[Laurel Siegel]: All right, good evening, everyone. And we have a lot on the agenda, so we'll just dive right in tonight. So first up is just a review and acceptance of the minutes from our March meeting. Did anybody have any comments, any questions? And otherwise, we have a motion to approve the minutes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Once again, I think they're very comprehensive. I'll move to approve them.
[Unidentified]: Okay, anybody want a second, please? Second. All right, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed?
[Laurel Siegel]: All right, great. Nova, I'll let you take over.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, great. So before we get into the presentation from the Collins Center, we wanted to just hear from the committee members about your thoughts about areas of the model charter to prioritize for study and review. So we've seen the model charter now and we've seen how Medford's charter compares to it. And we've also been able to sort of compare three other communities and how they look. So hopefully with those materials, we can get some feedback on what you all think about prioritizing this discussion. Does anybody want to start? Okay, Ron.
[Ron Giovino]: I guess I'll start. Yeah, those documents are really important to understand where we're at and where other municipalities have, you know, struggled with this and put it all together. So it was very, very helpful. I think, for me, a couple of things that, you know, I think there's obviously extremely important things that that and then there's also, you know, the minutiae and the details, but obviously, the role of the mayor in the city is priority. City Council is next. And for both of those it's rules and regulations, along with elections terms and things like that. So, you know, to me those are the two priorities. I also want to state that. As I look through this document and look through most towns and cities, there's not a lot of detail about the school committee. And to me, you know, I'll defer to the call center once once they come on to talk, but to me, it's noticeable that they defer to general laws of the state and you know folks have to really go deep to go find them. I think there's got to be a way that our charter includes some of the details of a school committee and partially, you know, I was on, I went looking for some things in the general laws. It's a massive undertaking to find something. And the other reality is too, and one of the concerns that I have being part of, full disclosure, I was part of the renaming of the school piece. And to me, I think it really exposed a lot of issues with how decisions are made. In the school committee, I don't, of the 58,000 or how many folks there are in the city, I don't think everybody focuses on the school committee unless you have somebody in the school system or you're impacted by that. When we're talking about changing name of a building, I think that kind of over, my personal opinion, it's a cultural thing for the city. It's not necessarily something that is held within the school. And I think there may be other things in there that are the same. So I would love to see a more extensive description for the benefit of the school committee too, of where I can go quickly to see why they're doing what they're doing, what their rules are, and certainly rules, election terms, those are all impactful for them as well. So, you know, I think to not state the obvious, I think the three parts of our government, mayor, City Council and school committee should be the thing we focus the most on and be the thing that we come up with the most detail because this charter. And the other thing too I'll just say up front since I have the microphone I want to hog it all night. Our job in terms of what I believe is to hear what the people want. And that means hearing, you know, I envision asking the school committee and the city council to tell us what they think is the right thing to do. Recommend the changes that we need, how we won't know unless we actually go to the folks who are going to be impacted by this. So I'd love to see some kind of collaboration where either we sit down with the school committee or we ask the school committee what's wrong with our charter. Same way with the city council and the mayor's office. So we have an understanding of what we're voting on and recommending is something that makes sense to everybody who's going to be impacted by it. So those are my thoughts after reading through page after page of this book.
[Milva McDonald]: Great. Thank you, Ron.
[Laurel Siegel]: And Ron, if you recall, actually, at our last meeting, one of the things we did discuss is the potential of arranging for meetings with individual city Councilors, individual school committee members for exactly that reason to get their input on this.
[Ron Giovino]: And I just think because we're kind of a advisory committee, I just want to make sure there's some legs behind it when we say to those organizations, you know, it's going to be impossible to prove something that you guys don't like. So they should be able to take the opportunity along with all the citizens to let us know what it is. And I don't, I have no idea what everybody wants. you know, I have a pretty good idea of what I'd like to see.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, great. Thank you. Anybody else have thoughts? Okay, Eunice.
[Eunice Browne]: Okay, thanks. First of all, I just want to start off by saying, Milva, you absolutely rock putting that document together. I was trying to figure out how to look over all three communities and have tabs open for each one and so on and so forth. So to get that, you know, you rock. Thank you. You're welcome. So I guess it was sort of a stream of consciousness here as I looked over everything. And one of the things that I noted that Somebody, it was written somewhere, but that and I'm kind of looking over my desktop here where I have stuff up. What was said to us from the Collins Center was that framework for considering the mayor and manager forms of government. That seems to inform everything else that we're going to do or a lot of what we're going to do. So I'm wondering, should that be addressed first? Do we decide if we're going with a strong mayor or a town manager or some sort of arrangement so that then other things can fall into place? So should that be decided first? I think beyond that, and I'm in agreement with Ron, I would go with the mayor manager part first, and then the legislative body, and then the school committee, and then the budget. But that being said, that definition section, I wonder if we need to, define the definitions first, as that informs the entire document as well. So maybe doing the other pieces is sort of putting the cart before the horse, but then do we do a preamble because that's sort of the values that we have? You know, that too, it comes at the beginning, that's what a preamble is. That also informs everything that we have moving forward. So those are all some considerations that I had. I think Ron is right, you know, and as somebody who followed the Columbus Missituk story very intently, I think, The school committee needs to be better defined. Obviously we need to adhere to mass general laws at all times, but we as a community get to decide what our elected bodies do within the confines of mass general law. So I think that that could be much better defined do we want to put the mayor on the school committee again? Maybe that's something to consider, though that's sort of getting into the weeds here a little bit. And I noticed watching one of the recent city council meetings, and this goes to what Ron said and what we talked about last time about talking with our elected officials about what they want. If you go back to the March 21st City Council meeting about a half hour or 40 minutes in, Councilor Bears had a resolution on the agenda talking about some of the different powers of the City Council that he would like to see changed, especially as it relates to the budget. And he was talking about some, maybe putting he's aware of what our group is doing. And he doesn't feel like this is stepping on toes necessarily. But he was talking about, you know, putting some ballot questions on to change some of the powers of the city council. So that seems to be out there percolating. amongst at least some members of the city council. And I would suggest that maybe you go back and listen to that March 21st meeting. It's about 40 minutes in. I think they're going to discuss that further, but that seems to be, we're looking at what we're doing holistically with the entire charter. And they're talking about picking and choosing different pieces of it. So if they did that, does that override our work? Or will our work in the long run override theirs? So I think that that's something that, you know, needs to, you know, be sort of put out there. So those are my thoughts for the moment.
[Milva McDonald]: Thanks, Eunice. I want to hear from Matt, but I just wonder if the Collins Center has any thoughts about what you've heard so far, because there were some questions that came up. OK, if not, I just.
[Wright]: No, I'm sorry.
[Milva McDonald]: It's OK.
