Legal & Legislative Committee — 2025-10-20
Attendance
Cal Finocchiaro ; Mark Garipay ; Maya Jamaleddine ; Leila Migliorelli ; Devin Romanul ; Kimberly Vandiver
Agenda
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE LEGAL & LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE MINUTES● OCTOBER 20, 2025 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall Committee Meeting 6:45 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. I. CALL TO ORDER Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Devin Romanul Vice Chair Present Cal Finocchiaro Present Mark Garipay Present Kimberly Vandiver Present Leila Migliorelli Ex Offico Member Present Maya Jamaleddine Chair Present II. MINUTES APPROVAL 1. Legal & Legislative - Committee Meeting - Sep 29, 2025 7:45 PM Motion to Approve minutes made by Chair Jamaleddine RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] AYES: Romanul, Finocchiaro, Garipay, Vandiver, Migliorelli, Jamaleddine III. PUBLIC COMMENT Motion to Open public Comment made by Chair Jamaleddine at 6:46 PM There were no comments on the floor or via Zoom Motion to Close public comment made by Chair Jamaleddine at 6:47 PM IV. ORDINANCES
1. (ID # 12951): Proposed Ordinance relative to Food Truck Operations within the City of Melrose. Sponsored by: Vice Chair Devin Romanul, Cal Finocchiaro, Ryan Williams From: Legal & Legislative Committee HELD IN COMMITTEE City of Melrose Page 1 10/29/2025 4:44 PM Minutes Legal & Legislative Committee October 20, 2025 Motion to Amend the order with the red-lined changes as proposed made by Councilor Vandiver Seconded by Councilor Romanul All were in favor and motion passed Motion to Recommend as Amended to full council made by Councilor Garipay Seconded by Councilor Vandiver All were in favor and motion passed Comments from the councilors on discussion: -Councilor Finocchiaro gave a synopsis of the changes. The name was changed to Mobile Food Vendor. The Clerks office will manage the forms, intake and applications. There are 3 types of permit applications. Specific locations are removed and locations will be reviewed by various commissions in the city and added to the permit application from the clerks office as approved locations. Verbage was added for more detail on trash, recycling and pick-up. The enforcement section clarified that department heads can suspend a license for cause for 30 days, city council can suspend, revoke or modify a license with a hearing, and police can order to vacate or tow a vehicle that is violating a city law. -Councilor Vandiver asked how to change a location in the future. Councilor Williams explained the clerks office will have a list of approved sites. For new sites the Traffic or Parks Commission will evaluate the proposed site and meet to discuss. A new global restriction was added that the mobile food vendor cannot be within 50 feet of a restaurant unless they have the restaurant's written permission. Councilor Finocchiaro explained that they must abide by current Melrose codes regarding trash and recycling and language from Melrose current codes was added to the ordinance. -Councilor Garipay accepts the changes and requests a cleaner version of the ordinance for review. He is not opposed to accepting it and wants more time to review the 50 feet global restriction rule. He requests a clean version be added to the ordinance and Councilor Finocchiaro agreed and would keep the original documentation attached. -President Migliorelli wants to see a cleaner document also before accepting it and voting on it. She likes it and is happy with the result. She clarified how to proceed with wording for the next motion. -Councilor Stewart also wants to see a cleaner document along with the original. City of Melrose Page 2 10/29/2025 4:44 PM Minutes Legal & Legislative Committee October 20, 2025 RESULT: RECOMMEND AS AMENDED [UNANIMOUS]Next: 10/20/2025 7:45 PM TO: City Council AYES: Romanul, Finocchiaro, Garipay, Vandiver, Migliorelli, Jamaleddine V. ADJOURNMENT Motion to Adjourn by unanimous consent made by Chair Jamaleddine at 7:03 PM Meeting was adjourned City of Melrose Page 3 10/29/2025 4:44 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:02 Maya Jamaleddine: Good evening. The time is 6 45 on Monday, October 20th, 2025. This is a meeting of the Legal and Legislative Committee. I am Maya Jamal, Dean Pronouns, she and her, the chair. Also joining me tonight, our Vice Chair Romano Councilor Ro, um, Williams, Stewart, and Ver and President Exofficio. This serves as notice of Quorum for the record in accordance with the open meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on MMTV. There is no objection. I will motion by Unanim consent to open the floor for public comment. Seeing no objection, we are now open for public comment. This is the portion of the meeting where anyone can speak on any item of, on our agenda for tonight. Um, do we have anyone online?
