[Milva McDonald]: Yes, thank you so much, Danielle. It's really great to be back on the podcast. I'm Milva McDonald, and my pronouns are she, her. And the restaurant question, I've been thinking about that, but you haven't asked it yet.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, well, it's hard to pick one favorite, and I've said different things last time. I said the farmer's market, which is still a great choice. I do like the Thai restaurant in Medford Square, Tom Young Kun. And I like, I mean, I like the Pad Thai. I like curry. I like the massaman curry.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. Um, so where we are right now is we are at the final step, which is the voters. Um, and the, the charter was the mayor appointed a committee, which you and I were both on. We spent almost two years doing public engagement or review, reviewing the charter, going through an article by article, the mayor and the city council then, um, had a negotiation, they worked through it, they made some changes, they came to an agreement, and then it was sent to the State House as a home rule petition, which is basically a bill. So it has to go through the process of any bill. And so it went through the House, it went through the Senate. The Senate had a few very minor changes, nothing substantive, just details, but that meant it had to go back to the House. And then it went back to the Senate, and then the governor signed it in mid-September, and that means the next stop is the voters, the ballot. And the state reviews it just to ensure that it complies with state law, You know, it's in alignment with what should be in a charter in Massachusetts, et cetera. And now the voters get to decide. And the sample ballot is available on the website for the Charter's ballot question committee, which I know we're going to be talking about. And it's also on the city website. So people can actually see what their ballot looks like before they go vote, and they can read the question and the summary.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, that's a great question. So the city will be putting out some information on their webpage about the question, but we have a ballot question committee and there's a website and it's www.medfordcharternow.com. It has a link to the current charter, links to the proposed charter, Link to the ballot so you can see it and it and it has summaries of. You know, kind of what is a charter and what some of the proposed changes in the new charter are so, you know, I mean. Reading the chart, the propose the current our current charter is very short. It's about 2 pages. Um, but the proposed charter is much longer. Um. And it's comprehensive, whereas our current charter isn't so are the proposed charter is. 40 something pages. So there are summaries for people if they don't want to read the whole thing.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, absolutely. But to your point that you just made, I mean, you remember when the Collins Center for Public Management that we worked with on the committee, we were fortunate to have them advising us. They sort of, we have a memo from them about the complexity of Medford's Charter, which sounds strange because Medford's Charter is only two pages long, right? But the reason it's difficult is because there's almost nothing in it. So any questions that arise, you have to sort of find your way through state law, as you just said, and it can make things confusing. Yeah, exactly. So, as far as the major as the changes in the charter, the charter sets out sort of establishes Medford as a city, and it lays out our form of government. The form of government, which is mayor council will remain, but the changes to the mayor's office are a 4 year term. Which is trending in Massachusetts and it makes sense for reasons, including, you know, executive tasks are more long term. And so. Giving the mayor 4 years means less time campaigning more time spent working on what the city needs. The other thing to them with the mayor is a term limit of four terms, so no mayor will be able to serve longer than 16 years. And as far as the city council. Ward representation, which is something that people have talked about. I mean, I've lived in the city for 32 years, and for most of that time, people have been talking about why don't we have ward representation? We're one of the only cities left in the state that does not have it. So that's a pretty big change, and it means our current council of seven at-large members would change to a hybrid Council of 8 ward representatives 1 from each ward and 3 at large Councilors, which is also the standard size for. Cities like ours, our council is the smallest. um and that number because we wanted to have you don't have to be able to break a tie but also not just a single at large exactly right we did you remember because we did say well we could do nine but that would mean one at large and the point of hybrid is that you sort of have a mix of both so yeah yeah that's why um you know, like Malden has eight wards and they have eight ward Councilors, three at large. Somerville, I believe only has seven wards, but they still, they have 11, they have four at large. So they're still doing 11, but if we had had six wards, you know, then maybe we would have gone with nine, but it makes sense to do the 11 because of the hybrid. The school committee, will have localized representation, not ward, because that would have made the school committee much bigger. And, you know, we didn't really see a need to increase the size of the school committee. So, um, they'll still be 7 members. 4 of them will be from districts, so two wards will be combined to make a district, and then two at large and the mayor will remain on the school committee, but the school committee will elect its own chair, whereas currently our charter says the mayor is the chair. Under the new charter, the school committee will elect its own chair.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, that was, that came up during the negotiations between the mayor and the city council. Um, the, um, yeah, it's, there's almost, I think there's maybe one, maybe two communities that don't have the mayor on the school committee. Um, but the mayor being chair is, you know, it's, it's not as common. It's, it's about half and half. Um, so, um, so that is, you know, that's one of the reasons that, um, It didn't, I mean, for many reasons, mayors are on school committees in Massachusetts because of the way schools are run in Massachusetts. And the budget is a huge part of, the school budget is a huge part of the city budget. So having the mayor present and part of that, that's kind of the idea. It also gives the school committee members the mayor's ear every week. It gives the public a chance to interact. But in other states, maybe where they have county systems, whatever, the mayor's not necessarily as involved just because of the way their systems work.
[Milva McDonald]: I think that's the main reason, yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Um, well, you know, the budget processes are, are outlined in state law. So there's certain things that, you know, we have to do because of state law says so, but one thing that is new and we, and we've also had some improvements to our budget process with the recent budget ordinance passed by the city council. So, um, so there's that also, but in the charter, there's a requirement that there's an annual budget meeting with the mayor and the school committee and the city council sort of very early in the process. I think, I think the date was no later than February 15th. So that, that the intention of that is for these sort of three bodies to just communicate, um, and talk about the financial state of the city and the needs of the city and, and sort of get some, some of that think tanking, um, before the budget process begins.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so we see the council school committee. Um, there are citizen participation mechanisms that we don't have in our charter now. So. It there's, um. A group petition, it was sometimes called a free petition where, and in the current proposed charter, it would be 100 signatures that. To put a measure to get the city council to put something on their agenda and talk about it. you just need to get 100 signatures. Obviously, then people can do that now, they can contact city councilors, and then the city councilors will often bring those issues to the floor. This provision is meant to, if a resident doesn't get that response, then they have this option to get 100 people to sign a petition and get the city council to talk about their concern. It doesn't require that they do anything specific, but it means it has to be taken to the floor. There's also provisions to put a measure on the ballot. So if there's something that we want to pass in the city or that some resident or group of residents wants to pass and they do the work of collecting the number of signatures required, it can get put on the ballot. Also, If the city council passes an ordinance and people say, you know, we don't agree with this and they get the required number of signatures, which is, you know, a lot, then they can put that on the ballot to, um, to say no to this referent to, to this, uh, measure. Uh, there's also a provision to recall the mayor. So again, pretty big lift to recall the mayor. It can't be done frivolously, but if for some reason there's some, you know, big corruption happening or something that motivated a large enough group of residents to collect the signatures and vote the mayor out, that that is possible. Whereas it wasn't, it's not possible in our current charter.
[Milva McDonald]: Absolutely. I mean, that was definitely the hope.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, so that was something that people brought up as a question. And when we talked to the call center about it, they basically said, you know, that doesn't generally happen, but there are provisions in state law if it doesn't. I mean, there's the option of writing it. People can write in a candidate. But and then, you know, if that doesn't, yeah, usually that fixes it. But I mean, when we asked them about it, they I believe they said they didn't even know of a single case where that happened.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. I mean, because the other thing about ward representation is that it makes running for office a lot more accessible. Running in a ward of 7,000 to 8,000 people is hugely different from running in a city of 60,000. Mailings are going to be a lot less. You're going to need a lot less literature. Your ability to actually hit a significant number of voters' doors. So it's just more manageable. And even when we did the listening sessions around the city with groups of people, there was a couple of times where people said, oh, yeah, maybe I would consider running if there were ward representation. Yeah, so, um, so I think that the, the lowering the barriers to running for office, um. You know, could hopefully, um. Eliminate the problem of potential problem of not having candidates.
[Milva McDonald]: Absolutely. And we, you know, we heard some of that when we did the listening sessions too. Um, you know, I, I mean, I, there I've talked to people who will say, You know, they've moved here from other cities and they're like, wait, Medford doesn't have order. There's no ward representative. That's weird. And it is weird, actually, in the context of a state.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, as you know, I'm sure you remember that this did come up. People on the committee were like, oh, well, will people worry about the cost? And one of the things that we kept coming back to on the committee was that our job was to determine what the best form of government for Medford would be. So, you know, better government is priceless maybe, I would say. And the other thing is, yeah, there would be four more salaries, but the charter doesn't say what any salaries are. The salaries get decided on by the council for the next mayor, the next school committee and the next city council. So the idea of a council giving itself a raise is not they give the next council a raise or not. Salaries can be changed in any direction, so it's not set in stone the amount of money that it will cost. That's something that will get worked out and fitting for more people up there will also have to get worked out. The city hall chambers, the entire building has to be maintained regardless of whether we have ward representation. So it's not as though there's a zero cost to doing nothing. So, you know, those are some of my thoughts about that.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, interestingly, there was a charter review in 1978. That was our last full review. Um, and. I have the report, and they actually did recommend district representation or more localized representation, but that charter didn't pass. The big issue that people cared about at that time was city manager versus mayor. Medford had a city manager, and that charter review commission did not recommend changing to mayor from city manager. We can't know for sure why that charter got voted down, but I think that's 1 of the reasons because that was the main issue. And then in 1986, it wasn't a full charter review, but the city switched to mayor. So. Yeah, so that's, um, so, yeah, that's the last time, but, you know, as I said, anecdotally, I know people talk about it a lot word representation and have been for a while. And, you know, it clearly from the survey and from talking to people when we did the committee, it was on people's minds.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. And we did have a person on our committee who's in grad school and who's an expert in statistics. And, you know, he assured us that it was statistically significant, that it was a really good response.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, no, you did plenty, Danielle. You were a great, great member of the team. I'm glad you brought this up because, you know, I agree with you. I mean, one of the things about the sort of The thing that we sort of tried to keep focused on, which was that this is not about sort of the current situation now or who's in office now. And so we had to think about it that way and remind ourselves of that sometimes, but it was. It was inherently I feel that the process was inherently a political while we were doing it and I think that was really valuable and and especially in the current environment, you know, having a group of people be able to come together who don't. always see eye to eye on everything, but come together to work on something that's this important to the city in a positive way. Yeah, I felt really good about that. And so I'm glad that it worked out that way. And I think the balance was important overall. you know, for the city too.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. So that's, and I'm glad you brought this up because this is actually one of the really most important things in the new charter. One of the most important things in the new charter is provisions for regular charter review. what the process that you just talked about, it's been on and off for about 15 years. There's a way that cities can do a charter review that involves collecting signatures from 15% of registered voters, which in Medford at this point would, well, you have to have a cushion too, just because some of the signatures will be rejected for various reasons. So you need about six to 7,000. There were residents, Michael Ruggiero, who used to live here, was a big proponent. Jim Silva, Neil Osborne, these people were working really hard just to get a charter review. And then we had a couple of home rule petitions to try to get the city council to agree to To review the charter and for various reasons that didn't work out. So, yeah, it was. It was years of trying to just get a look at the charter to review it. And then finally. We figured out that that we could just have an appointed committee and that's actually how most cities do it. And then once it's in the charter, then we will never have to worry about this again, because it will be reviewed every 10 years. The 1st review in our charter would would be required to happen within 5 years, which makes sense because it's been so long and we want to just make sure that sort of it's a check up on how things are working. Are these changes working? Etcetera. But then it will be reviewed every 10 years. So. As the city changes, as the needs of the city change, we can make sure that the city government reflects that.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, and the Charter defines what the next Charter Review Committee, how it will be chosen, and the way it's The way it's laid out in our charter is that the mayor will appoint it's 9 members. The mayor appoints 3, the council appoints 3 and the school committee appoints 3. So, um, so it will be appointees from those 3 bodies and. they will review the charter and, you know, it will be important to look at it and hopefully it won't be as big of a process as ours. Although maybe, I don't know. I mean, we were sort of like, okay. I remember when the Collins Center gave us that model charter and they gave us a document at the beginning of the process with a model charter that's a modern charter. And then they sort of put a little,
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, and there's, you know, there's a regular review of ordinance required in the charter, which I think is also really important to the city. Just also procedures that don't exist in our current charter, like vacancies. We had a situation where a school committee member resigned a couple of years ago, and I think behind the scenes, it was a little complicated, and what do we do now? And they had to sort of try to figure it out. If that happened with the mayor, it would be probably a crisis for the city without knowing what do we do? The mayor can't serve. And there's literally nothing in our charter that says what would happen or what we should do. So passing this charter, you know, has, has that in it as well.
[Milva McDonald]: You know, just this, the city council also will get a little more, more power to confirm appointments to multi-member boards. So the mayor makes the appointments, but the city council can has 30 days to reject an appointment. So that gives them more, it's a more collaborative process than we have now. And You know, the other thing when you brought up the City Council, the, you know, the salaries or whatnot, the City Council will be able to hire staff, but subject to appropriation. And I think that's the piece that people, and also necessary expenses can be reimbursed, but it's all subject to appropriation. And those were provisions that, you know, are pretty common in other charters, but some people around town, I think, have been concerned about how much money that would cost. It's subject to appropriation, which means it has to go through the budget process. The City Council can't just say we're going to hire this person or I want expenses for this, that, and the other thing.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, but the charter doesn't say that. It just says that they can hire staff subject to appropriation. So if there's a need and they can appropriate it in the budget and the money is there, then they can hire people. It's not uncommon for cities, city councils to have a staff person other. I mean, our city council has a city clerk. They traditionally had another position called the city messenger. So that is actually retained in the charter as an assistant. So they do have those positions, but. You know, as a body, it's not uncommon for a city council to need help with things. And so that option will be there if the money is there and if it's appropriated.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, it is a time-consuming job. It is a public service, but there's plenty of public service jobs where people are compensated.
[Milva McDonald]: So, but, you know, the other you know, hopefully ward Councilors, a bigger council will also spread the work around and, and, and, you know, even if it costs the city more money, what we would get back. will make up for that and hopefully more than make up for it. Because the other constituent services can be improved with ward representation. You talked about the closer relationship that constituents can have with their ward Councilors. All those subcommittee work that has to get done, the work will be able to be spread around a little more.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. City councilors do have other jobs and need to. But and we, we can't know for sure who will run or how it will affect who is on our council, but we did, but it is well established in studies that word representation improves descriptive representation, meaning. you know, who is on the council. So more diversity, ethnically, racially, economically, what you mentioned. Because it just, it opens the door for more people to be able to do it.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, it's just, You know, it's in Massachusetts to advocate for a ballot question or, you know, we wanted to get the word out with literature, with signs. And that is a, since it's on the ballot, you have to form a committee. It's not like a political action committee. It's just exclusively formed to advocate for this one question. And then that allowed us to raise money so that we could put out. So we have signs. If anybody wants to put up a Medford Charter Now lawn sign, you can just go to the website medfordcharternow.com or email info at medfordcharternow.com. We also have literature and we have a palm card with information about the charter because we just want to make sure that people know that this is going to be on the ballot and have information about it. So, uh, if if anybody wants to volunteer to do some lit dropping in their neighborhood, you can do that too. Just give us an email. Send us an email and, um, yeah, it's just. You know, I mean, a lot of people are busy. They're very busy. They don't always know what's going on before they, you know, get to the ballot box. So we're just, we want us to spread awareness and let people know that this is happening and that it's a big deal for the city. I mean, it's really huge. You know, it can be sort of not that exciting, I guess, to talk about the charter and it's a little wonky, you know. But it's a very big deal for the city and yeah, passing it means that we will have a modern charter, we will have provisions that are necessary that we don't have now, and it means that we'll be able to review it regularly and we won't have to go through this battle ever again of, come on, let's review the charter, which sometimes elected officials might resist because some of the changes are maybe a little concerning if you're an elected official, if they're going to change your term or put a term limit on or things like that. But we will have a review every 10 years and the first one in five if we pass this.
[Milva McDonald]: That's a good question. I'm actually, the day after election day, I'm supposed to go and do childcare for my granddaughter in Montreal. So I'll be celebrating maybe with her. But maybe, I mean, how I will celebrate actually really is rest. You know, because it has been a lot, it's been a lot for the last few years. It's a lot of work. I want to see the work through and get it all the way to the finish line. This is a huge accomplishment for the city. Charter change is not easy. So getting, getting this through is, it's a huge step forward really. For the city, so, um, so, yeah, I'll celebrate by sort of relaxing.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, and thank you, Daniel. And I just want to thank you for being on the committee and all the other committee members and every single person who responded to the survey or came to a listening session, or it takes the time to even to learn about this and vote on it. And all the city officials that we interviewed, it really was a It involved a lot of people around the city. And now I'm excited that the voters get a chance. So thank you to everybody for whatever your role was.
[Milva McDonald]: Absolutely.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, sure. I'll take that question. Thank you. Um, so, uh, we currently have an all at large council of 7 members. And the proposed charter would switch that to hybrid ward representation. Since the city has 8 wards, that means we would have 8 ward Councilors, 1 from each ward. and three at-large Councilors. Hybrid ward representation is standard practice. We're actually one of the only cities in the state not to have it. And our council is also the smallest council in the state for a city of our size. So that switch to hybrid ward representation will bring the size and composition of our council in line with other councils in the state. Also, we looked at a lot of things when we had this discussion, but some wards of the city have been significantly underrepresented in recent decades. In fact, two wards, wards one and four, have had no Councilors come from them. And what's interesting is that voter turnout actually often correlates with the most highly represented wards. So ward representation will ensure that every ward has a representative, and hopefully open the door to more people running for office, because running for office at large is very difficult. And it's more manageable to really focus on a ward and focus on that number of people.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, I think the current city council voted for it. I mean, all the ones that are running for re-election voted yes. So I take that as a support.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, so the actual form of government, which is a mayor council form is not changing. So, but there are a couple of things that will shift. For example, right now, the mayor has sole authority to appoint members of Medford's boards and commissions. The boards and commissions that are mostly volunteer bodies, but they're really important for the vibrancy and the operation of many aspects of the city. The city council will have a chance to be involved in that process, and that will make that process a little more collaborative. That's one thing.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. So, you know, the way the budget, city budgets are created and decided upon is really outlined in state law. We can't really determine that in the charter, but There are some timelines that we can determine, and one of the things that we added that we hope will improve the budgeting process is that every year on or before February 15th, so right at the beginning or before the budgeting season gets going, the mayor will call a joint meeting of the city council and the school committee. Before the process gets going, Those three bodies, our elected bodies, will get together to review the financial condition of the city and share relevant information. So this hopefully is going to create a more collaborative budget process that will better reflect the needs of all areas of the city.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, we have a, we don't have, we have a whole section of the new charter, a whole article, article eight that's titled citizen participation mechanisms. And that's something that our current charter does not have. Um, so, uh, and there are different levels, um, of, of, um, actions that people can take under the, this proposed charter if it passes. Um, the first is, what's called in the charter a group petition, where if you want to put something on the agenda for the council, you can get signatures to have it put on the agenda. Obviously, probably the first thing that people would try is to contact their Councilors. But if that doesn't work, it might not always work, citizens will be able to get 100 signatures. And then the city council has to take up discussion of the measure. Yeah, yeah. Other things that people would be able to do is if if they get together and get the signatures, they can put a measure on the ballot. For residents to vote on, that's definitely a lot more signatures, but it's possible. Yeah, also overturning a measure passed by the city council. If there's enough opposition to it and residents can get the required signatures, they can put on the ballot and ask the voters whether they want to reject that. And the last one is a recall of the mayor. So again, it's not something that can be done frivolously. It takes a good bit of work to get the signatures. And then it would also go on the ballot. But it's something that residents will be able to try or have the option of doing, which we don't have now.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I would do you want to go 1st round or should I go?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So, um, I, the 1 thing 1 thing I do just want to point out sort of. Generally speaking, our current charter is. It's two pages. There's many things that are not in it. When we first started our committee process, one of the memos that the Collins Center wrote up for us, and that's the Collins Center for Public Management. They help a lot of cities and towns with charter review, and we were really lucky to have them. They wrote up a memo on the complexity of Medford's charter that basically, because it doesn't cover things, you'd have to go through state law, figure out, oh, what do we do about this? And so it's also makes it inaccessible for residents to understand how our government works. So, for example, there are no vacancy provisions in our current charter for mayor or school committee, and there's a 1 for city council, but it's not it's incomplete. So, when we had a school committee member step down a couple of years ago. there was some confusion and it was figured out, but, um, there was a period where it was like, what do we, what do we do about this? Um, if we had that situation with the mayor where a mayor had to step down or a mayor couldn't serve, I feel, you know, that could be a crisis for the city. What do we do? Um, so we have vacancy provisions. That's just an example of one of the ways in which our current charter is lacking.
[Milva McDonald]: Can I add one more thing? Sure. So, I just wanted to add, you know, we've talked about ward representation and it makes sense that we're talking about it a lot because it's really been kind of the major issue even before we got this charter review going. I've been hearing it for years. I meet people who just moved here from other cities and they say, what's what's going on? Medford doesn't have wards. That's weird. But I do know also that there's some concerns about, well, what are we going to do? That's four more people. How are we going to pay for that? I just wanted to say that you can't put a price tag on better government. We're going to if we have more Councilors, we have more people to do work for the city. So we'll also get that back. We'll get it back with a better system of government. We'll get it back with more people actually working for the city. And as far as the salaries, the charter itself doesn't say what salaries are. There's nothing that says the salaries have to be the same or more or less. So these are all things that can be worked out. They're really like small potatoes in the big picture.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I just wanted to, you know, just Ron, you made me, you reminded me of something that there's been a little bit of confusion about in terms of the city council because the charter says that the city council can hire staff subject to appropriation and they might get necessary expenses. But the key phrase there is by appropriation and the reality is that it's exactly the same as the system we have now. They can't hire a staff member or get expenses unless it's appropriated in the budget. That's really not a change at all. It's just laid out there.
[Milva McDonald]: It's really not changed. They do have the clerk, which is already an employee of the city council. And there is an assistant, which the city council has always had a city messenger. So they just changed the title of that, that's all. So it's really pretty much, it's exactly the same. It's just, yeah. And I also just want to say we have lawn signs. If you want to support the charter with a lawn sign, you can go to the website or email us at info at medfordcharternow.com. And to get those lawn signs, and we have literature, we'll be dropping all over the city. If you want to get involved in doing some lit drops, you can contact us. And we have donation buttons on the website if you want to, you know, support us that way, because it all costs money.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you to the Medford Democratic City Committee, the Library, my fellow candidates, and everyone for coming and tuning in. I'm Milva McDonald, and the story of why I'm running for City Council starts a long time ago, as a kid growing up with an immigrant working-class mom who came to America from Italy in the 1950s. She was the hardest worker I've ever known and she passed her work ethic on to me. Whether working at the Boston Globe while raising my four kids, sitting on the board of non-profits, or helping launch the Mystic LGBTQ plus youth support network, I have always put in the hard work required to get things done. A few years ago, I decided charter review needed to get done in Medford. In 2021, I convened a group of residents to pursue options, and in late 2022, at our request, Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn formed the Medford Charter Study Committee and appointed me as chair. For two years, I led our 11-member committee in a comprehensive review of our city's foundational document. As a result, for the first time in 40 years, a new charter is projected to be on your municipal ballot this November. My experience chairing the committee inspired me to run for office. I want to bring the same level of research, outreach, and deep listening to the work of being your city councilor. My priorities include growing the city's tax base through zoning, reviewing fee structures, and fighting for a better pilot agreement with Tufts. Addressing the affordable housing crisis is a necessity. We must support the Affordable Housing Trust and the Community Land Trust. To ease the burden on taxpayers and renters, we should explore a residential exemption for owner-occupied homes and look further at the good landlord tax credit. We need to ensure that we are meeting the goals in the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, which continues to safeguard Medford for the future while improving life now. Medford has great cultural organizations, but I believe the arts need an anchor at City Hall, so I support the installation of a City Arts Coordinator. As councillor, I would also work to create a commission to promote visibility, equality, and empowerment of our LGBTQ plus community. I think it's also the job of municipal officials to support our dedicated city staff and those in need, like seniors on fixed incomes and immigrant communities. I love people, hearing their concerns and stories, and doing my best to help. As a second-generation Italian-American with working-class roots, I will always put in the time, effort, and research needed to get the job done, and I will make responsiveness and respect priorities in all my interactions. I'm excited to get to work to make our beloved city an even better place to live, and I ask for your vote in September and November. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, thank you. I'm Milva McDonald. I use she, her pronouns. I'm running for a seat on the city council. A little bit about me, I've lived in Medford for a pretty long time. I'd say maybe 32 years. I live in West Medford and I love it. I worked in journalism for a long time. I worked about 30 years at the Boston Globe in the calendar section, which some people might remember people of a certain age, I guess. And then I worked in the regional sections, Globe West and Northwest. eventually worked for Boston.com, and now I work for a publicist, a very niche publicist. We promote exclusively jazz musicians. I have four kids and three grandkids. I love music. I sing in a few choruses, and I also took up pottery a couple of years ago, and I really, really love that. And you can see me at craft fairs around town this fall.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, I do have some things at the gift shop at the Arts Collaborative Medford, which is a great place.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, the charter, yes, definitely. We'll be talking about that tonight, I'm sure.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. So that, you know, I thought about that and I'm like, well, you know, Goldilocks is always a good pick, but I know, but then I thought, well, you know, I think I said that last time and it's still, it's still up there. Um, but I thought maybe this time I would give a plug to the farmer's market. Um, because I love going to the farmer's market. Um, they, you can get empanadas, you can get samosas. you can get really delicious cupcakes. Um, these are all the things I like. I love the bread that you can get there. Um, and, and, you know, you can, you can just put, put together a dinner from these awesome vendors. Um, grab a nice loaf of bread, grab a nice hunk of cheese, get a nice fresh tomato and like have a picnic or something, you know? Yeah. And, and that's right. And they, um, They take snap too, so that's also a plus.