[Wright]: I'm muting myself. This is Frank. No, I think you're going down the right path. I think you have to start. Perhaps, I think it was Eunice who said, you know, just looking at the forms of government you want to use as a benchmark, so to speak. Do you want the strong mayor? Do you want a town manager? I mean, city manager, former government, and then kind of go down from there. So if you're going to say, could you strong mayor, what's your city council going to look like? And then obviously a school committee house that can be structured you already talked about do you want the strong mayor on that on that city school committee I'm sorry. That's how I think you can kind of, as you go down each level, each layer, you can kind of work out the details there, and I know you want to get the input from the various bodies, and you're in the process of trying to set up those meetings, and I think there's great value in that, but It seems to me that based on what I'm hearing this evening that everyone's kind of thought this through and you have a variety of opinions. So the important thing is to take those opinions and And keep moving forward. I think we want to keep this process moving, and ultimately, your elected bodies, particularly the city council and the mayor. As executive will have to review all this and decide which of your recommendations because you're not making decisions as you know, making recommendations into the scheme that they, as, as the two branches of government. believe to be appropriate and then they'll have to work it out amongst themselves. The city council believes x and that the mayor believes y and you've recommended something, either one or the other or something in between all these things have to be worked out together and And this is the first step. So it sounds like you've got some substance you've been looking at, and that you're, you know, going to make some progress, it sounds like tonight, which is a big step. So.
[Milva McDonald]: Great, thank you. Okay, I'm sorry, I didn't thank you for pointing that out. Anthony.
[Andreottola]: Oh, hi. I'm very glad to hear people starting to talk about what their ideas are. But something I'd like to really kind of try to bring the group to focus on is that I think our mission is to look at what our city needs and what form of government, you know, and what policies and procedures would work best for our community in 2023 and going into the future. I think it's more important to figure out what the needs are, you know, what are the areas, not so much, you know, what politicians might like, you know, who'd like a longer term or who would like more power. I'm really, I don't think that's our mission. Our mission is to see what our citizens need and want and what kind of government would work best for them. And I think that, you know, the questions we really need to look at is, you know, I know we talked about our maybe not with this group, about, you know, expanding the city council to better represent, you know, the different communities or our population better. You know, do we know, like, would that work? You know, do we know what the demographics is? You know, if we had neighborhood city councilors What would that look like? How would we sell that to the city council, to the community? Is that something that the community wants? I don't know that. I've heard about it. I've heard people talk about, we need a nine-person city council that represents different communities so people are better represented. But has anybody really taken the time to go out and flesh that out? And I think that's part of our mission. Like we already made one recommendation about, you know, wanting to rewrite the whole charter. And do we get feedback on that now? Like, do we know that that's something the city council and the mayor will kind of push along or will we just spin our wheels and will they do something completely different? I don't know, do we do this in steps or do we take on this whole thing and come out with a product in the end they're gonna say, oh, we don't like that.
[DnBk5C8-dFs_SPEAKER_09]: Again, those are the kinds of things that roll around in my head.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, thanks. Okay, Matt, do you wanna share your thoughts?
[Matt Leming]: Yeah, it was just sort of echoing some of the other comments regarding the points about consulting with city councillors and other officials on these different Aspects of charter review. So I absolutely agree with the idea that they ought to be consulted. So I'm sure that the city councilors will have plenty of ideas on ways to make their job easier, especially with regards to the budget and the school committee likely has some similar thoughts, but that does have to go with the big caveat that there are inherent conflicts of interest, especially with regards to elections, term limits, things like that. So if you ask a city councilor, should you, if you're gonna ask a city councilor, should you be limited to two terms? Of course, they'll say no. That's just the way it's gonna be. They are gonna be, Um, I don't think that we're going to vote on it. Um, like Frank noted, um, these are all recommendations are going to vote on it anyway. But I think that. And again, this just echoes what exactly what Anthony just said. If we do run into a situation where the community says one thing. Um, and the city council and the city council or. with regards to election redistricting, the number of city councilors, we should side with community and expert feedback because that's slightly more neutral territory, like there's less conflict of interest there.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Those are my thoughts.
[Milva McDonald]: Thanks, Matt. Does anybody else want to share thoughts about prioritizing discussion before we move on to the Collins Center presentation? OK, so with that, I'm going to turn it over to the Collins Center. They're going to talk to us about the executive options for executive branch.
[Laurel Siegel]: And Frank, I've made you co-host, if you want to share screen or let me know if you want us to share something of your materials.
[Wright]: Okay. My understanding was that everyone has the materials that Anthony sent out. Is that correct? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah, if you could share the screen.
[Laurel Siegel]: The members of the public who are on don't have the benefit of that.
[Wright]: Okay. And you can share that on the screen for the public to see?
[Laurel Siegel]: I should be able to, which document are you going to go to?
[Wright]: I would suggest probably starting with the graphs, the forms of government.
[Milva McDonald]: Are you able to pull that up, Laurel?
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah, I'm honestly not sure which of the two documents. So if you can pull that up, that would be great.
[Milva McDonald]: Frank, you can get started and I'll, I mean, unless you need to wait for me to find this.
[Wright]: No, but I'll just start generally. Anthony put together some kind of high level graphs of the three forms of government we've discussed, which would be the first would be the weak mayor-council form, which have the voters electing a mayor, a committee, a school committee and a council. And that both the mayor, the city council, and the school committee would share power in running various aspects of the city. The city mayor would appoint certain department heads, perhaps, and the city council, depending on how you structure it, would also be making a lot of decisions, broader decisions, and their appointees as department heads would be making certain decisions. And the school committee as well. If you scroll down, you get to the strong mayor form of government, which is. more consistent with what you see now. And you've seen now the cities with the charters that we've shared with you. So then you have the voters electing a mayor and voting, electing members of the city council, but the mayor him or herself appoints virtually all the department heads, perhaps in most cities, other than the city clerk, which would be, still be a city council appointee. But the mayor is the executive. The mayor runs the city on a day-to-day basis. The council will vote on budgetary items and will obviously pass ordinances as well. But the mayor is the one who's in charge. The mayor will make the final decision on items that the council votes on and either will veto them or approve them. and will run the city like I said on a day-to-day basis through the department heads that the mayor him or herself selects in most cases as confirmed by the city council. Then the last form of government is the council manager form in which the voters elect the mayor or city council But in most cases, it's the council and they would fire a city manager. And that city manager would run the city on a day-to-day basis. And the city manager would be responsible for choosing department heads who would be approved by the city council. But the manager would work for the city council, but the manager would be the person who would be the, the executive, so to speak, running the functions of the city on a day-to-day basis. would not be a political person, but would be the person, again, who is responsible for making sure that the day-to-day functions of city government get taken care of. Examples of that are Cambridge and Watertown. So those are real high-level views of the three forms of government. The other document that was sent over by Anthony was a document that's titled framework for considering mayor and manager forms of government. And this is a little probably hard to see by the public, but it breaks down the aspects of the, Uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, we can kind of dive into the three forms of government and any questions you might have generally. So I'll kind of leave it up to this committee, how they'd like to proceed.
