2021-05-19 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Public Service
2021-05-19 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Public Service
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Okay, we're ready. I'll begin so. Good morning everybody and welcome to today's hearing of the Joint Committee on Public Service. Representative Kenneth Gordon? And I'm joined here by my co chair, Senator Michael brady. Ah Welcome to your brady. I'll just offer some kind of housekeeping and then turn it over to tear brady too, Speak on his behalf and introduce any senators who may join us. I appreciate everyone's time and attention38 to the matters before us today. The subject of today's hearing is local matters and we have 17 bills before us for consideration. The committee has solicited testimony on each of these bills, including both written and oral testimony. Oral testimony will be heard this morning. If members of the public would like to provide additional written testimony after this hearing, they may do so until midnight tonight and they've had the opportunity to do so. And we have received some written testimony up to this point for the and all written testimony will become part of the record for those of you who have signed up to testify verbally. You should have received a78 link yesterday to do so and I see some of you already are here. We'll recognize each of you who has signed up and turn and if you did not sign up, but you're here and you wish to speak, then please use the chat function or raise your hand and well make an arrangement for you to speak. I'd like to take a95 moment to thank all of you in advance for your patients today. As we navigate this hearing virtually members of the committee. If you have a question for a witness, please use the raise hand feature on top of your screen and we'll call on you when we get to that point, I'd ask you that you refrain from using the chat feature for any substantive conversation because those chats are not recorded by117 the livestream and they're not able to be made part of the public record. Finally, in order to allow everyone to be heard, I ask that you use the mute feature if you're not speaking, the mute is the microphone on the top microphone icon on the top right of the frame or the window that you're in okay without out of the way, we're going to turn into verbal testimony. But first, I'd like to invite share brady to share any remarks and as I said, to introduce any Senate members,
but you're ready, you're muted.
Thank you Mr coach here. And I want to welcome everybody on this virtual meeting today. Hopefully, as157 I mentioned, we get back to somewhat normal, see sooner than later. Um but uh, I want to get moving right away on these. We've got a lot of bills today and a167 lot of bills in the public Service committee moving forward. I'm not aware of any senators who are on the screen today, but if they come on they can welcome to chime in and introduce themselves. But Mr Chairman, I'm gonna let you move forward so we can get this moving swiftly.
Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that. And I welcome to this hearing. Members of our joint committee from the House. I see. Vice Chair Natalie Higgins. Representative Bruce Ayers Representative Erica you to heaven represented, Michael, kush200 Merrick. Representative Tim Whalen, our ranking member and Representative David D cost.
And so with that ah We will211 ah as many committees do we will take legislators and elected officials out of turn to offer testimony. And I believe that representative Jessica Giovannino is here to testify about age 26 54.
Yes. Good morning. Mr Chairman, can you hear me? Can you? We can hear you awesome. I apologize. I called in. You can't see me. I'm actually on235 my way into the building, but good morning,
REP GIANNINO - HB 2654 - Good morning, honorable members of the Joint committee on Public Service. My name is Representative Jessica Giannino and I represent the 16 Suffolk district, which is compromised of the cities of Revere, Chelsea and the town of Saga. I thank you all for the opportunity to testify before you today in strong support of House Bill 2654, an258 act establishing residency requirements for the offices of mayor, city council and school committee in the city of Revere. This is a home rule petition from the city of Revere, passed unanimously in 2020. Prior to my election to the House, I served on the city council in the city of Revere for 10 years Currently, to run for office in revere there is no residency requirement.
You can move into the city or into a particular neighborhood and run for office immediately. To put this into perspective, to run for the Massachusetts House, you must reside in a particular district for a minimum of one year before speaking to represent that district. This home rule aims to hold local elections in Revere to the same standards as state offices. The city council researched the issue and we based the language based on a provision from the Woburn city charter, as well as an ordinance in New Bedford. So this is a common practice in other communities across the commonwealth, therefore, Revere would not be the first to set forth one year residency requirement for local public office.