[Milva McDonald]: You know, sort of been a person, always been a hard worker. I kind of got my work ethic from my mom, who is an Italian immigrant. She came to the United States in the 1950s at the age of 27. And it was kind of a culture shock for her, because the first time she had experienced running water, electricity, and heat. So being raised by her and my Italian heritage and my experience as the daughter of a working class immigrant contributes to sort of who I am today and who I've sort of become and my views on the importance of tolerance and listening and empathy and kindness. I also like to get things done. And a few years ago, I decided that I'd been hearing about charter review in Medford for too long. And that it was time to get it done. So. In 2021, I sort of tried to rally people together, and we started this group, or we sort of continue to group. I mean, I was connecting with Jim Silva at that point. He had been very involved with charter review. Um, in previous iterations, or the attempts to get charter review to happen. Um, so we sort of revived the Medford charter review coalition, and we were pursuing different ways to get a charter review. And 1 of those was. To ask the mayor to form a committee, because what we learned was that most communities. Review their charters that way using. a special act, which is what Medford ended up doing. So the mayor said, yes, I will form a committee. And I was honored to be appointed as a co-chair initially. And then Laurel Siegel, the other co-chair, left and I became the sole chair. And we went from about 2022 to 2024, which you know, because you were on the committee. Thank you. And we, yeah, so we dove into all things charter. So, um, and I know we'll be talking probably about that more. But it was basically my experience on the committee learning about local government, listening and talking to residents. Um. All of it just was, you know, it was inspirational and inspired me to stay involved with the city council run. I'd like to just sort of continue that work and bring that level of research and depth and listening to work on the city council.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, in the charter is the sort of foundational document for the city. And It involves sort of how people are represented. And what sort of, because it's a structure of the government and so representation was 1 of the big things that we talked about and Medford being 1 of the only cities left in the state. For a long time, it's been one of the only cities that doesn't have board representation for particularly city council. I feel like that addresses some of what you just talked about. Not only because it allows people a more localized representative, it also creates more accessibility for running for office. So, you know, the, the hope is that when this charter passes, which I'm very much hoping that it doesn't November by 2027, we will have that new structure in place. And that could open doors for a lot, a lot more people to run for office that maybe couldn't do it or wouldn't have considered it before. And we heard some of that, you know, we heard that from some people in the listening sessions we did around the city. Um, You know, some people said, oh, well, maybe if there was ward representation, I'd run for office.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. And covering, I mean, there's about 60,000 people in the city, and the wards are about 7,000 to 8,000 people. That's a huge difference in terms of mailings, in terms of canvassing. I mean, all that sort of work of campaigning, and it's a pretty big difference. So that's one thing. Also, the other thing, when we looked at Article 8, the citizen participation mechanisms, would hopefully give people more opportunity to be involved in government respond to issues, um, maybe, um, have the opportunity to be able to get something on the ballot if they sort of tried to go through, um, the local government and they didn't and they couldn't do it. They have a mechanism to use where they can make that happen. Um, so those things, I think also, um, I mean, if you're talking specifically about sort of equity and representation and things like that.
[Milva McDonald]: So, I mean, you know, there's definitely people talked a lot about. how long the council meetings are, and I know that the council is aware of that, and I know it's something that they're already thinking about. But that's one thing in terms of just operations. There's so many issues. Zoning is what people are talking about right now quite a lot, and that's definitely something that we need to change. We need to redo the zoning for because we need more housing we need and we need to increase our tax base. So, I think that is definitely a change that. I think it's, I think it's going to happen so much work on it has already been done. And at this point, the good news is, I think that that people are really aware of it now more than they have been in the past. So it gives people an opportunity to. uh, offer really constructive, specific feedback and so that we can move forward with that. Um, cause I think that's important. Um, there's also a lot of really important work to be done, um, like with, uh, uh, funding the affordable housing trust. Um, the board just recently released a really great action plan. Um, and part of that is a community land trust, which is also something that I really support. And, um, you know, hope that that can evolve. That's where this community land trust sort of becomes a non-profit that holds land to benefit the public basically. And so it's affordable housing units that aren't going to go away. I think traffic calming is kind of something that I would like to see change. Um, and that's important, um, especially with the, um, you know, this eventual change in rezoning and things like that traffic is increasing anyway. Um, so I think, um, and I know that that's been worked on, like the street where I near where I live, they just put speed tables on and it's making a huge difference, but, um, bump outs, things like that. I think we need to look at all those things. Um, I think climate resiliency is really important and our city's done a really good job at that so far, but we need to just like, keep on that and make sure that the benchmarks in the climate action adaptation plan are being met. Um. But, you know, some of them I'd like to even see increase, like, I'd like to see even more people use the curbside composting program. Um. The community increase in the tree canopy. Um, and and there's a lot of really great ideas. I loved some of the ideas I've heard from fellow candidates. Like, when I listened to Miranda on your show, she was talking about more benches and shelters at teas. And I just, yeah, I think that's great. I love that idea. Um. Another thing that I would really like to see happen is I'd like to see an arts coordinator at City Hall. I've talked to people in the arts community and we have so many great arts organizations in the city, but we don't have, we have the Arts Council, but there's not really a central kind of unifying anchor at City Hall. And I think that would, I think that could be really good for the city. Yeah. So those are just some of the things.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, you know, 1 of the 1 of the reasons was because I, I entered the race on the way side. So, you know, that was a practical reason. But I also, I tend, I feel like I just tend to be sort of an independent minded person. I do happen to align with a lot of the. Policy ideas, but I also. I, you know, I, yeah, I just, I consider myself independent. So, I mean, it wasn't like... Like I said, it wasn't so much of a tough decision because of the point at which I entered the race kind of made the decision for me anyway. So, yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, one of the other things that I would really like to work on, um, if elected is the creation of an LGBTQ plus commission for the city. Um, I know that the council's working to overhaul the human rights commission, and I think that's great, but, um, you know, other cities have LGBTQ plus commissions, um, in Arlington it's called the rainbow commission and I'm a little partial to that. And I like that name, but, um, I think that that that would be an important step. In the city towards sort of promoting equality visibility for our LGBT plus community and empowerment. And I, I see that work as maybe separate from what. You know, or separate or enhancing and what might be done on the human rights commission. So I think. You know, there's different commissions in other cities. They do cool programming, obviously pride, but, you know, I think we don't have to limit things to just June. I think an LGBTQ plus commission would be a year round endeavor and. whatever the commission worked on, but the sort of, it would be focused around the mission statement, obviously, but they could look at policies, programs, advocacy, um, community conversations, community buildings, crosswalk painting. I mean, there's just so many, um, you know, so many options. So I, I would like to see that. I think that would be, um, a pretty great thing for the city.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, absolutely. I am having a couple of events with music, because I love music. I love to sing, but I love music, and I have musicians in my family. make sense for me to bring music into my campaign. So on, and they're both going to be at Mrs. Murphy's, which is an Irish pub on Salem Street. It's I believe 25 Salem Street. On August 29th, which is a Friday from six to eight, we're going to have Celtic music with Alistair White, who's a great fiddler and Eric McDonald on guitar. Alistair used to play in the Battlefield Band, which if anybody out there knows Celtic music knows that that's a pretty big name in Celtic music. And he's a, you know, he's a Scottish guy and he really knows the tradition. So that's going to be a really fun night of music and networking and etc. And on September 7th from 3 to 5 p.m. we'll have the Shereen Klezmer duo. And for people who aren't familiar with Klezmer music, it's really fun music. It's basically Eastern European Jewish folk music. Um, it's very, it's very fun. So, um, and both of those, uh, events, I will be there to meet people, talk to people about my platform, et cetera. Um, people will be able to order off the menu, um, and just have a great evening and afternoon and, uh, learn about the campaign. So those are the two events. Um, there's probably going to be other house parties too in the works, but those are the main things right now.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, exactly.
[Milva McDonald]: No, just my website, if people want to sort of look more closely at my platform and there's information about the events and how you can get involved. It's www.milva4medford.com and Facebook and Instagram, it's the same handle. Uh, slash number for Medford. So, yeah, that's where you can find me. And if you want to. If it might the email is at for Medford dot com. If you want to shoot me a line, I'm happy to talk to anybody get together. have coffee. I really like, that was one of the things I loved about the Charter Study Commission committee was connecting with residents. So I'm happy to do that anytime. I love meeting people, talking to people and hearing about what they want for the city.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Thank you so much, Danielle.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you, and thanks for inviting me. I'm excited to be here.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, I'm Milva McDonald, and I've lived in Medford for about 32 years. I've been in my current home in West Medford for about 25 years. I had several, three decades, I worked in journalism at the Boston Globe in the calendar section, if anybody remembers that.
[Milva McDonald]: That was a great section. LS. It was. It was great. I also worked in the Globe West and Northwest and then eventually Boston.com. Now I work for a publicist, a very niche publicist. We promote exclusively jazz musicians. I also do some teaching and tutoring. I have some students. I homeschooled all four of my kids. So, and during that time, I co-founded a secular nonprofit called Advocates for Home Education in Massachusetts, which is still thriving. And I'm also a writer. I've written a couple of books about homeschooling. I've written short stories that I've had published in various journals. I also love music. I sing in three choruses, one called the Holla Lisa Singers. And the director of that chorus lives right here in Medford also. And I just sang in the Harvard Summer Chorus. That was great fun. And another chorus called Mutamonia. I also am a potter. I took up pottery a couple of years ago, and I absolutely love it. So you can see me at craft fairs around Medford this fall.
[Milva McDonald]: And I also have a few things at the gift shop at Arts Collaborative Medford. Oh, okay, that's wonderful. That's a great background. A lot of experience. Yeah, and I said I have four kids. I also have three grandkids.
[Milva McDonald]: Absolutely. Well, giving back to the community has always been important to me and I've always been a hard worker. I kind of got my work ethic from my mom. She was an Italian immigrant who came to the United States in the 1950s. at the age of 27. It was quite the culture shock for her. She had really never been 10 miles out of her village until that point and now she's in this country experiencing running water, electricity, heat for the very first time. So my Italian heritage and my experience as the daughter of a working class immigrant sort of contribute to who I am. And my views on the importance of listening, tolerance, empathy, things like that. So that's sort of a background. But I also really like to get things done. And a few years ago, I decided that I'd been hearing about charter review in the city for a very long time, and I thought, I really would like to see this get done. So in 2021, I kind of just rallied people and said, hey, I'm going to invite everybody over, talk about charter review. And some people that had been involved in the past, like Jim Silva and a couple of other people, we got together, we sort of brought, we created a group called the Medford Charter Review Coalition. And we were pursuing different ways to get charter review done. We said we're just going to try everything and we were collecting signatures. But we also learned that one of the ways and which is actually the most common way for charter review to get done in Massachusetts is for a city committee to be appointed. And then that committee would do the work of the review and then it would go through the city government and then to the state house and back to the voters. So we approached the mayor and said, would you please form a committee? And she did. And to my honor, I was appointed chair. Initially, I was co-chair with Laurel Siegel, but then she left to work in the city's planning department. And we spent, we started in about, I think it was like November or December of 2022. We finished up in late 2024, and I chaired the 11-member committee, and we dove into all things charter. We talked about Charters from around the state, we prioritize public engagement. So my experience chairing that committee, learning about local government and listening and talking to residents just really inspired me to stay involved with the city council run. I'd like to bring that same level of research and depth and listening to the city council.
[Milva McDonald]: It was, you know, before the committee was formed, you know, I was focused on we got to get this charter review done and then it was really a big shift. It was like, oh, okay, we got the review because there was just so, it was so long in Medford just to get the review to happen before anybody could really start talking about, okay, now what, you know, what about the actual charter? So it was a shift, but we did have help. We had the Collins Center for Public Management, which is a nonprofit out of UMass Boston that helps a lot of municipalities with this kind of thing. So that was very important to have that help. And, you know, with their guidance we started looking at charters from around the state. We had a template, a modern charter template that the Collins Center provided for us so we could sort of see, you know, what are the elements that are in a modern charter, which of course our current charter very much lacks. And it was very important to us to do a lot of public engagement. So we held three public information sessions at City Hall. We created a survey that we distributed in five languages. And we held over a dozen listening sessions around the city, which were great. We worked with different organizations like Housing Medford, the Chamber of Commerce, Medford Family Network. We went to the West Medford Community Center. We just tried to cover as much ground as we could. And we sort of collected all this feedback. And that was one of my favorite parts of the process was, you know, the listening sessions and talking to people and sort of listening to their thoughts and what they wanted to see. And once we had this gathered, we sort of dug in. And then we went through the charter article by article. It's a lot of work. Yeah. We did create subcommittees. So that was pretty helpful. So the subcommittee would like go in depth on a particular article and then bring it back to the whole committee. The Collins Center helped a lot with the drafting, but I think our committee was actually pretty ambitious and we did draft several of the sections on our own. And one of the important goals was getting it on the ballot this fall. So in order to make that, timeline we were working really hard at the end.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. And then once we finished our final report, yeah, once we sort of hashed everything out, incorporated the feedback, we looked at studies and things like that. Then we put it all together in a final report, submitted it to the mayor, and then she reviewed it and sent it to the council, and then it did get to the statehouse. And it is projected to be on the ballot, which I'm very excited about.
[Milva McDonald]: That was going to be my... Everything I hear is that it is going to be. It just had its... third reading with the House. It's gone through the, it's almost through the Senate, so it should be at the Governor's desk very, very soon. That's what I hear.
[Milva McDonald]: And I just want to, again, thank every member of the Charter Committee, because it was a lot of work, and people really donated their time, and we had a lot of fun, too.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, they proposed an alternate scheme of district representation which would have resulted in a majority at large council. I knew that they would look at it and there was an expectation that there would be changes made. That particular change, I was a bit surprised at because we didn't really have indication from many of the council members that that would be their view. Um, and the other thing that I was mostly concerned because if there was one thing that we heard over and over again in our public engagement piece, um, it was ward representation. please give the city ward representation. So it was very clear that that was what people wanted. And, you know, knowing through the process, we learned about charter reviews in other cities and, you know, charter review isn't always guaranteed to succeed. And often charter review will hinge on kind of like one major issue for the city. For instance, in Medford, there actually was a charter commission in 1978. that created a charter that got voted down. And the big issue then was mayor versus city manager. And that particular charter commission didn't recommend that and the voters said no thank you. And then in 1986 the voters did get the switch to the plan A mayor and replacing the city manager. So to my mind the big issue that I heard from most people in the city, was word representation and it didn't surprise me because before the committee even, it was something that I had been hearing about. So, you know, I felt like, Just look, I tried to speak to the council about our findings. Statistically, we are one of the only cities in Massachusetts to not have ward representation. Our council is the smallest in the state for a city of our size. It's 9 or 11 is the standard size. And with the new charter we would have 11, 8 ward and 3 at large. And I was also, in my mind was also the ultimate goal of success at the ballot box. And I felt like that was an important piece for that to happen. I think it resulted in a good public discussion where the merits and the challenges of ward representation were discussed. It was good to see people coming out to share their views communicate with the council and the mayor and I was just very glad that in the end that the council reached a compromise with the mayor that kept ward representation for council and I just want to reiterate that what you were actually doing was This is what the people want
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, you know, and there was sort of, some people countered that with, well, we don't know what the people want. There's 60,000 people in Medford. And that is true, but we have to base it on what we were hearing from people.
[Milva McDonald]: And that's what we did.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, it was great. I mean, there were some, like some people say, well, you didn't listen to the people on everything. For instance, the mayor being on school committee, which became, I mean, that in the end, that was part of the compromise made between the mayor and the council. And, you know, what we did as a committee was we did take that public engagement very seriously. But we also talked to, I mean, we talked to almost every sitting elected. We talked to prior electeds. We talked to prior mayors. We talked to city staff. And we looked at a lot of things. And the school committee subcommittee, which was chaired by Paulette Van der Kloot, looked very carefully chair, mayor being the chair, and you know, there were various reasons that the committee decided to recommend that. It was changed, that's fine. You know, term limits was another one, because term limits are very popular, but when we dug into the data, It just, it didn't make sense for various reasons to recommend it for council and school committee. We did recommend it for mayor. But I never heard the council complain about the fact that we didn't, well, there was one time actually, once they complained. But, you know, I mean, we did our best. We took the public engagement seriously, but we also had other information that we incorporated.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, I hope everyone votes yes.
[Milva McDonald]: And I just want to say one of the really important things in the new charter, if everybody votes yes and it gets voted through, is that we will have regular charter review. So we will not go for decades with our charter languishing again.
[Milva McDonald]: We did our best.
[Milva McDonald]: So my position is that the city does need a zoning overhaul. There's not really a question and I don't think there's disagreement about that. I think that there's been a lot of work done and we have these sort of visionary documents that have been guiding the process like the comprehensive plan and the housing production plan. And we've had 18 months with an outside consultant. So a lot has been done. But based on my conversation with residents and watching the community development board meetings, I think that slowing things down, especially with the residential zoning, was the right call. The good news is that people are learning about it. They know about it now. For whatever reason that didn't happen, I prefer to look forward and look at the sort of the upside of that, which is that now we actually are hearing from people. And they will have a chance to share specifics about their neighborhoods. And I think that's important because, you know, the consultants have done their best, but they don't know every neighborhood in Medford. So, now that we have residents aware and on board, they can share specifics about their neighborhood with the community development board and the council, and that can help guide the process to a good final outcome. I think that... That kind of detailed attention is important. We also have to give that detailed attention to the squares and corridors. I know the Community Development Board is working really hard on everything that's been sent over to them, which is a lot.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, it's a tremendous amount. And I think it's probably prudent to take the time that it needs and look at details. Like right now, I know one of the things they talked about at their last meeting was the boundaries of the squares, for instance. I mean, that was a question that I asked a month or two ago, because I noticed that in my neighborhood, the boundaries of the squares had been stretched so that some really beautiful old residential houses were potentially going to be zoned to mixed use. And so they're looking at those kinds of properties and those kinds of things and those details. And I think that that's important. So I'm glad that that's happening. One of the things that residents that I've talked to have been concerned about, several, is Teardowns in their neighborhood. Yes, and we have already seen yes, you know a house in South Medford That's slated to be torn down That's a beautiful perfectly wonderful house. So and and people are worried about things like that so those those are some of the concerns I've heard and and What I don't see disagreement on is I don't see disagreement on the need for new zoning and the need for new housing. We particularly need commercial zoning. So I think that the good news is that I think most everybody in the city agrees that this is important.
[Milva McDonald]: And that it needs to happen. I don't think that anybody's trying to stop rezoning. I think it's just let's make sure that we're listening to people and figuring out what's really the best for Medford. What is the right zoning for Medford?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, no, that's a that's an excellent question. And it's a very important question. It's also a tough question because we have limited options, right? Yes. I think what we were just talking about zoning, particularly in the commercial sectors, is is very important. I mean, that's maybe one of the biggest things we can do is to make Medford business friendly. with the zoning process, looking at permitting processes, incentives, things like that, so that we can grow our commercial tax base. We have a lot of potential for that, and it just needs to be realized. State aid and grants, identifying opportunities, I think the planning department works hard at that. But that's something that, you know, the council could conceivably work with them on, is identifying those kinds of opportunities and making them happen. We should be doing regular reviews of our fee schedules. Like, we just, parking fees were just looked at, and I know some people might not like that, but our parking fees are very low. You know, I personally will, you know, look and say, okay, well, will I get the same number of permits this year? You know, I don't know if I will. But I might. But, I mean, everybody will have to weigh that decision, but things like, you know, Permitting fees just every and also looking at our contracts like I mean even the shovel year, which is amazing It's also Been a great business opportunity and it's proven to be highly successful. So maybe renegotiating some of these contracts where we have now a proven track record and And also, I know that this is something that's being looked at, but linkage fees, developer fees, so basically looking at fees, looking at opportunities for state grants, beefing up our commercial sectors, and renegotiating the pilot program with Tufts, looking at, you know, where we can, so those are some of the ways I think. They're all good ones.
[Milva McDonald]: I am a proponent of affordable housing. Um, and I, I think that it's great that this, that we have an affordable housing trust now. Um, then we need to figure out how to fund it. And we have, uh, the affordable housing trust has a board that put out recently a great comprehensive report with ideas for that, including a community land trust, which I think would also be great. That would be, um, like sort of a city owned property that would be available to, Build affordable housing on so and that would stay affordable, right? No, it'd be nice a city-owned. Yeah, I mean that's So I think that's those are important. So and and also in the affordability issue I think looking at a residential exemption for taxpayers for homeowners would be a good thing to investigate Other cities have that Malden has it.
[Milva McDonald]: And that is basically where if you live in your property, then you are eligible to apply for an exemption to your tax bill. I think that climate resiliency is important, and we have a great climate action and adaptation plan, so I think keeping an eye on that and making sure we're meeting the benchmarks is great. I think a lot of great things have already happened. Expanding the tree canopy, and these things are great for climate resiliency, but they also improve people's quality of life. So the tree canopy is going to make a nicer city. The bike share program, I think, has been great for people. And I think safe streets are important, so infrastructure improvements, things like that. And I also am a big supporter of the arts. I would like to, as a Councilor, advocate for the installation of a city arts coordinator. One of the things that I hear from people is we have so many great arts organizations, and we do.
[Milva McDonald]: I agree. Yeah, we do. But part of sort of what happens is we don't, you know, the people are picking up the slack, kind of. So a city arts coordinator could be kind of a unifying, an anchor, basically. Right, yeah. And support the arts council and sort of unify arts in the city So I and that's what I've heard from the arts community that that's something that they would like nice Um, and I also would like to advocate for an lgbtq plus commission Okay, which would be um, just a you know, one of another one of the city's volunteer commissions, right? um to sort of advocate for that community. So those are some of the things.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, I have a couple of really fun ones coming up. I love music, I said that, and I have musicians in my family, and so there's a couple of events coming up at Mrs. Murphy's, which is the Irish pub on Salem Street. on August 29th, which is a Friday, from 6 to 8. We will be there with Celtic music, a great fiddler named Alistair White, and guitarist Eric McDonald. Alistair is Scottish, and he used to be in the Battlefield Band, which if anybody knows Celtic music, that's a very big name. So that's going to be really fun. We'll be there from 6 to 8. Come on over. Order off the menu. Chat with us. You know, talk to me about my platform. Get to know me. I would love to see you. There's another one at Mrs. Murphy's on September 7th, which is a Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m. with the Shereem Klezmer duo. And Klezmer music is Eastern European Jewish folk music, and it's really fun.
[Milva McDonald]: That will be a clarinet player and an accordion player, both who live in Medford. Yeah, so I'm excited about those. Very nice, very nice.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, that's hard. Thinking of the least favorite thing is hard, because I'm like, oh, there's nothing I really don't like to do. But then I thought, oh, OK, driving. That's probably my least favorite, because the traffic, so many people use Medford as a cut through, which is something I would like to sit down and think about. Is there some way to discourage that? But anyway, so I would say that's probably my least favorite, driving. My most favorite? That's much easier, although hard to pick one. So I probably picked a few. You could pick a few, that's fine. The library is one of my favorite things, go to the library. Our second poet laureate Vijaya Sundaram runs a poetry club there and I love going to her poetry club. She also runs a poetry open mic at the Arts Collaborative Medford. So I love those things and I love the Arts Collaborative Medford. I also love the farmer's market. And the other thing I love to do in Medford is my husband and I have a tandem bike, which is like a bicycle built for two. So we like to ride that. Yeah, we ride it over to the Mystic Lakes and look for the eagles and the herons. And yeah, so that's definitely one of my favorite things.
[Milva McDonald]: I have a website, www.milva4medford.com. I'm also on Facebook with that handle, milva4medford, and Instagram, same handle, milva4medford. So I would invite everyone to check out the website, check out the social media, follow me. You can email me at milva4medford.com. I'd love to hear from people. Please contact me. Any questions or comments or if you just want to have coffee, I'm available.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you to the Medford Democratic City Committee, the Library, my fellow candidates, and everyone for coming and tuning in. I'm Milva McDonald, and the story of why I'm running for City Council starts a long time ago, as a kid growing up with an immigrant working-class mom who came to America from Italy in the 1950s. She was the hardest worker I've ever known, and she passed her work ethic on to me. Whether working at the Boston Globe while raising my four kids, sitting on the board of nonprofits, or helping launch the Mystic LGBTQ Plus Youth Support Network, I have always put in the hard work required to get things done. A few years ago, I decided charter review needed to get done in Medford. In 2021, I convened a group of residents to pursue options, and in late 2022, at our request, Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn formed the Medford Charter Study Committee and appointed me as chair. For two years, I led our 11-member committee in a comprehensive review of our city's foundational document. As a result, for the first time in 40 years, a new charter is projected to be on your municipal ballot this November. My experience chairing the committee inspired me to run for office. I want to bring the same level of research, outreach, and deep listening to the work of being your city councilor. My priorities include growing the city's tax base through zoning, reviewing fee structures, and fighting for a better pilot agreement with Tufts. Addressing the affordable housing crisis is a necessity. We must support the Affordable Housing Trust and the Community Land Trust. To ease the burden on taxpayers and renters, we should explore a residential exemption for owner-occupied homes and look further at the Good Landlord Tax Credit. We need to ensure that we are meeting the goals in the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, which continues to safeguard Medford for the future while improving life now. Medford has great cultural organizations, but I believe the arts need an anchor at City Hall, so I support the installation of a City Arts Coordinator. As Councilor, I would also work to create a commission to promote visibility, equality, and empowerment of our LGBTQ plus community. I think it's also the job of municipal officials to support our dedicated city staff and those in need, like seniors on fixed incomes and immigrant communities. I love people, hearing their concerns and stories, and doing my best to help. As a second-generation Italian-American with working-class roots, I will always put in the time, effort, and research needed to get the job done, and I will make responsiveness and respect priorities in all my interactions. I'm excited to get to work to make our beloved city an even better place to live, and I ask for your vote in September and November. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Hi. Thank you. Thanks for taking my question, and thank you for your work. My question is about, I live near West Medford Square, and When I look at the map, I'm just curious about how the boundaries of the square were determined and how you made the decision to make some residential properties mixed use. When you walk out from the square, when you walk down Harvard Ave, there's maybe a block to max of businesses and then the residential area starts. And it looks to me like the, It's being stretched now further so that, for instance, there's a gorgeous old house on the corner of Harvard and Boston Ave that is being zoned for mixed-use 2A, which I believe means it could go to seven stories. And then I think the house next to it is mixed-use 2A. And then some of the other properties around are urban residential, too. So I'm just curious what the thought process was around that and how you decided to make some residential properties mixed use and basically change an area that is currently residential to something else.
