Malden City Council 2026-01-27

and more.

Are you hearing us okay, Councilor McDonald? Okay, great.

I can hear you.

Okay, it's 7.10. The council will come to order. All rise and salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of our veterans, service members, and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. We honor and acknowledge the Massachusetts, Pennacook, and Pawtucket peoples whose ancestral lands we now call home and on which we gather today. We express gratitude to the indigenous peoples who have cared for this land for generations, predating European colonization. and continuing to the present. Moving forward, we are committed to ensuring that the histories, voices and contributions of indigenous peoples are recognized and respected in the life of our city. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Oh, I'm so sorry. Councilor O'Malley.

I'd like to offer another moment of silence for Alex Preddy, who was what appears to be murdered by ICE, civil Federal Agents. I think it is very concerning where our country is right now. And when you see Americans being murdered in the streets by the government, I think it requires all of us who have taken oaths to remember those oaths and remember that we are all neighbors and we need to protect each other. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor O'Malley.

Thank you. Councilor Colón Hayes. Here. Councilor Condon.

Here.

Councilor Crowe. Here. Councilor Luong. Here. Councilor McDonald.

Here.

O'Malley, Councilor Sica is not with us this evening. Councilor Simonelli, Councilor Taylor, Councilor Winslow, Council President Linehan, here. Okay, so we have 10 in attendance. Councilor McDonald is with us online via Teams, so all votes this evening will be taken as a roll call vote.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Okay, so under the provisions of the open meeting law, for those of you in attendance, please be informed that UMA Urban Media Arts will be recording this evening's meetings, so be aware that there will be audio and video recordings of the meeting. First order of business.

Representatives from Malden's Read will appear before the City Council to announce their One City, One Book reading selection for 2026.

Fantastic. Welcome.

Thank you. Thank you for having us on this very cold evening. Appreciate the opportunity to be here. For our Sweet 16, you're all invited to our Sweet 16 party this year. And we wanted to announce our book selection. invite you all to participate in our programming and share a little bit about what's happening and present copies of this year's book selection to you all. So to start, to announce, this year's book is called Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. We wanted to introduce the book to you with a number of questions. This is a really timely book, and some of the thoughts around the book during our selection meetings where what happens when a society is built on democratic ideas begins to fracture. And this really focuses on

Why words are important, how words can be deemed dangerous, and how art, storytelling, and human connection help us resist oppression and ignite hope. So for those of us who don't know us and haven't been a part of our community read for the last 15 years, our program, is formed to bring the community together. We're one city, one book. And we want to make sure that we connect the community through one book and read that throughout the year. and then have a number of programs related to that one book. We also have a number of companion books for younger readers and English language learners and we'll share those with you as well this evening. The themes from this year after those leading questions that I started with are focusing on civic ideals and democracy.

We're really tying in with the role of the American Revolution, its 250th special anniversary, and the unique role of Malden being among the very first. to break with Britain. So we're really looking at the power of community and focusing on civic engagement. and thinking about revolution, one's own personal revolution and courage and resistance. We also celebrate libraries. We celebrate our library throughout our programming. Our library is our fiscal agent and our anchor institution. But through the themes of the book, we also celebrate the library as a sanctuary. And to connect the dots with the Revolutionary War history, Malden Reeds has gratefully been named a recipient of the Malden Community Connections Grant.

and we're focusing again on that special 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and the unique role of Malden to be among the first to declare independence from Britain. So we're having a number of programs this year. We'd like to invite you all and members of the community to participate in, including the Citizen Lyceum series. We're doing a number of programs, including the Lyceum in collaboration with the Massachusetts Center for Civic Education as well as Malden's Revolution. And we're having a number of programs including a field trip and exploring the city's historic landmarks. We also want to specially invite you to our kickoff. Leave it to us to not think that There will be a Super Bowl on February 8th, or that the Pats will be in it, but we hope that you will still have the energy to join us on February 9th at the library.

We're looking forward to a fabulous evening. will be having protest music. Some of you may remember David Stein, a chef, and Performer from Malden as well as his wife Sue. David was a member of our steering committee for years and years until they moved to Albany and So David and Sue will be joining us for an acoustic set of protest music from primarily the 60s and 70s. We'll have a community sing along. We also will be showcasing art. Again, what inspires us and what brings us hope. And we're looking at the message of Corita Kent. She's the artist who had done the gas tanks over at 93. and her art was, her prints were bequeathed to the library and so we're so pleased to be able to have an exhibition of her work. Also looking at,

other forms of art and looking at knitting. And there's some really cool things we've discovered about knitting and codes within the art of knitting. So we'll be showcasing that At our kickoff, we also have just ordered a replica of the Boston Tea Party Ship. We will have the Tea Party Ship with bales of tea to throw overboard. We have a number of other collaborations that we should call out, including with MHS Love for Kids, the student club, as well as the high school YMCA leaders. They'll be partnering with us. and we'll have books available for checkout from the library. We'll have refreshments available, including tea from the tea party. And we also will have sandwiches that are very generously donated by Anthony's. We also wanted to share a little bit of information.

I just mentioned the connection with the revolution, so I wanted to talk a little bit about the Citizens Lyceum. This is an education opportunity For adults and teens, we're focusing on the foundations of American government. And this will be in collaboration with Roger Derosier, who has participated and led these sessions in the past. We've enjoyed those learning opportunities at the Malden Public Library. That's a four-part series that we're planning this time thanks to the Community Connections Grant, and so we hope that will see folks for this new opportunity. We have a number of programs coming up. A number are still in the works, so we'll say stay tuned for a number of Announcements that we're not quite ready to make, but we do want to share that in March 11th, we have a mayor's book discussion. We have film screenings coming up.

We'll be showing Hamilton at the library, so we're really excited about that. and we're also planning a number of programs for the schools and for kids to participate in. and we've had a mini writer's den. We've had an after school writing program for years for the middle schoolers and we'll be doing that again this year. And again, to connect with the themes of the book, thinking about sanctuaries and what are places of refuge. We also are thinking of the environment. So stay tuned for programming related to the environment, as well as, again, connections with the Revolutionary War, Malden's history, and other kids programming. I wanted to announce a couple of the companion books and focus on the themes for the younger readers and English learners because we really always want to connect

with all the members of our community from pre-K and picture books for kids who don't know how to read yet all the way through adults and also to connect with English learners who maybe aren't able to read the book in English but can read with their kids the companion books. So I do want to call out the second one on the list here, which is She Persisted. Laudec Colvin. And this is a book by Malden native Lisa Klein Ransom. She's come a number of times back to Malden and she's a wonderful author. Her husband is an illustrator and we always appreciate her really thoughtful writing and the way that she's approached sharing with kids the message of courage and being able to stand up for your rights. And there are a number of other books that also focus on these themes. We also have a number of companion books.