[Contreas]: I think- Frank, it's Marilyn. I just wanted to note that in the council manager form, once the council passes an ordinance, that's it. There's no, the city manager does not have veto authority over what the council acts on.
[Wright]: That's a great point.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. I think since we've had these materials and had a chance to look at them, maybe we could go to questions. And it looks like Ron has a question.
[Ron Giovino]: That's a question for Frank. Frank, in the the strong mayor scenario. Is there room for change in terms of which department heads could be appointed by the council versus the mayor? Or is it all set in stone that only the council picks the city clerk?
[Wright]: Well, if Marilyn, feel free to jump in here. But if the charter is a document that is self-created by the city of Medford and is passed by the legislature and the governor, then no, it could it could allow for certain appointments to be made by the city council. Obviously the further away you go from the mayor making those appointments, the further away you go from having a strong mayor. But it's all, it's really, if the charter is unique to the city of Medford and the legislature blesses it and passes it, then that will be the form of government you have
[Ron Giovino]: we're also we're also need to be in line with the general laws as well so we can't like you know there's got to be some kind of audit that goes forth that says well here's medford's charter doesn't match up to massachusetts state charter state laws because of this so i'm sure there's some kind of restrictions but i'm just and i don't even know what exceptions we would make i'm just i'm just asking to see if If we pick a form of government, does that just lock us into certain rules of what the powers of the mirror.
[Contreas]: It does to some extent, I think.
[Wright]: I would agree on a practical level, it does, to the extent that the more you stray from what is generally regarded as a strong mayor-former government or what the statutes may allow for, probably the less likelihood you're going to get the legislature to approve it. So there's a practical reality here as well.
[Contreas]: Right. I mean, certain uniform state laws to specify that the mayor does this, the mayor does that, so.
[Wright]: Yeah, and that's why I said the city clerk is, for instance, is always an appointee of the city council.
[Milva McDonald]: Right.
[Wright]: Okay, thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Don, you had a question?
[Moreshi]: Yes, thank you. I think the city manager form of government is an interesting idea, but I have a memory about a year or so ago about there being discussion of a shortage of town managers and city managers. And I was wondering if you could talk about sort of the practical implications of city manager versus mayor in terms of candidates and cost, that kind of thing.
[Wright]: But just it's kind of off the cuff, but I will just I'm sorry.
[Moreshi]: Yeah, no, I'm sorry if that's a weird question.
[Wright]: No, no, I think it's a legitimate question, but I don't have any statistics to back up. But I think your observation has some merit. You're looking for candidates. Cities and towns are constantly looking for candidates, particularly town managers. You usually, from a very practical standpoint, usually end up paying town managers often a lot more than even a mayor gets, and you see a lot of mayors. I think, for instance, Richie Howard from Malden, Rob Dolan from Melrose leaving their positions as mayor to take higher paying positions in surrounding towns. So that's a reality. I guess it depends on the pull you get when you go down that road. you do have to, you're looking for somebody, you're broadening your search, you're not limiting yourselves to the boundaries of the city of Medford. So that's also a consideration.
[Contreas]: Thank you. Yeah, I would agree with all of that. And there's a tradition in Massachusetts that Massachusetts managers kind of move from town to town as opposed to us attracting a lot of out-of-state talent. But that, you know, there are exceptions to that. And if there are, it really depends on how attractive you make the recruitment in terms of somebody who wants to come to a city like Medford and make it better.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Um, Eunice.
[Eunice Browne]: Um, yeah, before we, um, change to the arrangement that we have now, um, probably 30 years ago, um, we had a town manager, um, many, many moons ago. Um, he was, I believe, a Medford resident. Um, so I guess I'm kind of, of two minds here. Um, I think that there's some value to having a mayor, because by default, they're a Medford resident. So they're strongly invested in the community, and work to get elected by their neighbors, so to speak. And that we have a Medford resident, we have one person where the buck stops with him or her, versus having a town manager and a council where, if I'm reading right, some of the authority is sort of spread around the manager and the council so that it's not one person who has, for whom, the best way I can put it is the buck stops there. If we were to go the city manager route, and as Marilyn just said, we're broadening our recruitment pool, could we or would we want to, I guess, give preference, find a way to put it in the charter to give preference to a Medford resident, provided that they had the skillset that it would require so that then we're getting the skillset. You don't wanna put somebody in the city manager position just for the sake of having a Medford resident. But on the other hand, I think that there may be some value to, if they have the skillset, we give preference to a Medford resident so that they may be more invested in what goes on in their own city. So, you know, years ago, as I said, we had a city manager who was a Medford resident. So that would be my idea, my thought. And we had a ceremonial mayor, Mayor Perica back then.
[Milva McDonald]: Frank or Marilyn, do you have any thoughts about that?
[Contreas]: If you have a preference, if you put in the recruitment materials that there's a preference for a Medford resident, you're gonna really reduce your recruitment pool.
[Wright]: I don't know if there would be, I agree with Marilyn and I'm not, I don't know if that's more appropriately put in an ordinance or, and I don't believe it's probably necessary or maybe even appropriate to put it in the charter.
[Contreas]: I've seen what this is. I'm just talking about the recruitment process. Although you see more charters today doing away with residency requirements because of the recruitment pool issues. A lot of charters that passed in the 50s, the town manager had to be a resident within a year of taking the job. But those are all disappearing because people have different lives, their spouses have different work, and they're not gonna pick up their family if they don't have to.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Thank you. Ron, you had another question?
[Ron Giovino]: I have a question for Frank or Marilyn. The chart that I'm looking at here doesn't talk about school committee. Can you just address who's in charge of the school committee and how they function? Do they function autonomously from the city council or What is that, how does you define the power of them in a manager form of government?
[Contreas]: In terms of the school committee, their roles are, the role is significantly defined in terms of their authority in chapter 71, which you may have already explored. And it is a little bit of a world apart, but they do need to, be in touch with it, but they're relying on the city for their revenue to support the school. The vote of the council on the school committee budget is a number, but the school committee itself allocates that money through the various programs. The city council isn't approving a line-by-line spending arrangement. They're an elected body and they have responsibilities in terms of keeping the public informed of their activities and their priorities. But the general laws don't envision a lot of interaction between the city and the school department other than in budgetary matters.
[Wright]: And just to add to that in Maryland, nail on the head. It's unlikely I think the legislature is going to give you any leeway on that. Right. Focus of many communities is perhaps when they look doing a charter review like this and trying to re-examine and maybe perhaps re-establish their school committee is perhaps how do you want it structured? How many people do you want on it? Who do you want the mayor on it? Do you want to have people strictly at large candidates? Do you want to have board So those are probably the ways that the items you need to be considering when it comes to how you want your school committee to be structured.
[Contreas]: One of the main reasons why mayors are on school committees is to provide that bridge between the city and the schools and to be aware of what is often the largest revenue item in a city budget. support for the school.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Anthony, you had your hand raised.