[Milva McDonald]: No, thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: I believe it's Yeah. I mean, I think the house next to it is also zoned as mixed use too.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, this one's not because I know who lives there and I've been in it many times.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Mildred McDonald, 61 Monument Street. I just have three quick questions and I'll be brief. One is about the interactive map. Thank you for making it. It's really awesome. My question about it is... dived in too heavily, but the nuances that were referred to earlier, will those be, will those show in the interactive map? If you're looking at the interactive map at a particular property, will you be able to tell some of the nuances that were mentioned earlier about, or will you just see, oh, they can go seven stories, but the nuances that might prevent that, will those show in the interactive map? That's one question. My other question is for the squares. Does this process at all look at some of the traffic issues or particular hairy intersections? I'm thinking in particular of the Route 60 and Playstead and Harvard Ave where the commuter rail crosses, where the train crosses, and it's pretty precarious right now. So I think there's some concern of residents that increased density could create safety issues and difficulties. And so how does this process incorporate that? And I know you don't know what's going to happen exactly as a result of the zoning. So I know that's part of it. But just wondering where along the line, maybe does that come in? And my third question is a little unrelated to the squares, but since private ways have come up. I could be wrong about this, but my understanding is that there's a process to change private ways to public ways, and that could potentially be initiated by the City Council. And since we have so many, and based on the map I looked at, sometimes they cover a whole neighborhood, like Lawrence Estates, for instance. Has the City Council ever considered trying to make some of those roads that really do function as public ways, public ways? So those are my questions.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, like what Zach earlier was saying how, you know, if you look and see, oh, nine stories can go up here. with the incentive and you live near it and you're freaked out about that, it might not necessarily be true because there's other factors that would prevent that from going up.
[Milva McDonald]: No, I think the map is awesome. Thank you so much.
[Milva McDonald]: So basically the map is great and it gives you good general information, but don't make assumptions about individual parcels based on the general information.
[Milva McDonald]: No, I'm not correcting you. You get credit for digging up those newspaper articles. Thank you. I just was able to disseminate them. But I believe also on the website is the legislative package from 1986, which I collected from the Mass Archives. So that's another piece of information that people can look at. and also the report from the 1978 Charter Study Commission in Medford, which created a whole charter that actually didn't make it. So there's a lot of charter history available on the Charter Study Committee website under resources, if anybody's interested. That's all, thanks. And thank you all. And sorry, Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street.
[Milva McDonald]: Milton McDonald, 61 Monument Street. I understand that this resolution is symbolic, but I think it's an important statement. So I thank you on a somewhat separate topic, but I believe it's related. There's also been an attack on DEI in this country. And I know that I personally have reached out to our DEI director to offer my support. And I don't know if the council has, and I don't, I'm not aware that any public statement has been made, but I would like you to consider offering support to our DEI director at this time as well. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street. I'm gonna try to be quick because I know I only have three minutes and it's late. There's been discussion about the formation of the committee. I just wanted to say that the mayor formed this committee because the Medford Charter Review Coalition requested it. It was part of our work. Despite the fact that we were the mayor's committee, we were independent. And I wanna just clarify that because I feel, I just wanna make sure that some remarks were not interpreted to make it seem as though the mayor was in charge of us. We were independent. We had our meetings independent of the mayor. She never influenced any decisions or discussions. We did consider balance of power. The, this, what we learned when we looked at other municipalities is that Medford's mayor is pretty much like all the other mayors in Massachusetts. We have a mayor council form of government. There was no will among the people. We interviewed all the Councilors, most of the Councilors here and many other elected officials. Nobody said they wanted to go to city manager. Um, We still considered balance of power, and I understand that it's an issue. Taking the mayor off the school committee would make Medford one of a very, very few communities that doesn't have the mayor on the school committee. Changing the charter committee to 333 would make Medford the only city in the state that gives the school committee that many appointees. The school committee has a very narrow focus. It focuses on the schools, not the entire city. The charter focuses on the entire city. The part of the charter that addresses the school committee is small. It addresses the composition. The operations of the school committee are defined in state law. Those are some of the reasons that we didn't make it equal. And if you look at other charters, the school committee almost never has an appointee, but we didn't want to do that. I'm just explaining this so it's understood because we weren't asked, but I feel like it's important. Anthony Wilson from the Collins Center is on tonight and I don't know if you'll have him next week. You might ask him about these changes before just deciding on them. We actually looked at best practices. We looked at the reasons why mayors are on school committee. So it's maybe something that you want to get a little more information about. I guess that's all I'm going to say right now. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street. I'm going to try to talk fast. There was a lot of things said about the committee, so I just want to address a few of those. I may have misunderstood, but I thought I heard someone say that the Charter Study Committee left information out of the survey that we didn't want to include. So if I misunderstood that, I would like, please correct me. But I would just want to say, if you have that impression, please come and talk to me. Because as far as I know, it is absolutely not true. I also just wanted to say, and this has been said before, district representation was not asked about because it does not happen in Massachusetts on city councils. And there have been references by Councilors to communities that have it. And I would love to hear the names of them other than Boston and Worcester. Boston is essentially not comparable. State law even separates it out from other municipalities. And Worcester is the second largest city in the state. So I am truly interested in hearing about the other communities that have it on city council. Ward representation has a definition that is understood. People know what it means. So when all of you ran on it, that's what they understood. When all of you have said for five years, 100% in favor of ward representation, when you said to us in interviews that you were in favor of ward representation, everybody knew what you meant. So the reason it wasn't asked was because it wasn't on our radar, because it's not really done. When the school committee subcommittee started digging in, they found that it is, there are a few school committees that have it. And I won't go into the, I've said it before, it's in the final report, why it was considered to school committee, but not city council. I also wanna say, this is not like the Senate. The problem with the Senate of our country is that you have senators who represent very small numbers of people and others who represent massive numbers of people who have the same power. each ward representative would represent the same number of people. So you may have a problem with the fact that some wards have low voter turnout and ward three that has high voter turnout has had a disproportionate number of representation. And I personally don't think that's an accident, but please don't say it's like the Senate because it's not. The demographic research that has been done is great, but the demographics will change. And this charter is going to be in place for, if it passes, for at least 12 years. If you're confident that the demographics are going to be exactly the same and the district method will serve, will fix whatever you think ward representation won't, That makes sense, but I don't think, okay. I don't think any of us think that demographics are gonna stay the same. The housing studies that have been mentioned, we also addressed that. If there are more, I want to see them. Please show them to me. There's one study that we were able to find. I've asked repeatedly, several people, no one has been able to produce anything but that one study, which is not very conclusive. So, and just one more thing. It has been said, no system is perfect. This isn't a moral issue. This isn't something, there's no perfect system. So a district system is not gonna be perfect either, but you're willing to ignore your constituents because on the idea that this is some moral issue, that it's right. And I don't understand that, because charter review is not easy. There are a lot more stops that this charter has to go to after you. The last one is the voters. And people have talked about word representation in the city for years. It was the biggest issue. When we talked to people, that is what they talked about. So, I don't understand why you would abandon that when you have all supported it in the past and your constituents are asking you for it. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: I don't. Whatever the situation with the Collins Center is, that wasn't something that we negotiated, so I can't speak to it. But the members of the Charter Study Committee were all volunteers. Yes.
[Milva McDonald]: No.
[Milva McDonald]: We didn't have a budget. We didn't have a staff. Some charter committees actually have support staff. We did have a city liaison who was very helpful.
[Milva McDonald]: Frances Nwaje.
[Milva McDonald]: Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street. I don't really, I just wanted to, because I had asked the question about other communities that have district representation, but as has been pointed out, it is a semantic issue. What we're talking about is representation where two of the designated sections of the city, whether they're called wards or districts, are combined. Yes, Methuen and Amherst, they also have multi-member, but as we heard from the Collins Center, that probably wouldn't fly at the Statehouse. And they also said that one of those communities was changing their form of government. It's also notable that those communities have home rule charters, which means the Statehouse never saw those charters. Lowell says district on their website, but they are just it's their
[Milva McDonald]: That's okay. And it looks to me like Amesbury is the same. So the only two that I could find outside of Worcester and Boston were those two, and also Worcester is also a home rule charter. So those are all home rule charters. So we really don't know if the state has seen a charter that does this for city council. I just wanted to make that point.
[Milva McDonald]: Donald 61 Monument Street. It's getting late. I'm very tired. So there, the committee, the language that Eunice just referred to was supposed to be in the draft charter. So technically, it should have been considered as part of it. But there was also language on residence requirement for multi-member boards that the committee crafted that got left off. We were very rushed at the end, as was previously mentioned. We had no staff. Um, we were trying to meet a deadline and and a couple of things fell off the radar But there is language that the committee created about a residency requirement from multi-member boards, which I sent Several weeks ago probably months uh to uh, councillor sang so I just want to say that thanks Yeah, and we had discussed it and then we said that counts I think we'll if we wherever we have that we'll run it by the collins center because there was also about to have the collins center draft it Maybe it just got lost in translation who had drafted it
[Milva McDonald]: There's a red. Yes, yeah, you're live. Milda McDonald, 61 Monument Street. I just wanted to make the point that because there's been discussion that the city council should mirror the school committee in its structure. And I just wanted to make the point that the two bodies are very different. Their jobs are very different. The city council legislates for the entire city, represents constituents across the city, and the school committee has a more narrow focus there. Addressing only the school. So that was one of the things that the committee considered. We did not consider them the same because they're not the same. Communities all across the state have different configurations for city council and school committee. In fact, I think it's probably less common for a city to have the exact same structure for both bodies, but the call-in center could maybe correct me if I'm wrong on that. There are plenty of communities that have ward councils and at-large school committees. So I just wanted to make that point. That was not something that the committee thought about because simply because they're different bodies. And as far as voters getting confused, voters would have their ballots and their candidates would be on their ballots. We have systems across the state and across the country where people living in the same community have different elected representatives. Right here in Medford, our state reps, depending on where you live, are different. So voters figure this kind of thing out all the time. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street. I just wanted to take a moment to shed some light on the committee's process for this particular section. First, I just want to say one of the overarching values of the committee was public participation, citizen participation, and that we've reflected that in the preamble. And that was the lens through which we explored this section. This, as we've heard from the Collins Center, this is not uncommon. It's in charters across the state. When we looked at it, we examined charters and we saw that the range was between about 25 and 150 signatures. because of the value of public participation and citizen participation, we erred on the low side, but that could be a number that's fluid. We also, in these discussions, while we held public participation and citizen participation as a high value, we were trying to balance that with what could possibly be a potential for abuse, which is why the provision is there that only Once it won a petition on once one subject can only be presented once a year So the same petition can't be submitted over and over again So I just wanted to sort of talk about that and just so that you all know kind of what informed our process I also just want to make a point that I feel is getting missed and This discussion about whether this adds value to the present system doesn't, the fact is that the system now is in your rules and your rules can be changed. They can be changed tomorrow, they can be changed next year by a new council or two years from now. The charter means that it can't be changed. So that there's an inherent difference in what is in the charter and when you're talking about, well, people already have the right to do this. As has been said by the Collins Center, the charter is for the future. So I feel like just sort of comparing it against what people can do now misses that point, and I just wanted to make that point. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: When the committee discussed Milton McDonald 61 Monument Street, when we discussed referendum, when we were discussing the timelines, we did see them as initiative and referendum as inherently different. And one of the things that we discussed was that a referendum pauses a measure that was passed by a duly elected body and that it didn't that that time frame, we didn't want it to be extended any more than it had to. So we wanted to give the citizens the right to do it while also making sure that the elected body that passed it wasn't, that the measure wasn't put, held at bay for too long. I just wanted to point that out.
[Milva McDonald]: Milford McDonald, 61 Monument Street. I just want to say that the language that the committee put into the charter regarding compensation is standard language that's in charters across the state. The compensation committee that Councilor Bears mentioned is not in the charter. That was something that we recommended that you consider creating in an ordinance to address some of the issues that have been talked about in the last several minutes. I just want to say that we looked at many charters and we didn't see anything remotely like this in any charter and And that because of that, the Collins Center might be, it might be a good idea to ask them their thoughts on it because we know that something that's really unusual in the charter could raise a flag at the State House. That's all I have to say.
[Milva McDonald]: Mildred McDonald, 61 Monument Street. Thank you for the question. Strong mayor, weak mayor is terms that get thrown around a lot, but we basically have a mayor council form of government. And we did look at balance of power, and we had also heard talk around town about Medford having an inordinately powerful mayor. So we asked the Collins Center for an analysis. and they provided an analysis, which is in the final report, and you can see that Medford's mayor is in line with other mayors in the state. Our mayor does not have more power than other mayors in the state. But we did talk about balance of power when we looked at a lot of different things, and we talked about it with the budget. It was a consideration.
[Milva McDonald]: Test one, two.
[Milva McDonald]: Hi, Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street. As part of the discussion, we looked at other charters and we talked about it and that seemed like a reasonable provision, so we included it.
[Milva McDonald]: You mean the process of creating the survey?
[Milva McDonald]: The feedback we got was that we wanted the survey to be accessible, so not too complicated. We asked about major questions that voters are most concerned about, which is the composition, term limits, things like that. The results are all in the final report. So, I mean, I can get them, but you all have them, right?
[Milva McDonald]: Whether, for council, you're talking about? Yes, for city council. Whether to remain all at large? to be ward-based, hybrid-based. I mean, we can't be all ward-based, because we only have eight exclusively ward-based, because we only have eight wards. So that's not really an option on the table. Anyway.
[Milva McDonald]: The combining of the wards? Oh yeah, combining of words or... No, that was something that came up in the discussions about the school committee to address the challenges of making school committee, applying word representation to the school committee, because that would have increased the body size. I see. And so that's how that came up.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, it's. very common cities all over the state have a different composition for city council and school committee. So I think voters can figure it out. I mean, they do in most other cities or many other cities. You know, I think this is laid out in the final report, but I don't think we saw a call to increase the size of the school committee. But we also recognize that the community still wanted board representation for the school committee. I actually was not on the school committee subcommittee. And I think when you have that discussion, maybe Paulette Van der Kloot would participate. She chaired that subcommittee and they had extensive discussions. So I would actually prefer to let her speak more about that. I can tell you in general, because obviously they came back to the full committee. And we then discussed it, so I can tell you more in general, but if you want more specifics of how they reached that, she did give you a more detailed answer. But that was the gist of it, was trying to incorporate ward representation without necessarily increasing it to a body of 11, which we felt was appropriate for council, but not for school committee.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. they don't collect that information. I do just want to say that the discussion about competitiveness, we didn't look at that. That's not, but what we did look at was representation of the wards. And we looked back to 2005 and found that two wards in the city had no Councilor from those wards. So they had zero representation and that two wards that those were words one and four and two words two and three had disproportionate representation. And in terms of the competitiveness, you know, like I said, we didn't look at that we didn't research it, but. I can say anecdotally that in my approximately 30 years living in Medford, I've never seen an incumbent city councilor lose an election, and I wouldn't call that competitive. So I just wanted to say that.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, we did some of those, and they should be in the final report. Some of the graphics didn't transition well, and so there's actually a new version on the website, I think, with better graphics that you can check. But Jean Zotter worked on that a lot. So if you wanted more details on that, you could speak. I don't know if she's on Zoom, but she collected a lot of that information and presented it.
[Milva McDonald]: Jean, if you don't mind, if I could just add that one of the reasons, as she mentioned, not everybody gave demographic information, but one of the reasons we chose to collect it was so that we could try to do outreach to populations that we didn't get as many responses from. And Jean was an amazing organizer of listening sessions around the city. And we tried to go and we, I mean, it's all in the final report. So you can sort of see, but I just wanted to add that.
[Milva McDonald]: We wanted the charter to succeed with the voters and at the state house. So we didn't necessarily look at alternatives that aren't used. Ranked choice voting did come up. That is something that we believed would see a hurdle at the state house, especially because Medford during the state question voted for ranked choice voting only with a small majority. So I think, you know, the success of the charter, the ultimate success of the charter was a consideration for us.
[Milva McDonald]: Could you just repeat? I'm not sure I cut that.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, we had a spreadsheet of cities in Massachusetts. We didn't look at other states. We don't know what the interaction of municipal governments with state government is in those states. There's just so many other factors that could come into play. So we stuck to Massachusetts.
[Milva McDonald]: I believe not. You know, I don't have it in front of me, so I can't say 100%, but I don't think we did.
[Milva McDonald]: To be honest, I mean, just there is a graph in the final report that represents the number of Councilors who ran from each ward and then who won. So there is information about that in the final report.
[Milva McDonald]: I don't think that would be my decision. So, I mean, I think that would have to be between you and the mayor. I don't, I mean, you know, We've officially finished our work, so I don't know. I just don't feel like I can answer that.
[Milva McDonald]: Possibly.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, are you referring to multi—I mean, the— Sorry, it's getting late. The options you talked about before.
[Milva McDonald]: So what are you talking about exactly?
[Milva McDonald]: Just simply district versus.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: But we explained why.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, we wouldn't be the only city that has this configuration with a different configuration for school committee. Lowell, for instance, has an exact, you know, they have eight wards. They have 11 ward Councilors, one from each ward, three at large, and then their school committee is broke down with districts at large. And they have a seven-member school committee as well.
[Milva McDonald]: I'm just saying it's not unheard of.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, there are timelines also. So that's something to consider as well.
[Milva McDonald]: I'm sorry, of what?
[Milva McDonald]: It's the census data.
[Milva McDonald]: I feel like that's a question for the Pollen Center, because they have more knowledge about that in general.
[Milva McDonald]: We did look at that and we asked, we looked for the research and we asked the Collins Center and we only found one study. If there are more, we didn't find them and we couldn't, the Collins Center didn't know of any either. And we also mentioned that in the final report that that was the finding that you quoted, but there were also caveats, which included that it was a, it was mostly looked at towns and that more study would be warranted for the kind of area, areas like Medford cities, and also that he didn't, the author didn't consider potential benefits of ward representation, including increased diversity. So it just didn't, it was one study, looked at one thing, and it wasn't a really broad, there wasn't much broad agreement on that. and the issues of representation and the potentiality for increased diversity, more accessibility to running for office were just more compelling to us.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Melvin McDonald, 61 Monument Street. I want to thank Anthony for speaking and sharing his thoughts. I do just want to say that we all on the committee have different perceptions and different experiences, but we did consider other numbers besides 11. I could bore you with the details of that, but I don't feel like I have to do that. I think it shows up in the minutes of our meetings. We did not simply only consider 11. Other than that, I think we did take a comprehensive look and I think our final report shows that. So I feel like it speaks for itself. The one thing that I did wanna point out because there's been talk about voter turnout and numbers were given about voter turnout in particular wards and the wards with low voter turnout correlate directly with the underrepresented wards. When candidates run for office, they naturally go where the voters are, so it becomes a, a cycle. And one of the hopes is that with representation. voter turnout could increase. So I just wanted to point that out, that the low voter turnout correlates with the underrepresented or zero represented in the last couple of decades' wards. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Welcome everyone to the September 5th, 2024 meeting of the Medford Charter Study Committee. So our first agenda item is the minutes from the August 1st meeting. Did everyone have a chance to review them? Yes.
[Milva McDonald]: Move approval.
[Milva McDonald]: All in favor?
[Milva McDonald]: Aye.
[Milva McDonald]: Any opposed? Okay. Great. All right, so our work for tonight is to, we got last time, we got through the first three articles of the draft charter. So our work tonight is to get through the rest of it. So I'm just going to open the floor and ask if anybody has any amendments that they want to propose. starting with Article 4. Anything in Article 4?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony or someone from the Collins Center, can you speak to that?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so Eunice, do you want, are you making a proposal that we add that language so that the term of office for the school committee is consistent with the city council and the mayor?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, the city council is also the first Monday in January.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, and the school committee just says the first business day of January, not necessarily the first Monday, right?
[Milva McDonald]: So, Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, so I think that that's consistent with the language we have now. So I'm going to throw out and say, Eunice, tell me if this sounds like what you intend, that a motion to make the language in Article 4.1 under term of office consistent with the mayor and the city council, to make the eligibility language, I mean, the term of office language consistent. with all three elected bodies. Is that what you're going for? Yes. Yes. OK. All right. Seconded. OK, great. Everybody understands what we're voting on?
[Milva McDonald]: OK, thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: So, and yeah, we can send that. I mean, I was thinking maybe the call-in center would just standardize it for us. Does that sound right, Anthony Wilson? Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Great. Okay. So all in favor, well, let's do a roll call. Anthony Andriado. Yes. Eunice. Yes. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, the motion is that we'll just make the language consistent and leave it to the Collins Center to standardize for us.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. But this motion is that we're just standardizing it and the call-in center will use the best language. Okay. Phyllis?
[Milva McDonald]: Gene? Yes. Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: David?
[Milva McDonald]: And I'm also yes. OK, great. So that passes. Does anybody have any other amendments or changes to Article 4?
[Milva McDonald]: There it is.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so we should standardize that. Right. Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, while we're, can I broaden this section? This district eligibility, because I noticed another issue that doesn't match up or that's not consistent where about the about moving, whether if the school committee member moves from Medford, then the office shall be immediately deemed vacant. Um, and in the city council, I believe we had if the if the if a ward Councilor moved from the ward and stayed in Medford, that Councilor could finish out their term. So I'm wondering if we want to add that in.
[Milva McDonald]: Uh, OK.
[Milva McDonald]: Right, that's right. I guess I guess I'm just wondering whether the fact that it's not specified might raise questions for people. And it is specified in the city council section.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so Maybe we'll do them separately just to avoid confusion. So the first thing that we're going to vote on is whether the person has to reside in the district from one year prior to nomination papers or one year prior to inauguration. Can I ask the call-in center whether you have any comments on whether one of these is preferable?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Okay, so. Do you want to, David, since you are bringing that up and saying you preferred inauguration, do you want to make that motion?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony Wilson, did you have a comment?
[Milva McDonald]: That issue is different than the one we were about to vote on. So let's stick with our motion and then we'll go and discuss the voter issue. Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony Wilson.
[Milva McDonald]: You mean the signatures?
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. So I guess that we can't prevent everything in the world, but we can put language in to make it more streamlined and easier if such a thing does occur.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so next month is the final report. So we'll make note of that and we can talk about adding that next month if it didn't get in. Okay. Okay, so the motion is that under district eligibility in all, not just school committee, not just 401, but we make that consistent with city council and we use one year prior to inauguration.
[Milva McDonald]: We don't have the residency requirement with mayor. Oh, we don't? It's just with ward Councilors and school committee. Okay. I'll second it. Okay. All right. I'm going to do that thing again where I can't see everybody because I'm sharing screen, so I'm going to try to do it by memory. Eunice. Yes. David.
[Milva McDonald]: Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Gene. Yes. Phyllis? Yes. Anthony Andreottola?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. I'm yes. Did I get everybody? Okay, so the next issue that we had in section 4.1 was to standardize if someone moves out of, in this case, for the school committee, it's the district.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So let's be clear about what the motion is, that we're standardizing language.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, okay, so we don't have, yeah, and that's what the city council says. So the motion is that if a district school committee member moves out of the district during their term and stays within Medford, they're allowed to finish out their term. I'll second it. Okay, Daveed.
[Milva McDonald]: Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice. Yes. Morris, Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: I'm writing a word and talking. Anthony Andreottola. No. Okay. Phyllis. Yes. Gene. Yes. And I think I'm the last person left, and I'm a yes. OK, great. So that passes. OK. OK, now we did have something come up during this discussion. It was a question about the use of the word voter, which I believe we used in other sections as well. Does anybody, do people still feel comfortable with that?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Then there's no proposal to change that. Great. Yeah. All right. Anybody have any other changes in article four?
[Milva McDonald]: Nobody does, so go ahead.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, I think the language was deleted, so I don't think it may be. I don't think it would. Yeah, well, Paulette didn't. contact me with any amendments, first of all. But I don't think we say anything about the handling of the bills or anything. I think that was deleted. I don't think it means that that system can't continue just because we took it out.
[Milva McDonald]: Right.
[Milva McDonald]: That's right. So does that change what you, do you still want to look at adding it back in, Eunice?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony Wilson, do you remember? Let's see. Yeah. Go ahead, Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, but we're talking, we're talking about, um, that in the memo from the call-in center, they recommended mirroring the city council vacancy provision, which I think we're, we're, we agree is a good idea. And but the other part of it was suggesting that the committee consider allowing the school committee and city council to fill the vacancy joint. So that's, can you, Anthony Wilson, talk about maybe the reasoning behind that recommendation?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Yeah, I mean, the typos and things will get to those. I, you know, we've actually already addressed.
[Milva McDonald]: Ah, I see.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So we've heard the reasons for potentially having the city council involved. I mean, I think the first level is that it's the next highest vote ever, right? The only time appointment is going to happen is if there's nobody to do that.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, no, I think along the lines of the Collins Center argument, the threshold of, you know, those people didn't get a very high threshold of votes. And then the city council who did get the votes and represents the whole city. I mean, you could look at it that way. That's all I'm saying.
[Milva McDonald]: OK, so now we have another idea on the table, which is to lower the threshold to 20%, not less than 20% of the total vote cast gene.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So we've had a discussion about this. Does anybody want to make a proposal on any of the issues we've been discussing? I want to, I would, uh, Jean.