One of the main reasons this was passed by the city council was to ensure that when people ran326 for office, they had a vested interest in the community or329 city or particular neighborhood. It's not fair residents who have lived in a neighborhood for their entire lives or even several years to be represented by someone who moved into an area to run for office for self gain, not for the betterment of the community. In Revere, we found people were threatening to move just to run against someone that they didn't like or to bully an349 elected official they didn't agree with. This home rule would ensure that living in a given water city for a year, a person gets to know the issues facing the community and neighborhoods, as well as investing in a vested interest in their given area before seeking elected office.
This home rule was passed unanimously by the very city council late in 2020 and368 was originally filed during the 191st Court but because of COVID-19 and a flurry of legislative activity late last session, this home rule was not able to get across the finish line. It's my hope that your honorable committee will act swiftly to give H 2654 a favorable recommendation so that it may advance in the legislative process and become law this session. I deeply appreciate your consideration and thank you for the opportunity to testify before394 you today. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
No, I'm muted. I'm sorry. Thank you very much. Representative, Does anyone have any questions?
Mr Chairman? Yes. I would just like to thank the representative for her testimony. That's all. Thank you very much and I join in that. Thanks. Thank you very much. Representative. We also um welcome and are joined by representative Cait Lipper Garabedian and you've been here from the start and I apologize. I just can't see everyone on the screens. Um, is there any other representative who is here to testify?
Okay with that. We have a few members of the public who have signed up and I am going to turn to their art. Two town officials from the town of Swampscott. There's a third witness on that bill, but we'll start with, we have Swampscott Police Chief Ron Madigan On H & 93.
RON MADIGAN - POLICE CHIEF SWAMPSCOTT - HB 93 - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Ron Madigan, I am the police chief in Swampscott and I'm pleased to be here this morning to offer a few words and support of Swampscott efforts to build a more inclusive police department. The bill before you is the last step in a two year process. It started with conversations with members of the Swampscott police and fire departments. Over a year ago, a505 special civil service committee was formed to study the concept of leaving civil service for Swampscott. It was reported by town meeting and ultimately reported back to town. The committee met numerous times and presented a recommendation that both the Swampscott police and fire departments leave civil service.
I actively participate in this committee and have joined the town administrator and members of our select board in advocating for this important change. Over the last year, I'm pleased to report that the town is negotiating good faith with the police Union and has543 a memorandum of understanding between the union and select board that states, the Swampscott Police Department union membership recognizes that we are in the unique position552 to work in conjunction with the town and to shape our department for years to come. We recognize the need for diversity and inclusivity within our department. We feel that if we are given the opportunity to be included in the hiring and promotional process going forward, that we will be able to recruit and hire the best possible candidates.
We feel there should be no barriers with regard to race, gender or religious beliefs. We welcome the opportunity to shape the promotional process within our department so that every member of the department may be considered for advancement. Therefore, the Swampscott Police Union Massachusetts, Coalition of Police Local 417 agrees to partner with the town on its request to withdraw from civil service. I as the Swampscott Police chief, I'm proud of the men and women of the department. Together, we're leading our community to a brighter and more equitable future.612 Thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you very much to, to brady. Did you have any questions?
SEN BRADY - Thank you, Co-Chair, Chief, thank you for your testimony. So you did say that the police union is in favor of this?
MADIGAN - That is correct.
BRADY - Alright. Chief, do you know roughly and if you don't know we can get this information later, do you know the population roughly of Swampscott?
MADIGAN - The latest is roughly 15,200641 people.
BRADY - Thank you. I know some of the, not every community is different, some larger communities adhere to civil service but some of the smaller ones do not have civil service. So thank you for your testimony, Chief. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you. Mr Chair. Thank you very much. Mr. Chair. I just have a few questions.
REP GORDON - Do you know when Swampscott adopted civil service?
MADIGAN - I believe 1907-1908.
GORDON - Okay. And so in your testimony, what you described approaching town meeting, I assume there was a warrant article in a vote of town meeting, is that right?
MADIGAN - That is correct.
GORDON - Were you present when the vote?
MADIGAN - Yes.
GORDON - Was there a recorded vote at town meeting?
MADIGAN - There was, I don't know the vote, but it was largely supported.