This, I said, is our suite 16. So we've had a number of books that we've donated over the years, thousands of books to the Malden Public Schools. and to the library, including books like The Story of Ruby Verges. And we look always at what we've done over the past to connect our past programs with what we're doing this particular year. and so every book is near and dear to our hearts, but Ruby Bridges felt like it's very applicable for this year. And it also connects with Malden Safe Streets, one of our other community partners this year. Wanted to highlight for folks who are less familiar maybe with Malden Reads, some of the impacts and highlights from last year give a taste of something to look forward to for things to come. and Councilor Colón Hayes. You can see the picture here is from a book discussion that you had led over at Cafe Renard. So we thank you for participating in last year's program.

and just wanted to remind folks that we partner with schools, the library, nonprofits, community organizations and businesses all to connect folks around literacy and to have discussions and bridge communities together. And last year we had our Stone Soup event over at Bread of Life, making a meal with kids to be able to be served at Bread of Life. We also hosted our kickoff at Bread of Life and we had a Malawian band perform and I really enjoyed that performance. And with that, we'll turn back to this year now that we've given a taste of what's to come, what we've done in the past, and ask that you get involved and participate and we want to invite the community to participate along with us by reading the book.

We have, for instance, the book group at the Malden Senior Center always participates with Malden Reads and they're going to be reading our missing hearts. So we're looking forward to that. We have a number of events we'll be posting on our website. We always are looking for volunteers and we always look for new participants and we've included where to reach out to us if anybody is looking for more information and how to follow along with us on social media. And with that, we wanted to thank you very much for listening and appreciate your participation and wanted to take any questions before we might be able to present you with this year's book.

Thank you so much. Do I have any lights for any questions for our Malden Reads presentation? Councilor Colón Hayes.

Thank you so much. I don't have any questions. I just wanted to say thank you. I'll keep it short. But you've been going on for 16 years. And I've been a participant since, you know, Day one, but I was so excited to see David Stein. That was a very cool surprise. I do remember David. Absolutely. So thank you. And you're always adding something new, which is great. I definitely will be doing another book discussion so I appreciate all the work that you all do. Thank you so much.

Thank you. No other? Oh, Councilor O'Malley. I was going to say, we always have a good amount of questions and comments on this presentation.

Thank you again for coming, as well as the support team. It's always great to have you all here and looking forward to reading the book. Every year I kind of give a plug for Libby. which is the audio book or it's also like you can also read the books, I guess, through it. You can sign up if you have your library card. It's really great. You can get it from multiple libraries to get different collections. So definitely want to plug in. listening to it via audiobook on Libby. I just wanted to ask, would you be able to go back to the slide with the events? I'm really excited for some of the events that you have going up. It was, I think, like the Lyceum maybe one?

This one?

This one. Okay, great.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I have a flyer with these dates to present to the city council. Oh, fantastic.

And then is there possible to get a copy of the presentation so we can attach it to our agenda?

Sure. Awesome. I'll email that.

Thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And I also will say about the audio book that I listened to it and it's a really engaging narration. Yeah.

That's a great tip. Well, I will just say from the chair, I always buy the book as holiday gifts for my family. It's become a little bit of a tradition, even though they don't all live in Malden. It's something that we've all started to look forward to. And a lot of them participate in some of the virtual events. and they all read it already and I've gotten feedback already that the book is fantastic. So I've been holding off because I knew we had this presentation and I know my spouse took part in the selection committee. So I've had a little tidbit and I've been really eagerly awaiting hearing more about the events and everything. I can't wait. The lineup sounds fantastic. And I just want to say some of the kids in YA books I've read with my child are just out of interest. Those are amazing, too. So I think folks are really in for a treat this year. well done as always. I just, having that little behind the scenes of how much work goes in throughout the year to picking it and all the books that get eliminated, I just had no idea that there's that much gets considered before you really and so on, and finally, the selection.

There's so many volunteer hours that go into it. I always want to make sure to highlight that because I'm not sure everybody knows how much time goes in before we get here. So kudos to all of you for doing that. anybody watching really plug in and come to these events. They're always so much fun. So thank you for being here.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I saw a couple of our volunteers join on Teams, so that's great to see. and folks joining virtually as well. And also we did start out, I think we usually have about 40 books recommended by everybody in the community and we sort of restart and then whittle them down throughout the summer. It's a labor of love for sure.

Yeah, I can definitely tell. Do you want to do a photo before we Move. Okay. Dora says yes. All right. If Dora says yes, then we're going to do it. All right. We'll take a five-minute recess to do a quick photo.

Thank you.

Oh, sure.

Winslow.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

and Adeline.

It was Elvis Presley's daughter. Lisa Murray. Thank you.

Let's get a little closer. Like you're telling them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, I think we're ready to move on to our next agenda item, which is public comment. Okay, public comment is allowed under council rules. Each speaker is limited to subject matter relevant to this evening's agenda and must keep comments to two minutes or less. Clerk, do we have anybody signed up for public comment? We do.

We have Alana Russell.

Hello, how is everyone? Thank you for having me. My name is Alana Russell and I reside at 54 Kimball Street in Malden. I'm just here to support the order that Carrie McDonald and Steven Winslow have put forth, which states that as a diverse and immigrant rich community, The limited resources of the City of Malden shall be fully dedicated to address the local needs and priorities of Malden's residents, businesses, and visitors. The goal of this order is to provide a safe, livable, and welcoming community for all. no city, employees, departments, appointees, processes, or representatives shall assist in fulfilling the unique and separate responsibilities of the federal government including immigration enforcement or cooperation with any federal agencies or policies contrary to their stated goal of this order. This order should be followed to the maximum extent permitted by the law provided that it shall not require the city to break pre-existing contracts or agreements with federal entities.