[Andreottola]: Yes, I just want to add just one. I'm old enough to remember the the old city mayor and the ceremonial mayor that we had back with whatever form of government we had back 3040 years ago. And I always thought that the the new arrangement with the strong mayor would really kind of change Medford in a positive way. I really think the checks and balances that the city council and the mayor kind of keep a level of balance of power where know, the mayor can't just bring in people without getting the approval of, uh, you know, they have to be, uh, affirmed by the, uh, the city council. And it really kind of gives, you know, keeps the mayor in check. And it also gives, uh, you know, the community, uh, a voice with the, uh, with the city council, just to give, you know, a few city councilors, uh, the, uh, you know, the end all kind of, uh, decisions they have for votes of final is, uh, I find that kind of scary in a city like Medford, to be honest.
[DnBk5C8-dFs_SPEAKER_09]: That's all I just wanted to add.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. I have a question about, we have a strong mayor now, and I believe the three charters that we've been sort of looking at also had strong mayors. Would you say that that's more common than weak mayor? And can you just sort of speak to maybe sort of the advantages and disadvantages or the differences. And why if it is more, if strong mayor is more popular, is there any, do you have any thoughts about why? Well, I, yes, I do.
[Contreas]: Yes, a strong mayor is definitely more prevalent now. And for me, the biggest catalyst for that was proposition two and a half. because weak mayors did not have the necessary authority to make some of the changes that were necessary under Proposition 2.5. So you saw a lot of cities in the 80s begin to change how the mayor's role was defined. And so there wasn't so much power sharing between the council and the mayor. charters, as you have read now, as you've read several charters, you can see there's a very bright line. The mayor does this, the council does that. There's no sort of negotiation or back and forth or fuzziness between those two roles.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you, that's really interesting. Okay, does anybody else have any other questions? And if you if I don't see you because I only can you know because I'm sharing my screen. I only have one strip of people showing just speak up if you have a question.
[Matt Leming]: Could you explain why didn't the weak mayors have a, any, why were they unable to do anything about proposition two and a half?
[Contreas]: That's an interesting point. You had cities where Councilors had appointment authority for certain city functions. And so the council is then, of course, supporting the budget for those functions that they, where they have appointment authority. So it's very, it was much more difficult to say everybody has to take a cut. You know, the mayor didn't have, you know, didn't have the statutory authority to do that under the charter that they have. You also had these provisions where the mayor decided to remove a person from a position then the individual could go to the city council and appeal that, which in terms of personnel management and personnel law today would just would not work. Sorry.
[Unidentified]: Just to follow up on that. Is there a
[Matt Leming]: Are there, what do you think would look like a, this is just a very general question, but what do you think under a strong mayor system, given that the dual appointment does have, the dual appointments issue under the weak mayor system would have those problems? What do you think that a healthy balance of power would look like under a strong mayor system? I know that's a very general question, but.
[Contreas]: Yeah, it's how you define healthy. I mean, I think one of the ways that the council is valuable in a strong mayor system is to have the opportunity to review and question the major initiatives of the mayor, the budget, the capital plan, Any undertaking of a major building project? Any changes to, you know, how services are provided? When do you decide to, you know, how do you decide to contract out your trash removal? Or any other kind of services that's similar? I know that Medford went through this process a few years ago, where you had a company that was in charge of parking enforcement, right? Am I remembering that correctly?
[Milva McDonald]: Yes. Oh, yeah.
[Contreas]: So the council serves as a venue where the mayor has to justify those things. Justify the changes in terms of whether it's It's cost effective, more efficient, more responsive to the community, all those things.
[Wright]: And just to add on to that as well, I think you'll see that in those charters that we shared with you that the city council also has an opportunity to confirm the appointments that the mayor makes. So while it's the mayor's decision who to put forward to be the, you know, DPW commissioner or the health director, the assessor or whatever. And that choice of who, who he or she wants to serve in that role is the mayor's that person. ultimately has to go before the city council and have a chance to be interviewed, in essence, and discuss their qualifications. And then the city council has an opportunity to decide if that person is qualified. And that's the confirmation process.
[Milva McDonald]: Great, thank you.
[Eunice Browne]: Did you have another thought, Eunice, or another question? Yeah, just jumping off of that, I mean, that would be something that would come with, you know, the charter that, you know, we're working on, because right now, I know it doesn't work that way. You know, the mayor just simply, you know, posts a position that several posted right now, and she hires and, you know, let's go as she sees fit. So currently,
[Andreottola]: but also the city council has the opportunity to set the pay for those positions, is that correct?
[Eunice Browne]: Yes, I guess they have ranges, it's called a CAF, and I can't remember what an acronym is for, but yeah, and there's been a whole lot of contention going on about that over the last couple of years, so. If you follow along.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, great. I want to thank did I miss anybody who had another question. Okay, I want to thank the call and center and I know we're not we're not going to make any decisions about this issue tonight. This was sort of an introductory discussion and we have public forums and things like that, that we have to do. But if anybody wants to kind of share where your head is at on it, that's fine. If anybody feels moved to do that.
[Matt Leming]: I think the most powerful. Well, sorry I'm not raising my hand. It's just a very fast note. I think exactly what was just said was one of the first points that I've seen that. It's a very concrete change to the current charter that could make a more healthy balance between the city council and the mayor is making those appointments as opposed to setting the paired sort of indirect means. So that in my head, that could be a very definite, healthy change to the charter system. I fully understand the problems with the weak mayor system that Marilyn was just describing, but a little bit more give and take in that relationship, I think would be good.
[Milva McDonald]: Great, thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to discuss public engagement strategies. I'm going to hand it over to Laurel.
[Laurel Siegel]: Thank you, Noah. So the first thing we wanted to discuss, we are, we discussed at the last meeting that we're going to plan to have a public information session in June. So in terms of venues, with the assistance of Francis, we've done some research on some possible venues, including we looked at the library, we looked at the senior center, we looked at City Hall. Ultimately, and certainly we can discuss this with all of you, it seems like our best bet is City Hall just because of the technology capabilities at City Hall for having hybrid participation, which, you know, we're assuming that we want to allow for that. You know, certainly, they do have technology at the library but library has limitations on parking in the senior center does not have readily available equipment so wouldn't be as effective. So, Frances went ahead and reserved a couple of dates for us both at city hall and at the senior center. So city hall dates would be June 8th, June 22nd or June 29th, all of which are Thursdays. And also at the senior center, she had discussed with them the possibility of June 8th or June 29th. I don't know if anybody has any input here in terms of the venue or if we just should plan for City Hall and then we can just discuss about the possible dates after that so any any are people good with going ahead with City Hall or any other thoughts on that.
[Unidentified]: seems like everybody's okay with that so.
[Laurel Siegel]: Um, and, um, in terms of the dates and, you know, so June 8th, June 22nd or June 29th, um, Milva and I were discussing this, um, we were leaning towards recommending June 8th, um, just because that is before school lets out. Um, so we can ensure that as many folks are still in the city as possible when we hold this event, but again, open to suggestions from the group on the best date.