GORDON - Okay. And we have a clerk certificate telling us there was a majority who voted in favor but I'm just wondering if you happen to know what the vote was. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Um Okay. All right. I have no further questions. Does anyone from the committee have any questions? Just use the raise hand function if you do?
Okay. Let's see. Represented the cost. Uh, Mr Chair. Thank you. I'll be brief.
REP DECOSTE - I had a question for the Chief and Chief, I want thank you for coming on. In the past, we have seen departments leaving civil service, institute some preference and I know there's always a stated lip service preference, but when you pull out of civil service, it means you also pull out of the policies protecting and giving preference for instance to the children of police officers, children in the line of duty and also to veterans. Now, aside from the anecdotal consideration, the special consideration of veterans will be given, do755 you have any firm policies that will protect and maintain preference for either of those groups?
MADIGAN - Okay. At this point the policies are work in progress. We are still working with the union, working with the town to finalize those. It's my understanding that there777 will be a consideration given to those categories in due process.
DECOSTE - Okay, well out of curiosity, was that brought up a town meeting?
MADIGAN - I know the question of the veterans preference was brought up in town meeting, I don't recall the preferences, police officers injured, or children on the line of duty. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
of duty. Well I appreciate that this always comes up the same questions so I just I832 just thought I would ask and uh thank you and Mr. Chair thank you for you836 for your time. Thank you840 very much. Representative cost. I'll see I see Representative Whelan's hair hand is raised.
REP WHELAN - Mr. Chairman, thank you. Chief, just to piggy back a bit on my good friend and colleague, Representative DeCoste's comments, Chief, just so you understand that that's always been a strong concern here, so while we certainly don't have any control over any policies that you and your town promulgate going forward as it relates to hiring, we as a legislature in general have strong concerns to make sure that neither the hiring preferences that are currently awarded through civil service to veterans or to the sons and daughters of police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty, when you're developing those policies, please consider that our strong concern that those hiring preferences remain there and I thank you for your time.
MADIGAN - Thank you. I concur and I can strongly voice895 that we too value those897 veteran service as well as those police officers who paid such sacrifices. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you very much represent whale. That was do you have any other questions? Was that? And
GORDON - I just want to also express my agreement with everything that Representative Whelan said. In my district, one of the town's also left civil service and under the Star Statute 43 B, our authority is limited when it comes929 to home rule petitions as representative expressed. While we can't become involved in the inner workings of the municipality in the municipal government, we are concerned and we do want to see the rights of the veterans, of children of fallen soldiers, things like that to be protected now948 and in the future. So we appreciate you taking our concerns in mind. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
anybody else.
Okay, thank you for your testimony.
And let's say we have, I'm just looking over to my other screen. I'm not, I'm still, let's say we have
swampscott Fire chief Graham archer.
Uh
GRAHAM ARCHER - FIRE CHIEF SWAMPSCOTT - HB 93 - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Co-Chair and the members. I really appreciate you allowing me the opportunity to offer a few words of enthusiastic support, we just wants this effort to build a more inclusive fire department. The bill you're considering is the combination of a multi year process. During that time, the members of the Swampscott police and fire departments, along with town leadership, engaged in a frank and sometimes difficult conversations about what a fair, inclusive process of recruiting, hiring and promoting should look like. Hopefully, through these talks, we found we shared broad agreement about what we need to do to advance our public safety departments and allow us to draw upon the ability and desire to serve members of the community who historically have1026 not participated in the civil service system.
Over a year ago, a special civil service study committee was appointed by Swampscott town meeting of a cross section of town members to study leaving civil service. I was a part of that committee as well as Chief Madigan as non voting members. Ultimately, the committee voted to remove the town from civil service. I have served as a Swampscott city firefighter for over 32 years and I have never been prouder of the people with whom I serve that I was at the successful conclusion of these discussions. The men and women of both departments were willing to recognize what many people are not. The system under which they succeeded was flawed and that they are willing to examine what we have been doing for generations and embrace a new, more modern vision of what fairness really means.
