Appropriations & Oversight Committee — 2024-12-09
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
- Public Comment
- Minutes Approval
- Legislative Items
- GRANT-2025-5 : Acceptance of State Earmark for City Hall Front Door in the amount of $40,000
- GRANT-2025-6 : Acceptance of a State Earmark for Wyoming Cemetery in the amount of $50,000
- GRANT-2025-7 : FY25 Municipal ADA Improvement Grant Acceptance in the amount of $38,000 to address accessibility issues at Melrose High School and Horace Mann Elementary School
- APPT-2025-16 : Appointment of Tanji Cifuni as Melrose City Clerk for a three-year term ending December 2027.
- Adjournment
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE APPROPRIATIONS & OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CALENDAR● DECEMBER 9, 2024 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 7:52 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Maya Jamaleddine Chair Present Ryan Williams Vice Chair Absent Mark Garipay Present Robb Stewart Present Manjula Karamcheti Present John Obremski Present Ward Hamilton Absent Kimberly Vandiver Present Devin Romanul Present Cal Finocchiaro Absent Leila Migliorelli President, Ex Oficio Present
(ID # 12007) Grant Acceptance of State Earmark for City Hall Front Door in the amount of $40,000 Ought to Pass City Council
(ID # 12008) Grant Acceptance of a State Earmark for Wyoming Cemetery in the amount of $50,000 Ought to Pass City Council
(ID # 12241) Grant FY25 Municipal ADA Improvement Grant Acceptance in the amount of $38,000 to address accessibility issues at Melrose High School and Horace Mann Elementary School Ought to Pass City Council
(ID # 12247) Appointment/Reappointment Appointment of Tanji Cifuni as Melrose City Clerk for a three-year term ending December 2027. Recommend City Council City of Melrose Page 1 12/11/2024 11:14 AM
Transcript
▶ 22:14 Maya Jamaleddine: She and her the chair in joining me are Counselor, uh, GPE counselor Kara Councillor Abramsky, Councillor Stewart, counselor, uh, Romano, and, um, uh, counselor Van Dever and President GL Lee Ex Officio. This serves as Esko Quorum for the record, in accordance with the Open Meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on MMTV. And um, now this is the portion of the public, uh, comment. Um, I will motion by unanimous consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objection, public comment is now open. And this is the portion of the meeting where anyone from the public can, um, uh, come forward and speak on any item of the on the agenda. Do we have anyone online seeing no additional commenters?
▶ 23:19 Maya Jamaleddine: I'll motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Public comment is now closed. And, uh, since we have members, uh, of the administration here tonight to speak on the items before us, I'll motion by unanimous consent to suspend the rules before we proceed. Seeing no objection, the rules are now suspended For tonight on our agenda, um, we have, um, ID number, uh, 12 0 0 7 acceptance of state e mark for City Hall front door, and the amount of $40,000. And we have Madam Mayor with us tonight. Good evening, Madam Chair, my and counselors. Thank you for having me tonight. Um, this item is an earmark that was in the FY 25 State budget, um, thanks to the advocacy of Rep Lipper Garabedian in Senator Lewis.
▶ 24:22 Jen Grigoraitis: And it would fund us to replace the front door of City Hall. The door that, um, opens onto Essex Street. As I think you are all aware, we don't have an existing capital budget. Um, the door has been warping for some time. It's, I've had many conversations about the door in my 11 months as mayor. Um, it doesn't always close depending on the level of humidity, which creates security concerns and access issues. Um, DPW has tried, you know, more temporary fixes. We've also even had some outside contractors take a look at it. And the determination was that it needs to be replaced. Um, this will cover the full cost of the replacement. There's no match required, and we've already gone through the approval process
▶ 25:01 Mark Garipay: with the Historic District Commission. So upon the approval of the council, we'll be able to execute the purchase of the, an installation of the new door. That's amazing. Um, do we have any, uh, questions from my colleagues? Counselor gpe, Thank you. Uh, I, um, I was kinda hoping Mr. Troop, uh, would be here or, uh, or the facilities director. Um, not that we're not happy to see you. I'll do you my best. But I had a couple questions. I guess one of them you answered, um, the new doors we're ordering new doors. Correct. Do we know if they're available or We do on back Order. Our understanding is that they're available, so we should be able, we very much wanna move this as quickly as possible.