[Unidentified]: Go ahead, Eunice.
[Eunice Browne]: Why not do two? Do the June 8th and the June 22nd, just in case somebody can't make one, they make the other. Give them some options. I think the 29th is far too late. People are already gone, but.
[Laurel Siegel]: I would think if we, that's a great suggestion, but also I would think maybe if we wanted to do multiple, we might space them out more instead of having two so close together. But again, open to ideas from the group. Go ahead, Ron.
[Ron Giovino]: I assume that any meetings that we have would be on Zoom anyway, so people could pick it up if they weren't able to attend. But the question I had was, you both sent out a polling of dates to see if we could squeeze in more dates. I don't see that on the agenda. Are we going to add more dates? That will help us as we think about when these...
[Laurel Siegel]: It was unfortunately was an error that the version of the agenda that went out to the committee is not the same as actually what was published with the city meeting. The discussion of our meeting schedule is on the agenda for tonight. So that'll be that'll be further down in the meeting.
[DnBk5C8-dFs_SPEAKER_09]: Good.
[Laurel Siegel]: So any other thoughts with respect to the dates for this first public information session?
[Milva McDonald]: My only thought is that June 8th is the date of our regular meeting. So this would, if we didn't on June 8th.
[Laurel Siegel]: June 1st is the date. I'm sorry. Oh, it's June 1st.
[Milva McDonald]: Oh, thank you.
[Laurel Siegel]: Is the date of our regular meeting, exactly. So we wouldn't be conflicting with our schedule.
[DnBk5C8-dFs_SPEAKER_09]: I think June 8th would work.
[Andreottola]: I think it would, the sooner the better, just to see know what kind of interest that the community has in our work, and it'll give us a little time.
[Eunice Browne]: I think we should maybe reconsider or consider doing a replay of it in September. You know, just almost an identical meeting, just so that, you know, then people are starting to get back into the groove of things. And we may, you know, people June 8th, I think we'll get, you know, I hope we'll get, you know, a good turnout, but I think, you know, some people's minds are already, you know, sitting by the pool at that point. I think maybe if we revise it or replay it back in September, we'll, you know, be getting people who are getting back into the groove of, you know, regular September to June life.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah, absolutely. I think that totally makes sense. Because we'll, you know, we'll certainly want to have multiple information sessions. And I think that timing makes sense to have the follow up one in September. So that we're capturing people already back and more focused on things again for the year. Um, alright, so it does sound like everybody is comfortable with the idea of planning for June 8 at City Hall. Um, I think in terms of planning out the programming, largely this is an information session, so we would do some presenting on our end. We can certainly speak with the folks from the Collins Center on their capacity to join us and share some of the knowledge at that event that they've been sharing with us at our meetings or otherwise. the capacity of one or more of us to be sharing some of that same information. And then there would be some opportunity of course for public input as well and some, you know, gathering of input and data from the community members that join us. I think what would be great is to have, in addition to Milva and myself, maybe a couple of members of the committee. And maybe since actually we are missing a couple of folks tonight, we can put this out by a message to the members of the committee and have a, you know, certainly if anybody on tonight wants to join us, but help us in the, you know, just the basics of planning. Go ahead, Frances, you had something to say?
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes, I just wanted to ask about the timeframe, just confirm, so I will just, put the green check mark to say I'm definitely using the room that day. I can do that.
[Laurel Siegel]: Would folks want to stick with our usual 630 time or you think we should move it later or earlier?
[Unidentified]: At minimum 630, maybe seven o'clock.
[Eunice Browne]: To give people time to get home and get out again or, or hop on zoom, no time is ideal anymore, but I was just not so much on scheduling but on on on content.
[Andreottola]: would we be inviting the mayor or the city council maybe to share their thoughts on charter review or just to be present? Would that fit into our mission or would that be kind of putting the, I don't know, the cat before the horse or the horse before the cat, whatever, however that saying goes. But at some point we're gonna have to, have some interaction with the folks in City Hall and maybe in the presence of the community would kind of help them kind of see this as something that people are working on and talking about.
[Laurel Siegel]: So, you know, certainly we would we would welcome their attendance. I think, you know, for purposes of this meeting, you know that the primary focus is, is the sharing out of information with the community. And certainly actually, you know, Melvin I are planning on for the agenda for our next meeting. to talk more in depth about our strategy for reaching out to individual city officials and arranging conversations between our committee members and those city officials. So certainly any of the city officials, we'd welcome their attendance. But unless folks feel otherwise, I think, you know, this forum is really about introducing these fundamental concepts of you know, who are we and what is the charter, what is this process to educate the members of the community and bring them up to speed and hopefully get them more engaged in the work that we're doing. Any other thoughts in terms of the format or structure? And let's go back to this discussion of the time though, so we can finalize that. What do people think of planning for it to, so basically it would be from, you know, 7 to 8 or 7 to 8.30 PM. Go ahead, Rob.
[Ron Giovino]: I'm just a couple of points, you know, I would think any political person in the city will be there without being asked to do it, but they are just a member of the community at that meeting, in my opinion. But, you know, I think what we have to be careful about is in the planning, if we're doing a presentation, then we'll open it to the public. I think one of the worst things we can do that evening is to end it at eight o'clock because there's 10 more people waiting to get to the microphone. So I think we really should think about an open-ended meeting so that I'm not saying stay until midnight, but certainly if the room is packed, the worst thing I think we can do is at our first meeting, shut down people. I think we should be strict with the three minute rule. I think we should definitely be strict about that, but I'm just, I'm concerned when we say seven to eight, PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, David Ensign — Herndon, I believe. secondary to them giving us information. So to me, the bulk of that meeting should be listening to what they want us to be doing. So it's a good education on both sides.
[Laurel Siegel]: Absolutely, because, you know, we want to make sure that they understand first what it is that we're doing and what the charter is and what comes within the possibilities of what can be considered here. And then, by all means, we want to, you know, this will be our first opportunity to really get some meaningful public input and then we're going to discuss more in the agenda other ways that we're going to be seeking public input. But as has been said by multiple people in this meeting tonight, this process is going to be driven by the community. We have views amongst ourselves, but really what we're doing is data gathering from the community so that the ultimate goal here is that the charter represents the needs and wants of the entire community, not of this body.
[Eunice Browne]: I think putting something out there saying maybe seven to nine, and then if we have to tell, you know, the city staff or the janitorial staff or something like that, you know, internally, you know, 10 or 10pm would be the ending point. And I don't think we'd be there anywhere near that long. I think, you know, seven to, I think the bulk of the program would probably be and that includes hearing from the public, somewhere between seven and eight 30. And then we have that cushion to nine. You know, I think people like to know that there's an end time, but that we will certainly, you know, be open to hearing from any member of the public that is there until that, you know, is exhausted, and then wrap it up. But I think some people like to know, especially if they're coming home and then running out, oh, what time does this end? It ends at nine and now it's quarter of nine. It's like, oh, well, I kind of missed that. So I think two hours is quite sufficient.