Malden should be a city where our immigrant and undocumented populations feel safe and supported. What's happening in our country right now with the federal agents murdering US citizens on the street citizens who are exercising their First Amendment rights to protest and stand as witness to the mistreatment of other human beings is absolutely despicable and should be condemned. I'm proud to live in a city where we have such a diverse population and we can come together to support our neighbors during difficult times. This is a moment in history where we need to stand together against authoritarianism and the harm that the US government is doing. I celebrate Councillor McDonald and Winslow and fully support the order that they've put forth and ask that the rest of the council support this order as well. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. Okay, seeing no other in-person comments signed up, do we have any emails to be read?

We do. So before we begin, I will just start out by saying that we received 36 emails. one was in opposition, two were in support but recommended amendments to the language, and 33 of the emails were in full support of the paper.

The first one. I was just going to explain because I think the last time, so when we have emails that exceed the amount of time available to read, I just wanted to make sure we got questions from the public last time why we might summarize instead of reading all of them. So all of the emails that we received will be attached to the docket. So members of the public that are watching, all of those can be read when you click on our agenda. It's a hyperlink. You can read all of those afterwards. But we are going to read a selection of the emails received, particularly as the Clerk just stated, since some of them state the same position. So we'll read highlights of the ones read, unless any Councilor objects to that. which I am open to, anybody can make a motion to disagree and we can read all of them if you would like to exceed our allowable time. Okay, seeing none, we'll proceed as I just stated.

So the first one is the one that was in opposition. It says, Dear Malden City Council, I am writing regarding tonight's agenda to express general opposition to appointing individuals who are not Malden residents. I believe Malden is entitled to make that distinction and there is no shortage of qualified residents capable of serving in these roles. I am also writing to oppose paper 72-26. I appreciate the stated interest in public safety, but have several concerns. First, this proposal reads like a rushed attempt to establish sanctuary conditions without explicitly stating so. other major cities engaged in public outreach, discussion, and public hearings before adopting similar policies. And Malden residents deserve the same level of due diligence. Second, the language is vague and broad, creating opportunities for abuse and legal liability. Any policy of this magnitude should be narrowly tailored and clearly defined, and consequences for breach of policy should also be explicit.

Third, Malden already faces budget constraints and adopting sanctuary policies at this time could jeopardize federal funds critical to public health and safety. The city spends hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on street lighting because, as shared by Representative Oltrino, Malden is not safe enough to turn the lights off overnight, as was done in the 90s. We need help. Fourth, sanctuary policies conflict with the principle that no one is above the law. Finally, if the council values free speech, it would not attempt to stifle or chill lawful communication by public employees, creating situations that could violate 8S, I'm sorry, USC subsection 1373, which prohibits restricting city employees from sharing information with federal immigration authorities. I urge the council to slow down Engage the public and ensure any final action aligns with Malden's safety, fiscal stability, and core values.

And that was from John Sayah, and I left his address in my office. Sorry, he did send it in. The next one says, this is from Ty Lamb of Oliver Street. Dear Malden City Council, I write today to express my support for Order 77-26, which directs municipal employees and agencies to refrain from assisting federal agencies in immigration enforcement. I believe that the recent actions of the federal government through DHS, ICE, and CBP are direct assault on the rule of law and should be opposed by state and local governments and their citizens. However, I would like to recommend amending the language of the order. The part of the order that I would like to call into attention is, quote, no city employees, departments, appointees, processes, or representatives shall assist in fulfilling the unique and separate responsibilities of the federal government including immigration enforcement or cooperate with any federal agencies or policies contrary to the stated goal of this order."

I would recommend the following. no city employees, departments, appointees, processes, or representatives shall assist the Department of Homeland Security or its affiliated agencies in fulfilling the unique and separate responsibilities of the federal government for immigration enforcement, end quote. The purpose of this order is clear and the language should also be equally clear and explicit. Prohibiting city employees from cooperating with any agencies or policies of the federal government is overly broad and not specific enough, which may have unintended consequences. This is especially true as the City Manager of Cambridge and the Mayor of Medford have recently laid out in their stances clearly that oppose these recent series of cruel actions by ICE and associated federal agencies. Sincerely, Ty Lamb, Oliver Street. To the members of the Malden City Council, I am writing today to express my support for Order 7726, directing city employees and agencies to refrain from assisting federal agencies in immigration enforcement.

I believe that the actions of the federal government through DHS are a direct assault on the rule of law and should be opposed by state and local governments and their citizens. However, I would recommend amending the language of the order. No city employees, departments, appointees, processes, or representatives shall assist in fulfilling the unique and separate responsibilities of federal government, including immigration enforcement, or cooperate with any federal agencies or policies contrary to the stated goals. instead I recommend no city employees, departments, appointees, processes, or representatives shall assist the Department of Homeland Security or its affiliated agencies in fulfilling the unique and separate responsibilities of the federal government for immigration enforcement. The purpose of this order is clear. The language should be equally clear. Prohibiting city employees from cooperating with any agencies or policies of federal government is overly broad and may have unintended consequences. Thank you. Bob Fitzpatrick, 66 Medford Street.

Dear City Councilors, I am writing to you in support of paper 72-26. And I just, I do want to clarify that the actual paper number is 72-76. I know in the last two emails I said 77. That wasn't a mistake. It was actually a typo in the way that the constituents wrote the paper. The actual number is 72-26. This will take us one step closer to feeling that much safer in Malden. This past September, we saw how aggressive ICE treats members of our society and community who lawfully and politely followed the current and correct process through citizenship and immigration services. ICE broke Hernan Escobar's car window and tried to yank him out of the car. Hernan was abused so much that he was taken from the car on a stretcher. I am really grateful for Councilors Kerry McDonald and Steven Winslow for sponsoring this order.

I also want to extend my gratitude to Maya Christensen for helping assist Hernan's family and our community during that unpredictable and questionable time. I know I feel much safer in Malden knowing that you all represent us and advocate for community safety when many feel basically broken, brokenhearted. In accordance with the law and in support of paper 72-26, I am writing in support to limit cooperation between city employees and federal agents who violate the constitutional and human rights of Maldonians. Sincerely, Ali Dirac, Floral Avenue. Distinguished members of the Malden City Council. I appreciate you taking the time to read this I wanted to express my enthusiastic support for councillor McDonald and Winslow's proposed order 72 dash 26, directing the city not to use any municipal resources to assist with the federal government's so-called immigration enforcement. I don't think I've ever weighed in on a public comment before, however, this issue

is one of the most consequential facing the dais in the last 15 years that I've lived here. It is absolutely critical you all support this proposed order. Let me tell you why. As we've quite clearly seen, these raids are not about safety. They are about vengeance, terror, and power. There is nothing safe about an unaccountable masked secret police going hog-wild in our nation's cities. We've seen the consequences. Innocent people injured. permanently maimed, and even summarily executed in the street. not to mention the trauma inflicted on thousands and thousands of families and small children who have done nothing, and I repeat, nothing wrong. But here's what will contribute to public safety, reassurance that immigrants can trust our local authorities access services and report crimes without fear of reprisal or deportation.