▶ 25:42 Jen Grigoraitis: Um, partly because obviously the threat of nine C cuts always looms large over earmarks. Um, so we wanna make sure that we have the full funding Alrightyy. And so this will all be completed by June 30th. I can't speak to that definitively, but that's my understanding. 'cause I think that was the, do that was the date, that the dollar dollar amount, um, Then it will be completed by June 30th. Yep. And who will be managing the project if you do know? Uh, internally, uh, It'll be Jay McNeil and Jim Troop. Okay. Um, okay. That's all I had On that one. Thank you. Councillor Gpe. Any other questions? Councillor Stewart? Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll make a motion to recommend the full Council. Second, we
▶ 26:26 Maya Jamaleddine: have a motion to recommend made by Councilor Stewart, seconded by Councillor Chetty. On discussion. Seeing none, Madam Clerk. Okay. Council? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Karen Chetty? Yes. Councilor Reky? Yes. Councillor Vanair? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. President Mli? Yes. Councilor Jamal Ledine? Yes. Motion passes This. Motion passes. Thank you. And next on our agenda ID number 12 0 0 8. Acceptance of a state earmark for Wyoming, uh, cemetery in the amount of $50,000. Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, this is an earmark that was, um, successfully placed in the FY 25 state budget thanks to the advocacy of our delegation. Um, something that I, my office had requested is some dedicated funding for the cemetery.
▶ 27:24 Jen Grigoraitis: The intent of this earmark is for it to cover a combination of some of the costs around digitization, which has been a project that's been ongoing for a couple years to fully, um, archive and digitize at the location of every single grave in the cemetery. Which, considering the age of the cemetery is quite an undertaking. But it will help us to understand, you know, what we have available in terms of, um, remaining plots. Also, when we do the, um, demarcation of veterans graves to make sure that we have a full and accurate accounting of that. And then obviously also to help families locate their loved ones or ancestors that are buried there. And then the other portion of the money would be used
▶ 28:00 Mark Garipay: for some identified priority paving projects within the cemetery. So our hope would be to work with the Cemetery Commission and DPW to determine how best to split the funding. Perfect. Thank you. Any question, counselor Repe? Um, yeah, one of them, one of my questions was regarding the split, um, because I remember when I was on the commission, we started the dig digitalization in 2017, and I'm, I'd be curious to see if Mr. Troop knows what the cost is going to be to finish that. Um, 'cause it's been going on. It's, I know it's a tedious process. I do, I do know that. Um, but it has been, uh, seven, seven years now. So, Yeah, it's been ongoing. We have two folks who work on it, um, sort of part-time then
▶ 28:46 Jen Grigoraitis: with the leadership of Jane Pitts, who's our GIS analyst in the planning department. My, um, the intention was to have it be 10,000 to the digitization, which will hopefully get us over the finish line. I don't know if it's gonna make it work faster, but will mean that we have the funding and then 40,000 for capital projects within the cemetery itself. And, um, the roads, we have to spend this money by a certain amount of time. 'cause I'm sure paving's over for the, for the season right now. Um, or is it just we, is that like bond? We can, we, we can hold onto it in the account and spend it when we Yeah. And we'll be able to pay when we're, when paving season resumes. And these were both, um, both of these projects,
▶ 29:25 which we combined into one earmark were identified in the free cash requests from various departments last year. And so the ones that we were able to success successfully pass onto the state budget, we funded that way. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other question? Seeing none, what is Councilor Stewart? Thank you Madam Chair. Um, make a motion to recommend to the full council. Second, we have a motion, uh, to recommend made by Councilor Stewart, seconded by Councilor Chetty On discussion. Seeing none. Madam Perk. Councilor Gar? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty. Yes. Councilor Reky. Yes. Councilor Van Deve? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. President Melissa? Yes. Councillor Jamine?