[Laurel Siegel]: Francis, you had something to say?
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes, I just wanted to let you know that there wouldn't be staff on site at that time because we wouldn't need any. It's just simply a meeting and I would do the prep work ahead to inform that we would just need, like, extra chairs set up and then perhaps, you know, tables where members of the committee could sit at, right, facing the audience. So, you don't have to worry about that. But, you know, and then the only other thing is I would just ask for the doors to be programmed so that they would be on auto open and auto lock between a specific time. So if you wanted to do seven to nine, I could, you know, reserve the chamber from six so that if, you know, the committee members wanted to come in early, they had that space and then, you know, would be open till nine.
[Eunice Browne]: We also need Medford Community Media there too.
[Frances Nwajei]: I'm sorry, Eunice, I didn't hear you.
[Eunice Browne]: We'll also need the television staff, Metro Community Media. Yeah.
[Frances Nwajei]: Well, once we know the time, then I can send the request in to them.
[Laurel Siegel]: Sure. So one thought, though, just in terms of the timing, certainly, again, we're not going to cut anybody off, but in terms of we don't know what size of the crowd and that there will be a long, ongoing conversation. So I might still propose that we set the time of the meeting as 7 to 830, just so that if we run out of conversation, there isn't an expectation that, you know, somebody logging in at 830 and goes, well, what happened in this meeting? They said they were going until nine. There's nothing to say that we can't keep going until nine. If there is, you know, if there are members of the public who want to continue the conversation, but.
[Unidentified]: That's it. That works. Okay.
[Laurel Siegel]: All right, so 7 to 830 at City Hall on June 8th. And then as I said, if there are any members on tonight and we'll send a message out though to the full group that would like to assist me and Milva in prepping for this event. Is there anybody on tonight who would like to be a part of that?
[Moreshi]: I'm happy to help. I might have to work that night, but I can help you in advance.
[Unidentified]: Wonderful, thank you, John. Anybody else? Yeah, I would, I would help in any way. Great. Sounds great. Thank you.
[Laurel Siegel]: Prepping how? You know, even, you know, talking about what sort of materials we have, the flyers, we'll hand out the flyers, you know, do we create any kind of signage, just the flow of the program. Milva and I will be speaking further with Collin Sender about what they're comfortable and able to present. So, you know, just the format, even, you know, do we provide any kind of refreshment, the minutiae, not so much substantive, but just the organization of the meeting. Oh, sure. Absolutely. Okay, I'm in. Okay, great. Thank you. Yes. All right. And then, you know, so we have the flyers and Francis has looked into the available options and got us quote for having the flyer translated into the. primary languages that we already see on the city's website for various groups represented in our city. And Frances, I didn't know if you needed a further go ahead from us or if you were ready to just go with arranging for those translations.
[Frances Nwajei]: I was waiting for a further go ahead from you if it was okay.
[Laurel Siegel]: I would think so unless anybody has any concerns. We'll speak a little bit more about budget a little bit later in the meeting. Milv and I did meet with the mayor and we do have an allocation of funds specifically for this committee at this point. And the total quote for the translation into those five languages is $250, which seems very reasonable. Printing costs we're not concerned about because the city will be able to print this for us. And of course, we'll utilize online media as well for disseminating these materials. Does anybody have any questions about doing that? Or otherwise, just giving Francis a go ahead so that we can start generating those.
[Eunice Browne]: Can we get one last look at the flyer before it, you know, goes to print?
[Laurel Siegel]: Certainly, if you want us to circulate that again, Milver, and I can send that out to you tomorrow so that we can get the final approval on that.
[Eunice Browne]: Yeah, I think it would be good to just take one last look and make sure it encompasses everything that we think should be there.
[Laurel Siegel]: Yeah. And of course, this is just the first piece of media that we're putting out there. We imagine there will be future ones. This is just a very introductory piece. So then, you know, the question is about distribution aside from online media, we had discussed the possibility of having a presence at some of the community events coming up. Um, you know, we have farmers market has, you know, community table, their circle the square on June 17. There's the chambers clippership day on July 22. There are probably other opportunities. The key is having people who would be available to assist at a table, it would basically we would come up with, we would distribute the flyer or whatever other uh, literature that we have, but again, it would be an opportunity for information gathering, um, and we can discuss further of, you know, what that could look like, um, you know, different, different formats for people to give us their input on their priorities and areas of interest, um, for the charter. Um, so it is a great way to, uh, get ourselves in front of people, um, But we definitely need commitment from members of this group to be available if we choose to do this so. Um, and again, this, you know, where we're missing a few members tonight, it's something that we'd want to send out to a larger group, um, to. Uh, get commitments, but among just, just looking at circle the square on June 17th and Clippership day on July 22nd from among the members here, do we have folks who would be able to commit to either or both of those days assisting at a table?
[Unidentified]: I could probably do at least one of them.
[Andreottola]: I don't know what my schedule is like, but I'll try to make a point of keeping something open.
[Unidentified]: Okay, thank you. Frances?
[Frances Nwajei]: Once the flyers are completed, I know that I'll be putting them in the hands of the community liaisons and the connectors for the language access team, so that at least they'll have them and could give them, you know, to the community members that they meet with, right, and to the different businesses that they meet with, so that can be that sort of awareness raised as well from that angle. Are there any school events perhaps that we could leave some at, like not necessarily have to be there? But, you know, if there's like a parent teacher meeting or something, I don't mind just like driving over and dropping some at the appropriate school. Sure.
[Laurel Siegel]: That sounds great. Yeah, we'll definitely need to, you know, do some research into outside of these couple of events that I've mentioned what other events are coming up in the city that we could potentially have a presence at. So just going back, though, to my question, other than Anthony, do we have anybody from the members who are here who would be available either June 17th or July 22nd to help cover a table?
[Matt Leming]: Well, again, I could I could I could probably I'm not sure what my schedule looks like then, but I could offer a
[Unidentified]: a soft commitment for one of those days.
[Laurel Siegel]: So again, we'll send a message out to the group. And then similarly, we, you know, we can, you know, the farmers market, I think is a wonderful opportunity. And of course, they are there every Thursday, through the summer months. And so, you know, if we, we could check in with them on what dates might be available and communicate that back to the group to see if somebody is available from the group to help cover and reach out to the public. And certainly if people hear or know of other significant events around the city, let us know so we can see if we can have a presence at those events. And then the other thing that we had talked about is overall flyer distribution, that we probably want to do this again, you know, we can just create online list, but of, you know, the locations where we would want to distribute these flyers physically. We have, you know, the obvious places such as City Hall and the Senior Center and the Community Center and the library. We also discussed reaching out to places of worship around the city. and other organizations and groups around the city. So probably what is the easiest thing to do is just to create a list and people sign up for once we have these printed, where people can pick up a stack and take them to the various locations, if that makes sense.