This order will send a clear message that the city will not assist in these criminal acts by the federal government and protect its citizens from the harm the bad actors intend to afflict upon them. It's been a long, strange few years, but make no mistakes, this is an inflection point. This is the time to act. Malden has a storied history standing up for what's right when it comes to inflection points. The distinction of being the first city to endorse the Declaration of Independence comes to mind. At the risk of sounding too highfalutin, I hope the City Council will exercise the same sense of historic responsibility now that our forefathers had then. Please support this order. Thank you. Chris Caesar, 34 Main Street. I am writing in strong support of paper 72-26. I am a 48-year-old white woman and a Malden resident of nearly 15 years. I have benefited from systems that were not designed to harm me in that

really gives me a responsibility to, I'm sorry, in that reality, gives me a responsibility to speak clearly when those systems are used to harm others. Malden is an immigrant city. Our neighbors, coworkers, classmates, and friends are immigrants and the safety of our city depends on trust, not fear. When local government is pressured into acting as an extension of federal immigration enforcement, that trust is destroyed. People stop seeking help, families withdraw, everyone is made less safe. This order affirms that Malden's limited resources belong to Malden's people. It draws a necessary line against anti-immigrant authoritarian federal agenda that prioritizes punishment over humanity and undermines local self-governance. This is not a symbolic gesture. It is a moral and practical commitment to dignity, safety, and community care. I urge the City Council to pass Paper 72-26 and make clear Malden is a place where people belong, are protected,

and are not used as political targets. Thank you. Tasha Bakloski, 78 Bowers Avenue. I'm writing to provide the following comment with respect to paper 72-26. To the City Council, I am your neighbor here in Malden and I work in the Malden District Court, now located in Medford, as an attorney. It has been terrifying to see ICE kidnap criminal defendants, many facing driving offenses or minor misdemeanors, their family members and victims, often of domestic violence, often right from the courthouse. Since the beginning of 2026, I have seen ICE officers in our courthouse several times a week and they have arrested three of my clients. One of those clients was a female domestic violence victim who had been working as a cleaning lady in America for almost 30 years and was the sole custodial parent of three American citizen children.

Immigrants, even those with legal permanent status, are afraid to come to court because they know they will be in danger of harassment and arrest, even if their paperwork is in order. and they are afraid to call the police when they need help. This creates a public safety risk to all Malden residents, not just immigrants, because we all depend on one another to report unsafe conditions of all kinds to our police department. Thank you, Juliana McCorky, 45 Harvard Street. Thank you for also being here in person to follow up your email. I am writing as a Malden resident to support report the proposed 72-726 for the City Council meeting on January 27th stating that our resources should be dedicated to ourselves and not supporting federal agencies.

Federal agents have proven themselves to be reckless, violent, and intentionally cruel, not only in recent events in Minnesota but here in Malden, as evidenced by the intentional car crash to abduct a resident on their way to work in September. Malden does an admirable job taking care of our own and we should be focused on helping ourselves and not these agitators. Beyond our moral responsibility, we have a fiscal one as well. ICE has a budget larger than the FBI and Marine Corps combined. They do not require any additional resources or support from our already stretched thin city. Our town instructions wish for a free and independent state and its measures like this that keep us free and independent from federal overreach, extrajudicial activity, and outright fearmongering in a proud city. Andrew Medeiros, 115 Floral Ave. How many more do you want?

I also have this paper. This is So that was a sampling of some of the longer ones. We also have 19 shorter emails that all basically say the same thing. Some of them are only one line. I put them all together and as a batch I will just read this first one that says we need to make sure our community is safe from the corrupt actions that the Fed agents have done in other communities across our nation. Our state and local representatives need to stand up and push back. This community does not need the federal government and ICE agents patrolling our neighborhoods. Our diverse community is what we as Americans should be proud of. And that's from Johan. Sednak, 39 McCormick Street. So we've gone through about 25 minutes now. Do you want to keep going?

Why don't we read one or two more? That brings us to our time.

Okay. I'm writing in support of... Paper 72-26 to prohibit cooperation between city employees and ICE and CBP agents. In recent months, these agents have started kidnapping and murdering American citizens in cold blood, especially in Minneapolis. If they start doing the same thing here, I would like to know that the City of Malden will not help them in any way. I support Malden cooperating with federal law enforcement when they are working within the Constitution and not deporting community members. In the current circumstances, I simply cannot trust the federal government. Please vote in favor of paper 72-26, Calvin Pomerantz of Summer Street. My name is Anna Jeffrey and I live at 28 Waite Street in Malden. I have called Malden my home for 16 years now.

I am writing in support of Councilors Winslow and McDonald's order clarifying the city position on cooperation with ICE and other immigration enforcement. We don't have to look to Minneapolis to see how dangerous and out of control ICE is. We have already seen them ram into vehicles in our own city. This lawless agency cannot be trusted in any way. They cannot be trusted to tell the truth about violent incidences involving their officers. They cannot be trusted to keep those they take into custody alive. There were 32 deaths in ICE custody last year and six deaths already in 2026. They cannot be trusted to obey legal orders against transferring those they take into custody out of state or even out of the country. They cannot be trusted to obey the Constitution of the United States as they terrorize protesters legal observers, the press, and bystanders.

And they cannot even be trusted to undertake the task they are supposedly charged with, removing undocumented immigrants. Time and time again, they have picked up legal residents and even naturalized or native-born citizens in their unlawful sweeps. This has never been about the worst of the worst. It has always been about terrorizing brown people. ICE cannot be cooperated with. They have no respect for the law No respect for the people in no place in our city. I'm writing to express my support for paper 72-26. We are so lucky To live in a community with so many immigrants, it is appalling and deeply troubling to the rise in fascism around the country and at home here in Malden. We've seen our neighbors get kidnapped when they are driving to work, walking their kids to school, and going to the grocery store. This is hideous and heinous and we should all be outraged. Let history be the guide.

