Monday Night at City Hall: Part 2

Also on the agenda for the organizational meeting were committee assignments. Since the assignments had been shared with the aldermen prior to the meeting, there was no discussion or dissension about them. The makeup of the committees and the meeting times are as follows:

• Youth, Education, Seniors and Recreation  Chair: Malachi Walker; Calvin Lewis, Eileen Halloran, Shershah Mizan  The committee meets on the first Wednesday of the month.
• Housing and Transportation  Chair: Tiffany Garriga; Rebecca Wolff, Shershah Mizan, Malachi Walker  The committee meets on the first Wednesday of the month
• Finance  Chair: Tom DePietro; John Rosenthal, Rebecca Wolff, Eileen Halloran  The committee meets on the third Tuesday of the month
• Economic Development  Chair: Calvin Lewis; Dominic Merante, Eileen Halloran, Jane Trombley  The committee meets on the third Thursday of the month
• Police  Chair: Dewan Sarowar; Rebecca Wolff, Malachi Walker, Jane Trombley  The committee meets on the fourth Monday of the month
• Fire  Chair: Dominic Merante; Malachi Walker, Dewan Sarowar, Jane Trombley  The committee meets on the fourth Monday of the month
• Legal  Chair: John Rosenthal; Rebecca Wolff, Shershah Mizan, Tiffany Garriga  The committee meets on the fourth Wednesday of the month
• Public Works and Parks  Chair: John Rosenthal; Calvin Lewis, Shershah Mizan, Dominic Merante  The committee meets on the fourth Wednesday of the month

After presenting the committee assignments, Council president Tom DePietro noted that all committee minutes will now be taken by a secretary (Linda Fenoff) and advised the committee chairs that the agendas for committee meetings should be posted on the city website by noon on the day of the meeting.

Tiffany Garriga voiced an objection that aldermen had to go through the Council president, DePietro, to contact the Council's legal counsel, Jeff Baker. Baker explained that DePietro wanted to manage the work flow. Garriga argued that any alderman should have the right to deal directly with counsel. Baker said he didn't want calls from eleven different people asking him to draft things. Garriga countered by claiming that she gets phone calls from 700 people and gets "way less money than you do." In the end, DePietro acquiesced and declared that "the attorney will be available to all committee chairs."

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