[Eunice Browne]: What about, you know, either some of us or maybe others that we can, you know, involve you know, it's spring sports season and bringing them to little league games or games that, you know, lacrosse at the high school or softball or whatever, you know, and just.
[Laurel Siegel]: Absolutely. You know, as many, as many different venues as we can think of to get the word out. And then in the fall, fall sports. Yeah, absolutely. To the extent that we've got people who are aware of these schedules and have the capacity in their own personal schedules to attend events and distribute materials. I think the more places that we can be visible, the better engagement we're gonna have with the community. For sure.
[Andreottola]: Speaking of engagement, are we able to use you know, do we have a social media account or can we create one? Can we, you know, tweet, you know, this event or can we get it on, you know, can we have like a Facebook page or something like that that might be able to link with other groups and pages so we can get a little more publicity out there since we don't have a local newspaper. I think, you know, I'm not a, you know, I think social media is a great place for this stuff, but it seems to be the only venue kind of available to get wide broadcast of information right now.
[Laurel Siegel]: So we don't have our own individual accounts, but what Milda and I have been doing is posting information on the numerous community pages that there are on Facebook. And in addition, in speaking with Mayor and with Francis, There's the commitment from them. Anything, particularly something like this event that we have coming up in June would be included in their newsletters and their messaging out to the community, all of their regular channels that they use, text messages and phone calls and emails and everything that goes out officially from the city, we would be included as a city committee in any of that kind of messaging.
[Unidentified]: Go ahead, Francis. Frances, did you have something?
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, superintendent of schools also does a weekly message if I'm not mistaken. And another opportunity I'll have to double check, but usually when we have events, the school will post it on the school's website. So I'll have to double check and see if they can post the, let's say the flyer even in English and the different languages. they might have a suggestion and say I have to send it to the individual schools, that's another one. There are also some other non-traditional events that we haven't mentioned. You have Arab American Heritage Day event, first one that's happening in Medford, that's happening at the Brooks School, so that's an opportunity where we'd need to make sure that I have bulk flyers of the Arabic version, right, as well as the other languages, but we would have the liaisons there as well. You have of Haitian American Flag Day that's happening in May. So we do have some non-traditional community spaces that we can start the work at. That's not a big lift.
[Laurel Siegel]: Okay, I think that all sounds great. And certainly if you can help keep us informed as you hear of events coming up so we can be aware of them, that would be really helpful.
[Eunice Browne]: Eunice, go ahead. When we post our meeting notices, can we post the supporting material that we get to? You know, I wonder if, you know, I saw all of your posts all over the place, you know, in the last couple of days, which is terrific. You know, could we have posted along with that? And I know it's extra work and I apologize. But that, you know, presentation we had from the Collins Center, the framework, and the different forms of government and things. And even the great work that Milved did, you know, morphing all of the charters together so that people can actually see what's in an actual comprehensive charter. So instead of, you know, what's gone out is then people have to take it upon themselves to, you know, go to the links provided or go to the website, the city website, find the charter commission, and then find the bits and pieces that are there. Could we start pushing some of that out to pique people's interest? You know, if they saw maybe that, you know, the different frameworks of government that we were talking about tonight, I wonder if that might have piqued somebody's interest or to see what an actual real honest to God charter should look like as opposed to what we have.
[Laurel Siegel]: quite, quite on it. Some of that has been, I do think that that's a great idea. Some of it is the mechanics. So something like, you know, certainly like Milva's document there, you know, we wouldn't be able to, the best we could do is do a link to it. We can't actually post it. But, but some of it has just been a timing matter, because sometimes we don't receive the materials from the call-in center until very shortly before meeting. And we want to put the notices out to the community of the meetings further in advance. But, you know, we can certainly, you know, to the extent that it's possible to do that, you know, our practice so far has been, as soon as we complete a meeting, then we submit all the materials to the city and they immediately post it. So, you know, the materials from tonight's meeting, for example, should be on the city's website. I don't know, actually, if City Hall, is City Hall open tomorrow? either tomorrow or Monday, it will be up on the city's website. But, you know, we can see, depending on timing of our receipt of those materials from the Collins Center, that we can get those posted on our page on the website prior to our meetings. And then certainly we could incorporate a link to, you know, for discussion at this meeting, please review this document. So we can certainly look at doing that. And then, you know, the question is about other media. I've also been posting to Nextdoor just because I have access to that. I know that there are a couple of active Reddit threads in Medford. I'm not a Reddit user myself. I don't know if anybody on this group is a frequenter on Reddit and would be comfortable sharing the, you know, meeting notices on Reddit for us.
[Adam Hurtubise]: He's read it pretty often.
[Laurel Siegel]: So if you would be comfortable I mean we can just share the text of what we're sending out on you know other media if you can share it out on Reddit, that would be fantastic. OK, so certainly as this process evolves, we'll come up with more and more ways to reach out to the public. This is just the initial thoughts of how to first get the messaging out, in particular, get the word out about the June meeting. And then any other ideas that people have as we go along for specific locations or other ways of communicating with the public would be much appreciated. And then the next topic on the agenda is the budget update. So just to let you know, we did speak with Mayor, we talked about what we projected as our needs, but the greatest need that we have is the cost of translating materials. You know, not only do we have this flyer and potential other collateral that we might want to share. We've talked about doing surveys, one or more surveys as we go through this process, and we'd certainly want those to be translated as well. So that's the most significant cost that we envision. Printing does not appear to be an issue. Most of that can be handled in-house by the city, so otherwise it's incidental costs for meeting materials when we hold up public information sessions. So as an initial matter, we have been allocated a budget of 2500 to start. And so, you know, for for this year, and then we will see if we have further needs and have further discussion if need be. Wanted to make folks aware of that. So is that from now until the end of this fiscal year. Yeah, it's not specific to the end of this fiscal year. So you know, it's not just June 30. It's just it's it's just been allocated to us $2,500 to spend. It sounds like perhaps and I have no specific knowledge on this, but perhaps some of the procedures may be changing in 2024. So it's basically through 2023. This has been allocated to us this amount.
[Unidentified]: So any other questions on the budgeting? All right, and I'll turn it back over to you, Mila, to talk about meeting schedules.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so we did not have success finding another time when all the committee members could meet for a sec if we were going to up our meetings to twice a month as opposed to once a month. So the only other potential option for that is to explore Monday, because we didn't explore Monday, but we don't even have everybody here tonight. But just from the people here, is there anybody who couldn't make Monday? Ideally, the third Monday, since we're meeting on the first Thursday.
[Unidentified]: No, so everybody could do Monday.
[Milva McDonald]: We'll go back and check with the committee members who aren't here. So we could possibly do twice a month, first Thursday and third Monday. But if that doesn't work out, the other option we have is to just keep our monthly meeting and form subcommittees to move ahead. We would likely form subcommittees regardless, but does anybody have any thoughts about either those options, twice a month, if it's possible, plus subcommittees or just stick with the once a month and add subcommittees. Anybody have thoughts?
