2026-10-26 - Sub-Committee Meetings
Summary
Written from the auto-generated captions; names and numbers may be misheard.
- Short Appointment Subcommittee meeting chaired by Joanne McKenna, with Anthony Cogliandro, Marc Silvestri and Councillor Mercurio; all members present.
- Four mayoral reappointments were sent forward, each by voice vote: Deborah Frank to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, Toby Pearlstein to the Library Board of Trustees, Kathleen Savage to the Board of Health, and Mario Gmanis to the Disability Commission.
- Frank and Pearlstein appeared in person. Frank described 30 years in housing and home ownership work and a current two-year term on the trust fund; Pearlstein said this is her ninth year on the library board, where she is secretary. Councillors thanked both and praised Pearlstein's volunteer work cataloguing the historical society's books.
- Savage and Gmanis did not attend and were moved forward without interviews; the chair said Savage may be brought up at a regular meeting.
- All four reappointments were confirmed by the full council later the same evening (2026-10-26 - City Council).
Sources
Video
Transcript
These are auto-generated captions; names and numbers may be misheard.
Transcript
00:07Good evening and welcome to the October
00:1026th meeting of the appointment
00:12subcommittee. Will we all rise to salute
00:14the flag please
00:18to the flag of the United States of
00:20America and to the republic for which it
00:23stands. One nation under God indivisible
00:27with liberty and justice for all.
00:31Thank you very much and good evening.
00:33Roll call the appointment subcommittee
00:35members. Councelor Kaggleandro
00:37>> here.
00:38>> Here councelor has
00:39>> here
00:39>> here. Council mccurio
00:41>> here
00:41>> here. Councelor Sylvestri
00:43>> here
00:43>> here and chairwoman McKenna
00:45>> here
00:45>> here. Cororum is present.
00:48>> Tonight we have four um
00:52appointments
00:54on the agenda. um the reappointment. I'm
00:58gonna have um the clerk.
00:59>> Yeah, I'm just gonna turn
01:00>> Oh, she's going to turn it up for me.
01:02Thank you very much.
01:06>> First item on tonight's appointment
01:07subcommittee agenda is that of Deborah
01:09Frank to the affordable housing trust
01:11fund. This is a reappoint.
01:13>> Is Deborah here?
01:15>> Hi, Deborah. Just turn on the mic,
01:17please.
01:18>> Yes. Can we have the quiet in the uh
01:21audience, please? Thank you. Uh Deborah,
01:24hi. Uh can you just tell me a little bit
01:26about yourself and and you know what you
01:29do?
01:29>> Absolutely. So I've spent more than 30
01:31years helping people navigate home
01:33ownership and my work at Metro Credit
01:35Union um in neighboring Chelsea over the
01:38last 12 years has connected me with many
01:40River residents and their housing
01:42challenges. Um I would want to be to
01:44continue to bring that experience to
01:46this board and help people afford to
01:49stay in and become part of this
01:51community. Thank you very much. I'm
01:54going to open it up to the counselors.
01:55Is any councelor want to say anything?
01:58Councelor Sylvestri.
01:59>> Thank you uh chairwoman Deborah. Thank
02:02you for being on the committee and thank
02:03you for all you do for the city. U
02:05bringing affordable housing is something
02:06that we really need and in the trust
02:08fund group in in that organization is
02:10really starting to build and bring some
02:12programs to the city that's much needed.
02:13So thank you.
02:14>> I I absolutely agree. We I think they've
02:16done a tremendous job over the time I've
02:17been on the board.
02:18>> Thank you.
02:20>> Any other counselors? Councilman
02:21Mccurio, thank you.
02:22>> Thank you, uh, Chairwoman McKenna. Um,
02:25Deborah, thank you for, uh, being here
02:26this evening. Uh, how long have you been
02:29on this board for? Just just to bring me
02:31up to speed.
02:32>> The, um, the first this this last term,
02:34I believe it's a two-year term.
02:35>> Two years. Yes.
02:36>> Okay. Wonderful. Great. Thank you very
02:38much. Appreciate it.
02:40>> Any other counselors?
02:43>> Okay. Thank you, Deborah. Thank you for
02:45coming up tonight and do a good job for
02:46city.
02:52All in favor? All oppose. So ordered.
02:57>> Next appointment is communication from
02:58the mayor relative to the reappoint of
03:00Toby Pearlstein to the library board of
03:02trustees.
03:04>> Is Toby here?
03:09>> Hi Toby.
03:10>> Hi. Um could you just tell me a little
03:12bit about the um yourself and what
03:15you've been doing with the library um
03:17board of trustees? Sure. This is my I
03:19guess ninth year on the library board of
03:21trustees, although that seems like an
03:23awfully long time, but um I've been
03:26participating in all the meetings. I'm
03:27the secretary of the board. Um I have a
03:30PhD in library science, so I contribute
03:32whatever I can for my professional
03:34background and I enjoy very much
03:36contributing to the right to read and to
03:38making information available for the
03:40citizens of the city.
03:41>> Thank you very much. And I'm going to
03:43open it up to the council. Council
03:45Sylvester
03:47>> Toby, thank you so much. You're a wealth
03:48of knowledge, everything you bring to
03:50the city between the historical society
03:51and the library. So, thank you so much
03:53for what you do.
03:54>> Thank you.
03:56>> Any other council? Councelor H.
03:58>> Thank you, Toby. I just wanted to thank
04:00you for your dedication. Um, I know you
04:02really care about the city, about the
04:03library, about the historical society,
04:05but thank you for being so involved.
04:08>> Thanks. Any other counselors? Council
04:10Murio.
04:11>> Thank you, Mr. Chairwoman. Uh Toby,
04:13thank you very much for being here and
04:14uh thank you for all the hard work that
04:16you do for the library and also for the
04:18uh Riviera Historical Society. Uh it
04:20means so much to the city to have a
04:22great person like you uh dedicated and
04:25working for us. We appreciate it.
04:27>> Any other counselors? I'd like to speak
04:29from the chair, please.
04:32>> Uh Toby, I just want to say thank you
04:33for what you've done for the historical
04:35center. I know you've done uh you've
04:38worked for about five years uh
04:39categorizing all the books more probably
04:42more than that but c categorizing all
04:45the books into where they were supposed
04:47to be and you did that voluntarily so I
04:50just want to say thank you very much for
04:52your dedication. Thank you and uh please
04:56do a good job. I know you do a good job
04:58for the city but that's what I say to
04:59everybody. So um do a good job for the
05:02city. That's right. Thank you.
05:03>> Thanks. Thank you very much.
05:07All in favor? All oppose. So awarded.
05:12>> Next appointment is a reappointment from
05:14uh the mayor uh for Kathleen Savage to
05:17the board of health.
05:20>> Kathleen,
05:21>> excuse me. Uh Kathleen Savage is on her
05:24way back to Boston. She's on a plane. So
05:27I we're gonna see if she comes to the
05:30regular meeting and then we'll bring her
05:31up then. but we're just going to pass
05:34move her forward. So, um thank you.
05:39All in favor? All opposed? So, awarded.
05:44And last appointment for this evening is
05:45a communication for the mayor relative
05:47to the reappoint of Mario Gmanis to the
05:50disability commission.
05:51>> And uh Mario cannot make it because he's
05:54he's disabled. So, um we're going to
05:57just move him forward too. So um anybody
06:00have any thing to say? All in favor? All
06:04opposed? So ordered.
06:08>> This is there's no further business.
06:10This concludes the subcommittee uh of
06:13the appointments. Have a great evening.
06:16Thank you very much.