Over the last year, I am pleased to report that the town has negotiated in good faith of the firefighters union and has a memorandum of understanding between firefighters union and the Select board that states, whereas the town of Swampscott and the Swampscott firefighters Union, International Association of Firefighters AFL-CIO jointly seek to increase diversity and inclusivity within the Swampscott Fire Department and whereas the parties agree that withdrawal from Civil Service will provide the town with greater flexibility in the appointment process and strengthen the ability to increase department diversity, inclusivity. As Swampscott fire Chief, I'm proud of our department, our department is leading the way to a brighter, more equitable future.
As regard earlier questions regarding veteran status in the hiring and recruitment process as well as the children of firefighters injured or killed in the line of duty, the union President and I have had, as soon as we reached agreement on leaving civil service and the Swampscott firefighters union does agree, we got right to work digging in on science to craft what the new procedures and policies would look like. Frankly, the conversations were a lot smoother than we expected. Again, we broadly agreed on what we're trying to do and what that likely would look like. We early on prioritize having a conversation about the children of those injured and killed in1178 line of duty as well as veterans and it is far beyond lip service.
If you ask any, just about any of the firefighters, I will say the firefighters that have been here more than a few years, they can point out not only where all the veterans Firefighter grave markers are in the Swampscott cemetery but all the veterans in the Swampscott cemetery. In a week or so, we're going to be, during our annual practice of marking them. on May 31st, we will be there in force to honor the fallen. We take it very seriously, so it is a front of mind consideration for ours and again, memorialized in writing as part of our processes. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Chief. Chair brady. Any questions?
No. Mr. Culture. I have no questions. Thank you. Thank you. Fire Chief. Thank you. Uh Chief thank you. Thank you for your concern to the issues that you addressed with respect to the veterans. Ah and um and I appreciate that anybody ah from the committee have a question. Just raise your hand.
GORDON - We have just one little comment. Several members of our committee are serving on a commission that's looking at changes that we may be able to make1279 to civil service because we understand that there are some challenges there. I know that your vote is to leave civil service, but we also are looking to see what we1288 can do to improve upon the system and we have begun our work, report will be due once we've completed1295 and we hope to be able to make it so that it's a more workable system for those municipalities still in it. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Um, right with that. I appreciate your testimony. And now we have Ron maddock. I'm sorry. We have Jeffrey Blonder.
JEFFREY BLONDER - JEWISH WAR VETERANS OF THE UNITED STATES - Thank you. Chairman Brady, Chairman Gordon, members of the committee, my name is Jeffrey Blonder. I am currently the commander1322 of the Department of Massachusetts, Jewish War1324 Veterans of the United States. The Jewish War Veterans is the oldest congressional chartered Veterans organization In the United States, founded in 1896. I'm also the commander of the EF Gilmore chapter of disabled American veterans in Swampscott. I've been a Swampscott town meeting member for over 30 years and was on the planning board for 20 years. I understand this is a home rule bill and home rule bills usually get past and so I don't have any aspirations of this bill not being passed, but I do want to talk about veterans preference.
The town had a committee to study this and unfortunately, no veterans were invited to participate in that committee. As we know the fact of the matter with the exception of the current members of the police and Fire Department, no group would be affected more by any changes to civil service than the veterans of Swampscott.1383 Well, I'm no expert on civil service. I will direct my remarks on how changes in civil service will affect veterans, but more importantly, how hiring veterans benefits the town of Swampscott. Veteran's preference in civil service has been the law in Massachusetts for a long time. Disabled veterans get more veterans preference than regular veterans. The idea is that a veteran was away from his town for a period of time, so the opportunity to apply to become a police or firefighter was lessened.
More importantly, the skills that a veterans possesses benefits the cities and towns they work for. We are not looking for a handout, we just want to serve our community as we have done in the past. There is currently a bill, Senate Bill 1793 from Senator Villas that would guarantee veterans preference to cities and towns even when they leave civil service. The disabled American veterans of Massachusetts strongly supports that bill and I encourage you to look into that bill and also to support it. I know the Massachusetts Municipal Association with Swampscott is a member of it, strongly opposes this bill. I want to categorically state, I do not think that cities and towns opt out of Civil service is a way to avoid giving preference to veterans, but a side effect of them opting out has been the fewer veterans are hired.
