Melrose Musical Chairs: Who Is Next President Of The Board?

MELROSE, MA — Don't look now, but there's still a couple of open seats in this local politics version of musical chairs.

As we all know, Mayor Robert Dolan will soon leave to become Lynnfield Town Administrator. Newly minted President of the Board of Aldermen Gail Infurna will then become mayor, per the City Charter. Those are the seats that are taken.

Still open are President of the Board of Aldermen and Ward 5 Alderman. We'll tackle the Ward 5 position, made available with Infurna's elevation, at a later date and look at the more immediate position of presidency. (Make sure you're subscribing to Melrose Patch for the latest on all of this!)

Patch reached out to the members of the Board to see who intends on running for the presidency. Three members did not immediately return a phone request for comment, but five others that did declined any intention to run and assured Patch the understanding is it will be a two-person race between Aldermen-at-Large Michael Zwirko and Monica Medeiros, who had already made their intentions public.

Zwirko and Medeiros were nominated at the year's first Board of Aldermen meeting - along with Infurna and Tramontozzi - for President of the Board. At that meeting Robert Boiselle and Medeiros voted for Medeiros, while Manisha Bewtra, Scott Forbes, Peter Mortimer, and Zwirko voted for Zwirko. On the fourth go-around of voting (thanks to lack of a majority vote) Boiselle and Medeiros switched their votes to Infurna. Zwirko requested a fifth round of voting in hopes it would be unanimously in favor of Infurna.

The Board meets Monday, Jan. 29, and it's possible someone makes a late entry into the race. But for now, it seems Zwirko and Medeiros will be the ones considered when the Board votes the following Monday, Feb. 5.

Zwirko is aiming to win the Board's votes for a second time. He was unanimously voted president in a non-binding December caucus before news of Dolan's possible departure became public. Though he admits it was a difficult turn of events, he isn't sour about how things settled.

"I would have liked to have been the president earlier but that's not the way it shook out," Zwirko told Patch. "We still have a job to do.

"My position hasn't really changed. It was a unique departure [for Dolan.] It's time to move forward ... I think its an interesting and opportunistic time for the city. It's exciting."

Medeiros, who has spent a decade on the Board, said her experience will help "an inexperienced new mayor tasked with carrying out the aggressive agenda laid out by Mayor Dolan in his state of the City Address."

"We need an experienced leader at the helm [of the Board] who is not only active and involved in our community, as I am, but who will make sure, as aldermen, we do our job and give these proposals a proper vetting."

You can read the full statement Medeiros emailed Patch below:

Come February 5th, we will have an inexperienced new mayor tasked with carrying out the aggressive agenda laid out by Mayor Dolan in his state of the City Address. More than ever, we need a strong Board of Aldermen. We need an experienced leader at the helm who is not only active and involved in our community, as I am, but who will make sure, as aldermen, we do our job and give these proposals a proper vetting.

In addition to the change in the mayor’s office, 2018 will bring retirements in the City Clerk’s office, which is overseen by the Board of Aldermen. Our new President will have a unique opportunity to shape the way we not only offer services but also how we share information.

As an alderman these past ten years, the commitment I have shown to making our process open, transparent and fair, is evidence that I can be most effective in this role.

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The President of the Board has a few primary roles: He or she creates the committees and appointed the chair and vice chair; is acting mayor in the event the mayor is incapacitated or out of state; elevates to mayor in the event the mayor leaves; and heads the Board meetings.

Photo by Mike Carraggi