[Milva McDonald]: I second that. Okay, Daveed?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so we are voting on that a person after the 30% threshold and after, if the position still needs to be filled, that the school committee would fill the position.
[Milva McDonald]: So, basically, it's to leave the language the way it is. And 2, we're just reiterating that because.
[Milva McDonald]: We're going to vote on that. We're going to see.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, no, we're not talking about that right now. We're just talking about when a opening needs to be filled that can't be filled by someone who has run and met that 30% threshold currently, as it is, then the motion on the table is that we leave this as is and say that the city council will fill the vacancy, which is contrary to the recommendation of the policy. You mean the school committee? Did I misspeak? I'm sorry. The school committee fills the vacancies. If you vote yes, you're voting for the school committee to fill the vacancy and not the city council. Is that clear to everyone? David? Yes. Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice. Yes. Jean. Yes. Anthony Andreadov.
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis. Yes. I'm a no. Unfortunately, we have a tie because we only have eight people here tonight. I think then that means the yes gets it.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, we're split on that. The eight people that are here now are split on that.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean to me this isn't the affairs of the school committee It's who's on the school committee. So that's not The affairs of the school committee are the job of the school committee. That's how I see it.
[Milva McDonald]: You're also talking about the mayor, because the mayor's on the school committee. So. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, and actually, yeah, Danielle actually told me she would be here late, so. We're missing Danielle, we're missing Paulette, and we're missing- I know. We might get Danielle tonight, but okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, the motion was that the language would stay the same, and it was tied. And if the motion falls, that means the language wouldn't stay the same. But we didn't vote on what to change the language to, although I think it's already. Everybody knows what the choices are. Just so far, I'm clear.
[Milva McDonald]: No, I don't.
[Milva McDonald]: I think Ron, what we're going to do is we're going to take this vote again when Danielle shows up. Because you're right, it's possible that at our next meeting we won't have the other three of us. So let's take the vote again.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, we can.
[Milva McDonald]: So we're going to revisit it when Danielle gets here. Right. OK. OK. There was some, does anybody, do we have anything else? It was discussion about lowering the threshold and then Jean pointed out that it's 30% with city council. So does somebody want to make a proposal to make a change?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Okay. Anything else in article four? I'm good. Okay. Great. Article 5. Article 5, which is short. And it was pretty much boilerplate language, but does anybody have anything they want to change for that? Administrative procedures? Administrative organization? All right. What about Article 6 is financial procedures?
[Milva McDonald]: So your proposal is that whenever there's an incidence in the charter that says that something needs to be publicized in a local newspaper, that that language is changed to?
[Milva McDonald]: Meanwhile, Maury, did you want to say something?
[Milva McDonald]: Collin Center, can you speak to this? Because this is obviously not, other communities deal with this decline of newspapers as well.
[Milva McDonald]: Maury, did you want to say something?
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, I guess my interpretation of newspaper is that it doesn't have to be a paper newspaper. It can be an electronic newspaper or some sort of newsletter or something. But anyway, that's just my interpretation. Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: So you're saying we should change newspaper, Ron? I just want to be clear on what you're saying.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I just want to circle back for one second to Anthony's. I just want to, Anthony, can you address again that this language is a reflection of state law because this is state law still says newspaper?
[Milva McDonald]: But do you feel that because of that, that the charter should say that as well, or do you think it's fine to change it?
[Milva McDonald]: OK, Marilyn, did you want to add to that?
[Milva McDonald]: So, Marilyn, would you think that leaving newspaper and adding something else would be specific? Is that what you're? Okay. Yes, that's where I'm going. Okay. Jean.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Maury and Ron, did you want to say something? Maury, did you want to say something?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, Ron, did you have another point?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so I just want to check in with David and see in light of this discussion, because you did have a proposal on the table. So I just want to check in with David about that.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So I'm, um, I'm going to throw out a proposal and say that First of all, I'm going to propose that we leave newspaper and add city website. So we say newspaper and city website. And also just want to say in conjunction with that, that it doesn't mean that the city can't publicize things in other places. It's just the charter says this is what they have to do. It doesn't stop them from doing other things. So, and I guess, As I said before, to me, newspaper includes digital media.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, we could, but I think that falls under Marilyn's comment about being vague. Because it's not defined. It's not defined. That's true. Yeah. If we say newspaper and city website, that's defined. It doesn't prevent the city from putting it out in other places, but it defines the minimum that they have to do. Would you agree with that, Anthony Wilson?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so that's my proposal that, you know, we keep newspaper in all the places where it says things have to be disseminated by newspaper, but we add that newspaper and city website.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: It could be, I mean.
[Milva McDonald]: You're saying is there a requirement in the charter?
[Milva McDonald]: I don't think there is in our current charter.
[Milva McDonald]: But we're talking about more than just city meetings. We're talking about other things because the charter references all kinds of stuff that has to be shared with the public, not just meetings. Danielle, welcome. Right now, there's a motion on the table that wherever the charter directs that something has to be publicized to the public in a newspaper, we're going to add city website so that there would be required by the charter to put it in a newspaper and on the city website. Daveed?
[Milva McDonald]: I'm sorry. I thought you had... Okay. Let's go. I thought you had sort of let it go, but I'm sorry if I misunderstood.
[Milva McDonald]: All good. Then can you just state what you want your motion to be?
[Milva McDonald]: OK, and that language is in the chat.
[Milva McDonald]: OK. All right. So. Phyllis.
[Milva McDonald]: No, we're doing Daveed's first. We're doing Daveed's.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So we're doing Daveed's first. Um, Eunice? No. Uh, Anthony Andreottola?
[Milva McDonald]: Uh, Ron Giovino?
[Milva McDonald]: Uh, Daveed?
[Milva McDonald]: Jean.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes. Did I get you, Rory?
[Milva McDonald]: I'm also a no. So that doesn't pass. And now we'll vote on my motion, which is to where it to keep the word newspaper wherever the charter specifies it and add city website.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so Phyllis, go ahead.
[Milva McDonald]: Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Daveed.
[Milva McDonald]: Gene. Yes. Eunice. Yes. Danielle. Yes. Who did I miss?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Thank you, Anthony. And I'm also a yes. Okay. So that's good. We got that passed. All right, so before we start Article VI, I want to go back to the tie vote that we had so that we can retake that vote. Danielle, the pressure is on you. No. Danielle, we had a tie vote, so we would like to revisit it. And it was under filling vacancies on the school committee. The current draft says that If there's nobody, if there's a vacancy and a candidate and the next candidate who didn't get elected and who meets at least 30% of the vote isn't available, then the school committee chooses the replacement. That's what we currently have. And the Collins Center made a recommendation that the city council do it rather than the school committee because the city council The school committee's job is narrow and focused on running the school department, and the city council represents the whole city and the workings of the city, so that they recommend that the city council do it and that that's common practice in other cities. And I'm going to let Anthony Wilson.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Did everybody understand that the first time around? Okay. So let's retake that vote. So basically what we're going to vote on is that currently we have just the school committee doing it. Now we have the school committee and the city council doing it together. That's what we would be voting on. So if you vote yes, you want, this isn't exactly how we did the vote last time, but we'll do it this way. We'll simplify it this way. If you vote yes, you're saying yes, it should be the city council and the school committee together, and if you vote no, you're saying no, it should just be the school committee. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, let's see where the vote falls. So this is a vote to have the city council and the school committee involved in replacing a vacancy on the school committee. Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Jean?
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice? No. Phyllis?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony Andreottola?
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle? Yes. Maury, did I get you?
[Milva McDonald]: Daveed?
[Milva McDonald]: And I'm a yes. So that motion carries. Great. So the call-in center will change that language. OK. So now we're on Article 6. Did anybody have any amendments that they wanted to propose to Article 6? I did. OK.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, you both have good points, but Gene makes a good point about the budget ordinance that specifies March 1st as a date for the city council to, can you say again, the city council is submitting their budget recommendations to the mayor on March 1st?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. It says on or before March 1st now.
[Milva McDonald]: All right. Let's see what other people. Eunice, did you have a comment about this?
[Milva McDonald]: Oh, I can tell you they were concerned about being able to fulfill this. But that was one of the reasons that we generalized the language. Because people still wanted to keep it. committee members still wanted to keep it, but there was a concern.
[Milva McDonald]: David?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, currently it just says to review the financial condition of the city and share relevant information.
[Milva McDonald]: And one of the things that people expressed on this committee and in the public was that they wanted more collaboration and they wanted more interaction between the branches of government. And that was one of the other reasons for this.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So I think, Jean, your original proposal, you said February 1st, right? I did. On or before February 1st, changing March 1st to February 1st. Okay. Thank you, Ron. Maury, did you want to speak? Maury, maybe he stepped up.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. All right, we're gonna, oh, Eunice, you have one more point?
[Milva McDonald]: Jean, how do you feel about that? That's fine with me. Okay, so we'll vote on that. But before we do, I just want to ask if the Collins Center has anything to add to this discussion about an annual budget meeting and Yeah, there were a lot of dates as I understand it in the budget ordinance, and that was a concern, was conflicting with the ordinance. So I'm glad you brought that up, but I would like to know if Anthony Wilson or Marilyn have any thoughts about this.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. I mean, I guess I'm slightly concerned about February 15th because the people who would be doing this express concern about being able to get information together. But we also, I guess, conflicting with the budget ordinance. I mean, the charter would supersede the ordinance, although they're two different things. I think they would both exist, right, Anthony? Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Right. OK. I mean, based on what we've heard and what I understand, I don't know how much information they're going to get in February anyway. But yeah. If we're doing this, people feel strongly about it. And so February 15th, we'll change it to February 15th. That's the proposal on the table. OK? I'll second it. So does everyone understand what they're voting on? A yes is we're changing from March 1st to February 15th. OK. Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: Jean. Yes. David.
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle. Yes. Phyllis. No. Ron, did you vote?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony Andriodala.
[Milva McDonald]: I missed one person. I met with Eunice. Yes. Okay. I'm going to vote no. So, all right. So that carries. So we'll change that. Great. Anybody else have anything in an article six?
[Milva McDonald]: Maury, do you want to speak to that? Want to repeat?
[Milva McDonald]: Thanks, Maury. I mean, my recollection was that there was concern about doing it annually, but... Yeah, they had concerns about, you know, what works best for them, you know, and... I agree, right.
[Milva McDonald]: It's also was, you know, we're reporting as a communication secondhand and... I feel that since the Collins Center has strongly told us that this is standard practice and it's important, is that correct? Then I feel comfortable with it.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Elections, Article 7. Anybody want to make any amendments there?
[Milva McDonald]: You don't remember what section it is? I'm just skimming.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, great. Anything else in article 7? Okay, article 8. Anybody have any? Everybody okay? Article 8, anybody? I have one change to Article 8.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, my proposal is very simple. It's not complicated. 8-5, which is about recall. Let me find where the party. A recall petition may be initiated. I'm not going to find the language. Let me see. I'm looking for... Oh, here it is. It's down here. And there it is. It happens to be highlighted right now, where it says, from which removal is sought in the grounds of recall, as stated in the affidavit. So since the recalls that we're proposing are not for cause, I'm suggesting that we remove grounds of recall.
[Milva McDonald]: I thought that you that recall, you could just get the signatures to recall someone and you didn't have to say why.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. That's not what my understanding was about recalls. Jean, do you remember when we discussed this?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, what I remember is that we read some materials that indicated that in Massachusetts, and maybe what Marilyn is referring to is the fact that it's not in state law and it's just by charter, but that you could do recalls just with signatures for no particular cause, and said causes are not defined. But I think maybe what Marilyn is saying, and you can correct me, Marilyn, if I'm misunderstanding, is that it's going to come up at some point anyway. So it's best to include it.
[Milva McDonald]: That's what it says now. Daveed?
[Milva McDonald]: No, well, in light of this discussion, I'm withdrawing because I think, you know, I understand now the distinction and the reason that it's there. If anybody else wants to bring it up, they can, but I'm good with it the way it is. Nobody else has anything in Article 8?
[Milva McDonald]: Is it? Oh, are you looking at the recommendation sheet, not the active?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. OK. I'll second that. So what we're voting on is adding that every member of the committee received a copy of the solicitor's decision, and this is in reference to recalls, right?
[Milva McDonald]: I'm having trouble finding it right now, but let's just look at it on the screen and then we can. So, we believe that it is there.
[Milva McDonald]: So, we're good. Yeah. All right. I'm going to draw. Great. Thank you. All right, we're good on that one. Okay, so we're good with article eight? Now nine. Anybody have anything? I mean, we had a new section added to article nine about the financial statements.
[Milva McDonald]: Um, Anthony, do you want to address that?
[Milva McDonald]: You're saying you wanted similar requirements to apply to other sections?
[Milva McDonald]: The ordinance, it says that copies of any recommendation shall be made available to the public at a cost not to exceed the actual cost of the reproduction. Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: My apologies. Anybody have anything else in article 9?
[Milva McDonald]: I feel like we did talk about it and we voted on it and we didn't vote.
[Milva McDonald]: I think that would have been in, what's that? Multi-member bodies are addressed in another article. Is that right? Am I imagining things?
[Milva McDonald]: I'm not finding it right now. So that language, Eunice, can you read it again, please?
[Milva McDonald]: What I want to ask is what section would that go under? Would that go under the appointment section or would it go under the article 9?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So I need to just make sure that that gets in there. First, I'm going to look back and just refresh myself on what meeting we discussed that and when we voted.
[Milva McDonald]: I'm going to look. Yeah, go ahead, Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: No, we didn't last meeting. Well, it wasn't last meeting, but we finished it up. That's why we got the draft charter with everything in it. But we did have something added to it, which was the financial statements.
[Milva McDonald]: I don't know what we... Well, we may not... If nobody brought it up, we didn't discuss it. Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so I will pull up that language and make sure it gets added to the appropriate section.
[Milva McDonald]: So you wanna question that.
[Milva McDonald]: Marilyn and Anthony, can you just speak a little bit about sort of how this kind of thing works in practice? Is the city council involved generally or?
[Milva McDonald]: You asked about section 917, which I think to me, what I read is that it just says that the municipal employees have to comply with the state conflict of interest laws.
[Milva McDonald]: So, Ron, are you looking to propose that we just delete the waiver or that it be maybe have,
[Milva McDonald]: That to me is checks and balances. You wanted to say that this section may be waived by the mayor with approval of the city council?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. And I just wanted to hear from Marilyn and Anthony whether, you know, I'm just only interested in standard practice and whether that's typical or whether there's a reason not to do that.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so I guess my thing is I always think if something is standard language, maybe sometimes there's no reason, but maybe sometimes there is a reason. So I was just trying to sort of discern whether there's a reason to keep this way. And I'm just thinking about it. I don't know, maybe there's a scenario where it makes sense to fill this position of employment, fill with two positions with the same person and
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you, Jean.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So we start by, you want to propose that we add city council approval to the mayor's-
[Milva McDonald]: Uh, okay, um, would you be willing just to.
[Milva McDonald]: Again, I feel like if we vote yes on this, I think the Common Center will craft language that would cover those bases. Anthony, is that okay? Okay, so we're voting on adding city council approval to the mayor's waiver on no person being able to hold more than one city office or position. And the city council approval would be a simple majority.
[Milva McDonald]: 30 days. Within 30 days. Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: We got it. We want to say with the same process that they would approve a multi-member board person. Is that what you're saying?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony Andreottola.
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle. Oh, yes, okay. Dean.
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis.
[Milva McDonald]: Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Daveed.
[Milva McDonald]: Who did I miss? Yourself. I'm voting no. Who did I miss? Did I get everybody? I feel like I missed one person. Okay. Paulette has joined us. Hi, Paulette. Hi, Paulette. Hi, Paulette. She's on mute. Okay. Okay. So that motion passes. So we will add that.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Thank you for that, Eunice. So that's all I got. The leading city clerk from 9-11. Okay. Anybody else have anything else for Article 9? Okay. Paulette, welcome. Thanks for joining us.
[Milva McDonald]: We've just finished up basically. Then we'll go back and ask you if you have any amendments to any section. But before we do that, I just want to check in and make sure everybody saw the language that was added about the financial statements and that the message that I sent you from the call center and see if anybody had any comments or.
[Milva McDonald]: OK.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, everybody else good with that section.
[Milva McDonald]: No, not officially. Maury talked to some former elected officials. Correct, Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: It's just coming up because we just got the language. We haven't met since, so we wanted to make sure everybody was okay with the language and with the language came this note that I shared. I just wanted to check in and see if people had any thoughts or comments about that.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so we're good. Okay, so now Paulette, is there something you wanted to revisit?
[Milva McDonald]: We don't. I don't think we have to vote on it unless
[Milva McDonald]: We voted to include it and the call and center created wrote it. We voted to include it, and then the Collins Center created the language. Just as the whole charter has partially been created by us and partially by the Collins Center, so the process tonight is to go through all that language and see if anybody has any proposals for changes.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so you're proposing removing the- The language for the financial reporting. You want to remove that whole thing from the charter.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. I don't have the section number in front of me. I'm sorry. What is it? Off the top of their head. It's okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Okay. So Anthony wants to vote on removing section 918 from the charter. Does everybody understand what that would be?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, he's proposing an amendment to the charter, which is to remove Section 9, which, you know, is so. OK, so does everyone understand what they'll be voting on?
[Milva McDonald]: Did someone say no?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, Paulette, section 918 is the language that we bought that lays out the creation of an ethics commission to create a financial reporting form. So the amendment that's being proposed is to remove that entire section from the chart. Oh, okay. Okay, Danielle. No. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Paulette. No. Eunice. No. Phyllis. No. Jean. Yes. Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Daveed.
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony Andreottola.
[Milva McDonald]: I'll vote yes too, but it stays. Okay, so now,
[Milva McDonald]: Well, I mean, we didn't vote to change the language that's in the proposed chart. So I guess that means we went along with the recommendation because
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony or Marilyn, do you want to respond to that?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, I guess I don't see it as inaccurate because to me taking it doesn't mean that it can't, that the school committee can't still continue with that process if they want. But putting it in means that they can never change it until the charter is changed. That's how that's kind of how I see it.
[Milva McDonald]: OK, Jean, did you want to say something?
[Milva McDonald]: OK. So are you proposing, do you want to make a proposal that we add it back in?
[Milva McDonald]: OK. First, I just want to hear what Ron and Eunice and David have some comments. Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. So that's a different issue. But let's stick to this issue of the secretary's job description. Eunice?
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Actually, I'm not sure I can do that because it's not in the draft charter. So I'm just going to read it. Right. So we're voting to add in this language. In addition, the secretary is responsible for overseeing and approving the bills of the school department unless the school committee votes to form a subcommittee expressly for reviewing the bills. That would be the section that we would add back in. Jean. I second. Okay. Thank you. Jean. Yes. Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice. Yes. Paulette. Yes. Did I get Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony Andreotila. Did I get Danielle?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. And I think I'm the only one left.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so it gets added back in. Anything else?
[Milva McDonald]: Paulette, did you have anything else? No.
[Milva McDonald]: Nobody's here.
[Milva McDonald]: Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Eunice. Yeah. The final report, it was sent to you all in draft form. There have been some changes made since then. We are going to have one more meeting next week so that we can send you a final draft. And then the next meeting will be our last meeting. What I would like to do is ask the call-in center. I'm going to send the call-in center all these changes. hopefully get a new draft of the entire charter and the final report, which I will send to you in advance of our October meeting so that we can just make those officials vote them and then we will submit that to the mayor. That's the plan.
[Milva McDonald]: I sent a draft, yeah, so that you guys could sort of take a look at it. But you'll get a more final draft.
[Milva McDonald]: You'll get a more final draft. And then we have one more meeting, and we'll be good to go.
[Milva McDonald]: All right, so we're good. Everybody, we managed to finish before 9.30.
[Milva McDonald]: All right. Motion to adjourn. Thank you very much.
[Milva McDonald]: Welcome everyone to the August 1st, 2024 meeting of the Medford Charter Study Committee. We're welcoming the Collins Center tonight. We have Anthony, Frank, and Marilyn, which is great because we have a lot of material to go through. First, I just want to deal with the minutes from June 20th. Did anyone have a chance to look at them? Any issues? Melva?
[Milva McDonald]: OK. Hang on. Let me check on that. OK, here we go. OK, you should be able to start it now. OK, yeah. And thanks for actually just reminding me that I need to record the meeting. Recording in progress. Anybody from the public? Not yet.
[Milva McDonald]: Frances had her hand raised. Frances. Yes. Did you want to say something? It was to remind you to record. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, great. So the minutes, did everyone have a chance to look at them? Do we have any changes? Are we good with them? Yep, they're good.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, all in favor? Aye. Okay, so our first item is Eunice is going to give a report from the Financial Reporting Ethics Subcommittee. Eunice, it's all you.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you, Eunice. That was a great summary. I'm going to give this a bit of discussion, but it's going to be very short because we have a lot of material to get through before we just take the first vote. Does anybody have any questions? Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: It would be great to hear from the Collins Center on this.
[Milva McDonald]: Great. And what about Ron's question about mass general laws?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, any other questions? Then I want to take it to a vote, but first, I'm going to ask if there's any members of the public that would like to speak on this. Okay. We're going to start by just voting on whether this is something that we would want to include in the chart. So the vote is, do we put a provision in the charter that would require the city council to pass an ordinance that would require financial statements, annual financial statements from elected officials, candidates, and some city officials?
[Milva McDonald]: Oh, I'm sorry.
[Milva McDonald]: I was on mute. Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. I would like to just throw out a question to the Collins Center. The issues that were just being described about, say, an elected official pushing something because they had an interest in a development company or a liquor store or whatever, those are already prohibited by state law. Is that correct?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. I just want that to be clear.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you, David. I just wanted to clarify that.
[Milva McDonald]: Because they don't, they're prohibited by law from doing that, but they're not required, local officials are not required to submit annual financial reports, so maybe they could try to get away with it, I guess is the... And I'm going to have to apologize because I cut into Paulette's time.
[Milva McDonald]: That's okay. Paulette, go ahead.
[Milva McDonald]: You're on mute, Paulette.
[Milva McDonald]: We would be putting a requirement that they pass an ordinance which could say that the state form is used. I believe that's what Framingham said. But it doesn't seem like we want to do that based on this discussion. Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. All right, I want to move, I think we have David.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, we're going to vote right now. Is there anybody in the public that wants to speak? I'll ask again. Is there any member of the public that would like to speak? Okay. J.M.N. made a comment, liquor store is a bad example. Thank you. Okay. So the vote is that should we put a provision in the charter that would require the city council to create an ordinance to require elected officials, candidates for elected offices, and some city officials to file annual financial statements? Oh, sorry, it looks like Jim wants to make a comment. Yeah, I think she may want to speak. And then we will know. Can you unmute now? Gene, can you unmute yourself? I'm not sure why she can't.
[Milva McDonald]: I'm not sure why. I'm clicking ask to unmute, but I can't. I'm sorry. You should be able to unmute yourself. Are you not able to?
[Milva McDonald]: No, the security settings. I'm clicking and it won't let me. I'm not sure. All right. I will try one more thing.
[Milva McDonald]: I will try one more thing. Can you do it now?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, I guess we can't get it done. If you're able to unmute, let us know, but the comments are currently this is self-regulated, and I assume that means that the electeds are self-regulating themselves in terms of complying with the state law, the conflict of interest law. Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so I want to go ahead with the vote. I just, Jean, JMN was unable to unmute, but she's making a point that this would create more transparency and that currently elected officials are in charge of, it's sort of an honor system. Okay, and this vote is simply whether we want to put a provision in the charter. We will not write the ordinance. The city council will write the ordinance. We can direct it to a certain extent, but we can't micromanage it. So this is to put a provision in the charter for the city council to pass an ordinance to require financial statements annually from candidates, elected officials, and some city officials. So if you vote yes, you're in favor of that. All right, Danielle. Yes. Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony?
[Milva McDonald]: Jean? No. Paulette? You're on mute, Paulette. You say yes, okay. Eunice?
[Milva McDonald]: David? David, you're on mute. Oh, you can't unmute? You're yes? No, I'm unmuted. And you're yes? Okay, thank you. And I'm the last one, right? I'm just, I'm going to vote no, because I, I just think, I think it's a lot to put into the charter, but it passes. So, uh, cause we had five yes or no and one abstain. So, um, the next step we are going to, we're going to have to figure out the cats and we're going to ask the call center to help us with that. Um, The other question that we had is whether to create an ethics commission, whether the ordinance should create an ethics commission that would implement this. Anthony Wilson, you had a comment.
[Milva McDonald]: No, it was just voted to put it into the charter.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. I guess the details of it are gonna have to be decided. I think maybe what we'll, we're going to have to do is have a subcommittee meeting again and then bring back specific language recommendation. Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: The vote in June was to form the subcommittee.
[Milva McDonald]: I know, but I as the chair, I decided to go ahead with it because I felt like there was enough interest in it. So, so that's what we're going to do. The subcommittee is going to come up with some text and we'll bring it back to the committee. It will not be a big piece of text to add to our draft charter, which we currently have. Okay. All right, so the next item on the agenda is, before we get into the meat of the text of the draft charter, there was a question about the Compensation Advisory Board and the Collins. Everybody read the draft charter and the memo from the Collins Center?
[Milva McDonald]: Yes. Okay. So I think we can just go ahead to a vote, which is do we, the drafted section 918, which was put in the memo, not in our draft charter, do we want to include that in our charter or do we want to, the question is, do we want to include that in our charter or do we just want to make a recommendation in the final report that the city council pass an ordinance to create a compensation advisory board? Does everybody understand what we're voting on?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so a yes vote. Go ahead.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, we did, but when the Collins Center put together a draft charter, they are pulling that out and making a recommendation that we consider not including it in the charter and rather recommending that the city council write an ordinance to do it.