Preliminary results from six towns that have opted out of civil service found that in nearly every case, there are fewer veterans hired, even if there was an increase in hiring overall. In Wellesley, for example, in five years before civil service was revoked, police hired five veterans and five non veterans. In the six years after, the police hired one veteran and 12 non veterans. In North Attenborough, in five years before civil service was revoked, the police hired three veterans and no non veterans. In the 3.5 years after revocation, the police hired one veteran and seven non veterans. Now, we will discuss how Swampscott will benefit from continuing to hire veterans.
In my 28 years of wearing the cloth of America, I can truly say that1521 the veterans community is the face of America. If you want diversity, look no further than the veterans community. There's no glass ceiling in the military today. Besides diversity, veterans hired in Swampscott bring valuable skills that both fire and police Department need to do their jobs effectively. A veteran understands the chain of command, veteran has a sense of mission and always has the back of his fellow soldiers. They are trained to complete the task at hand. We need our first responders to rush into places we fear to go, that's what we did every day in combat. Many veterans have been trained in both police tactics and fire safety and have done these jobs extensively in the military.
I know a lot of times people think that hiring a veteran will cause excessive force, that could be further from the truth. In today's military, we are trained to be peacemakers. I can say during my time in Afghanistan, I worked with the local tribesmen to win their hearts and minds to prevent violence. Whatever you do today, I hope you include some type of veterans preference but I know that if you do leave civil service, the veterans of Swampscott will suffer and I believe the town will also suffer. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Yeah.
Okay. Mr Bond, thank you very much for your testimony. Um, You know what, just as a demonstration that we do understand the concerns of veterans and we support the vote, we appreciate the role of the veteran and appreciate the service of the veteran in this legislature. Just use the used to raise hand. But because I know we have a few veterans who are on this committee and I represent the cost. You're1632 going to God represented Whelan and make sure that I know everybody. Uh and so there we are.
GORDON - So I point out that on substance, we stand with you in our support of veterans, but I think that you do understand because you mentioned it, that under Chapter 43B our authority here is limited, we respect the authority of the municipality to make its own rules, when its rules are not inconsistent with other laws and only affect its own community. So these are issues that we will be addressing in the commission that I mentioned from an overall perspective. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
ah coach here, um brady, did you have a comment? Thank you, mr Coach here, and I uh want to thank you Mr Blauner for your service to our country and I do believe that the sponsor of this bill is also a veteran, but we're gonna take into serious consideration your testimony today and discuss things and I appreciate all your words and again, thank you for your service to our country.
Thank you very much. We have no other witnesses signed up to testify
uh represented cost your hand is still up. I just want to make sure you didn't want to make a remark. No, I'm sorry. I'm just uh slow on the switch this morning. I guess I haven't enough coffee. Mr chair. Let me take that down and mute myself again. By the way, thank you. Also, because this is uh historically now Wayland myself have been on the committee. I guess this is the fourth term we're going into it and this has been a recurring. So everyone understands this is this isn't anything new. We just have these concerns and I appreciate by the way, Mr blonder putting out 1793 because I was not aware of that. So I just send a note to my aid to see if we can't sign on to Senator1755 valises bill. So thank thank thank you. Mr blonder.
Thank you. So we've received written testimony. I'm going to read the list of the bills that we have received written testimony on. And then what we're going to do is we're going to close each of the bills at midnight tonight so that we can consider them the bills we received written testimony on our age 25 63 age 26 45 age 26 46 age 26 54 age to 26 66 27 oh four age 27 14, H. 27 74 Age 27 82 S 1697, S 1698,
S. 1734 and s 1747. So the public is aware. Okay? Uh, unless mr kotcher, did you have any closing comments?
No. Mr coach, you know, closing comments. Thank you. Okay, thank you to the1818 witnesses and thank you to the members of the committee for your attendance. I appreciate it. I will accept a motion to adjourn.
The chairman will make a motion to agenda. Thank you so much. 2nd. Second. Okay? All in favor. Say, aye. Hi. Uh, all opposed. We are adjourned. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you.
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