Special Board of Aldermen 07-25-2022 Page 15
Alderman Lopez
| generally like to be the sole agent of chaos But in this particular case, | would find it helpful to hear what members of
the public who live in the neighborhoods that we would be appointing someone for because | find this to be a very
unusual circumstance where there was an election, they voted, and now because of the resignation of Alderman
Cathey, we're in a position to make a decision for people whose personally | don't live in that neighborhood so | would
be supportive just to kind of understand what the sentiment is there.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you, Madam President. Aldermen Comeau beat me to it. That's all | had to say.
Alderman Klee
Thank you Madam President. | usually do vote for public comment and | do think it's a good idea to get some input
from Ward 7. My only concern is that when we put out the agenda, it did not have public comment. So some of the
candidates that are here won't have necessarily representation. | still want to hear from the public but | want to make
that very clear that it wasn't on the agenda. So there may be some people that just didn't bother to come. They may
have come if they knew it was on the agenda and | think that needs to be taken into consideration when we place our
vote so thank you.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you, Madam Chair. | just wanted to say that I will not be entertain the thought of public comment. | usually want
to hear exactly what the public has to say but in this particular case, we have. This meeting was to nominate
candidates. | have great fear if we open it up for public comment, we will hear much more not so much about the
candidates but perhaps other different things that could be better addressed at a full Board of Aldermen meeting when
those particular subject matters are taken up at the particular Board. I'll go by the wishes of the Board but keep that in
mind in your vote that unless somebody wants to make an amendment to the motion that the comments must be on to
the specific nominations. Thank you, Madam President.
Alderman Dowd
Yes, again, | would favor a lot of time public comment but in this instance since we're selecting a Ward 7 Alderman, |
think, the only people that we should hear input from are people who live in Ward 7. Otherwise, | think we're going to
get into personality and conflicts that are only leading to elongate this meeting without due cause.
Alderman Thibeault
Thank you, Madam President. Usually I'm for public comment as well. Last week, | made a comment that we should
have had public comment on the Franklin Street issue but in this case, people did not know that they were going to be
able to speak tonight so someone may not have come. They've had opportunities to send us stuff and some people
have. | mean that's just as good as any public comment. So thank you.
Alderman Moran
Just to be safe, I'd like to amend the motion to allow for public comment restricted just to this topic and only from Ward
7 residents.
MOTION BY ALDERMAN MORAN TO AMEND TO ALLOW FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RESTRICTED JUST TO THIS
TOPIC AND ONLY FROM WARD 7 RESIDENTS, BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION
President Wilshire
Okay, so you've heard the amended motion. Discussion on that?
Alderman Gouveia
Thank you, Madam President. Just a question. How are we vetting public comment? Are we asking for addresses
and checking to make sure they live in the Ward?