▶ 0:57 Maya Jamaleddine: No one online. And, um, if there is no objection, I will motion to close public comment. Seeing none, we are now closed for public comment. Next on our agenda is minute approvals, uh, legal and legislative committee meeting. September 29th, 2025, um, at 7:45 PM Um, uh, these meet, uh, these minutes, uh, are, if there is no objection, will be approved without reading, see, seeing no objection. Uh, the NSR now approved. Next on our agenda is ID number 12 9 51. Proposed ordinance relative to food truck operations within the city of this ordinance is sponsored by Vice Chair Devin Romanul, um, Kyle Ro, and Ryan Williams. And, um, this has been held. And for the record, this has been held in committee, uh,
▶ 2:05 Cal Finocchiaro: for amendment and, uh, revising of the, uh, uh, notes. Um, I will, uh, turn it back to, uh, vice Chair Romanul. Uh, if you'd like to add any comments with the no comments, any comments from the co-sponsor, the counselor ro? Yes. Thank you so much. Um, I believe, um, the track change versions of the ame, um, ordinance was uploaded today. Okay. So, um, it looks like a lot of changes, however, we took into account a lot of the comments from last meeting. Um, and we have a quick little synopsis that I'd like to share with you. Um, counselor Williams wrote it out. I just condensed it a little bit, even more from there. Um, so I actually don't have the document open, so just, I'm just gonna read these and then, um,
▶ 3:02 Cal Finocchiaro: we can go to the document if you'd like. Uh, we changed the name, uh, to Mobile Food Vendor. Uh, I know there's a question about including trailers. Uh, we've clarified that the clerk's office is responsible for the form and intake and coordination of the applications. Um, going forward, there'll be three separate permit applications at the clerk's office, an annual, a short term, and then an event, um, permit. Um, and we've, uh, clarified the permit requirements and the differences between those permits. Do you, does anybody need me to slow down or do you wanna look at the doc? No. Okay. Keep going. We are following, uh, We removed the actual list of the locations for the food trucks, where the food trucks were gonna park.
▶ 3:43 Cal Finocchiaro: Um, we'll have those reviewed by the various commissions in the city, and then those will be added to the permit application for the clerk's office. Um, but we do reference that there are approved locations in the, um, ordinance, um, an existing trash recycling and pickup section. Um, I know there was some concerns about that, but we did add some conditions that we already, um, exist in the city, including no plastic bags or straws, no styrofoam, takeout food containers. Um, and we've also added some, uh, wording regarding hourly inspections for litter. Okay. Um, and then in the enforcement section, we just clarified, um, specifically department heads can suspend a license for, cause for 30 days.
▶ 4:26 Cal Finocchiaro: The city council can suspend, revoke a modify license with a hearing, and then police are authorized, um, order vendors with suspensions to vacate and also to tow any vehicle that is violating a city law. Um, so that's sort of like the overall, um, big picture. Did I miss anything? I don't think so. Okay. Um, so I know it looks like a lot of changes, but sort of that's kind of the gist of it. Um, so I'll turn it Back to thank you, um, councilor Ro. And, uh, we do appreciate, I do appreciate the work, um, and efforts that has been done and taking into consideration all, um, my colleagues and myself's, um, um, recommendations, uh, in terms of this, um, uh, ordinance. Any other comments from my colleagues?
▶ 5:24 Ryan Williams: Councilor Van? You neither order I What's that? Are you on? Do you wanna go ahead. I don't even know who's on The committee, so I'm sorry. Bye, counselor. Thank you. Okay. Uh, two questions. Uh, one, well, three actually, uh, I don't see where the red line is. Is that something I, I don't see it attached to the, He, this one. I Can find it. Go to the, A split view. Did you go to I printed a copy. Okay. If you go, sorry, I don't know if I'm speaking over anybody doing This. I just saw the old one. If you go to the, um, meeting outline and you go to, you click on one, the first agenda item, proposed ordinance, relative food truck, there's a bunch of attachments. Oh, there it is. It's Why That's not Thank you. Sure.