An attack on the most vulnerable is an attack on all of us. I hope this order is the first in a long line of protections for our immigrant neighbors and I hope that the City Council will take this initial step in ensuring that we protect all Malden residents from the rise of fascist extremism. Katie Dillon, Mount Vernon Street. City, Council, and Mayor Christensen, please help keep Malden, our immigrant rich community, strong by not supporting ICE. Our city does not need or deserve federal thugs threatening our friends, families, neighbors, and coworkers. This diverse immigrant community of Malden being torn apart are not criminals or threatening us. Thank you for standing strong and not assisting the immigration enforcement. Elaine Sednak, McCormick Street, Malden.

I'd like to voice my strong support of the city order that opposes cooperation with ICE, DHS, and or any federal immigration groups. As a longtime Malden resident, one of the strengths of our community is that we are made up of a diverse population and we deserve policies that support our residents public safety and constitutional due process. Our city's resources are better allocated addressing local needs. Supporting this order sends the message that Malden values human lives constitutional protections, and strengthens our inclusive community. I urge the council to pass this motion and commit to policies that reflect our shared values of fairness, compassion, and safety for all who call this place home. Maeve Ragusan, 145 Mount Vernon Street. As a Malden resident, I am writing in support of the order being proposed to focus our city's resources on our city's needs

and to prevent these resources from being used to further current federal goals, including and especially those goals that are anti-immigrant. I greatly value my neighbors and our rich, diverse city and I am strongly in support of this order that aims to provide a welcoming and safe city for all. I am strongly against city employees, departments, appointees, processes, and or representatives assisting in fulfilling responsibilities of the federal government, especially our current authoritarian anti-immigrant federal government. Sarah Drapeau, 36 Glen Street. I am writing in support of paper 72-26, prohibiting employees, departments, appointees, processes, or representatives of the City of Malden from performing duties that are the unique and separate responsibility of the federal government. This is good stewardship of our financial resources. It is also essential in the current climate

of often illegal, extreme, and dangerous overreach of the federal government into the affairs of states, schools, and individuals. Of immediate concern is protecting all of Malden's citizens from the actions of immigration and customs enforcement. Stacy Gilchrist, 30 Parkside Place. I live on Clinton Street and I am in support of order 72-26. The federal government including immigration enforcement are terrorizing and separating families, harassing protesters and civilians, and murdering people at detention centers and in the streets. We must do all we can to keep them from doing this to our community. more than they already have. I would also support outside of the order's wordings breaking existing contracts with entities that help serve immigration enforcement like the FLOC contract. They are using these cameras to collect data and surveil people in limiting their surveillance to our community is an important factor in harm reduction.

Meredith Mann, Clifton Street. Dear counselors, 11 months ago, Tom, Home in the federal government's borders are promised, quote, I'm coming to Boston and I'm bringing hell with me, end quote. In Minneapolis, we now see what he meant by hell. He meant bringing newly hired and barely trained federal agents to terrorize people and disrupt businesses because their politics differ from those of the federal government. Gil Curlos, The former Commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection has stated that CBP ICE agents are not trained for urban law enforcement. And now we see the result of allowing untrained and unrestrained and unvetted federal agents into a city. two innocent American citizens have been murdered by them on video in the past three weeks. In the few weeks of 2026 alone, nine people have died or been killed by ICE CBP agents in interactions or in custody.

The death toll for 2025 was 32 people. ICE have been recruiting in online groups and from groups such as Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and other extremist groups. People in these groups have been convicted of violent crimes against law enforcement including January 6th. ICE and CBP have been sharing memes that are dog whistles for racist KKK and Nazi propaganda as recruiting materials. They are a danger to us and our neighbors. We do not want these people in our city. We have our own real law enforcement who do not hide their identities, who are trained to work here, and who are our neighbors. We all know that when Tom Holman said he was going to bring hell to Boston, he did not mean It would be inside the confines of the municipal boundaries of the city of Boston. We all know that he was referring to the greater Boston metro area, including Malden. Please do all you can to protect your constituents and your neighbors

Please vote to keep hell out of Malden. And this is from Patrick Hogan, 184 Adams Street. Does that conclude our emails?

Thank you so much for reading all those, Madam Clerk. And before we move on to our next order of business, just since I know some folks are here for this agenda item, we do have about one more page of kind of regular council business to get through before we discuss this. So you're welcome to stay. Make sure to get through our other items as quickly as we can. So if you'd like to stay for that, please do. And I expect we'll be getting to discuss that pretty quickly. Councillor O'Malley.

I would like to request that the Chair take that matter out of order so that we can just dispose of it quickly. Otherwise, I could make a motion if you'd prefer.

Okay. Is there any disagreement on that? I'm fine to take it out of order. Do you need a minute? Are you okay? Okay, thank you. Okay, so we will take paper.

It's page 5, 72-26.

72-26 as our next order of business.

Order that, as a diverse and immigrant rich community, the limited resources of the City of Malden shall be fully dedicated to address the local needs and priorities of Malden's residents, businesses, and visitors. the goal of this order is to provide for a safe, livable, and welcoming community for all. No city employees, departments, appointees, processes, or representatives shall assist in fulfilling the unique and separate responsibilities of the federal government, including immigration enforcement, or cooperate with any federal agencies or policies contrary to the stated goal of this order. This order shall be followed to the maximum extent permitted by law. provided that it shall not require the city to break pre-existing contracts or agreements with federal entities. And the sponsors on this paperwork, Councilor McDonald and Winslow.

Okay, Councilor McDonald, are you able to unmute yourself?

I sure am. Can you hear me?

Okay, you have the floor. Yes, we can hear you.

Well, thank you so much, Council President. And I just want to thank all of the community members who submitted public comments about this. And I have to say that I don't think there was, you know... That isn't representative of any particular amount of pre-existing work on this, as much to say this is an issue that is front and center for our community. Right now. And we are all watching with horror as we watch these just awful images from Minneapolis. And just speaking personally as someone who has friends on the ground there, it is... Unthinkable. And yet I want to be clear that this order is not about Minneapolis. It's about Malden. and that deportations, arrests, family separations are happening in our community. They're happening right now. And a couple of the commenters reference this.

but they're happening in courthouses, it's happening in hospitals. I witnessed a deportation arrest on my street that was a parent taking their kid to school and they arrested the parent. And that is... That's the reality of what's been happening in Malden for some time. And so I think that while we at the City Council cannot resolve all of that, we do not have... the kind of role that our members of Congress do but we can focus on our community and what we can do and we can say this is not going to happen in our name. Not in Malden will we put one penny as much as we can help it towards advancing this kind of horrific and anti-democratic, anti-constitutional agenda that is not making anyone more safe.