▶ 30:20 Maya Jamaleddine: Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. This motion passes. Thank you, mayor. And next, uh, we have ID number 12 24 1 FY 25 municipal, a DA improvement grant acceptance in the amount of 38,000, uh, dollars to address accessibility issues at Merose High School and Mann, uh, elementary school. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, just a little bit of background on this grant because I think this is a success story around helping the city to move forward and it's identified, um, accessibility priorities. So as I think many of you know, and some of you are on the council, the Disability commission under, um, mayor Broders administration conducted an a DA self-assessment that went through all of our public buildings to identify needs in order
▶ 31:04 Jen Grigoraitis: to be a DA compliant. Um, these projects were in that assessment. Um, they were also, the handicapped doors in the high school were also the subject of a project done by a high school student, Omar Azizi, during his leaders in Civic Action Project. I think actually many of you toured that, um, in the spring. And so he was connected with the DPW director. He was the real impetus for this grant application. And then we had another high school student, Kate Chu, who volunteered her time to assist with the grant writing application. And then we also had the backing in support of our disability commission. So I was really thrilled to see that we were successful in funding. We had applied last year for different items
▶ 31:43 Maya Jamaleddine: and were not able to get funded. So I'm really thrilled to see the support of the Mass Disability Commission and the real collaborative effort, especially the student voices that went into making this happen. So we're really excited about this award. And there's no cash match. Yes. Thank you for sharing the story. It's really amazing to see the power that, uh, students and, um, our commission, uh, can make. Uh, any question from my colleagues? Um, councilor, Um, I just have one really quick question. In terms of the project scope. It's to remove barriers and improve access at MHS and the Horse Mill Elementary School, which includes accessible doors and signage. Is that all the doors? It's doors in the, I believe it's the gymnasium.
▶ 32:31 Jen Grigoraitis: It's a specific set of doors that have been identified as not being fully a DA compliant. And then it's Braille signage at Horace Mann. Thank you For clarifying. I appreciate it. Um, any other question? Cons? Gpe, Uh, just kind of the same, um, timeframe of when the project will be completed and who will manage it. And will the building is, is the building inspector involved in this one? The building inspector will be involved when it needs to be inspected. Um, and it will be managed by Jay McNeil and they'll be working in consultation with the disability commission, particularly on the signage. And I believe we have, um, two years to complete the work, but I can double check. And, um, this is for the gym.
▶ 33:15 Um, forgive me, did we take care of the bathrooms, uh, uh, that were identified by the student? Uh, last year? The High school bathrooms? Yeah. The doors on. Was that the, I'm trying to, trying to remember what, um, I think it was a hallway door. Maybe it was a, okay. Okay. I can't remember. I just wasn't sure if this was, this was part of that Or No, this'll be separate. Okay. Um, and what we applied for last year and didn't get funded was bathrooms, but at the senior center. Okay. Um, or we can get more information. Alright. Thank you. Awesome. Um, any other question? I'll make a Motion to recommend. Second. Thank you. We have a motion, uh, made by Councilor Chetty to recommend, uh, to the full council.
▶ 33:57 Maya Jamaleddine: Seconded by Councilor Romanul On discussion. Seeing none. Madame Clerk. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Council Stewart? Yes. Councilor Chetty? Yes. Council Reky? Yes. Councilor Vve? Yes. Councilor Romanul? Yes. Council, uh, president Melli? Yes. Councilor Jamine? Yes. Motion passes. Awesome. Thank you so much Appreci. Appreciate it Madam Mayor. Um, and next we have Id number 12 24 7 appointment of Tangi Uni as Meru City, uh, clerk for a three year term ending December, 2027. You took off one hat and you're putting another hat now. Welcome and thank you, um, for stepping up. Uh, we appreciate the work that you did prior of taking on, uh, any, uh, role. And the floor is yours. Okay, great. Thank you everybody.
