1) In 2022 the City of Melrose engaged in a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) assessment process designed to collect information about the racial climate in Melrose. According to the DEI assessment, 35% of Black people feel uncomfortable interacting with city hall, compared to only 6% of white people. What would you do to make city hall more welcoming to Black people? 

2) In the Melrose public school system, Black students are suspended at higher rates than white students. Melrose has one of the highest rates of racial disparity in school discipline compared with 12 neighboring communities. In your role as Mayor, which also gives you a seat on the School Committee, how do you plan to eliminate racial inequities in school discipline? 

3) In the Housing Production Plan’s Fall 2020 Online Open House, the most highly endorsed priority was “racial and ethnic integration in housing,” supported by 65% of participants. However, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data show that over the past 15 years, only 1% of all the home purchase mortgages issued for Melrose were for Black homebuyers. Moreover, Black homebuyers were 68% more likely than white homebuyers to have their mortgage application denied. What can be done to increase the number of Black homeowners in Melrose? 

4) In the 2023 school year, as in years past, Melrose had no Black teachers. This is a loss for all students, and is especially harmful for our Black students. Research shows that when Black students have Black teachers they are more likely to thrive academically and less likely to be suspended. In your role as Mayor, which also gives you a seat on the School Committee, what ideas do you have about recruiting and retaining Black teachers?

5) In the the city’s Two Weeks Toward Change report from July 2020, the Office of Planning and Community Development recommended that Melrose, “create an addendum to the Melrose Forward Master Plan to specifically make a goal of addressing inequality and discrimination and listing the housing, transportation, economic development, open space, and infrastructure changes that should be made to achieve this goal.” Would you work to have this addendum added to the Master Plan? 

6) In 2022 the City of Melrose engaged in a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) assessment process designed to collect information about the racial climate in Melrose. Although the survey revealed racial inequities across numerous measures, the report back to the community did not include a discussion of these findings, and there are seemingly no plans to address racial inequities in Melrose. As Mayor, what steps would you take to understand and eliminate racial inequities in our city? 

7) In the city’s Two Weeks Toward Change report from July 2020, the Office of Planning and Community Development recommended that “past discriminatory redlining practices should be acknowledged.” Redlining was a network of federal, state, and city regulations and practices that prevented Black people from buying homes in Melrose prior to 1968. The effects of redlining on Melrose persist today. How should the city acknowledge past discriminatory redlining practices? 

8) In the Housing Production Plan’s Spring 2021 Online Open House, 50% of participants indicated that passing the Community Preservation Act was a high priority. If used as intended, the Community Preservation Act would provide dedicated funding for affordable housing. What are your plans for affordable housing, and do you believe the Community Preservation Act is a high priority?

9) In June 2020, as part of a project called “Two Weeks Toward Change,” Mayor Paul Brodeur ordered all Melrose departments, boards, and commissions to examine their procedures and policies with the goal of improving those that don't promote racial equity. Three years later, there has been no follow-up on this project with the community, and no sense that meaningful change came about as a result. Would you commit to ongoing assessment and reporting of the impact of city policies and procedures on racial equity? 

10) In 2020, the Melrose Police Department committed to “begin the hard and uncomfortable work” of confronting their “implicit biases and institutional biases.” Since that time, the percentage of arrests involving Black individuals has increased. There has also been an increase in the percent of arrests in which race is marked as “unknown” – a practice which could be masking even greater racial inequities in arrests. As Mayor, what steps would you take to ensure that Melrose is not engaging in policing practices that perpetuate systemic racism? 

11) The Housing Production Plan, passed by City Council two years ago, left intact the so-called SR zones on the East Side of Melrose, which only permit the construction of single-family residences. The SR zones almost exactly parallel the green districts created by the Home Owners Loan Corporation on their "redlined" map of Melrose in 1938, marking them as places where Black people would be rejected for home loans. As mayor, would you direct the Office of Planning and Community Development to work to dismantle the SR zones and bring them into conformity with the UR zoning which predominates in almost every other residential district of Melrose, and thus bring to an end this decades-long policy of housing segregation on the East Side? 

12) What active steps will you take to promote racial diversity, inclusion and cultural sensitivity in your administration, City offices and services? 

13) As mayor, how will you support our educators’ commitment to teaching true and accurate U.S. history regarding slavery, the Civil Rights movement, Jim Crow, red-lining, etc., if and when parents or political organizations pressure or attack individual educators for accurately teaching the history of our country with regard to race relations?