▶ 6:05 Kimberly Vandiver: It's weird. Uh, wait, where, Sorry. Here, scroll down. The number one here. Okay. And then it's listed here. No attachment. Perfect. Above that. Thank you. Uh, the other, Okay, sorry. I'm sorry, what was your Question? Uh, so, uh, the question I had was, uh, I understand the change that you made about, um, not listing the specific locations here and rather, um, having that, I believe you said, on record at the clerk's office. Mm-hmm. Um, my question is, uh, as we see how this works, if we wanna add or remove a location, is that what, what do you envision as the process that we would then go through if it's not changing the ordinance? How would we then change the location? So, from what I understand, that would sort of go back
▶ 7:01 Ryan Williams: to the clerk's office and we would bring in the different commissions and the city solicitor and the DPW and I, but I don't know if Councilor Williams wants to speak to that council or Maria. I can. Thank You. Um, the, the clerk's office would have this list of locations that have been sort of approved. Um, and because the city council can't direct the traffic commission to, to do anything really, um, we, but we, we have asked the traffic commission to hold, uh, to put it on their agenda to discuss what likely locations would look like. Um, so you could have the traffic commission reconvene and consider a bunch of new locations if it's on a parks property. You could have the Parks Commission meet
▶ 7:42 Ryan Williams: and talk about what some of those locations might be. Um, and then all of that information would be kept on file with the clerk's office. And as the council sort of watches, if this were to pass and the council were to watch it, um, hit the streets, so to speak, then if we foresee a need for, you know, more strict measures or, or more leniency or however we need to balance it to make things work out for everybody and all the different competing interests, um, then we can revisit that. I, I did wanna point out that there is a new global restriction in the ordinance, which is that you can't be more than fif, I'm sorry. You can't be within 50 feet of a restaurant unless you have the written permission of that business.
▶ 8:22 Cal Finocchiaro: And this would be like any, you know, any business within 50 feet, Any restaurant, excuse me, within 50 feet. Thank you for that. Um, and my other question was, I just wanna understand what you mentioned about the litter. I didn't quite catch what you were saying about the update regarding litter. Hold on one second. Oh, under, uh, section 1 27 16, conditions of Operation E. Um, we just added some additional information that is already in, um, chapter 1 98, article seven at Melrose City Code. Just adding in that they also need to abide by those rules of, you know, not using certain styrofoam containers and things like that. And there is an hourly And litter Yeah. Litter check. So we're sort of just piggybacking
▶ 9:18 Mark Garipay: and trying to, um, write the same language that it, you know, our current codes have Okay. About litter. And, And what I'm seeing just in the draft, I'm looking at, it says regularly, not hourly, but same, similar sentiment, it sounds like. Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you. Those were all my questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Councilor gpe. Thank you. Um, appreciate all the work. Um, I haven't had a chance to read it, um, or I quickly looked at it, and it looks like there's quite a few changes from the original. Um, kind of what I would like to see is maybe we do a, um, accept all these changes as an amendment and we hold it in committee and get a more, um, concise version, cleaner version that we can look at
▶ 10:12 Mark Garipay: before the next meeting and give it to, I think the city solicitor or whatever, just so we're all on the same page. I wouldn't be opposed to accepting these amendments, not saying I'm, uh, supporting them, but at least that way there, we could start moving this forward and get a, uh, a cleaner version that is more what we kind of all, all wanted from the original meeting. And then, you know, send it up to, um, the legal department and then gives us another opportunity to look at this and try to compare it. Um, with that being said, I, I, I'm still, I wanna look a little bit more into the, the 50 feet. Uh, that's, that's one that, um, that I, I, I wanna look into. So, um, if, if I'll let someone else make the motion, uh, if
▶ 10:57 Mark Garipay: that's what you want to want to do. But I'm not saying I'm not supporting this. I just want to see with all the changes, what I'm actually voting on and what, what has been changed. Um, and I'd like just a, a clean version to, uh, to review. Perfect. Um, uh, counselor, uh, ro. Yeah. So do we, um, would you still like the track changes to reference, uh, clean copy and then the track changes? Just a reference so that you can see what was changed. You just want a clean copy. I mean, I got a copy of what was done, so. Okay. So that'll still be in the attachment, so to me. Oh, so We can keep the, keep the Track For me personally, it doesn't, it wouldn't matter, but Okay. I don't, I would let someone else Yeah. Speak to that.