This is not actually framed as a sanctuary paper or a sanctuary order because I actually don't think that that's correct. I don't think that we have the power to guarantee sanctuary because, as I said, these... Deportation arrests have been happening in Malden already and we're already getting information that maybe they might ramp up again because we've had multiple surges in the past year of ICE and CBP here in Malden. and in communities like us in Chelsea and Everett and elsewhere. So what can we do? I have had a lot of conversations with different parts of our city government. I think that this order is very aligned with what our current practice is in terms of departments are... certainly trying to avoid doing anything to help with this, with anything that would help or assist ICE in any way that they're not required to do. and I know we've been getting a lot of questions about this. I've gotten a lot of questions.

I know the mayor's been getting questions. I know many of you have been getting questions for members of our community. So this is not so much a radical change in policy as it is the need to make it very clear where we stand and what the foundation of policy is that we are operating from going forward because there are so many unknowns of what is to come. This is definitely the most urgent concerns are about immigration enforcement and what I would say is unconstitutional tactics there. and there are other areas around health care and reproductive rights and DEI where the federal government again has already intrusively been trying to get Malden to answer certain types of questions. So that's why it has a broad focus. And it is trying to thread the needle between what is...

What we must do, and areas where we really do work together and we do receive substantial federal grants for our schools, for our community development block grants, for example, that we certainly do not want to let go. We don't want to give that up because those areas of joint responsibility. But these pieces that are just the federal responsibilities where this agenda is being driven, we really want to stay as far away from that as possible. So I think it's really important and it's really time to be clear with our community about what this about what's the baseline expectation for the resources, the limited resources and the capacity of the city of Malden. and I do want to say that we have just today going back and forth with the mayor and his staff and they recommended and would like some more clarity about what what the real boundaries of this are and make sure that there aren't some kinds of unintended consequences.

So I am prepared to, Councilor Winslow and I talked a little bit, I mean, I think we're prepared to have this be sent to committee to try to consider some of those amendments. But I do think time is of the essence and would hope to see it back on the floor in two weeks once we can address those things. The last thing I just want to say is that I don't think this is, you know, check the box and go home. This is, as I said, just a foundation. And there is so much that I think we as a city can do. and need to do and that many of us are doing and that I want to encourage all of us to do to support the safety and care for the members of our community who are under target and under threat. supporting community organizations, our immigrant-led community organizations, and to engage your state legislators too. There are a number of state laws being considered around requiring law enforcement to not wear masks, for example, and looking at immunity questions. So I would just encourage folks to engage with that. I've been talking to our state delegation about that as well.

And I just want to thank Malden PD and the Mayor's Office and the Clerk's Office and others for a conversation about what I I'm going to reiterate is current practice as far as I can say. I want to say explicitly Malden PD does not hold people for immigration enforcement reasons. That's not criminal reasons, but immigration regions like requests from ICE. And that is that state law in Massachusetts from the Lundy Commonwealth decision in 2017. But they've been public about that. So again, making sure there's a firm foundation there. So my hope would be that we can get to a strong and clear order that can have broad support and do so quickly here, if not tonight, then in the next few weeks. And I thank you all for considering this urgent priority for our city.

Thank you, Councilor McDonald. I do have a lot of lights, but before we go to discussion, I'm hearing that you want to send it to committee. I do want to recognize that we do have our chief, our police chief and a representative from the mayor's office here and invite them to. address us if you want to speak to what our existing kind of protocol and practices, since the Councilor and the sponsor did reference that. I think it might be helpful to ground our discussion before we get into questions from the Council.

Absolutely. Chair, you have the floor. Thank you. Good evening, Council Members. Thank you for this opportunity to talk to you about this proposed... Good? Much better, thank you. I want to thank you for allowing me to make a statement regarding this proposed order. As someone who's interacted with this community in a law enforcement capacity for over 30 years, I'd like to believe that the vast majority of our residents would support any goal of a safe, livable, and welcoming community. As the Chief, it's at the core of what we do every day while striving to protect the rights and dignity of all members of our community. That said, The proposed order is not one that I support for several reasons. We are a department that is heavily guided by state laws, Mass General Laws, MGLs, Code of Mass Regulations, CMRs.

and departmental policy, and in particular, our state accreditation policies which guide absolutely everything that a Malden police officer does. Injecting this order language into our policies would be contrary to the many policies enacted by the state and codified in our state accreditation policies. Adopting local ordinances that must be reconciled with these simply leaves too much room for interpretation. In fact, the very wording of safe, livable, and welcoming is subjective and it means different things to different people. It's both unfair and unrealistic to expect our police officers to interpret this in a way that meets the goals of the co-sponsors. I suspect that the same goes for other city employees and departments as well. I'm aware that many city departments have partnerships with the federal government, Malden Police Department,

the Malden Fire Department, Malden Public Schools, Malden Housing Authority, Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development, the OPSCD, just to name a few, have all received federal funding and or training at one point or another and many annually. A categorical prohibition on assisting or cooperating with federal agencies risks intentionally impairing these critical functions, even when that cooperation has no connection to immigration enforcement and directly serves local public safety priorities. Federal agencies are connected to the Malden Police Department in the same manner that they are connected to most mid-sized municipal police departments. Through formal, routine, and legally authorized mechanisms. These connections primarily arise from joint task forces, grant funding, intelligence sharing, training programs, and emergency response coordination administered by the Department of Justice.

For example, The Malden Police Department has officers that participate in FBI-led task forces such as the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the JTTF, violent crime initiatives, missing and exploited children, Bank Robbery Task Force, just to name a few that were involved in with the FBI. We worked with the ATF, which is Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Agency, on firearms tracing and gun crime investigations. We coordinate with the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Agency. We partner with them on narcotics trafficking and enforcement. And we work with the US Marshals Fugitive Task Forces. These relationships are standardized nationwide and typically governed by memorandum of understanding, agreements or grant conditions, which the Malden Police Department currently has. In addition, Federal involvement commonly flows through administrative and operational infrastructure.