[Milva McDonald]: Just to be clear, the citizen-led board can't determine salaries, they can just make recommendations. The elected officials will make the decisions.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. Okay, so should we have any members of the public that want to speak on this before we vote? Okay. Go ahead, Paula.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. So we're going to vote. If you vote yes, it means you would like to include this in the charter. If you vote no, it means you don't want it in the charter. And we will recommend that the city council create an ordinance. Because we did discuss this in the past, and people did want to do this. So I think the issue And maybe the Collins Center can speak to this, but the Collins Center felt that it just didn't, it's not a standard charter item and it didn't rise to the level of the charter. Is that correct?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so on that, with that, let's vote, Danielle. Yes means you want to put it, you want to put the requirement that this board has created in the charter. No means we want it, but we're going to recommend that the city council pass an ordinance decree.
[Milva McDonald]: Anybody want to speak from the public? I don't see it. Okay. So do we understand what the yes and the no? Okay. Danielle?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: Thanks, Phyllis. No. Okay. Anthony?
[Milva McDonald]: Gene? No. Paulette? Yes. Unis.
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis.
[Milva McDonald]: David. Yes. I feel like I missed somebody.
[Milva McDonald]: Ron, thank you. Ron says no. What does Milda say? I'm going to say no and we'll recommend the ordinance. Yeah. Okay. That will be put into the final report. Great. OK. Now we're going to move on to the draft charter. And I ask that you all read it and come with amendments. Jean?
[Milva McDonald]: I don't know. OK. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. All right. Okay, so does anybody, I have a few things, but I'll ask people first. Do you have any amendments that you want to make in this draft charter, Paulette?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. Yes. Thank you, Eunice. Yes. Let's do it article by article. That's what I meant to do. So thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so that would be the language that would be added. Can the call-in center weigh in on, because you didn't suggest that in the draft, so can you speak to that?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Frank or Marilyn, is there any thoughts about it or anything that there's no reason not to include it or is there a reason that it's generally not included?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. Okay, so are the raised hands about this particular issue? No, OK. So, Paulette, can you just read the language that you want to add so I can get it down?
[Milva McDonald]: OK.
[Milva McDonald]: OK.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, you know, that's fine. It's very vague to me, but you know, because it doesn't mean anything. You just want them to be included.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So let's note now, the vote is to include language, to include an elected school committee will oversee Medford's public schools or similar language, because maybe the call-in center will help us tweak it a little bit, to section 1.3. So if you vote yes, then you want to add it. If not, If you vote no, you don't. Okay. David?
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Danielle is yes. Morris? No. Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Paulette. Yes. Eunice. Yes. Phyllis. Yes. One more person, Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. No, just because I don't think it's necessary, but it's going to be editing. So that's great. That's one. Does anybody have any other amendments for Article 1?
[Milva McDonald]: Are you thinking, Jean, about the confirmation?
[Milva McDonald]: But the charter only addresses mayoral appointments, right? So would it cover whatever appointments are made by the mayor?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, awesome. Okay, so any other amendments to section one? Okay, how about section two? Phyllis?
[Milva McDonald]: It's section 210.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, while you're doing that, Jean?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Anthony or Frank or Marilyn, do charters generally define the difference between a vacancy and a temporary absence?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: I believe we did for the mayor.
[Milva McDonald]: The city council does.
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony, or do you do you have any thoughts on this? Anthony Wilson.
[Milva McDonald]: So we're looking at section 27, and you want to add language? that the clerk may be removed by a vote of the city council.
[Milva McDonald]: There's not any other, I mean, right now all we say about staff is that city council may hire staff subject to appropriation.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, the thing is, we don't say how they're going to hire staff, but we don't say that they hire staff by a vote of the city council. Right. We just say they so. I don't know, I see I see a little bit of a difference, but I do too.
[Milva McDonald]: Go ahead, Jean. What were you going to say?
[Milva McDonald]: You know what I'm saying? Well, I mean, they're hiring the staff, so we're not saying how they... Oh, you mean the clerk? Just the clerk.
[Milva McDonald]: Should we say two-thirds, because that's pretty much the standard? Or you want to say three-quarters?
[Milva McDonald]: Two-thirds. Two-thirds is the standard.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So, um, so on the table is ab language. Um, the clerk may be removed for cause by a two thirds vote of the city council and then potentially adding something about provide, you know, that, that this provision will not conflict with state law.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so that's the vote. If you want to add that, yes.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, that's true.
[Milva McDonald]: You're right, but we should still look at it because if it does conflict, we might want to reconsider adding it. Okay, so yes means yes at it. Eunice? Yes. Paulette? Yes. Phyllis? Yes. Anthony? Yes. Gene? Yes. Danielle? Yes. Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: David?
[Milva McDonald]: All right. I'll be the lone no vote, just because it's not in any charter. So OK, I will be added. Great. Any other? OK. Our hands up for section two.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, Paulette.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, that was mine, Paulette, too. Oh, that's a typo, and that's gonna be Dink Harrop.
[Milva McDonald]: Does that answer your question, Paulette?
[Milva McDonald]: Ron, you got muted, okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, but Paulette, your question is, it says no ordinance shall be passed finally, blah, blah, blah, except in the case of an emergency or in the case of the unanimous vote of the city council. So your question is, is the unanimous vote of the city council include ordinances that aren't emergency ordinances? Right. To me, it reads yes, that it does. But I don't know, maybe I'm reading it.
[Milva McDonald]: So that was your question, Paulette, so you're good with that?
[Milva McDonald]: OK.
[Milva McDonald]: Your question is if the wards increase, then will the at-large Councilors decrease?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony, Frank, or Marilyn?
[Milva McDonald]: Is that part of the city council or was it just- No, that wasn't part of the city council discussion.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, if you want to propose that we've changed the language, you can. So let me see what we-
[Milva McDonald]: It's on page 13, which... It also, the school committee also has an extra role besides, it has vice president and secretary, I believe.
[Milva McDonald]: And I, you know, I think that the roles are different to me, but if you want to make it, if you want to make it, if you want to propose an amendment that we change that language in city, in the city council. Yeah. I'm just trying to find. Okay. While you look for that, is anybody else have a chance to have anything for article two? Okay, I have one. I would like to on Article Section 2.1 in Article 2, under eligibility, because we're requiring a residency requirement for ward school Councilors, I would like to add a ward candidate for city council shall at the time of election be a Medford voter and shall have resided in the ward for which they're seeking office for one year prior to inauguration. I said that. OK. OK. So let's vote on that. OK.
[Milva McDonald]: I add the language to section to one eligibility for City Council. A ward candidate for City Council shall at the time of election be a method voter and shall have resided in the ward for which they're seeking office for one year prior to inauguration. So that would be an addition. Um, okay, David. I'm not. No. Okay. Um, Maury. I don't know, he might be away, I'll get back to him. Gene? No.
[Milva McDonald]: That's okay. You're yes, Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle? No.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes. Phyllis?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony?
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice? Yes.
[Milva McDonald]: And Phyllis?
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, but whoever's talking, it's really. I think David, he's muted now. Phyllis? Yes. Yes. OK. And I'm yes. So we will add that language. Okay, great. Anything, Eunice, did you find what you wanted to propose? Yeah, I did.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. That's what's on the table.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, are we ready to vote on this for the city council?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, and I actually agree with Ron. I feel, because there's also even outlined in the charter certain powers of the president of the city council, I just think it is a different role. But we will vote on adding language to the section 2-2 that the city council president and vice president will serve for one year and be rotating positions. It would be more elegant than that, but that's the gist of it. Okay. Eunice. Yes. Paulette.
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony Andrea.
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis.
[Milva McDonald]: Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle. Yes. Gene. No. Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: David, no, and I'm also not. Okay. So we won't make that change.
[Milva McDonald]: You mean the vacancy?
[Milva McDonald]: Because the original seat does.
[Milva McDonald]: Right. But you're talking about in the case of the city council needing to fill the vacancy, meaning that none of the people that ran are eligible to serve. Exactly. I don't see that it does specify that, but it is a temporary appointment.
[Milva McDonald]: You want to add that to section? I think it's section 10 under C. Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: So, you just want to add language that any person appointed to fill a ward Councilor's vacancy of a ward Councilor must reside in the ward. Right. Collin Center, does that make sense or is there any reason not to do that that we're not aware of?
[Milva McDonald]: No, I don't. I'm sorry, could you say that again?
[Milva McDonald]: That's a good question. Let's see. Eligible and willing is under B. That's for the people who ran, I think. We're talking about adding it under C. This is only for when the city council has to appoint someone. So the amendment on the table is that we add language to section 210C that any vacancy that has to be filled by an appointment of the city council, any vacancy in a ward Councilor that has to be filled by an appointment of the city council must be a person who resides in that ward.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. I have a question. Phyllis.
[Milva McDonald]: That makes sense to me. Thank you for clarifying that.
[Milva McDonald]: Um, okay. Maury, did you have a comment about this?
[Milva McDonald]: So can I just, Maury, I think what Maury is saying is we should say that there's a special election if there's a vacancy. Is that what you're saying?
[Milva McDonald]: So I want to first vote on the language that Eunice proposed about saying that we add language to section 210C that the appointed person reside in the ward. And then we'll get to the special election. Okay, so sound good.
[Milva McDonald]: I know they are. I know they are. But, um, Okay. I mean, the special election would be a whole addition. We don't have anything. We don't say that there's going to be special elections for city council right now. Right. So we would be changing quite a bit. But we'd still have section B, right, where the next vote getter would- So what the proposal, I think, would be is to get rid of C entirely and not have the city council appoint in the case where one of the people who ran can't take the seat. Okay, so is that, and maybe the Collins Center has some thoughts about special elections for vacant city council seats.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so I think from what I understood what you just said that we do still have to vote on the language about because there could be a situation where there would be an appointment, even if we decided on a special election, because the special election would only happen during a particular timeframe.
[Milva McDonald]: Right, right. No, it makes sense. We did for mayor. So let's vote first on the language about the appointed person residing in the ward, and then we'll look at whether we want to add special election, okay? All right, so section 210C, add language that award vacancy appointed by the city council, the person must reside in the ward. Uh, Eunice? Yes. Uh, Anthony Andrea?
[Milva McDonald]: Uh, Paulette? No. Uh, Phyllis?
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle?
[Milva McDonald]: Jean? No. Uh, Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Um, Lori?
[Milva McDonald]: Uh, David?
[Milva McDonald]: And I'm going to vote no for the reasons that Daveed outlined. Okay, so we're not adding that. Now, in terms of the special election, we would have to come up with the language for it. Eunice, did you want to make the comment? Is your hand up for... Oh, no, sorry. We do have language for under the mayor section, but let's just vote on whether we want to add a special election into this. And then if the vote is no, then we don't have to worry about figuring out timelines. So we'll vote on, do we want to fill vacancies in the city council if there's nobody from the election who can take the seat? do we want to put a provision in the charter for a special election for city council?
[Milva McDonald]: No, I don't think so.
[Milva McDonald]: We're eliminating the city council potentially leaving that in depending on what timeline we would decide for the special election. Does that make sense?
[Milva McDonald]: So are you suggesting that only award Councilor get replaced with a special election?
[Milva McDonald]: But that's what we were talking about in the last vote. So do you mean only award Councilor? No, I'm open to either or. Or both. OK. Phyllis.
[Milva McDonald]: Right now, the seat is vacant. The person who got the next highest votes takes it down the line. If that fails, the city council appoints. The proposal on the table is that if that fails, if nobody who ran can take the seat, we have a special election.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, right now there's no special election written in, and right now the city council makes the appointment. Right, but my final question is- But you're saying if there's a special election and nobody runs, then what do we do?
[Milva McDonald]: That would be decided in, if we decide on a special election, we would then decide what timelines we would put in. So we would say in the charter, if it's X number of days or months before a regular city election, then we don't have a special.
[Milva McDonald]: So you're still putting your proposal for a special election out there, Maury? Yes. Okay. Ron and Gene, did you have comments?
[Milva McDonald]: I would like to just vote on whether we want to put in special elections for city council in the case of someone who ran not being able to take the seat before. Then if we say yes, we can decide the details. Is that okay? Does that sound okay?
[Milva McDonald]: No. Right now we have the city council appointing. Yeah. Okay. So special elections for city council under the circumstances we discussed. If you're in favor, yes. If not, no. Anthony, Andrea.
[Milva McDonald]: Paulette. Who? Paulette. No. Eunice. No. Phyllis.
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle.
[Milva McDonald]: Jean. No. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Maury. Yes. David.
[Milva McDonald]: I'm going to also be no, just for the reasons that have been laid out. Okay, so that's that. Anybody have anything else for section two?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, we're going to, I mean, we only have 15 minutes. We're probably not going to get to Section 8, so keep that for the next meeting. OK. Section 3, Article 3, I mean. Anybody have any changes they want or amendments that they want to propose for Article 3? Daveed?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so your proposal is to add that back in. I guess my question for the Collins Center is, when you made the recommendation, was there any legal reason for making that recommendation?
[Milva McDonald]: OK, so the proposal on the table is to add back in department heads as possible replace, as possibilities for filling mayoral vacancies. Right? Does that sound right, David?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Okay. So, yes means that you want to add that back in. No means you don't. Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Okay. So I'm going to go just the way my Zoom boxes are.
[Milva McDonald]: Go ahead.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So the vote is to add back in department heads as possibilities for filling a mayoral vacancy as acting mayor. Uh, Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Uh, Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: I don't know if you want to acknowledge them or... Um, do you want to say something? Do you want to say something? I want to finish the vote. Is this about the vote? Yeah. Okay. We'll hold the vote.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Are we clear on what we're voting on now? Okay, Maury, did you have a question about this?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So let's do the vote. We know what we're voting on. I'm going to restart the vote. Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: Jean. No. Danielle.
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis. No. Eunice. No. Paulette. No. Anthony. Andrea.
[Milva McDonald]: All right. I'll also vote no. Okay. So we will not add that back. Anybody have anything else on article three?
[Milva McDonald]: Holland Center, is that in transitional provisions?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, great. Anybody else have anything for article three? One more question.
[Milva McDonald]: do you have an answer to that?
[Milva McDonald]: I think the veto was already in place.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I think so.
[Milva McDonald]: I think that's governed by state law.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Yeah. This provision is related to ordinances, correct? It says order ordinance resolution. Yeah. Okay. So I think we got through articles one through three, which is awesome, but we have many more articles to go. Let's come to the next meeting, really think through your amendments and come with them and try to be succinct and we'll get through the rest hopefully at the next meeting. Because I'm not going to call another meeting between now and September, and hopefully we won't have to call two meetings in September. So let's look to get through the rest of it at the next meeting. We also wanted to give a brief report on the final report subcommittee. The final report is in pretty good shape and we are going to share it with you all so you can read it. It's in Pieces right now, it's in many Google Docs, but we'll share that with you so you can read it. And then if anybody has any comments about that, we can look at the next meeting. We would have huge numbers. Eventually, eventually, eventually it will. It doesn't yet, but it will eventually.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, no, I think it will eventually. Maury, did you have a question?
[Milva McDonald]: Is that what, the first Thursday in September?
[Milva McDonald]: How do people feel about September 5th? I'm good. It's the Thursday after Labor Day. September 12th would be better.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, you know, we we sort of have a set schedule and we tell everyone, you know, where. I mean, we could change it if a lot of people who cannot come on September 5th.
[Milva McDonald]: I think we're going to keep it on September 5th.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Yeah, no. Thank you, Maury. OK, and the Ethics Subcommittee will meet, and we'll get language together. And then we'll have the Collins Center look at the language, and then we can vote on the addition of that language next time too. All right, does anybody have anything else before we close?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. And thanks. Thanks to the call center. And it'd be great if you also could come back next time so that we can get through the rest of the, uh, get through the rest of the charter, which I think we're going to be able to do at the next meeting. Yeah. I'm confident. She says, love your confidence.
[Milva McDonald]: All right, motion to adjourn. Second. Did some, okay, all in favor?
[Milva McDonald]: See you all soon. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Welcome to the Medford Charter Study Committee for June 20th, 2024. We are expecting a few more people, but we do have a quorum so we can get started. So first order of business is the minutes from last week. Does anyone have a chance to look at them?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, all in favor?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, great. All right, so Basically, what we have left to do is to go through some issues in Article 9. And I'm just going to review the plan. I know I've already said it. And then once we go through those, we will be giving all our materials to the Collins Center, and we will not meet in July. And then we'll reconvene in August, by which time, hopefully, people will have been able to review the draft that we got from the Collins Center. And, you know, they may have questions for us. They're going to be, they'll be with us for those meetings. And then we'll finalize that and go ahead. But the final report committee will be meeting. And we'll talk about that a little bit at the end.
[Milva McDonald]: I'm sorry, you would like to be great. So I'll check in with that I sent out a doodle poll and I'll send it to you too. Okay, so the first so we have, I think, maybe the easiest thing to do is to just share the document. Right. And the first item in Article 9 that we're going to look at is the possible addition of a section on public comment. So Eunice added something from the Fall River Charter, which actually is one of the charters that the Collins Center provided, because when I asked them about this. So I put the feedback from the Collins Center in brown and And the reason I left that part in blue, Eunice, is because the Collins Center sent us such examples from other charters, and they did send us Fall River, but they didn't, that part wasn't in what they sent us, so. Okay. So, whoops, sorry. Make it bigger, too, please. Yes, I will. So, have people had a chance to look at these and, and think about. So basically, the Collins Center said it's not common, but there are charters that do add something about this. And this is specifically about public comment from multi-member boards. And the Collins Center encourages us to allow multi-member boards to have flexibility around how and when they receive feedback from the public. So the examples are Fall River, Do people look at these? Then we had Amherst and Dedham. Do people have a chance to look at them? Yes.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. Because like I said, that wasn't what the call-in center provided, but that was something that Eunice had. Was that in the Fall River chart? You broke up a little. Can anybody understand Eunice?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: OK. Thank you. Maury? Are you muted? Yeah, now you're on.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. I just want to hear from Paulette first, and then we also have some other people that want to comment. Paulette?
[Milva McDonald]: We're going to go to Ron and then David. Then when all the committee members have spoken, we'll turn to the member of the public, Ron and then David.
[Milva McDonald]: Um, okay, thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: OK, thank you. Maury and then Paulette.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, I will read it. The city council, the school committee, and all multiple member bodies shall develop and adopt rules or a policy addressing public comment. The rules or policy shall require that public comment periods appear on meeting agendas for all regular and special meetings. Public comment shall not be limited to items on the agenda for any regular meeting, provided the issues or concerns raised are within the jurisdiction of the city council school committee or any multiple member body respectively. Public comment at any special meeting shall be limited to items on the meeting agenda. There is another paragraph, but Eunice, when you were breaking up, I didn't get the answer whether this blue part actually is from the Fall River Charter.
[Milva McDonald]: I'll just read that sentence again. Public comment should not be limited to items on the agenda for any regular meeting provided the issues or concerns raised are within the jurisdiction of the body. It has to be relevant to the body.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you, David. So we have a bunch of committee members want to speak and I do want to make sure we hear from our member of the public as well. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: All right. Thank you. Phyllis?
[Milva McDonald]: You're breaking up again a little bit.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. Okay, more did you have a quick comment and then we're going to go to Matthew.
[Milva McDonald]: Thanks, Maury. OK, Matthew.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. I just want to say my reading of this doesn't limit anything that the actual body talks about, but it limits, it's talking about public comment, but I see what you're saying that it could still be. lifted.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you, Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Daveed?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Thank you. So I want to just start to close that we've had a really good discussion, but I want to make sure that we get to everything else on the agenda. So I want to get final quick comments on this. And then Maury did make a motion to vote on it. So Paulette.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: OK. Matthew, did you have another comment? And I have seconded it.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. I will work that in, but I just want to just quickly make sure everybody look at the other two. This is definitely the Fall River one is the one that people want to vote on. Did everyone look at the other two examples? Yes. The other two examples don't mention city council and school committee. So, okay. So I don't hear any comments. So we're going to stick with this. The only thing I want to say, well, I want to say a couple of things. One thing I want to say is I think we, and I don't think this will be a big issue, but we just took us last week. And one thing I had talked to the call center about was to be careful about using specific language that could box us in. So city website, I think, but we talked about last week that they're going to change that language so that it's, adaptable to whatever potential form of communication might be around in eight years, say, before the next charter review. So I'm just going to suggest when we submit it to the Collins Center that they just make that consistent. The only other thing I'm going to throw out, and I don't think it's a big deal because I think the Collins Center will flag it if it really is a conflict, but I don't think it is. We did the initiative petition, which lets people put an item on the agenda, and it sort of limits their ability to put the same item on multiple times. So I don't think it's a conflict, but I'm also not going to worry about it because I think the Collins Center will tell us if it is. Okay, so the motion as I see it on the table is to accept the Fall River language with the addition of a clause ensuring that all comments comply with Mass General Law privacy and confidentiality guidelines. And again, you know, the call-in center will be responsible for adding that and they'll tell us if it's, you know, they'll have a comment about it if they think it's not needed or if whatever. Anyway, so that's the motion. We have a second, so we're going to vote. Rob.
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice. Yes. Phyllis. Yes. Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: David.
[Milva McDonald]: Paulette. No. I got Maury. I know. Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Did I get everybody? Rob. I got Ron, I think. Did I get you, Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, just me. I feel like I'm going to abstain because I feel like I got to think about it more, so I'm abstaining. I'm copping out. Come on, Milva. I'm sorry.
[Milva McDonald]: It does pass. The motion passes.
[Milva McDonald]: Now, the next item is an addition on conflict of interest. and a lot of other things. So when I spoke with the Collins Center, they pointed out that this particular section is usually limited to this very simple language. All city employees shall be considered municipal employees under Chapter 26, 268A of the general laws and shall comply with the state conflict of interest laws. So while that's standard, there are some communities that add another layer. The reason that most don't is because most of these things are covered in state law. And they recommend that if we do add another layer and extra provisions, that we should ensure that none of the provisions conflict with state law. So this is, again, from Fall River, right? And it's pretty long. Did everyone look at it? Actually, should we go part by part? The first part is the conflict of interest, David.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Anybody else?
[Milva McDonald]: One might be the, I think the financial statement, like right now, it's not, I don't think everybody's required to submit a financial statement, I believe. Are we talking about the ethics part? Yeah, that's ethics, I guess.
[Milva McDonald]: No, no.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, just say that just because the Collins Center makes recommendations, but just because they work with the charter, it doesn't mean that they just help. Um, and they might've said, well, we recommend this. And then the municipality said, well, we're doing this anyway.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, that's what we have to decide is how to deal. Should we just go one by one and start with the... The conflict of interest section, basically, just to be clear, that first section, the letter A section is standard language, and I think that would have just been put into the charter by the Collins Center. And the other part is in addition, but it's, I mean, you know, most of this is covered in state law. I wonder if some of that
[Milva McDonald]: There was a big mess there, definitely.
[Milva McDonald]: OK, let's start with the conflict of interest section. Ron, did you have a comment about that?
[Milva McDonald]: Great, thank you. Okay, Matthew.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you, David.
[Milva McDonald]: I think it was.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. And now I want to hear from Maury and then we're going to
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. So I guess I think that, you know, the charter, we've talked about this in the past, it tends to We want it to be meaningful, but we also want to be careful about too many specifics because the charter is set in stone and it's hard to change. I guess I'm just going to make a motion that we adopt the language under A and not the rest of it under conflict of interest.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. If you want to include the rest of it, you vote no, basically. Okay. Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. It just says there's conflicts, you know, there's conflict of interest law and you have to follow it basically. You follow state law.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. So it would not include everything else, but we'll do it section by section. But this is under this. We're only including A. If you agree with that, you vote yes. OK. So Maury. Yes. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: David. Yes. Eunice. Yes. Paulette. Yes. Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Did I get Phyllis? No, but yes for me. Okay. I'm yes. That's that. Now, we move on to we've got these other sections, prohibition against self-dealing, and then the ethics reporting requirement. I think that was, and there's another section.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, but I'm just looking at the conflict of interest stuff. There's also this section about public contracts. So this is pretty much, it's included in the conflict of interest section. So these would be extra layers. We've had a discussion. Does anybody want to make a motion on any of these?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. I mean, this also includes, I think, even more division heads, but anyway, so that, so that's that. And that's a very specific requirement that that language is requiring electeds to file, regularly file a financial statement, a statement of financial interest.
[Milva McDonald]: City clerk. City clerk.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. How does it? Um, yeah, go ahead. You know what? Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: You did remind me of something that the Collins Center said that is that these issues are often covered in ordinances, so they could be covered in it. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, there definitely are, but I think, and that is what the Callen Center conveyed that most of this is covered in state law, but this financial statement, for instance, is another layer. That's not required in state law that every, you know, whatever elected or every department head or whatever fills out a financial state interest of, But yeah, you know what I'm saying? That's hot. Okay, Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, Eunice.
[Milva McDonald]: So we have a couple of motions or ideas on the table. We have one, form a subcommittee to take a deep dive into this. Two, just not include any of this and just keep the section we have about state law. And three, include something that this would be decided by ordinance. So I guess if we do make a subcommittee, are we specifically talking about a subcommittee on the ethics reporting requirement, which is essentially the financial statement?
[Milva McDonald]: And it could be huge. And Daveed, like the analogy that you used about, you know, your underwear. I mean, it is definitely intrusive. There's no question about it.
[Milva McDonald]: It doesn't mean it's not a good idea, but it is. It's pretty big thing. Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: With forming a subcommittee?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so just to be clear about, we're still going to go ahead with our plan, which is handing everything to the Collins Center, but we're just going to say that there's still some decisions to be made on ethics reporting requirement, and we'll add in whatever we decide later. So the motion on the floor is to form a subcommittee to research and ethics reporting requirement in the form of a financial statement. Can I just put it that way?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, that's the limit of the subcommittee, you know, but the language here is actually not limited to elected officials.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. That would be, you know, the only people that would... you'd have any legitimate basis for asking for this information.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, if we include it. Yeah, I don't know.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, that's fine. Sorry. So the motion is not to have this. It's to have a subcommittee to look at it. Okay, so Eunice. Yes. David.