▶ 35:05 It's been a pleasure work and with all of you for the last couple of months. It feels like it's been a lot longer than that, but, um, I kind of got thrown into a, a whirlwind over here, but it was a pleasure to step in and it's been so fun. And, um, I had an amazing, um, you know, they always say it takes a village and I had a lot of amazing villages all around, so you should all be really proud of everybody in Melrose because everybody really stepped up, um, to help me and, and to help the community get through a very, um, large election. And so it was, it was really overwhelming. Um, but I have to be honest, it went really, really well. And I'm proud of myself and, and, and the team. And then I was extremely nervous
▶ 35:48 after it was over if we were going to be sele, um, selected to be audited, and of course we were. Um, but that went perfect. Um, so that was all great too. And, um, yeah, so now we've, we're moving forward with the, um, with the census and that's all out to print and we'll be throwing those out, uh, in the mail like the first week in January. So we've just like moved on. But it's been a pleasure so far. Um, I know at the beginning it was a little rough with working with all of you as with the city council 'cause I was focusing more on the election stuff. Um, but now that that's behind me, um, it's, it's been a pleasure to work with all of you. And and thank you for your patience, um, with helping me get
▶ 36:28 Robb Stewart: through all of the steps and learning all the software. But, um, I've made a lot of progress with that and, um, yeah, I really look forward to, um, to this new journey. Awesome. Thank you. Do, um, councilor Stewart. Thank you, Madam Chairman of Chair. Um, if you have seen, um, and through the chair of the councilors, um, we have put together a, a a summary of the the city clerk recommendation. Um, we wrote this up, uh, with input from Council gpe and President Melli and her wonderful, um, editing skills. So thank you. Um, so what we did, we had, uh, a Zoom meeting with the three of us that chatted with, um, Ms. Uni. And, uh, we, we, uh, discussed a number of different areas. Um, just to summarize, we talked about, uh,
▶ 37:23 Robb Stewart: her qualifications and relevant experience. Uh, she highlighted, um, the various roles that she played both within, uh, with Winthrop as well as, uh, some of her positions in HR and, uh, with a legal firm. We talked about, uh, her ability to support day-to-day activities. Uh, she, uh, I think well represented herself in her interim period, uh, and we feel quite comfortable with that. Uh, we talked about meeting the multiple demands of time, um, and she expressed both, uh, historically how she's done this, as well as, uh, some of the pressing events that we had recently. So, uh, that was, um, quite aptly, uh, served. I, uh, we talked about her ability to handle confidential information. Uh, she worked in the mortgage industry for several years,
▶ 38:08 Robb Stewart: and she's quite familiar with handling sensitive information as well as, uh, uh, her situations in the public role. Um, we talked about the technology background and her comfort level. Um, and she, uh, I, I think aptly demonstrated how quickly she came up to speed on I QM two and the related services that we have. Uh, she talked a little bit about also, uh, some of the systems that she had to set up when she was in Winthrop. Uh, most notably the Ferry Online payment, uh, program that she, she, uh, managed to oversee and, and get work in. Uh, and then finally, in terms of hiring and managing staff, uh, she has been doing this for, uh, a number of years as well. She ran the HR department in Winthrop, uh,
▶ 38:51 Robb Stewart: or helped she, she helped build the HR department and so did a lot of hiring. She also managed the whole ferry, uh, team, uh, onboarding. So overall, uh, we feel that, um, she's an excellent fit for the role of city clerk. Um, and we, uh, look forward to, uh, um, hearing the support and, um, and, uh, any, any other questions. So, thank you Madam Chair. Thank, thank you. Any other counselor? Madam President. Madam Chair. Thank you. Um, and through the chair to the, uh, council, I've had the good fortune of, um, serving as Ms. Uni's, uh, interim manager as, um, she had got up to speed in this role in a very quick period of time. And, um, you know, enjoyed serving on the hiring committee with counselors Gar Pay and Stewart,
▶ 39:42 Leila Migliorelli: and was, I think, not only through her interview, but, um, and working with her, and then also hearing from other, um, community members about her professionalism. Um, you know, her ability to relate well to people. Um, I think even most importantly to her ability to, um, spot talents in others and help manage them appropriately. That was an overwhelming, um, positive thing I heard about Ms. Uni, especially in this election, which, um, was a gigantic task, um, that she was thrown into. And I thought, I felt very, um, you know, comforted and proud to hear how the election process went, um, how people really felt like they were a part of it. And it all went incredibly smoothly, which is just really, really big.