This includes the Department of Justice grant programs. For example, Malden Police Department has received the burn, the JAG grant, year over year. This is funding for victim services and for other public safety initiatives. The Department of Justice grant program also has another agency within it. It's called COPS. That's an acronym for a concern of police survivors. You all remember Sergeant Michael Giordano, a member of the Malden Police Department for years. He died of COVID while serving the city. and he more than likely contracted that while he was working. COPS was able to reinforce, give the family financial relief at probably the worst financial time in their lives. We also get access to federal databases and intelligence products for regional fusion centers.

In our case, the Commonwealth Fusion Center, which is tied in with the Boston Regional Intelligence Center. The Commonwealth Fusion Center is connected with every federal law enforcement agency that you could think of. FEMA is tied in with MEMA, which FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They connect with Massachusetts Emergency Management in major disasters. Department of Justice federally provided training through institutions like federal law enforcement training centers, and to us in law enforcement circles, we all know this to be FLETC, F-L-E-T-C, or the FBI National Academy, which I graduated from in 2006, after spending three months down in Quantico, Virginia. None of these connections are unique to Malden. These are connections available to all municipalities across the country. This is a standard policing model in which municipal departments are integrated and to a multi-layered federal, state and local law enforcement system.

These connections are ordinary and they're policy driven. To sever our ties to these critical federal partnerships would be completely irresponsible would undoubtedly place our community in the dark, out of touch, and in danger. Information is the lifeblood that ensures a safe, livable, and welcoming community. Contrary to the goals stated in the order, it's important to understand that police officers are not situated in the same way as other municipal employees or departments. By the very nature of our profession, local law enforcement agencies such as ours are inextricably connected to a wide range of state and federal law enforcement partners. These relationships are not discretionary, and they're certainly not political. They're rooted in statutory obligations, court orders, Task Force participation, information sharing requirements, and longstanding public safety mechanisms.

Many of these communications occur through mandatory reporting channels that exist specifically to safeguard our local community from serious crime, violence, terrorism, human trafficking, narcotics distribution, and other serious threats. A blank statement and I quote, no city employee shall assist in fulfilling the unique and separate responsibilities of the federal government, end quote, is excessive and risks undermining legitimate, necessary public safety functions. This approach to me, reflects a reaction to a complex and problematic national issue rather than the operational realities of local policing. Effective public safety requires limited purposeful communication with federal partners when it directly advances the protection of the City of Malden and needs to be free to be accomplished without any subjective set of goals.

While the proposal states that the order, and I quote, shall not require the city to break pre-existing contracts or agreements with federal entities, end quote, this appears intended to mitigate risk. it introduces significant confusion and operational challenges. The term pre-existing is inherently subjective and in this case is undefined. This creates uncertainty as to which agreements are covered how long they are covered, how they are interpreted, and who determines whether the given activity falls within or outside the scope of the protected agreement. More importantly, the language would prohibit the city, and by extension, the Malden Police Department, from entering into any future contracts, expired contracts, memoranda of understanding, task force agreements, or grant-related arrangements with federal agencies, regardless of their purpose or benefit to this community.

This could effectively freeze the Malden Police Department's ability to adapt to emerging public safety needs, access federal resources, or participate in lawful cooperative efforts that are routine for local police departments. I'm gonna provide you with a couple of examples, and I'm sure that you're gonna be aware of at least one of these. One of them involved white collar crime. Just a few years ago, The city's IT system was hacked through no fault of anybody here in the city. These were professionals. Through a partnership with the United States Secret Service, with whom we have no existing contract or agreement, we called them. They came here instantly, without question, and through their specific expertise mitigated what could have been a catastrophic release of information. My point is that if this order was in place at that time,

reaching out and contacting the Secret Service would have been a violation of the order. This makes no sense for the city. In another disturbing case, there was a recent press release by the United States Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts. The headline read, quote, New York man convicted of sex trafficking, a minor, in forced labor, end quote. He was convicted by a federal jury for sex trafficking of a minor by force, fraud, and coercion, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and forced labor. No verdict can replace the pain, the suffering, and the lifelong trauma for that victim. But the perpetrator will be incarcerated for years and unable to reoffend. And I mention this case because the young child was a Malden resident. Detective Bob DeSalvatore at the time and Detective Renee Kelly

worked closely with our federal partners and the FBI to bring this case to a conclusion and a conviction. And finally, from an enforcement and compliance perspective, The scope of language prohibiting assistance with quote the unique and separate responsibilities of the federal government end quote is so difficult to apply in practice. Many law enforcement activities involve overlapping jurisdictional responsibilities shared intelligence, and parallel investigations. Without clear objective standards, the proposed order places officers and supervisors in an untenable position where routine lawful police work could be construed as a violation, exposing the city and its employees to unnecessary legal and operational risk. Now, I'm aware that this proposed order is a reaction to the immigration and customs enforcement operations.

I sent to the City Council back in January of 2025 a community newsletter where I outlined our role, which is guided absolutely by Lund versus the Commonwealth, which Councilor McDonald recently mentioned. That is the only thing that we really need to have here in this city. That dictates everything a local municipality can do in Massachusetts when it comes to immigration enforcement. And what I put in that letter, every word of it, is still true today. Nothing has changed. At the same time, it's critical for me to be clear. The Malden Police Department does not enforce federal immigration law, will not enforce federal immigration law. and will not divert local resources for civil immigration enforcement. Our office's role is to uphold state laws and regulations, departmental policy, protect constitutional rights

and ensure that all community members, regardless of immigration status, feel safe reporting crimes, seeking assistance and engaging with law enforcement. I remain committed to this department maintaining communications with federal agencies, regardless of existing contracts or agreements, to the extent required by law and operational necessity. And only when such communication directly serves legitimate public safety purposes for this community. This allows us to safeguard the rights of all of our community members, preserve the trust between the police and the public, and continue to fill our sworn duty to protect the City of Malden. In closing, as the Chief of Police being charged with the responsibility of our community's safety, I respectfully ask the Council not to support this unenforceable proposed order. In my opinion, it does not make the city of Malden any safer. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. I think as we have more discussion, I'm sure there may be questions. If you wouldn't mind, if we call you back up, I appreciate it. I'm going to go to Councilor Winslow as the co-sponsor, and then I do have a number of lights. I'm going to take everybody in order. Councilor Winslow, you have the floor.