[Milva McDonald]: Maury. Yes. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony. No. Phyllis. No. Who didn't I get? Paulette. Paulette, thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. I'm voting no, which means it's a tie. It's a tie and I think tie usually, what does a tie go to? I should know this.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, that's fine. But given that there is interest, and there are people there, I assume, are willing to serve on this subcommittee? Yes. I mean, we don't, you know, we're not, we're an ad hoc committee. So we're not like required to follow Robert's rules.
[Milva McDonald]: This is what would happen on the subcommittee would meet and there would be a deadline of. Our August meeting and the subcommittee would then. make a recommendation that we would vote on. I think we would have to limit the discussion because our plan for August is to go through the final charter. This subcommittee would be extremely focused. It would be just about this. I would have them aim for a very succinct, Um, Recommendation that just covered the absolutely relevant points that we could then vote on. Does that make sense?
[Milva McDonald]: It's not, that's what I'm saying. It would be like maybe a 10 to 15 minute presentation slash vote at our August meeting. Can we do that? Yeah. Okay, who wants to be on the subcommittee?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so we've got Maury, Eunice. Yep. Did I see Daveed?
[Milva McDonald]: And did I see anybody else? Okay. I'll be on it because I'm on every subcommittee. I mean, yeah, I'll just like, you know, okay. So who, um, does anybody want to be in charge of setting up a meeting for that? I can do that. I can do that. Okay. So Eunice, you'll, Eunice will send out dates to set up a meeting. Okay. Okay. That's basically that section about financial interest. The last piece is, are you counting the WALFAM section as part of the?
[Milva McDonald]: That's part of state law. So far, just to be clear from this section, under the conflict of interest, we're including the standard language which just says that about municipal employees and that they're beholden to follow mass general laws. And then we are going to have a subcommittee look at the possible extra layer of financial statements. That's my understanding. Okay, good. Now, the property. Eunice, do you want to just give some background about what you're thinking about on this?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, the school committee, you're saying comes from state law, right? I think so, Paulette.
[Milva McDonald]: 100 percent is state law. My feeling about this is that this is the kind of thing that could be in an ordinance. In what? In an ordinance. But I don't know how others feel.
[Milva McDonald]: Anybody have any other thoughts about this naming of city property?
[Milva McDonald]: So do we, does anybody want to make a motion about this? Are we, I mean, we've had some discussion. Does anybody feel strongly about including it and they want to make a motion or.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: So you want, okay, so you want to make a motion to exclude this section?
[Milva McDonald]: Somebody want to second? I'll second it. How's that? Okay. Okay. Anthony?
[Milva McDonald]: Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: Daveed?
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis? Yes. Paulette? Yes. I think that's it and I'm voting.
[Milva McDonald]: Awesome. We're going to move on now to the purchase or taking of land. Do you want to talk about why you think this is a good idea for the charter?
[Milva McDonald]: One thing, I think this was the language that I gave to the Collins Center and they actually had an issue with it because of the language which is outlined in these comments. They also gave these examples. And one of the things that I thought is interesting to note is that we actually, it's in Mass General Law for Planned Parenthood, so we technically have this provision. And so I feel, you know, there's definitely Mass General Law about this. So. What about eminent domain? Does that apply here for anything? I think it does.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Anybody else? I'm good with that.
[Milva McDonald]: So basically, the motion is that we do not include a section about taking of land by city. That's essentially it, right?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Okay, Anthony?
[Milva McDonald]: David?
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice? Yes. Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis? Yes. Paulette? Yes. And I'll go yes. Okay, awesome. Okay, so those were the outstanding issues on the list. Does anybody have any other outstanding issues that we need? I mean, we do have one, which is the financial statements, but does anybody have any other outstanding issues that we should look at before we are ready to hand things over to the call center?
[Milva McDonald]: I'm not sure, I'm not, I mean, you know, we already went through that and we voted on that section. So whatever we got was brought up in a meeting. If it wasn't brought up in a meeting, we didn't get it. Maybe I'm just misremembering. But just remember, I mean, we are gonna get a draft charter from the Collins Center and we're all gonna have the opportunity to read it and then we're all gonna discuss it. So this is, you know, there's, there's going to be chances to discuss things that come up for you. That's all I'm saying. David?
[Milva McDonald]: Oh, thanks, David. All right. Awesome.
[Milva McDonald]: OK, so I'm just going to take a moment to talk about the final report committee. It's Jean, Maury, me, Phyllis, potentially, and Daveed. So I did have a doodle poll, and I'll just tell you the three times that work for Phyllis and you. I'm basically checking with Phyllis and Daveed. June 25th, which is this Tuesday, or June 26th from 2.30 to 4.00. And I don't know if day ever works for you, Phyllis.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. What about you, David? Are daytimes out for you?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so I'm going to I'm actually going to schedule that I'll send out an agenda. I mean, our first meeting is going to basically be just to make a plan. About is that going to be Melba Wednesday from 230 to 4. so if you can't come. You think you can come? I'm going to try to make sure I don't have anything scheduled for them. The other date that was available was Sunday the 30th from 630 to 8. So, all right, so we'll do Wednesday the 26th from 234 and then we'll see where we go from there. I mean, basically, we're going to be making a plan. We're going to be. figuring out sort of how we're going to structure it. Maybe people will volunteer to write certain sections. I don't know. We'll figure it out. But that's what our meeting is going to be about. OK. And as I said, we're not meeting in July. And we will meet the first Thursday in August. I don't have the date handy, but it's our usual. And you will have. assuming the call-in center is turnaround is as quick as they told me it is, you will all have had some time with the draft charter. So that will be your July homework to read the draft charter and come prepared to go over it with the call-in center in August. And hopefully, we'll have a good start on a final report.
[Milva McDonald]: Sounds like a plan. The first Thursday in August is August 1st. It is. Okay. Thank you. Next meeting, August 1st, with the Collins Center. And if for some reason they can't come, I'll let you know, but I don't think that's gonna happen. All right, Matthew, you have comments?
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, that is Article 8. And there's a lot in that article, initiative petitions, all kinds of things, recalls, et cetera. But yeah, I can send you what we have that we voted on. And again, so we have several articles that we have drafted. Those are all going to go to the Collins Center. So what the Collins Center will be doing is just sort of looking for consistency of language. We kept talking about when it says certain number of days, what does that mean? Well, there's going to be that whole definition section, so that'll be what they're going to do for us. Then they're going to actually draft Articles 5, 9, and 10, but we actually did vote on some of the language in Article 9, but they'll plug in whatever standard language. So they'll be looking for consistency of language. If they have questions about what we meant, they'll ask us. If they see something that they think will maybe cause an issue, they'll tell us. Like, for instance, we didn't end up voting on using that language from WALF-AM about the taking of land, but they felt that it could actually disadvantage the city, and we pointed that out. So if they see something like that, they'll point it out to us, and then it will be up to us whether we want to consider what they, you know,
[Milva McDonald]: I'm not sure the actual drafts are on the, in our committee materials on the website because they're, they're not, they're not our final draft. So, you know, how many do we want floating around say, but I'm perfectly comfortable sharing article eight with you if you just email me and I'll, and I will write very big letters on top that it's in draft form.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, I think I agree with David. I think you're all awesome. And this has been really a pleasure. And we're not done yet. So yeah, let's get you know, so close. But we're doing really well, yeah. I mean, you know, I feel like the final report is going to be kind of like writing a dissertation, but maybe not. Jean is on the committee, and she seems very, you know, she said she writes reports all the time for her work, so she's not intimidated by it at all. She's not deterred by it, yeah. But I think it'll be good.
[Milva McDonald]: We'll be including that. I envision that there will be appendixes. There will be that. There will be the survey results. Gene did an awesome report, the summary on all the listening sessions. So those will, I think, will be sort of addendums to the report, but we'll discuss that.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, when the final report committee meets, if we feel like we need stuff, we'll just ask for it. Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: So I will see some of you at various subcommittee meetings and the rest of you have a fantastic July. I guess we're supposed to vote, but I know everybody's okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Hi, everyone. Welcome to the June 13th, 2024 meeting of the Medford Charter Study Committee. Okay. So I want to try to get through everything tonight. So the first thing on our agenda is the minutes from June 6th. Did everyone have a chance to look at them? Are we good with those?
[Milva McDonald]: Oh, I never even thought about doing that.
[Milva McDonald]: Thanks for that tip. I may do that.
[Milva McDonald]: Is there someone who can do that quickly and text it to Maury? I can do that, Milva. Thank you so much. The minutes. I'm abstaining, I wasn't there, but. Does someone want to move? Okay, second?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay, so minutes are approved.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, so we have a lot of issues to go through. So we'll start, we'll just go through the agenda. Um, we'll go through that they're in the order that they are on the agenda. First was the residency requirement for multi-member bodies. So that was something that somebody, does someone want to say something?
[Milva McDonald]: The, the article that you've got article nine and that we're not, that's not a draft that we were going to use for our charter. It's basically was just sort of an example draft of things that go in article nine so that we can make the decisions about it. And the Collins center will draft that and fix all that stuff. Um, so in terms of the residency requirement, so, um, What I did get a lot of notes from the call center this week on these questions and they said that it's not uncommon for there to be residency requirements. I know last week when we talked about it. There were certain concerns like what if somebody who needed to be on a body, wasn't a resident, like the chief of police, for instance, or the building commissioner. And Collins Center gave some example language that they felt would address those issues. Did anyone have a chance to look at it? They basically gave us an example from Fall River, an example from Northampton, and an example from Amesbury.
[Milva McDonald]: Did everybody look at them? Okay. I actually don't know if I have them to call up right now. If anybody, because I actually can't call up a Word doc on my laptop, but we won't get into that.
[Milva McDonald]: But everybody theoretically looked at these, right? Yes. So the one from Amesbury says that all appointed multi-member body members shall be residents of the city, but that that requirement can be waived by majority vote of the city council upon recommendation of the mayor. So let's say the mayor, who is the appointing authority anyway, wants to waive that requirement. the mayor has to go to the city council and they have to vote on it. The mayor sets out the reasons why the waiver is in the best interest of the city. Does that make sense?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I just put it in the chat. There was the question of, do we want to put a residency requirement in? If we do, we have different examples, and it seems like the third example, the Amesbury example, is the one that people like. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, so the only boards that the mayor doesn't appoint are ones that are written into the ordinance or from mass journal law, right? I mean, because the mayor has the power to appoint. That's what the mayor has now, and that's what we have in our charter, in our draft charter.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, I don't, I don't think so.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, there are, I think there might be some boards where like the city council appoints some people and the mayor appoints others, but those are the ones that are, um, created by ordinance or mass general law or something? I don't know.
[Milva McDonald]: Any other comments or discussion on this point?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. We can do that. I'm not, do people need to see it right now? Jean was just sharing in the chat what are the 2-9 section that we wrote, which gives the mayor the authority to appoint the multi-member bodies and gives the city council the confirmation, the power to reject, say. Do we want to move ahead with the Amesbury language, or what do people think?
[Milva McDonald]: OK. OK, let's do a roll call. Ron? Yes. Jean?
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle?
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice? Yes. Paulette?
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis? Are you not sure? Right. Okay. So Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: Aubrey? Yes. Anthony?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, great. And I'm voting yes. Did I get everybody? I think I did. Okay, awesome. So that is what did you vote on? We voted on adding a residency requirement for multi member bodies. So what we just voted was to add a residency requirement, but put language in that includes a waiver so that it could be waived with the mayor can take a waiver request to the city council to waive the residency requirement. So it's not impossible that someone from outside the city could be on one of those boards, but there has to be a reason for it. Yeah, okay. I agree with that. Okay. OK, great. So Eunice, what was your question on the rules and regulations?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Then I will share a little bit from my conversation with the Collins Center about this. So their recommendation was not to be that specific because the public engagement changes. And so, you know, let's say a charter review every 10 years, the means for public engagement change. So they recommended just putting in language that was more general, like through all available means, or you could say through electronic means or something like that.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, well, we were talking about basically any they were talking about any mention of. putting requirements in the charter to put materials on the city website or, you know, in specific areas on the city website, because the means for public engagement can change over the period between charter meetings.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, so, and as I said, this is, you know, all I'm doing for Article 9 is telling the Holland Center what we want in it, and that they're going to put standard language in, and theoretically, they would use updated language, but we could say to them, we want this section to reflect the importance of materials being available to the public, you know, as specifically as possible, or something like that.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Thank you. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, that's a different issue.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. So we usually take public comment at the end, but I'm fine with taking it now. So is everyone? Yeah. Okay. I think Matthew wanted to speak. You have to unmute. Yeah, we can hear you. Wait, you're breaking up. Can you hear me? We can hear you, but you're breaking up.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. He's going to put it in the chat, I think he said. Okay, so do we have any more discussion on this? Do we have a resolution? Well, does anybody have one? I mean, what I was going to say was the move to ask the Collins Center to include language that ensures information is shared through all available means and just sort of stress the importance of that.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I'm about to look at that. Anyway, so that was my suggestion. I don't know what he wants us to consider before the vote. We'll wait. So just to rephrase, I would move that we ask the call-in center to include language that ensures that information is shared through all available means with the public, shared with the public, all available means. Does anybody want to second that?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. I know.
[Milva McDonald]: Right. Without request. Yeah. Okay. So if we were going to include that, we're moving to ask the Council to include language that ensures info is shared with the public through all available means.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Can we take that piece separately?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Frances, did you want to say something?
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, thank you for that. Ron and then Eunice, and then we're going to vote.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. So the motion is, it's about rules and regulations, as Gene pointed out, and it's basically we're just asking the Collins Center when they draft this to make sure that they include language to ensure that the information is shared through, with the public through all available means, not, you know, and they will, I'm sure, I trust that they will phrase it appropriately. So, can we vote?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. We have the motion on the table and I will go around Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Paulette.
[Milva McDonald]: Aubrey. Yes. Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Jean. Yes. Phyllis. Yes. Eunice. Yes. Danielle. Yes. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. And I'm also yes. Okay, awesome so we want to address part 2 of that where I think it was the 5 day window units right that. Can you just read can you read that out again?
[Milva McDonald]: So you're saying you, I mean, do you want to make a motion for that?
[Milva McDonald]: Anybody want a second? Second. Okay. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: I think that that's part of the definitions that the Collins Center will work through when they create our draft. They'll work on the A's problem. Okay. Danielle?
[Milva McDonald]: Jean?
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice? Yes. Aubrey? Yes. Maury, did I get you? Sorry, I've lost track of my windows.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Paulette, did I get you? Yes. You didn't get me and I'm a yes, Phyllis. Okay. Anthony, I don't think I got Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. I feel like I missed one person. Did I? I got everybody? Okay, Maury voted. Okay, and I'll vote yes. Okay, awesome. What's next? Oh, the ordinances, periodic review of ordinances. So as you can see, the Collins Center said that ordinance reviews are, they're getting more common. It's becoming a standard feature of a modern charter. They're usually done every five years. And they gave us three examples. And the language is a little different in each one. So did people have a chance to look at them? I did. Let's see. Where are they? Let's see if I don't have them for the screen. I think that they all said five years, right? But, you know, the first one, the East Hampton one said the city council may provide. So that seemed like it sort of left it open. And they didn't all require the formation of a committee, right, East Hampton. had the review just conducted under the supervision of city attorney, or if the city council so directs by special counsel appointed for that purpose. But the other two, I think, had the formation of a special committee. Yeah, Winthrop and Northampton. Does anybody have any thoughts about the different versions or how you... Do you want me to try to share my screen, Melva?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Thanks. Jean, I think we had actually language from the call-in center that had three different versions of it. Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Any, let's see. Yeah, here we go. I agree with you, Ron. That was my pick, too, of the three. I liked the Northampton. Did anybody have any thoughts about the others? Here's the Northampton language. So not later than July 1st at five-year intervals, the mayor and city council shall provide for a review to be made of some or all of the ordinances of the city to prepare a proposed revision or break codification of them. It shall be made by a special committee to be established by ordinance. So this puts the particulars of the formation in the hands of the city government to establish by ordinance. but it does stipulate that they're all voters and it says a couple of other details. Dean.
[Milva McDonald]: And it also, you know, it gives flexibility because it says some or all of the ordinances because, you know, obviously a complete review of all the ordinances every five years would be.
[Milva McDonald]: Right. So this, and, and this particular language leaves it sort of up to the city government, how to structure the committee. Um, Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Like we did for the charter.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Aubrey?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Maury, did you want to speak?
[Milva McDonald]: OK. Thank you. Jean?
[Milva McDonald]: Where we are is we've had several members like Northampton, but there's some question about the structure of the committee. Did I see, Ron, your hand up again? No. Maury's, no? Okay. So, I mean, does somebody want to move that we accept this language pretty much as is, or do we want to talk about changing the committee and putting more sort of specific guidelines on it in this section.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, go ahead. make a note to the call-in center, you know, just keep in mind when you're drafting this charter that we don't currently have a city solicitor. So, see, yeah, legal counsel. It could just say legal counsel.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, I mean, they had a charter amendment that they tried to pass, but we didn't put that in our draft charter. We just put that they could hire staff, but we didn't.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I hear what you're saying. I mean, currently the way the North Hamilton language is written, it seems to me that it gives the mayor and the city council the leeway to decide which ordinances that they want to review, right? But you're saying can we say that, can we add that, let's say, providing that every ordinance is reviewed at least every X number of years.
[Milva McDonald]: That's a good point.
[Milva McDonald]: So, right, so you're saying if we decided to add a line saying that no ordinance should go longer than 10 years without being reviewed, and that, could that be burdensome? That's a big review every five years, right?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, that's true. Aubrey?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. Jean?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. Maury, did you have another comment?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, Eunice.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Thanks. Danielle.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so we've talked a lot. First, I just want to say timekeeping-wise, we have one more hour left. If we can get through everything on the agenda, we won't have to meet next week, and I'm still hopeful. I just want to have that in everybody's mind. I feel like there's three parts to this. There's the timing of the review, which I haven't heard a lot of disagreement about every five years, as long as we use the language, some or all. The other piece is the composition of the committee, whether it should be just left to ordinance or whether we should specify. And the other piece is, should there be a line added that says every ordinance should be reviewed within at least every X number of years? So let's take them one by one. So for the five-year review, Do we want to vote on that and say, like, I'll just make a motion that we have an ordinance review every five years?
[Milva McDonald]: OK. Second. OK. So all right. Eunice? Yes. Maury?
[Milva McDonald]: Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony?
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle?
[Milva McDonald]: Jean?
[Milva McDonald]: Paulette?
[Milva McDonald]: Aubrey? Yes. Is Phyllis out there? Yes, I second the motion.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes. Okay. I can't see everybody. I can't see the boxes now because of the screen share. So Phyllis, did you vote yes? Okay, and I'll vote yes. So awesome. We've got that piece done. What about the composition of the committee? I mean, I guess- I'll make a motion.
[Milva McDonald]: I just want to get it down right. When you say a city councilor or appointed by?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, and same with school committee?
[Milva McDonald]: And for voters, okay. Anthony, you had a comment?
[Milva McDonald]: So wait a minute, guys. It's no, it's not the charter, it's the ordinances. I actually, I agree with Anthony on this because I do feel like it's in the wheelhouse of the city council, but we're gonna vote. But first Paulette and then Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Wait a minute. So that means Maury would have to amend his motion, I think.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. Okay. Maury, did you want to speak?
[Milva McDonald]: OK, thanks. Aubrey?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. I think that's a really good point. I think even the city council sometimes especially needs legal guidance when they're writing ordinances. It's their job to legislate, but they need guidance too. Did the motion get seconded? What is the motion? Well, Jean, can I just have Jean's comment and then I'll reread the motion as I have it recorded.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, it would be instead of having the review committee established by ordinance, it would be The motion is that the review committee is made up of one member appointed from the mayor's office, one city councilor, one school committee member, and four voters.
[Milva McDonald]: That's a good point, Maury. It has to say who's appointing the voters.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Well, let's vote on it and see where it's at. And then if we have to finesse who appoints the four voters, we will. Okay. So Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice. Yes. Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle. Yes. Gene. No. Aubrey. No. Phyllis?
[Milva McDonald]: Paulette? Yes. And who didn't I get?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony's no. And I'm also no. The motion does not carry. So now we're back to still the question of how the committee would be, I mean, whether we want to say it's going to be established by ordinance or some other way.
[Milva McDonald]: Do you want to make a motion that we keep the Northampton language?
[Milva McDonald]: Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I hear you. I guess my view is that I see this particular review as actually almost like a support for the city council because the city council is the legislative body. They get elected by the people. The ordinances are their wheelhouse. And this is a sort of a way to support them in their work of managing the ordinances. That's just my interpretation of this.
[Milva McDonald]: I hear you. That makes sense. Aubrey.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, good point. Thank you. So, um, we want to, I want to hear from Eunice and Jean and Ron, but I just also want to just point out that, uh, if we really would be awesome, if, um, uh, we, uh, could finish our work tonight.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, let's take that next, but to see, because that would be an addition. So right now we're just going to vote on whether we want to accept the language about the, um, from the North Hampton charter about this committee.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice. Yes. Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis. Yes. Aubrey. You're muted, Aubrey. Yes. Danielle.
[Milva McDonald]: Paulette. Yes. Uh, I'm missing one person. Yes. Okay. And I will also vote. Yes. Okay. Awesome. Um, so now, um, The third piece about adding language. So Danielle, do you want to make a motion about that, about adding language that every ordinance shall be, I would say like no ordinance shell.
[Milva McDonald]: How do you feel about that, Danielle?
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle? How do you feel about 15 years? OK, Paulette?
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, can we split the difference and go 20?
[Milva McDonald]: OK. So the motion on the floor is no ordinance shall go more than 20 years without being reviewed. Did we get a second?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle. Yes. Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis. Yes. Aubrey. No, but I like the spirit. Jean. Yes. Paulette.
[Milva McDonald]: One person I'm missing. Me. Eunice. Eunice, thank you. Yes. Yes, okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you, Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: It takes talent. Okay, we're going on. So we've done the ordinance review. Yay. Can I just add 1 thing?
[Milva McDonald]: Can we just say, tell the call-in center that we want this section to reflect- Electronic means, yeah. Okay. Same thing we're saying for the other one? Yes. Okay. Okay. We're in the 21st century. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Now, next on the agenda, but we may have already covered it. Was there anything about multi-member bodies other than the residency? Oh, yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: So we run into the same problem again. We don't know if Metro community media is going to exist for the next 10 years. You know, it might change. It might be something else. We don't know what new electronic things going to come down the pike that maybe a website isn't a thing anymore. And I think that's what So I guess what I'm going to ask about this is, can we do what we're doing with all the other sections and just let the call-in center use language that won't sort of tie us into something that might not exist during the tenure of the charter?
[Milva McDonald]: OK. So what I would like to do is just tell when we submit our draft charter and the parts of the charter that the Collins Center is going to write that we include, we want language in there to ensure that these meetings are publicized by all means available, and that they're broadcast by all means available, and that they're shared by all means available, and let them come up with the language? Does that sound? Yeah, I'm amenable to that. We're going to talk about it again because we're going to get the draft charter back from the call-in center. Then when we get it back from the call-in center, they're going to be with us for the last three meetings. So there'll be a chance to talk about it again.
[Milva McDonald]: I'm pretty sure, isn't that an open meeting? I mean, I thought that that was outside the charter requirement.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. And they're not. Right. So that's, I don't think we can control that. Okay. But Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: OK. So let's let the call-in center put that language in. And as I said, Eunice, we'll be able to address it again with them present. And we can work through it if we need to. Does that make sense? Does that sound good?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Do people need to see the language before they vote on it? Jean.
[Milva McDonald]: It's possible, but I don't recall this in particular being there, but if you want to look, you can.
[Milva McDonald]: I don't see it. Oh, there we go. So that's what's on the table. And do we have a second?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Um, okay. Let's vote. Uh, Eunice? Uh, yes. Uh, Paulette? Yes. Uh, Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Uh, Aubrey?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Um, Jean?
[Milva McDonald]: Maury. Yes. Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Who did I miss? I got Ron. Danielle. And somebody else different. Danielle says yes. And you didn't get me, Milva. And Phyllis? I'm abstaining. Okay. And Aubrey? Is still reading?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: That's what it sounds like to me.
[Milva McDonald]: I don't see why they couldn't do that already. That's how I read it. It's just saying that they can send a notice to the mayor about this. It doesn't say anything is going to be done about it.
[Milva McDonald]: Aubrey's a no. Okay. So we have five yes, three no, two abstain, so the motion passes. Okay. That was all from multi-member bodies. Were we going to do anything about the periodic review of the need for multi-member bodies? Yeah, that would be another because you wanted to add that. I think there was a note from the Collins Center on that, and the Collins Center felt that they thought that you wouldn't necessarily need it if we were doing an ordinance review, but they also had a suggestion. which was not about putting something in the charter, right? Yeah, it was about, I think, bringing it to the city council. I can't seem to find in front of me their note, but I believe it was to make a recommendation that I couldn't get papers, that the city clerk, right? Put it in the chat. I put it in the chat. Thank you. Thank you, Jean. OK, so let's look at it. If I can scroll down to the last chat. Here we go. recommend that a city official like the city clerk produce an annual report to the city council regarding the need and operation of all currently existing multi-member bodies. So we could do something like that. Or if you want Eunice to make a motion about adding this section to the charter about having a review of the need for multi-member bodies, you can do that. Jean.
[Milva McDonald]: Jean, do you have another comment?
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, that's right.
[Milva McDonald]: Where do we want to go with this?
[Milva McDonald]: So I guess what we're talking about now is something put in the final report, not the actual draft charter. So if we're deciding that we don't want to put this in the charter and we'll enable something for the final report, then we don't have to go through the nitpicking of it right now. We can do that at another meeting. Does that make sense? If that's what we're deciding, that we're going to do that. We're going to put something, we're going to put a recommendation in the final report.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. And then we'll finagle that, the details of it down the road. Okay. Um, is that it for multi-member bodies? Uh, yeah. Okay. Now you said had something in oaths or affirmations.