[Adam Hurtubise]: I would go with once a month and subcommittees personally. That's just me.
[Moreshi]: I would agree. I think it might be more efficient. We just have to nail down what the subcommittees would be.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, that will be our next step.
[Moreshi]: That sounds good.
[Andreottola]: Maybe those subcommittees can meet on that third Monday. You know, that could be a kind of a tentative date. Yeah, that sounds good.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. That makes sense. Ron, how do you feel about it?
[Ron Giovino]: Well, I'm sitting here in Brewster, Massachusetts as a retired person, so as many as you need, I can get to. But I agree, I think, I think there are going to be times where we want to have an extra meeting. So if we did it every third month, we did that like this June 8th thing. I think after we get all that feedback, I don't want to wait a month until we talk about what happened at that meeting. So there may be times when we want to, you know, bump it up a little bit, but I understand everybody's schedule.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So yeah, that is another possibility that some months we meet twice, um, as a full committee, depending on the agenda. Okay. All right, so I don't think we can, I think we're definitely set for the first Thursday in May, and at that point, at that meeting, maybe we'll talk about adding additional meetings through subcommittees or otherwise. Does that sound good, everybody?
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so Laurel, back to you.
[Laurel Siegel]: Okay, so public participation, I'll first read our statement. and then if anybody would like to speak from the public. Any Medford resident may speak for up to three minutes. If all members of the public who wish to speak have spoken and time allows, members of the public may speak for an additional three minutes. Speakers are asked to provide their full name and address for the record and to address only matters related to the city's charter. The committee's values support a welcoming community of mutual respect for all, and we value your perspective. As you share your perspective, please uphold these values. So that being said, do we have any members of the public who would like to speak at this point?
[Ron Giovino]: All right, seeing none, unless... I just have one question about what you just read. What happens when somebody refuses to tell us where they live?
[Laurel Siegel]: We will address that as it comes.
[Ron Giovino]: It's already happened. It's already happened during whatever it is. Whatever it is, I think we should have resolution.
[Laurel Siegel]: I mean, you know, this is the policy of the city to request the name and the address. And we've confirmed that with the city officials. Um, you know, can we compel somebody to provide that information? Is that a productive argument to have with somebody? Um, you know, just based on, I can only speak to my experience as a member of the community observing meetings, you know, there, it's not always provided. Um, and it's usually not made a big issue out of, but it is the request of the city. Yeah.
[Ron Giovino]: I don't think it, I'm not saying it's necessary. I'm just saying, if we're making it a rule, then we start.
[Laurel Siegel]: Well, it's not, we're not making it a rule. It's a rule of the city. And, you know, but, you know, whether or not people comply, there's, you know, we just request that people comply. Go ahead, Matt.
[Matt Leming]: So I would, I think that it would be good to recheck whether that is still a rule because I think it was the, I believe the person that refused to provide information last time definitely had kept up with those rules and was under the impression that it was no longer. So I think it may have recently changed.
[Laurel Siegel]: We specifically and recently had the conversation with the mayor about what was appropriate and required. Um, it is definitely a current rule. Um, so Eunice, go ahead.
[Eunice Browne]: Um, it is, as I understand it to a current rule, but I think there are situations where I've seen it in both of our elected bodies where rather than giving one's address name. Yes. address in front, you know, at the podium, city council, for example, they can give it to the city messenger or the city clerk, school committee, I think there's a way of, you know, not putting it out there on the, you know, over the airwaves to, but giving it to, you know, somebody who's taking notes and so forth, so that it doesn't get looted. I think some people's safety may be an issue.
[Laurel Siegel]: We can certainly always, if somebody has an issue, we can ask them to direct message myself or Milva on Zoom with the information. We have it directly.
[Eunice Browne]: And the other question I would ask, not related to that, but in terms of our, you know, June public meeting, you know, we need to start on the content of that. So would that be the next meeting?
[Laurel Siegel]: Well, no, that's, I mean, that that is the reason for these that the members that I asked for for assistance, you know, to plan on what that is. Yeah. Okay, gotcha. Matthew, you have a message or a comment from the public?
[Matthew Page-Lieberman]: Matthew Pageliberman, PB – He, Him, His): Yes, thank you so much, good evening, everybody, this is Matthew page Lieberman from 15 canal street. Matthew Pageliberman, PB – He, Him, His.: : yeah I mean as far as this thing is this hang up about people from the Community that everybody already knows lives in the Community hearing commissions. Matthew Pageliberman, PB – He, Him, His.: : Giving that particular address, you know I do think it is kind of you know, it is a big waste of time, I do know from experience that a previous city clerk. would require that information, particularly to put it in the notes. And that would involve that particular city clerk going through a lot of records of who lived where, just for the purpose of the minute. I know that with that particular previous city clerk, I'd said, well, perhaps you could have people write their address on a piece of paper and you wouldn't have to spend all this time trying to figure out when you don't want to hear their name, how it's pronounced, how it's spelled. It's a big waste of time. But beyond that, I mean, since we're on this particular issue, I know I've had a lot of difficulty in the past trying to get the actual contact information of people on the commissions. So I could try to get a copy of the minutes and stuff like that. And that would, I think that would be a lot more helpful if the kind of the emails perhaps of the chairs or the secretaries were available on this, you know, on the drive or whatever you call it. Thank you.
[Laurel Siegel]: Certainly. So on our page on the city's website, there is an email address that Milva and I have also on the flyer that we'll be sending around that the email address appears on that as well.
[Unidentified]: If that answers your question.
[Matthew Page-Lieberman]: It, you know, it does a little bit I have seen that kind of Google thing but in my experience, you know, with a lot of commissions, you have to kind of see if you know anybody personally and then personally ask if they can pass you a copy of the agenda or the minutes or the Collins Collins records.
[Laurel Siegel]: So all of that is on our web page, all of our agendas, recordings of all of our meetings, meeting minutes, all of the presentations that we've had so far from the Collins Center, all of that is on our website and we are maintaining that regularly, promptly after every meeting or before every meeting when it comes to the agendas. So, you know, we are making sure that that material is available to public on the the web page that the city has for us on their site.
[Matthew Page-Lieberman]: This is true and I don't mean any disrespect to you. I know that your commission has done a lot better job in providing that information. Thank you.
[Laurel Siegel]: Okay, great. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Otherwise, do we have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn.
[DnBk5C8-dFs_SPEAKER_09]: Second.
[Laurel Siegel]: All right. All in favor? Next meeting is June 1st, I'm sorry, not June 1st, May 4th is our next regular meeting.
[Eunice Browne]: Okay. And in the meantime, we'll work on the small groups of us will work on the content.
[Laurel Siegel]: Correct.
[Eunice Browne]: Gotcha. Thank you. All right. Sounds good. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
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