's an ordinance. I don't know really how some that would happen

▶ 47:21 to make sure that it would happen. And then, um, and then thinking about equity too in representation, like our boards and commissions tend to be pretty white. Um, it might be affluent people might sit on them for a rather long time. And so wondering if there's any room in there too to say, you know, where does diversity come in? If somebody is disabled, if they're a person of color, if they're a senior, how could we elevate them? Is that just colloquially being like there is six applicants and one of them is, uh, from a marginalized background. Um, do we just, you know, choose to uplift them or if that's, um, or if that's something that would actually be written. And um, so yeah, so that's, that's my first part.

▶ 48:10 Leila Migliorelli: And my second part is I noticed that sometimes when the applicants come through there are resumes, um, and sometimes there are not. So I was wondering if the public could see the resumes every time instead of just the council. So thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to speak in public comment tonight? In person or online? Madam Clerk. There are no attendees online. Okay. Um, if there's no objection, I'd like to motion by n as consent to close public comment. Seeing no objection, we are now closed for public comment and I will now motion by unanimous consent to, uh, recess and allow us to go back to appropriations and oversight. Seeing no objection, we are now in recess. Could take you off. I know it felt

▶ 1:32:49 Seconded by Counselor Hamilton. All in favor? Aye. Any of opposed? We are. All right. We are back in the full City Council meeting. Next on the agenda is communications from her honor the mayor. Um, and the mayor is, uh, not communicating with us tonight 'cause she has already. Um, next up are new business filings by the Honorable Mayor. Appointment 2025 dash three. Appointment of Jonah Za 5 1 15 11 on street, apartment two, Melrose, mass Traffic Commission. This is going to the Committee on Public Works. Appointment 2025 dash four. Appointment of Andrew Paul 83 Damon Nav, Melrose, mass to the Traffic Commission. This Is also going to the Committee on Public Works. Appointment 2025 dash five.

▶ 1:34:31 Appointment of Kara Oberg, 11 Tappan Street, Melrose, mass to the Traffic Commission. This is also going to the Committee on Public Works. Appointment 2025 dash SH three. Appointment of Jeffrey Parenti, 29 Tremont, Trenton Street, Melrose to the Traffic Commission And the Committee on Public Works. Again. Next up are filings by the Honorable City Council. There are none. So moving on to unfinished business Probation 2025 dash one and appropriation from contract stabilization number 8 4 0 4 2 in the amount of 363,000 from two Department of Public Works. Number oh 1 4 0 2 3 for the replacement of Melrose High School Skylights Madam President. This order comes from the Appropriation and Oversight Committee with a recommendation passage.

▶ 1:35:13 And at this time I would like to make a motion for passage. Second motion for passage made by Chair Jamal, uh, councilor Aldine, seconded by Councillor Stewart. On discussion. Seeing none, Madam Clerk Council Ro? Yes. Council gpe? Yes. Council Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Jamine. Yes. Councilor Karen Chay. Yes. Councillor? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Council Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Elli? Yes. That's 10. That order passes. Grant 2025 dash three. Acceptance of field demonstration Project area, age friendly, dementia friendly capacity building the amount of $10,000. Madam President. This order comes from the Appropriation and Oversight Committee with the recommendation of passage.

▶ 1:35:53 And at this time I would like to make a motion for passage. Second, A motion for passage made by Councillor Jamal and seconded by Councillor Stewart. On discussion, seeing none, Madam Clerk Council Lieutenant Ro? Yes. Council Ape? Yes. Council Hamilton? Yes. Council Aldine? Yes. Councilor Karen Shay. Yes. Cremsky Councilor Romanul. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Council Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Melissa? Yes. That's 10. That Order passes. Grant 2025 dash two. Acceptance of Natural Hazard Mitigation Plant Update Grant from FEMA mema. Um, Madam President, this order comes from the Appropriation and Oversight Committee with the recommendation of passage. And at this time I would like to make a motion for passage.

▶ 1:36:38 Second motion for passage made by Councillor Jamal and seconded by Councillor Stewart. On discussion, seeing none. Um, Madam Clerk Councilor LiRo? Yes. Councilor Repe? Yes. Councilor Hamilton? Yes. Councillor Jamine. Yes. Councilor Karen Chay. Yes. Councillor Arm? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Vandiver. Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Melli? Yes. That's 10 That Order passes. Next up are expires. Appointment appointment 2025 dash one. Appointment of Zaki 180 5 Franklin Street, unit two took commission on women. So pursuant to section two 10 of the city charter appointments that were made by the mayor shall become effective upon the termination of, of the expiration of 45 days following the date

▶ 1:37:24 Leila Migliorelli: that the notice of the proposed appointment was filed with the city clerk unless rejected by the city council within those 45 days. So the mayor's office is moving, moving forward with this appointment, given that, um, it was, uh, it expired, uh, 45 days within the 45 day period Appointment 2025 dash two appointment with Barbara Rutger, 25 di RF to the commission. All women, This same, um, section of the charter also applies. So, um, the, this appointment is also effective for charter. Next up are, uh, reports under Rule 53, Councillor Stewart. Thank you Madam President. Um, Madam President, I just want to remind the council that, uh, the special committee for, um, considering the polling locations will be held next Monday,

▶ 1:38:13 Leila Migliorelli: um, September 16th at 7:00 PM Um, and we're we're there to review the polling locations for future election and evaluate deficiency of the current consolidation consolidated location. So just as a reminder, thank you. Mad. Thank You. Thank you Councilor Stewart, anyone else? I have just one report under or update. Um, as many of you know, the Clerk of Committee's position is vacant. Um, the posting is now live. Um, HR is reviewing and screening applicants. Um, I will need to appoint a hiring committee, um, that will be comprised of me and two other counselors. So please let me know if you're interested in serving on that hiring committee. If not, I will be picking two of you at random. All right. Next up I will Motion

▶ 1:39:01 Leila Migliorelli: by unanimous consent to adjourn. The meeting is now Adur. Thank you.

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