[Milva McDonald]: Again, I'll just say that this was just an example for us to see what's in this section. If this is mostly standard language and the call-in center will draft it, and the call-in center, one of the things that they're going to do when they draft the charter is make sure the language is all consistent. So when we get the actual complete lead a draft charter from the call and center. If there's still a conflict, then can we deal with it then? Yes.
[Milva McDonald]: OK, awesome. OK, the public comment.
[Milva McDonald]: You want to do that next? OK, so again, this is just an example charter that we used. And Ron had flagged this because he wanted to discuss this waiver option, which I am told by the call-in center is actually not common. So apparently Melrose does it, but it's not common. They theorize that one of the reasons for including the waiver would be just to not limit because it's hard sometimes to get people and this could maybe address that, but it is not a common provision. They probably would not have included it if we were just saying draft that with standard language. But now that we are actually looking at an example that has it in it, the question arises, do we want that in there or not? Ron does not want it, correct?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So Does anybody see a reason to have the waiver?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, it says one city office or position of employment. So it could be a city office, which I interpret to be an elected office or a position of employment. So the limitation on office holding is standard in the charter. What is not standard is a waiver, but we happen to be looking at a charter that includes it.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, do we want to, um, does someone want to make a motion on this waiver?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, does somebody want a second?
[Milva McDonald]: Uh, okay. I have a question. Yep, go ahead, Aubrey.
[Milva McDonald]: That's a good question. Yeah, that could be impacted.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes, I think that is what it implies. So I think the thing that Aubrey brings up is a good point, but how is it usual for somebody to work at two part-time jobs for the same city?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, it says no person shall simultaneously hold more than one city office or position of employment. So to me, it says you can only hold one position of employment. Right? Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: You can be the- So how do you think the waiver should be implemented?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so this section may be waived by the mayor,
[Milva McDonald]: Francis also made a point that some of this would be governed by ethics laws and ethics.
[Milva McDonald]: Maybe.
[Milva McDonald]: But it's limitation on office holding is the section.
[Milva McDonald]: No, but they said it's it's section 911 limitation on office holding. So that is the intent. So I think that's so you can't work for the DPW and gene the on the school committee.
[Milva McDonald]: Like I said, I'm pretty sure they would just leave the first sentence. That's the standard because they said the waiver is unusual. I do think Paulette is right that the intent of this is just to say that there's a limitation on office holding that you can't. I think that the stuff that we're talking about wouldn't really apply. That's what I think.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. So Ron, if we're talking only about office holding, do you still think that it's okay for there to be a waiver?
[Milva McDonald]: So I just want to go back to a motion that Paulette made not to give the mayor, not to include the waiver, the waiver power for the mayor, regardless of how it's applied. Are you still okay with that motion, Paula?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So I'm going to hear from Maury and Aubrey and then we're going to vote.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Great. Aubrey.
[Milva McDonald]: The motion on the table is to not give the mayor any waiver power on the limitation on office holding. Paulette? Yes. Aubrey?
[Milva McDonald]: Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice? Yes. Jean? Yes. Danielle? Yes. Phyllis?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony?
[Milva McDonald]: Who did I forget this time? Me. Eunice? No. No, I voted. Maury. Maury. Maury.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. I'm also yes. Awesome. All right. We have 10 minutes. I know we're not going to make it through. What I'm going to ask is, are people available to meet us next week?
[Milva McDonald]: Can I have a show of hands? Who's a yes for next week?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: So if, so I think we'll have a quorum. So even if you're maybe, are you got, are the rest of you definites?
[Milva McDonald]: The rest of what we have to talk about is the addition of a section on public comment, the addition of a section on conflict of interest, ethics, etc, the addition of a section on property, And then just a little bit of a wrap up on talking about, I guess maybe I'll ask people now since most everybody's here. So far for the final report committee, it's me and Gene and maybe Phyllis. Does anybody else?
[Milva McDonald]: That's okay. So what we would do is we would meet, I don't know how many times, we're just going to have to see In July and August, but my aim would be to try to finish the final report. By the end of August, and I don't, you know, I thought whoever we have that's working on it at the 1st meeting. We would talk about how we wanted to structure it. So, I mean, I'm. I'm fine with writing, maybe somebody else is. But I thought what first we would do is, you know, we have some examples of final reports, decide sort of what we're going to include in it and how we're going to do it. So I'm sorry I'm not giving you a very clear answer. But basically, I guess the short answer is whoever is involved is going to decide at the first meeting how to divvy up the work. But it's going to involve figuring out how to structure it and writing. So you could be involved in it and you may or may not do writing. If that's not something you want to do, you could do something else. But I don't know. I'm sorry.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes.
[Milva McDonald]: So you're saying if you were available, you would be willing to work?
[Milva McDonald]: OK.
[Milva McDonald]: The first thing I'm going to do when I know who's interested is send out a Google, a Google, a Doodle poll or just to try to see. Yeah. So, and then we'll meet and we'll talk about how we're going to put this together. And then when we finish, because we are going to finish, we're going to be ready in October, we're going to, we send it, we give this to the mayor. And then it's the mayor's job to figure out how we present it to the, how it's presented to the city council. But my assumption, I think there's a good chance she will include us in that process.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, so what's going to happen is when we wrap this up, I'm going to take all the sections we've drafted and all the decisions that we've made and put them in a document and give them to the call-in center. And I'm probably going to ask for one person. I don't know, Aubrey, because you keep really good notes in the Google Docs. And would you be willing to look at the document that I put together Before I give it to the call-in center, just to say, oh, we talked about this or we voted on it. I'd be happy to approve. Thank you. I've told the call-in center that I would provide that for them by the end of the month and they said three weeks. Let's just say maybe they'll take a month. Theoretically, by the end of July, everybody, we would have a draft charter from the Collins Center. And then I would send that to everybody. And then our committee won't meet in July. But you will be given the draft charter to read and prepare. And then in August and September, we will meet with the Collins Center and go over what they have come up with. If we have any questions on sections, we'll be able to ask them about it. If they see anything in there that they think they should flag and say, well, is this what you meant to say here or whatever, we'll be able to work on that with them for two meetings and then Meanwhile, the final report is separate from that. So that'll be the draft charter, and then there'll be the final report. And that will be worked on by the final report committee. So the final report committee will be working on that while the Collins Center is completing the draft. Does that make sense?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, I would say our usual date, the first Thursday, or we could do a doodle poll, because I know people are, you know, and that might, if we met later in August, that might give people more, a little more time to read the draft charter too. Do people want to just say the first Thursday in August, or do we want to just do a doodle poll and
[Milva McDonald]: It's August 1st. OK. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to meet next week. We're going to wrap this. I'm going to create the document, send it to the Collins Center. Aubrey's going to proof it for me. And then Maury, Gene, me, and Phyllis, so far, are on the final report committee. And then I will send out a doodle poll to those people, and we'll get together and talk about creating the final report. I'll be in. And everybody will have a break in July. And then we'll have a push. We'll have a big push. We'll have a lot to do in August and September, but we're going to be done by October, so.
[Milva McDonald]: You know, that's a good question. Maybe.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, I don't know if they're virtual. They're virtual, so yeah, it's going to be virtual ice cream. Ice cream in your freezer?
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, we could have a social, we could have an ice cream social, but we can't talk to our council.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, I don't know, because that will be up to the mayor. You know, because we're submitting our final report and our draft charter to the mayor, and then it's kind of in the mayor's hands how, where to go from there. But I'm thinking it's going to, I mean, I'm assuming it will go. I mean, we're shooting for October. So, I mean, that's when we're going to give it to the mayor. And I don't think it would take much longer after that. That's my guess. All right. Does that sound good?
[Milva McDonald]: All right. Do we have public comment? Yeah, let's see if we have any public comment. Do we have any members of the public that would like to speak? Okay so Maury made a motion to adjourn. Second. Great and all in favor okay I will send you all an agenda for next week and we will wrap. Thank you. Good night everyone.
[Milva McDonald]: All right, welcome everyone to the method-started study committee meeting June 6, 2024. First order of business is to accept the minutes from May 16th. Did everyone have a chance to look at them? They're good.
[Milva McDonald]: I make a motion to approve. I agree. All in favor? Aye. Excellent. Okay, now we can go right into the composition of the school committee, which we had already decided, but we had the issue of combining wards, and I believe, Ron, you had some things to say about that.
[Milva McDonald]: So just, so what I, when I contacted the elections department about the numbers that they provided, what I found out was that they gave us numbers from the most recent census, but the wards are drawn every 10 years and they use the federal census. So those are the numbers that we would be looking at. And they will, and the wards will, they will redo that process in 2031. It was just done in 2020. Right, it's every 10 years. So as of now, any awards we combine, no matter which ones we combine, the numbers will work out okay because they were even when they were made. Does that make sense?
[Milva McDonald]: I could try to dig that up. But actually, my comment was going to be that I was going to vote for or sort of back option two, because when I looked at that map that you're referring to, Eunice, option two creates a situation where there's at least one school in each district. So I thought that that was a plus. The other reason that I liked option two was because when we discussed this before, there were comments about the demographic issues that we have a majority minority ward, which is ward, I believe it's ward seven. Let's see, I have that here. And combining Ward 7 with Ward 1, which I think Option 2 does? No. Right?
[Milva McDonald]: Maybe I'm wrong.
[Milva McDonald]: You're right. No, that doesn't make sense. I don't think it was 6.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, yeah, no, it's seven. See, because, so, and seven and one, combining seven with one, one is the other ward that has the most, the largest population of minority population next to ward seven. So by combining those, we keep, you know, we give that, We dilute that power less. That was my thought anyway. Okay, Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, because they use the census, so.
[Milva McDonald]: not for drawing the wards, is my understanding.
[Milva McDonald]: We have no authority to draw any wards. That is done in conjunction with the state and the city council every 10 years.
[Milva McDonald]: But of the wards that they created in 2021, when we look at the demographics of those wards, we do have one majority-minority ward.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I agree with you. The only reason I brought it up is because it has been a concern. And I know that we have discussed as a whole committee and the subcommittee also talked about two communities, Lowell and Worcester, where lawsuits were brought against those cities for violations of the Voting Rights Act. And so they then implemented ward representation because of that. We are not dealing with that right now. But we did look at the demographics of each ward. We do have that information. So it's something that we can see. And so when we're combining wards, I feel that it's legitimate to consider it.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Um, any other thoughts on these past these particular other thing I just wanted to say is, um, we can choose not to combine the wards and leave that up to the city council. It would be the city council that would do it if we don't do it. So
[Milva McDonald]: Can we give them like, this is plan one and plan two? Let Ron speak. He's going crazy. Oh, Eunice, I'm sorry.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Aubrey and Anthony, do you still have your hand up?
[Milva McDonald]: I think Ron is in front of me. Aubrey and then Anthony. Ron, do you still have your?
[Milva McDonald]: Oh, sorry. I can't. Oh, OK. So who's next then?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. Anthony and then Phyllis.
[Milva McDonald]: So combined wards are not common. But Lowell does have combined wards for school committee and just straight ward representation for city council. So, so it is there is a precedent for it.
[Milva McDonald]: Like a year or two ago? Yeah, right. And Lowell, as we know, did that in response to the lawsuit. Okay. Oh, go ahead.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so we have a motion to
[Milva McDonald]: You mean for the text?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah and okay so but right now we're just I'm just going to say a motion to accept option two which I just want to write down so that's boards one seven two three uh four five and six eight am I right about that yeah thank you um a motion to accept that uh uh for the uh as districts for um for the school committee. I second the presentation. OK. OK, we're going to do roll call. Phyllis?
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice? Yes. Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Aubrey? Yes. Anthony?
[Milva McDonald]: And I'm also a yes. Great. All right. Congratulations.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, we may end up voting on some other article items later. But the other one that we have on the agenda is that we started talking about last meeting, the composition of the body for regular charter review. So we decided last time to recommend charter review every first five years from the time that the new charter is ratified, and then after that, every 10 years. So but what we didn't have a chance to thoroughly discuss or agree on is the composition of that body. So have people had a chance to think about it?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, the example charter we looked at had it as nine, I believe, nine members. Four appointed by the mayor, four by the city council, and one by the school committee chair. Well, four by the city council president. So I'll just put that text up.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, we talked about some things, but we didn't come to any decisions and we were going to continue the discussion tonight. So Eunice and then Aubrey.
[Milva McDonald]: OK, thanks. So hold that proposal, and I just want to let other people speak, and then we'll come back to it. Aubrey.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Okay. Phyllis and then Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. So we have a couple, we have a little bit of discussion and a couple of potential proposals. I got my hand up again. Oh, Phyllis, go ahead.
[Milva McDonald]: So, okay, so the motion is that this body that we're talking about, the Charter Review Committee, be composed of nine people. Do you wanna be more specific about what you said with the nomination and a review process?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so the motion right now on the table is basically just addressing the number of people on the committee. So we could start with that. Yeah, I mean that makes sense to break these things down. Okay, but we don't have a second yet but we also have a couple of comments so Eunice and then Aubrey.
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis, you're muted.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. So before we look at the motion for a body of nine.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, go ahead, Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you. Aubrey.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So that is basically adding on to Phyllis's motion. Before we go ahead with that, Veron, did you have one more thing to say?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So before we go ahead with that, Anthony, did you have one more comment? He just didn't put his hand down. Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: That's okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so we have, so if we just start with the number, we have one proposal on the table for nine and one for 11.
[Milva McDonald]: Yes.
[Milva McDonald]: If it's in the charter, it's going to be that way unless it gets changed. So it's pretty set in stone, I think. I think we should wait. So I don't know what the best way to go about this is, because we have nine or 11.
[Milva McDonald]: On the nine?
[Milva McDonald]: Second? Second. Okay. Aubrey? Yes. Phyllis? Yes. Eunice? Go back to me. Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: I already got you Ron, right? Did I get you? No. Okay. Ron is a yes?
[Milva McDonald]: I'm a yes. Phil, Eunice? No. Okay. So we landed at nine. So now the next question is the composition of that or the, the appointments. So Aubrey had proposed three, three, three, three from the mayor, three from the city council president and three from the school committee vice chair.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, that's why we said vice chair, right? So if we do it that way, we could, but then those bodies would have to spend time figuring that out. Whereas, you know, it's a quicker appointment process if it's one person, that's all. Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: I just wanted to say, I understand the, inclination to make it even between the three bodies of government. But the school committee is so specialized and the school committee, in terms of what's in the charter on the school committee, it's pretty narrow because the school committee is really governed by state law, pretty much the composition of the school committee. is in the charter, and maybe some very general timelines about budget. Nothing really even that specific about budget. So, I don't know. I'm just, I wonder if we should make it equal due to that. Just throwing that out there.
[Milva McDonald]: So 4-3-2 is, I mean, 4-4-1 gives the mayor and the city council equal number of appointments and says to the school committee, we want you to have a representative basically. I mean, 432 says, well, the mayor gets more, I don't know. It's just, yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: We got we got. So it's not stressful. Hi, Danielle. We're discussing the composition of the Charter Review Committee, which is going to be nine people. So we're discussing how they are appointed. And three from the mayor, three from the city council president, three from the school committee vice chair was proposed. And then I pointed out that the school committee's role, you know, the school committee is governed by state law. So the charter really only addresses the school committee composition. So my question is, should they have as much input in the pits?
[Milva McDonald]: I second that motion. Okay. All right. Let's vote then. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Aubrey.
[Milva McDonald]: Phyllis. Ellis says yes.
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. And I'm voting yes. Did I miss anybody? I don't think I did. Okay, so the only thing that we didn't talk about was, I mean, we touched on some of the issues that Eunice brought up in terms of, you know, requiring that they all be residents, requiring, you know, other things. So there was some discussion of that. Eunice, do you want to?
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, it could, yeah, it could be consistent or we could decide to make it different. I don't know, but I'd have to look back at what we said about multi-member boards. Does anybody remember?
[Milva McDonald]: It depends on whether we say voters. Just to pull up the example text that we looked at says voters. So if we said voters, that would put an age requirement on it.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so that would be an argument for saying residents instead of voters.
[Milva McDonald]: Does anybody remember what the language of multi-member boards? I'm looking it up here. I remember we, well, we did have a discussion about using that language of voters, but that might've been for running for office.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. We don't say anything about it in the current language we have. We just say that the mayor refers the names to the city council, and then the city council can confirm. or that they go in unless the city council rejects them.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. No. I think the answer is we haven't discussed it yet. But we are discussing it now in relation to the charter review body. So, I mean, I guess we could just combine them and say we're going to decide whether we want it to be residents or voters for any multi-member body, which includes this body. Does that make sense?
[Milva McDonald]: Right. Well, anything in the charter regarding, you know, if there are certain bodies that are governed by state law that would apply. So the charter is really only talking about the bodies that aren't governed by law. So what do we do we think that's a good approach to make this decision for all multi member bodies? Voter or resident?
[Milva McDonald]: I think Collin Center will like, you know, catch that stuff for us.
[Milva McDonald]: No, we have the charter, we have the charter body, the charter review body, but I guess we're kind of morphing, moving into the overall Articles 5 and 9 issues that people might have questions about. So, which units, you said there's a section in there for... I think there
[Milva McDonald]: Well, if we decide we want the charter to say, you know, something about eligibility for serving on these bodies, we can just tell that to the Collins Center and they'll put it in the appropriate spot. Anthony, do you have your hand up? Sorry, I keep asking you. Okay, so. Do does somebody want to make a motion on this or. I mean, as it is right now, if we say nothing about it. I would imagine it's up to the appointing authority, you know, the appointing body. I think what about.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, that sounds good. I just want to make one point, which is that I don't think that we are required to put anything about eligibility for these in the charter. We have the appointing authority for multi-member bodies, and if nothing is said, then the appointing authority makes a decision about who to appoint and doesn't have an eligibility requirement to deal with. And I think maybe in the example charter we looked at for the Charter Commission one, they've decided that they wanted that body to be voters, so they put that in that particular section. So I'm just throwing it out there that we can choose not to include it and leave it at the discretion of the appointing authority.
[Milva McDonald]: That I don't know.
[Milva McDonald]: Right, exactly.
[Milva McDonald]: Frances, I think, is on her phone.
[Milva McDonald]: Must be residents, not voters?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. So, Ron?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony?
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice? Yes. Aubrey?
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle? Yes. Did we lose Phyllis? Ah, maybe.
[Milva McDonald]: I'm actually going to vote no, because I actually think for this particular thing, they should be voters. But that's OK. So we'll save residents for this.
[Milva McDonald]: And that still passes. Okay. Great. So I think we're done with the unit. I mean, Aubrey, did you want to say something?
[Milva McDonald]: I agree with that too. But this particular, just to be clear, what we're looking at is just an example text. This isn't our draft necessarily. So what I wanted to do with this, because we didn't have subcommittees that were actually drafting these sections, is make pertinent decisions and then the Collins Center will draft it for us. And actually, I think that periodic review of ordinances was one that I wanted to look at. Because a lot of it is standard language, but this one we probably should decide about. So first of all, are we done with periodic review of charter? I think we are. I mean, there is a timeline here in this particular, I believe this is Melrose's. You know, that's probably standard language. It might be good to keep the timeline in there, but we can let the call-in center put that in for us. Are people okay with that? Yeah, it seems pretty reasonable. Okay, now what about periodic review of ordinances? Do we think every five years is good for that, or is that too often?
[Milva McDonald]: I believe there are. It's not in the charter, I don't think, but does somebody know?
[Milva McDonald]: So whatever the first review of ordinances, if this gets into the charter, will be probably more extensive then. I do notice that the language of this one says some or all of the ordinances of the city, which is interesting. And maybe that makes sense because I don't know, what do people think?
[Milva McDonald]: It's on its code on the city website. And I think it's pretty extensive.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, OK, so do people think that it's a given what Ron just pointed out? Is it necessary to have a periodic review of ordinances in the charter? Oh, yeah, well.
[Milva McDonald]: I think that it's not unusual for it to be in the charter and this wouldn't necessarily be, this is not the city council that's reviewing the ordinances, it's a special committee.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, Eunice, do you have something you want to say?
[Milva McDonald]: So do we like, I mean, does somebody want to propose, do we like five-year intervals? That's pretty, does that seem like pretty often or?
[Milva McDonald]: If we have the charter every 10 years after the first
[Milva McDonald]: Sounds good. Just to be my own devil's advocate, I'll say given that this has some or all doing it every five years could maybe be more productive because you could Maybe, you know, I don't know. I'm just, you could cover what you didn't cover five years earlier. I don't, I mean, just throwing that out there. But I think 10 years is sufficient too.
[Milva McDonald]: At that five year interval, they'll do that. And then the next five years. Yeah. Okay. Um, Aubrey.
[Milva McDonald]: And this particular text from this charter has this special committee established by ordinance. So It would be sort of handing over the responsibility of deciding how many people and all that to the ordinance. The only requirement I see in here is voters, backed voters.
[Milva McDonald]: I mean, as opposed to. one that is created so you don't like the ordinance language?
[Milva McDonald]: Right. They would just be a one. I think I read this as an ad hoc committee. Once they do the review, they're done until five years later, and then it's a new committee.
[Milva McDonald]: That's true. So what do we want to do about this? Do we want to... Tell the call center we would like a periodic review of ordinances section or. I think I think I heard agreement on that.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, but the mayor, you know, is involved because. But the yeah. two-thirds vote they can so yeah it's do we know how long it takes to review ordinances no but i but we're but we're surmising that that's one of the reasons it says some or all because um because it would may be too big of a task to actually review all of them um do we know
[Milva McDonald]: I don't I don't really understand the process, you know, based on this particular text example that we're looking at. The committee is established by ordinance. They file a report with the city clerk at a date specified by the ordinance, which is basically just recommendations. But they are also under the supervision of the city solicitor. So they work with the city solicitor to make the recommendations. And then they present those recommendations just like we're doing. I mean, I don't think that they have any authority to change any ordinances because they're not legislators, but it's basically an advisory body.
[Milva McDonald]: Which would be the city solicitor based on the way this particular Melrose's section is written anyway. Do we have any motions on this or do we want to?
[Milva McDonald]: Well, the Collins Center won't craft. They can craft this if we tell them what we want. They're not going to say you should have a periodic review. They'll just give us information, but they won't draft anything. I mean, they might give us a memo on how common is it. I mean, is that's what you're looking for? Like, how common is it for communities to have periodic reviews of ordinances? How does it usually work?
[Milva McDonald]: And that said, this, if we put this in the charter, this is an ordinance review by a body that's not the city council. So it's basically like another set of eyes on the city ordinances. Ron.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Anybody want to second that?
[Milva McDonald]: Eunice. Eunice says yes. Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Danielle? Yes.
[Milva McDonald]: I'm also a no, because I'm also okay moving forward, but the motion carries. So that means, so that's leading me into the next, so we have about a half an hour left and there are some other, I know that there's some issues that people want to discuss in Articles 5, 9, and 10. Our next scheduled meeting would be 4th of July. We will not have a meeting then. My hope, well, was that we would finalize things tonight and the Collins Center said they will take a few weeks. Then within the next few weeks, I would get a draft charter to everybody on the committee from the Collins Center. Then we would reconvene in August and September to go over that draft with the Collins Center and finalize it. Since we're not going to finish tonight, I'm going to propose that we have another meeting in June.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, we have this. We have this that we just voted on getting more information on. And potentially whatever, I know that there are some, I was about to ask what other areas of those three articles that we haven't extensively gone through and drafted that people wanted to talk about. And I know that there are some issues. So we could look at that and possibly finish it in half an hour, but we definitely won't get the ordinance review taken care of because we just voted to ask for more information on it.
[Milva McDonald]: City clerk, I think we addressed in Article 2. I'm just talking about what I've seen.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. I guess I think my preference would be to keep it minimal and general and not define the bodies in the charter, because we know that changing the charter is a pretty big deal.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I think the con is that you can't change it easily when it's in the charter.
[Milva McDonald]: Right. I believe the three that they gave us don't. And I think that, so I think that they, that, you know, and when they gave us the example to sort of template, they called it the generic modern charter. So my understanding is that we're looking at, is that they're, they're giving us sort of the most, the most recent kind of modern charter, which is, maybe more broad so that it defines things, but it gives the electeds leeway to change those departments if they need to be changed or whatever. That's my understanding, but... No, I see your point. Yeah. Does anybody else have any thought about this particular section, which the example that we have, it is very short and it's pretty boilerplate language. Obviously, we would change Alderman, that was from another charter, but as opposed to the other option of defining different agencies within this section, which would require a good bit of work on our part to look at, you know, and which ones would we define? That's the other question, if we did that. Aubrey?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, any other thoughts? Any, just any, I mean, Do we want to just say the call-in center, we're good with the boilerplate language of Article 5, or do we want to explore more deeply defining different agencies in this section?
[Milva McDonald]: So the motion, uh, tell me if we're on, if this represents your motion, um, to ask Colin century to draft article five using standard language.
[Milva McDonald]: That's right. We can add Article 1 to that, too. Yes.
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony?
[Milva McDonald]: Aubrey? Yes. Eunice? No. Danielle? Yes. I say yes. Okay, great. So that leaves us with Article 9. We've already looked at, I mean, this is all very boilerplate language, but I guess, We looked at the charter review body. We've already taken care of that. And so what I had asked people to do was to look this over and bring up any issues. So now's your time to bring them up.
[Milva McDonald]: Can you tell me what section? And I'll pull up the section.
[Milva McDonald]: So, can I propose something? Sure. So, we're going to have to have another meeting in June. Where we're going to look at the periodic review of ordinances. My proposal is that we use our next, say, 10 minutes to. get down on paper what sections in addition to the periodic review of ordinances that we want to look at, study, and learn about so that we can decide on them at the next meeting we're going to have in a couple of weeks. Does that make sense? Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: How about you tell us which sections you want to look at so we can, so we have, we're going to, we're going to look at section nine, four. So that's ordinances.
[Milva McDonald]: Section 9-3, which is rules and regulations.
[Milva McDonald]: Section 9-6, which is proceed multi-member bodies.
[Milva McDonald]: So maybe we can cross one of those off the list right now if you want to. Like, for instance, computation of time is probably a quickie.
[Milva McDonald]: Right. So one of the things the Collins Center does when they review our drafts and then draft the other articles is that they'll make sure they'll look for consistency of language and things like that. So I don't think we have to worry so much about that because we're so fortunate to have the Collins Center. basically being a good editor that way. Wait, can I just ask, does that mean we can cross that off the list? Oh, yeah. Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: So let's, I'm just trying to call that up. So it's a document in.
[Milva McDonald]: What is the name of the document? Oh, Article 1, 5, 9, 10. Okay. Oh, Phyllis is back. Hi, Phyllis. Okay, so what you've done here is you've put a bunch of examples of other charters. Right. Okay. Okay, so Right now, what I have is that we can all have access to that document. And we're going to have another meeting in June to discuss sections 9-3, 9-4, 9-6, and 9-9, and also a question of whether to add a section on public comment. And ethics.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. I'm guessing that's, I think I agree with Aubrey that that's in state law. I'll do a little bit more digging on that. Okay. I don't know. Eunice, do you think your questions or issues on any of those are basic enough that we could do them in 5-10 minutes? Can we cross one of them off the list?
[Milva McDonald]: Right now, multi-member bodies is 9-6. So right now, I mean, this particular, Let me just call it up. The example that we have is Melrose. But the question for us is, what specific things do we want in that section? So this is pretty boilerplate, this section A. And so which section were you? I'm sorry, Eunice, can you repeat what you said you wanted to look at?
[Milva McDonald]: OK. Or we just decide that if the committee decides they want to do that, then we can just tell the call center that we want to add that. So basically what you want is you want a residency requirement for multi-member bodies. Correct. Okay, so resident as opposed because we've had this discussion resident versus voter. Well, resident as in
[Milva McDonald]: You know, and I see a note from Frances in the chat, because she, remember, we had a question for her, and she heard her name, but she couldn't unmute, but now she maybe can unmute, and I think our question was related to this, right, for Frances?
[Milva McDonald]: Right. Aubrey, did you have your hand up?
[Milva McDonald]: Yes. For particular bodies, like for instance, yeah, so. So Eunice, I mean, did you want, so we've had a discussion about should we add the requirement that you're talking about in section 96, the uniform procedures governing multiple member bodies. Do you want to make a motion or?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Aubrey, did you want to?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, Aubrey and then Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you, Aubrey. So Anthony, and then we got to wrap this up, Anthony.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, thank you. So we've had a good discussion. Eunice, do you want to make a motion or how do we want, do we want to?
[Milva McDonald]: And I think the intent is for these bodies to be filled with Medford residents. So in the case that it wouldn't happen, it would be rare. But yeah, so. OK.
[Milva McDonald]: Do we want to vote on that?
[Milva McDonald]: Wherever possible is very vague. I don't, I mean, you know.
[Milva McDonald]: It sounds vague to me, but I don't know what it means. Like if I read that, I would be like, I don't know what that exactly means, but I mean.
[Milva McDonald]: I'm sorry, I just, I really do it. We do have to end in two minutes. So let's keep this on the list and let's put it, let's finish this discussion at our next meeting. Okay, so let's schedule that. I would like to propose that today is June 6th. I would like to propose June 20th. How are people with that? 20th. To wrap everything up? That's a Thursday evening, right? Yeah, or next week. We could do June 13th.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, but not on Thursday, right? As far as I know, not on Thursday. Yeah, I'd go for the 13th. Okay. Do we have other people that can do the 13th? Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I know. I know. I'm getting to that. So I will send out an agenda. We will wrap everything up next week. And then the other thing we have to talk about is we're going to skip July. Once we wrap up next week, you should have a draft charter to read, and then we'll reconvene in August. But I do want to form a subcommittee to work on the final report. So does anybody at the top of their head want to be involved on that subcommittee?
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, we'll we'll talk about it again next week. Just I just wanted to see if anybody knows they want to do it.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Awesome. Do we have any members of the public that would like to speak? No? Okay. All right. Thank you so much, and I will see you in a week, and we will wrap up these final questions. Second? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Thanks, everyone. Bye.
[Milva McDonald]: Hi, Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I'm the chair of the Medford Charter Study Committee. As you know, charter review has been discussed in Medford for many years, and we are at an exciting moment right now with volunteer residents undertaking the task. As we work with the Collins Center for Public Management, a nonprofit entity out of UMass Boston that has guided many communities through the process of charter review. We are examining the charter as a whole and learning, among other things, about how pieces interact with each other, best practices, and trends. The goal is to propose a sturdy, fair, transparent charter that provides a strong framework for our city government in the long term. This holistic look at the charter is especially important in Medford because of how much time has passed since the last review. As the blueprint for how our city government operates, the charter is a vitally important document that affects every person who lives in our city. Now, for the first time in decades, we are finally giving it a checkup, looking at our form of government, the balance of powers, the composition of our elected bodies, length and limits of terms for elected officials, budget procedures, mechanisms for citizen participation, and more. I have heard this council reiterate many times that charter review should come from the people, and that is exactly what is happening. We are all residents who volunteered for this task because we care about our city. Our process prioritizes community engagement and input. We will use the public feedback we collect to draft a proposal that must make its way through several portals, including this council, before ever becoming official. The final step is at the ballot box with the voters. The voters, the people, will have the final say. Our webpage at www.medfordmad.org slash charter study has a wealth of information, including a form inviting public feedback. You will find us at Circle the Square in June, the Farmer's Market in August, and other events around the city. We will also be circulating a survey very soon. But the main reason I'm here is to extend an invitation. We are especially excited about our first public information and listening session this Thursday, June 8th at 7 p.m. right here in City Hall Chambers. All are welcome and encouraged to join us. It's going to be fun. regardless of which are events or meetings you can or cannot attend. Your voice is important, and we want to hear from you, the residents of our city and the leaders of our city about your thoughts, hopes and dreams for our municipal government. We hope to see you on Thursday evening right here. Thank you. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Second.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, I think John is the last committee member we're waiting for.
[Milva McDonald]: And thank you to Mike for being the Zoom administrator tonight, and Matt for taking minutes. We also, we have Janelle Austin from KP Law, Anthony Wilson from Collins Center, and we'll also have, I think, a couple more Collins Center people, and we'll be hearing from them over the course of the meeting. But we wanted to start by reviewing, or has anyone had a chance to review the minutes from our December 12th meeting? Yes. do we feel like we need to review them here or can we just go ahead and vote on accepting them or not? Move approval. I'm sorry, Eunice. Move approval.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay. Eunice, did you make the motion?
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so all in favor of approving the minutes as per Eunice's motion?
[Milva McDonald]: Aye.
[Milva McDonald]: Any opposed? Okay, great.
[Milva McDonald]: So the minutes have been accepted. That's great. Now we're going to move into the business of the meeting and Laurel is going to take over.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay, now we are very excited and grateful to be working with the Collins Center during this process. We have Anthony Wilson from the Collins Center, Michael Ward, and was Marilyn also coming? She, okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Okay.
[Milva McDonald]: Great. So I'm going to hand over the program to you. And I know that you all are interested in connecting with the committee members and you can start your presentation. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Does anybody do you want us to just sort of introduce ourselves to start with?
[Milva McDonald]: Awesome. Okay. I'll start and then I'll call each committee member and invite you to introduce yourself and comment on some of the things Michael mentioned. I'm Melva McDonald. I'm one of the co-chairs. I've been hearing about charter review in Medford for several years and started to get involved in trying to get a review to happen. uh, about a year ago and it's taken, it's taken a while just to get this committee up and going. So I'm really excited about it. Um, I think for me, the fundamental issue is what Michael and Anthony and others have alluded to about the charter sort of being the core document that guides the city. Um, and that's my main reason for being interested, um, in, in looking at it and updating it and. seeing what would work best for Medford. So, and Laurel, do you wanna go next?
[Milva McDonald]: Anthony, do you wanna go next?
[Milva McDonald]: Mike, do you want to go next?
[Milva McDonald]: Matt, do you want to go?
[Milva McDonald]: Thank you so much for this presentation. I think we have a lot to look at. I have a question. When you talked in your slides, there was the option of a complete rewrite or revisions. And given that we currently have a planned government, if the committee decides we, Does that mean we have to decide not to keep the plan and just write a charter that's separate from the plan government? Would that qualify as writing a new charter? Or if we just want revisions, does that mean we can keep plan A and make revisions to it? How would that work, given that we already have a plan government? So you could- Go ahead, Mary.
[Milva McDonald]: Great. Hi, Danielle. I'm really excited to talk with you today. My name's Milva McDonald. I've lived in Medford for almost three decades now. Raised my kids here and Lately, I've been working on charter review, which has been talked about for many of the years that I've lived here. And a group of residents and I are trying to get it to happen.
[Milva McDonald]: Oh, thanks. It's she her.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, I think I'm going to give a shout out to a couple of bakeries. Colette. I really like Colette. I like their pastries and Goldilocks bagels.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, charter review. So the charter of a city or town is often people will compare it to the Constitution of the city or town, it just sort of lays out the form of government. So we have a form of government in Medford called Plan A, and it was adopted in 1986. And it's known as strong mayor. So it means that we have a mayor and a city council. And So the charter just sort of lays that out how many city Councilors we have the terms of office, what to do if one of them resigns or can't serve anymore. Just a lot of things like that and also the school committee. the composition of the school committee. So just sort of the basic form of government, how it operates, whether there are term limits, things like that. The mayor is the head of the school committee. All those things are laid out in the charter.
[Milva McDonald]: Absolutely, yeah. Whether we don't have board representation, which is actually unusual for a city of our size. So, you know, that's something that could be looked at in a charter review.
[Milva McDonald]: Exactly. So there's eight wards and, um, if let's, let's say the, the. Charter got reviewed and ward representation was implemented for the city council. It could mean that you'd have eight. Ward representatives and then a certain number of at-large or maybe the wards would be maybe a council would run for two wards. I mean, these are all things that a charter review committee or commission would closely look at to determine, you know, what might work best for Medford. The thing about at large, one of the things about at large is that it makes it harder for people to run for office in some ways, because it takes a lot more resources. You know, you have to come up with the money and the time to campaign all over the city. And the other issue is that some people feel underrepresented because they don't have a Councilor that's from their ward, even though all the Councilors are at large and they represent the entire city. There's maybe certain awards that have had much less representation over the years. So I think that that is definitely an issue that people are interested in exploring.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I mean, it could, or maybe not. I mean, and the other thing with the charter review is, We don't, I mean, it would be looked at, but we don't know. That's not, it doesn't guarantee that we would have board representation. It's definitely one of the pieces that would be looked at. And, you know, and whatever group does review the charter is gonna look at other communities, you know, actual data and just, you know, information that will really help them determine what's best for Medford.
[Milva McDonald]: Um, well, it was specifically mentioned at one of the recently the mayor put forth a home rule petition to ask the city council to vote on putting electing a charter commission to review the charter charter review the commission and be voted for three. but that's probably not enough to get it over the hurdle at the state house so our group is looking for other ways now. But during those meetings there was ward representation was specifically mentioned by one of the Councilors as a concern and part of the reason for that was because a different Councilor had asked for ward representation to be part of the elected charter review commission that the mayor was trying to get going. So yeah. And, and, uh, you know, there were, there weren't big discussions about it, but yeah, there definitely was one Councilor who expressed concern about it.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, it's the whole it. It is. I mean, it's definitely complex and right now, our group. I've learned a lot myself in the last few months we've only been meeting for a few months and we're all learning as we go. right now we're just in the process of trying to get the charter review to happen and there's a certain level of frustration that it's so difficult to do that because it seems you know it seems sort of like a given um gee yeah let's look at it let's review it the the review process however it unfolds is going to take Time and then, and the voters will be involved and no changes, you know, any changes that that are proposed will not happen quickly so it's not like a radical or, you know, rushed idea to. to have voted on this home rule petition or to get it going. I mean, it's going to take a lot of time. So the fact that it's taking so much time just to get to the review is kind of a little frustrating. But we're really committed and we're going to make it happen one way or the other. There's two ways to do it. The way that Medford has tried to do it is kind of a different way from the, like, if you look at sort of, if you Google charter review in Massachusetts, you'll find documents that say, well, there's two routes to charter change. And the route that Medford took was actually sort of a hybrid of those two. So one is outlined in Massachusetts general law, chapter 43B, and it involves collecting signatures from 15% of registered voters in the city. And then the question of once that's done the question of whether to review the charter and candidates for an elected commission bow on the ballot. And at the next municipal election, which in our case would be 2023 and then that commission works for 18 months. the changes they propose, if any, then go to the voters. So that's, you know, we're talking at that, with this process, assuming that we collected all the signatures, we would have a new, potentially have a charter changes on the ballot in 2025. So the other way is to do it through, it's called the special act, and that kind of charter is called a home rule charter. A special act charter, basically just goes through the city council as a home rule petition. So most cities in town to do that, they form a committee, the committee reviews the charter, takes as long as they need to. And there's many cities and towns, most of them probably do it this way because the burden of collecting the signatures is pretty high. So this committee takes however long they need to take. example of a community community that's doing that right now is Somerville, and they have, you know, clearly, it's a process that can involve a lot of public participation in there in their case, there's tons of public participation. They're constantly communicating they're constantly trying to get people involved to hear what What kinds of things, you know the community wants, and then when they propose their changes they go through mayor and the city council and then they go through the state house, and then most likely to go on the ballot so. So what Medford did with that home real petition was took. portion of Chapter 43B and made it into a Home Rule petition. So it was kind of a mix. It was like, we're going to try to elect the commission without collecting the signatures and doing it through a Home Rule petition instead. But it hasn't worked. So we're pursuing these other avenues now.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, they, the, basically it goes to the city council as sort of amendments to the charter. And, um, and then that. And then it sort of becomes, it's a home rule petition and then it goes and becomes a piece of legislation so a home rule petition becomes a piece of legislation at the State House. You know, I mean, part of what I've done in trying to understand all this is I'll go to the Massachusetts legislature website and just search charter review. And you can see there's any number of bills from different communities. And they all have different things in them, but like amendments, you know, it's the language of whatever they want their new charter to be. And so they have gone through the process of however they came up with those amendments, whether they had a committee of residents doing it, or then it's gone through the city government and then it goes to the state house and then they vote on it. And it's not in the law that it has to go back to the voters of the community, but when there's significant changes, generally the state wants the people of the community to vote on it. So any significant changes most often either whether whether you use the signature route or the special act route, go back to the voters to vote on.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah. Or as my husband keeps saying, well, you need a flow chart. And, uh, I said, yeah, we do need a flow chart. I mean, the, one of the issues in Medford is that we, we still don't exactly know which route we're taking. Um, we don't know, you know, our group is like, we say we're, um, we're doing parallel tracks. We're working on, we're laying the groundwork to collect those signatures if we need to do it. Um, but we're also trying to work with the mayor's office to see if we can get a committee going. So we're kind of doing both. Um, so that, uh, cause, cause we were gonna, we're gonna get this one way or the other. Um, but, uh, But yeah, once we know which route we're taking, it will be much easier to talk about it, because then we'll just sort of be ready to go. Right now, we're just trying to get it going.
[Milva McDonald]: Oh, absolutely.
[Milva McDonald]: It does. HAB-Charlotte Pitts, COB.: : Think there is no I mean our group, you know, I mean I HAB-Charlotte Pitts, COB.: : There are people from all over the city. It's not, you know, I mean, it's, it's actually kind of awesome, you know, to to get together with other residents and get to know neighbors and I've worked on and off in different groups in Medford, but this group, it's really, and everybody's kind of there for the same reason. We're like, we really want charter review to happen. That's what we're working on. That's the sole agenda. And yeah, it's great.
[Milva McDonald]: I think that's three times the council has voted that same way. This current council has voted that way twice. And the council before this council also was 4-3. And, you know, that was also particularly frustrating for us because one of the first things our group did, because we knew that homeowner petition existed, was we reached out to all the city councilors and we tried to have meetings with the councilors who had voted no last time. And we were able to meet with two of them. One of them just didn't respond to us. And they were both really supportive. And in fact, the ward, one of them said, I really want word representation on this commission. And so we contacted the mayor, we got that into the home rule petition. And we felt really, really positive about those conversations and about the support that the Councilors, I mean, we, our intention going into those meetings was let's hear what their concerns are. And what we heard was that their concerns were about representation and then we were able to address them, which felt great. And they both expressed support and then they changed their minds. So it was tough, it's hard, but we're moving forward.
[Milva McDonald]: Well, we're the Medford Charter Review Coalition, and we do have a website, medfordcharterreview.org. I mean, I consider us to be sort of an ad hoc group that we've come, I mean, this particular group has come together, I think it was like December or January, January, I think, but I don't wanna take away from the fact that people have been working on charter review in Medford for many years. Jim Silva, a big part of the group now. He has been working on it for a long time. Michael Ruggiero, who actually has since moved out of the city, but he worked on it for a long time and they undertook the Herculean task of the signature collecting and actually got close to 5,000. So, you know, I mean, right now our estimate is that we'd have to get about 7,000 signatures. It's just, 15% is just under that, but you kind of need a pad. So, and, you know, so they came and it would have been fewer when they were doing it, because they were, you know, it's probably the, there were fewer registered voters, but they came really close. And so, you know, that just sort of is a testament to how many people want it and the amount of work that people have put into it.
[Milva McDonald]: I feel like it's fundamental. I mean, and I've felt this way for a while because I, you know, I hear so many people talking about issues that they're concerned about. And I always think, you know, charter review could make a difference with that. I mean, in particular representation, people are concerned about representation. Charter review could make a big difference with that. You know, I hear people talking about I mean, there's, you know, I, I don't have an opinion on this because I haven't looked at the details or I haven't really looked at it closely but some people say well the mayor. You know, if the mayor wasn't the head of the school committee, then it would be better for the school committee. It would be better for the mayor. I, like I said, I don't know, cause I haven't looked at it, but that's an issue that would have to be looked at through charter review. I hear people saying, you know, what about term limits? I mean, we had a mayor in office, I think for, was it 28 years or something like that? We have Councilors in there for decades. I mean, I don't, again, I don't know, because I haven't really looked, I don't have an opinion really on, a strong opinion on any of these issues because I haven't looked at them closely enough. But I do think, I do have enough of an opinion to say, yeah, that's definitely something we should look at. And the only way to look at those really and to make a change is through a charter review.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, I've heard that many times over the years. And that's, again, comes back to charter review.
[Milva McDonald]: That's absolutely that. And many other communities have provisions in their charter that say the charter will be reviewed every 10 years or every eight years or whatever. And that's definitely something that people are interested in doing so that every decade or whatever is decided when the committee or commission looks at the data. So this doesn't have to happen again. We don't have to go and try to fight to review our city government. I mean, because it's starting to feel like, yeah, we have to fight for this, which, astonishes me.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, yeah, I yeah. Definitely. I agree with that.
[Milva McDonald]: We meet once a month, and we will sometimes have smaller groups or meeting. I mean, there's subcommittees, but everybody is invited to them kind of every two weeks, in the middle of the month, we might do that. If we have something, like recently, while we were making brochures, things like that, getting the website up and running, I'm trying to get plan out the game plan for the signature drive if we ultimately have to do that, talk about you know how we're going to approach the mayor. So, so if we have something pressing then we'll, we'll add an extra meeting.
[Milva McDonald]: definitely check out the website, because the website sort of it's it talks about the group, but there's also a resources section where people can look at. I mean, I think looking at what other communities have done and are doing is really helpful. And, you know, if anybody sort of interested in, you know, I mean, the details about how charter review works or how it happens, we have resources on our website. So I would say just learning about charter review is a great way to get involved. And the meetings are open to anybody in Medford, so come to a meeting. And if we collect signatures, we'll be looking for volunteers for that. And the more people that get educated and get involved the more they can interact with the committee or commission and perhaps even decide to be on or to try to apply to be on a committee or to run for the commission. Because we do need, I mean, we do need representation on whatever committee or commission that's up and running. So yeah, so those are some ways.
[Milva McDonald]: That's a question that has been asked and I haven't been able to get the definitive answer, but the answer that most people I've asked seem to think that it's not, limited that anybody can run for those positions, even people who are already elected to office. I don't know that they would, but you know, it would be a process of running for office. It would mean that the people would have to collect signatures to get on the ballot, you know, nomination papers, and I mean, I don't know how many people ever run for officer know what's involved, but you have to get you have to get signatures, get on the ballot, and then you get on the ballot, and then you have to campaign, you have to get your name out somehow. And, and this is, you know, completely volunteer position. So, again, there's a huge burden in collecting the signatures is a huge amount of work. And then once those signatures are collected, people have to run, and then whoever chooses to run has to put in the work to get on the ballot campaign, and then put in the 18-month term of learning about the charter, coming up with those recommendations, and it's all volunteer. So it's a big ask. So from that point of view, appointing a committee of people, they're still volunteers, it's taking away some of the burden that, you know, maybe somebody who really wanted to be involved in charter review might be willing to do it, but if they found out they had to run for office, which is a considerable amount of work.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, exactly. It is cost if you want, create literature. You want to, you know, do a mailings are very expensive. So yeah, there's that.
[Milva McDonald]: Exactly.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.
[Milva McDonald]: I don't think so. I mean, I just, I really hope that people just continue to get involved in Charter Review. I know, you know, we started, like I said, meeting, I think our first meeting was in January. And it was pretty good turnout for first meeting. I just put it out like on the, you know, Medford politics groups on Facebook and And there were about 30 people. And since then, we have over 100 people on our list now. And one of the things that we talk about is outreach. We really wanna find ways to reach out to just different groups in the city, go to like the West Metro Community Center, the Senior Center, the churches, the Chamber of Commerce, just as many places as we can to reach different populations that hopefully will get involved in this and either learn about it. We really want people to learn about it. Either maybe they'll be interested in actually trying to serve on a committee or commission or just communicate with whoever does that so that this review is truly a community voice, you know, we want the voice of people in the community to be involved in this because it's our city government and it makes a difference in everything, in our lives, in our daily lives.
[Milva McDonald]: Absolutely. I mean, that's another group that we want to reach out to. Well, there's the CCSR. I think that's the right acronym at the high school that gets involved in a lot of civic issues in the city. But yeah, absolutely. I mean, getting young people involved is very important to me. I'm glad you brought that up.
[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, that's right.
[Milva McDonald]: It is complicated. I think the complicated part is understanding the roots to charter review, and that's where we are right now, because we haven't been able to actually, once the charter review is initiated, then we'll just be talking about charter review. Right now we're talking about getting the charter review to happen. So, and, and we don't know which route we're taking, but we're, you know, like I said, we're, we're preparing the signature drive if we need to go that route, but we're also communicating with the mayor, and to see if we can get an appointed committee. And once that happens, we'll be more focused on actually talking about the things that matter to people. Right now we're just like, hey, we want this to happen.
[Milva McDonald]: Thanks. I mean, it feels really good. It just feels like, I have no doubt that it is going to happen. We are going to have a charter review one way or another, and that feels really exciting. And so it just feels good. It feels good to work on something that I know is going to be successful.
[Milva McDonald]: Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street. Every city has the right to charter review. You've heard it before and you'll hear it again. The charter, the instrument that dictates how our city government is structured and implemented is a living document. Wisdom and smart governance would dictate periodic review. Yet Medford's charter has not been looked at for more than three decades. That means the last review happened before my 29 years as a resident and has been pointed out here before more than one member of this council was even born. Charter review has been attempted several times, for at least two of those times, the barrier has come from you, the city council, and you are the body that today will determine the fate of another home rule petition to initiate charter review. I started joining some of my fellow residents a few months ago to organize around the issue. We contacted each of you to hear your thoughts. To those of you who met and talked with us, thank you for the productive discussions and the chance to listen to your concerns. Some of you felt the elected charter review commission outlined in this paper might not be representative of all the neighborhoods in our city. We responded to your specific asks and we got word representation applied to this petition. Now, some of you who expressed support have flip-flopped for reasons ranging from complaints about social media comments to declarations that charter review should come from the people. First, I would like to say, councillors, you are the people. You are our elected officials, and we have spoken to you on this. I have here a letter, which I ask to be entered into the record, endorsed by 227 residents, urging you to vote yes on this paper. In recent years, nearly 5,000 people have signed a petition to get a Charter Review Commission on the ballot. That's well over 50% of the entire number of votes each of you received in the last election, and in many cases, it's closer to 100%. In addition, this paper will put candidates from each ward, as some of you requested, on the ballot to be elected by the people to a charter review commission that will engage the community in its 18 month process. Recommendations for modifications to the charter, if any, would go on the ballot before they could be implemented. In light of all this, how can you argue that this process would not come from the people? I ask that you honor the support you expressed to us and vote in favor of this paper. While it is not the only route to charter review, it is the most expeditious in the current moment. And it offers you a chance to respond to your constituents and show that you value their concerns and you value their civic engagement. For what better way to promote civic engagement than inviting every resident of this city to join in reviewing how their city government works. We are determined to partake of that opportunity, indeed of that right. Collecting signatures is not the only other alternative available. We are exploring all of them. And if this petition fails, we will pursue them as swiftly and as transparently as possible. Every city has the right to a review, and we will have ours. It is up to you to decide whether you will help to honor that right in this moment or choose to delay it. Thank you.
[Milva McDonald]: Hi, I'm Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street, West Medford. First, I'd just like to thank the council for considering this. I'm also strongly in favor. And I'd like to thank the council members who took the time to speak with me and a group of other residents that really has been working to try to get this to happen. Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli and Councilor Caraviello. As others have said, I would just be repeating, it's been a very long time since the charter has been reviewed, and this petition is just to elect a commission to look at the charter, and it will be a long, transparent process that will get the residents involved in thinking about Our charter is basically the roadmap. It's like the constitution of our city and it really needs to be reviewed. And I thank you for taking the time and attention to look at it. And I hope to continue to be involved. And there's a group of people who really support this and want this. So thank you.