▶ 40:33 Leila Migliorelli: And I think, um, in hearing her past experience, the, the her, the thing that struck me was that she was asked to not only the, the pieces that Councilor Stewart mentioned about the ferry business, but that she, she basically launched the ferry business in Winthrop without having any sort of knowledge. And she figured out how to do it, how to work with the right people and get an entire new business and project up and running. And I feel like heading into this next phase of the city clerk's office where we are, you know, hopefully going to be modernizing things, I think Ms. Uni has an eye to that, um, and will know how to run that office, um, and help take it to the next level. So, um, I just wanted to say, you know, in working
▶ 41:17 Mark Garipay: with her over these last few months, um, uh, has been a pleasure. And I'm really looking forward to, um, you know, uh, recommending her or appointing her and, um, having her get started on the full-time role. Thank you. So thank you. Thank You. Thank you. Uh, councilor Gpe. Thank you. Uh, Madam Chair, I just, um, wanna, um, reiterate what my fellow counsels have, have said. Um, I think, uh, Ms. Um, Tangi has the, uh, has the right, uh, temperament for that office. Um, very outgoing. It's, um, I think sometimes we forget, we're still in the people business in City Hall, and it's, um, it's, uh, when you walk into the office, um, it's just, um, you know, there's a lot of, uh, lot of excitement.
▶ 42:07 Manjula Karamcheti: Um, and I think, uh, I think that's impressed me along with what, um, you, you stepping into a role on an interim basis during some of the, um, 10, some of the toughest times, um, handling election and, and really not skipping a beat, helping and supporting us on the council. Um, so I'm, uh, I'm proud of support this, uh, this, uh, recommendation. Thank you. Thank you, counselor Chetty. Um, I was not a member of the committee, uh, that put this forward, but I just, one wanted to say that I've definitely appreciated your positive can do attitude, um, and it's been a delight getting to know you, and I'm really excited about this. And I guess my question is, since you're working with all of us, what can we do to support you in your role?
▶ 42:58 Manjula Karamcheti: Um, and if you don't have anything now, that's totally fine, but just would love to, you know, have the lines of communication open. But if you can think of anything, things we can do to support you and your role, which is high level, intense community facing, um, and has a variety of complex responsibilities, Well know that I'm always available and I'll always get back to all of you. So, open communication at any time. I'll need to get all of your cell numbers. I think I only have some. Um, but yeah, I'm, I'm always gonna be available and I would just appreciate like, open communication with all of you too, like, in a timely manner, because obviously, as we all know, there's tight timelines
▶ 43:35 Maya Jamaleddine: that we have to get everything in. So, um, but yeah, it's been a pleasure so far, so thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Any other question from my colleagues? And, um, I just wanna share my story, uh, since you started your take on the interim position. Um, every time I come to you and ask, uh, you know, wanted to ask how is it going or, and, and I know that, you know, probably when we went through the election, I have my hands on my hearts, and that's, uh, uh, an Arabic saying because I don't know, uh, like I'm expecting it's gonna be, you know, difficult, uh, especially with the rule during the time, difficult time that you took on. And you, your answer make me feel so assured that you got this.
▶ 44:27 Maya Jamaleddine: And you, you have, you are handling things and you're on top on everything. So I do appreciate that, uh, coming from you, um, and that, uh, you know, give me, uh, a lot of, uh, hope and, uh, and, uh, reassurance that you really know what you're stepping into. So God bless. But thank you so much. Thank you. Uh, appreciate it. What is the will of the committee motion to recommend? Second, we have a motion to recommend made by President Melli, seconded by, uh, councilor Mano, uh, on discussion, seeing none. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Woo. Congrats. Thank you. Thank you so much. Should I do a roll call? No. Okay. You got it now. Um, um, with this, uh, includes, um,
▶ 45:36 Maya Jamaleddine: all the orders on our agenda and, uh, all the items on our agenda, I will entertain. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second, we, we have a motion to adjourn made by Councilor Kram Shetti, seconded by Councillor Stewart on discussion. Seeing none. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We adjourn. Woohoo.