▶ 11:37 Mark Garipay: I mean, we have a copy in the, um, in the order of what the original was, what the Yeah, They'll just stay there. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, That's, um, I just would like to see a clean, clean version and, and kind of understand. Um, so I if gets up, I'm sorry. Um, sorry. No, 'cause looking at it, there's, you know, you got some mocked out lines and some of them are o over, so I, I, I started reading it and it was late, and I just didn't get to the whole thing, so. Perfect. Thank you. Um, councilor gpe, um, president Elli, and then, uh, counselor, uh, Stewart. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, um, to the makers of the, or this looks really, this is really helpful to see. Um, I, I would, I thought the summary
▶ 12:20 Leila Migliorelli: of the changes is really helpful too. Um, and, um, I don't have any, I, I think with looking at the summary and then trying to cross, cross reference it with the track changes, I think it all looks good. I guess. Um, I did catch one minor, like a typo in the edit things. And Section 1 27 dash 13, it says when you guys changed it to the mobile, um, food vendor, it is also known as a mumbo food vendor. It's still there, so it's like a little repetitive thing. So it might just be helpful to Councilor Rae's point to see the accepted version. Mm-hmm. And then edit. I, I think just not just to see, make sure it's clean. So I feel like if we're gonna vote on the final version, we just have to see the whole, um,
▶ 13:05 Leila Migliorelli: final version together. Um, and, um, but think, I just wanted to thank you to Councilor Williams. Councilor Ro councilor, like this, this is really great work. And you have, you listened to all of our feedback, um, got some more information. So I, I'm really happy, um, with this result. So thank you. Awesome. Councilor Stewart? Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I, I concur with, uh, what's being said. I would like to see both Red Line as well as clean copy. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. Um, any other questions from my colleagues? So, just for the, uh, public and those that are, uh, watching, and for the record, um, we received the, um, uh, today we received the updated draft, uh, today.
▶ 13:58 Maya Jamaleddine: And that's because, um, the sponsors, uh, of this, um, ordinance we're working, uh, closely with the administration and legal, um, to, to ensure that everything is, um, adapting the charter and the city's, um, uh, rules. Um, so we do appreciate, um, your, um, hard work and, um, what is the will of the committee. So I'll make a motion to, uh, amend the order to accept the changes as proposed here. I believe that's what we wanted to do, so that we can have that record. So I'll make that motion to, um, amend as proposed in the red line, uh, other than the one change. Do you want, do you want that One change? No, we can make later After. Let's make that later. Alright. So just motion to amend as,
▶ 14:56 Maya Jamaleddine: uh, shown in the red line here. Second. So we have a motion made by, uh, councilor Ver to amend as the red line shown, uh, in the, in this draft. Um, and seconded by counselor, uh, by vice chair, uh, Romano. Um, all in favor on discussion. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Um, so this amendment has been approved. Councilor gpe. Um, you previously said this has been committee for how long? So the, for are you asking for the 45 days? I'm gonna make A motion to hold it, but should we let it go to full council and send it back? Um, do we have enough time? So the last day for the 45 days would be October 30th, um, which I'll, I'll, I'll make a motion to, um, move forward without recommendation,
▶ 16:03 Maya Jamaleddine: and then we can send it back in full committee Second that, Well, you are not from this. Um, oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Don't worry. Wishful thinking. I, Um, so we have a motion? Yeah. Just point where I think you can, if you can recommend as amended to the full council, then it's on the full council agenda tonight, and then we can just, I'll just send it back to committee. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So Commend, I'll recommend as amended, uh, to the full council. So we have a motion made, uh, by member of the committee, councilor Carpe, uh, to, uh, recommend to the full council as amended and seconded by Councilor Van Devin. Uh, on discussion, seeing none. Any, um, uh, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay.