Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 30
In the minutes from the only Infrastructure Committee meeting since that December meeting, Alderman Comeau stated that
he received constituents’ communications asking how they submit their comments. I'll read an excerpt from Chairman
O'Brien's immediate response to Alderman Comeau. It was, and | quote, “I can answer that. There is an organization that
has been around probably since the inception of Main Street and we're relying on them for citizen input. That way we can
have stakeholders of Main Street.” Citizens who are more expert on the inner workings of city government than | advised me
that that organization who which Chairman O'Brien refers is the Downtown Improvement Committee. As can be seen on the
city's agenda center, that committee has no announced meetings since last April. Other sources have suggested there
actually has been at least one unannounced meeting, a recent meeting of the committee in which the barrier proposal may
have been discussed. If true, maybe this unannounced meeting was the only time for citizen input. I've requested of Mr.
Cummings, both in e-mail and my voicemail, for minutes of any meeting since that last one recorded on the agenda center.
However, he has not responded. Mr. Cummings states in his letter to you Chairman O'Brien that his proposal represents the
consensus of the administration. No doubt. To date, what other input has been recognized.
Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager
30 seconds
Michael O’Connor
He may believe that he has the best consensus proposal, but it is only the consensus of input available to him. Surely the
public comments attached to tonight's agenda should convince you the board that there are responsible stakeholders and
citizens have alternative input that should be considered.
In closing, Board of Aldermen | asked you is there a working group? If so, will its meetings be announced on the agenda
center and open to the public? Thank you.
Mike Ortolano
Hi. Mike Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street. | appreciate a lot of the commentary that | heard. Kind of sounds a little bit like, you
know, righteous indignation that the chamber has when, you know, students and others are being demeaned. | think that
that's a good thing. The only thing that | would like to ask the chamber is that, you know, at the last meeting | observed a
communication that | think fell into the category of either knowingly or unknowingly hitting hard at a community member,
which amazingly enough happened to be my wife. But you know, it kind of opened up by suspending of the rules and of
course, you hear a lot of that. You guys suspend the rules a lot. This whole discussion, you know, over the six days of this
masked mandate which is kind of the grand scheme of things kind of nothing. | get it. It's nice to show good faith. You said
he dropped the thing if the numbers look good but in reality wnen you suspend the rules and then you allow an employee of
the city to, you Know, to basically state that a member of community has been reported to the Police Department and there's
an ongoing investigation from Corporate Counsel advising that you can no longer talk about it. It really reeks of an
opportunity missed for, you know, for somebody on the Board to call point of order, to shut down discussion when it's
inappropriate. Some of this stuff of righteous indignation really should cut both ways both to the people that you like and
other people that maybe you don't like that much, whatever the case. So | think the suspending of the rules, | mean it really
is something that has its place but | think it's very casually used by this Board.
The other thing is | wanted to communicate that | do not agree with maintaining barriers on Main Street. | feel that the
process being used there is very similar to the process that was used to try to change the structure of the Police
Commission. It was very closed. It wasn't open. It wasn't a process that allowed...
Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager
30 seconds
Mike Ortolano
...interaction with the community. It's being driven by Mayor, and a team of people, and it needs to be open if there's going
to be any consensus. Thanks,
Paula Johnson
Good evening again. Paula Johnson, 15 Westborn Drive. Member of the Board of Education, but I'm speaking on behalf of
myself. I'd like to thank the members of the Board for rescinding this mask because | made a comment last night, | guess,
but | guess it happen what | said last night happened tonight. Thank you very much. Because the people like me who have