Chief, thank you for your very direct statement and we definitely need to look at that memo or whatever and that's why Councilor McDonald and I really do want to make sure we pause and think about this carefully. I mean, we know we have a Thank you. It's a challenge when the leadership of the federal government is directing things that are difficult. And that's really when we talk about think about Malden and 250 years ago what we face as a community and having

then our government sending troops into nearby cities and towns, shooting our neighbors. That's really why we came up and spoke in support of the instructions. So I just want to read a little bit. So 250 years ago, just coming up in May, this is what Malden residents said about what was happening then. They spoke out against a king who undertook a frantic policy of administration and sent troops and warships intended to us into submission and erect a system of despotism in America. and called for their representatives to establish an American Republic since they would never be willingly subject to any other king. And since Councilor MacDonald and I introduced this,

Events in Minneapolis have even become more horrific. Really, the public execution of Alex Pretty, an ICU nurse helping our veterans just working, being present to document these things. So that's really, we're facing some of the same dilemma Maldonians faced 250 years ago and I say even my family was in Massachusetts down in Marshfield and they faced that same dilemma, being torn both ways. It's not easy and so we, That's really one basis. We have to be concerned because despotism can move stealthily and it's a disrespect for law and order.

and it's an authoritarianism really means as we had a king, we back in 250 years ago said we will stand up to the authority of an individual who's not respecting our lives, liberty, and property. And we have to be ready as a community if that's what continues to happen. And the Minneapolis massacre that happened this Saturday and before, was just like we had the Boston Massacre a few years before our revolution. So we have to be aware of that. This is difficult times, but I do appreciate that our nation has come 250 years developed a very complicated set of law and federal superiority. But we, as a local government, 250 years ago faced that.

We fought for rights to speak up to not have troops in our homes and invading our homes and that type of thing. So just as ICE is making unwarranted searches. So we have to be ready as a community. to talk about that. And over the past 250 years, we have welcomed people of many different faiths, cultures, and ethnicities. And they established homes, businesses, and places of worship here. and that served as the foundation for nurturing the success of future generations that make up a diverse and thriving Malden we know today. And as the case has been, Many Malden families are multigenerational with heads of household, older and younger relatives who may be citizens by birth or naturalization, permanent non-residents and others seeking or hoping to become residents. happened to come across our 1939 poll book, which listed every resident.

It's interesting that they listed not only voting people, but people who had come from other countries. you see the multi-generational families, the Condons were in there, the Shebellys. Our community has been for 250 years, a community where we have people born and natural born citizens as well as people coming from other countries. So to face a federal government that is working to break that is breaking Malden. We have to stand for the community we are. And then, you know, I have to appreciate the work of Councilor McDonald and the Chief and Maria Louise. We had, you know, all the work of our police task force and looking at our use of force policy.

And I came to respect so much what our Malden police do in terms of keeping this diverse community safe. And I tell people that the police department is a shining example of how to make a community as diverse and complicated as Malden be safe and work for everybody. and we have to stand as a community in the face of what's going on in the nation to say Malden is the example of what we want to follow and what our police are doing is the model that the ICE should be doing. I'm sure Chief and all you officers who saw that video from Minneapolis, that was nothing that would ever happen by a Malden police officer. That is the pitiful thing that we face.

and whatever we do, we don't want that happening in here and we don't want to put you in that tough situation of seeing people with badges doing something that's against everything you stand for. So we stand with you and we will work with you. And that really, the observation, experience, research, and community input that establishes those policies and practices of the police. and that developed that trust between municipal officials and our communities and focuses our limited resources on safety for and free movement of our diverse mix of population who live Work, Study, Shop, and Worship here. That's what we need to stand for and we need to work together on. So that's really what I thought of when Councilor McDonald really approached me

on this and I think that's something we do have to, this statement should be about sending the message to our residents and out to people just like we did at a state and federal level that the direction that the state and federal level need to be going is the way we've been doing this for the past 250 years and not the way it's been happening this past year and month or whatever. So that's really what I'm here for. And I do appreciate everything the police do and we do want to work that way. But let's make sure we make that statement the same way Malden stood up 250 years ago that we oppose frantic policies of administration that are arbitrary and are not in the best interests of our community and the life, liberty, and property that is important to build a strong community. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Winslow. I'm going to next go to Councilor Taylor.

Thank you. So I had originally put my light on for a friendly amendment because I appreciate all the work that went into this and all the work that our police have done and I know the mayor recently signed on to the amicus brief and also issued a statement and I think it's important that We as a city, all the leaders with the police, with what they've been doing, their policies, the procedures that they follow with what the mayor has signed on to that we do stand in solidarity together and say something together. but I did think it was important to really narrow it down and specify that as more of a statement of support for the community and for abiding by the procedures, as I said, that are already in place and being followed to kind of bring that together. So if this is going to a committee,

I guess originally I was going to do a friendly amendment. But if we're sending this to committee, I'm also fine with that. So maybe I'll wait and hear what other folks have to say. But I would like it to be a strong statement of solidarity, all of us. together, working together, because I feel that is going to make the biggest impact for our residents and neighbors. Thank you, Councillor Taylor.

Next, I have Councillor Simonelli.

Thank you, Madam President. Well, I would just like to Recommend that I'll make a motion to put this into the Public Safety Committee. I think that's where it belongs at this point. I think there's a lot. that we have to hash out here from what the Chief was saying, from the people that were calling in, stating. I think people right now are generally nervous and scared in society today, the way things are going. And I think it's a paper that we're all gonna have to work on collaboratively. Just finding out tonight that the mayor's office was involved in one part of this and other entities were part of others. I think that's why it's important for us as a council that's why we have these subcommittees so we can put these things into those if you want to vote it up now up and down now that's fine but I think that I think there's a lot more questions that need to be asked.

For instance, what's the police department doing now? We might know some of the things that they're doing. Some of us up here might know more than others. but the public don't know what they're doing, whether it's cooperating or not cooperating with ICE until we can start having some of these public meetings and public forums that the citizens can come and they can weigh in on it too. Flat voting on it up here I don't think is a good idea because people don't get to speak their piece from the chairs out here in the audience. They don't get to speak their piece. So I think by putting it into subcommittee, it's a public forum. They can come in. They can see what's going on. They can see some of the things that the police department are doing and aren't doing. the things that the police administration along with the current mayoral administration are working on too that we're not privy to at the moment. So that's why I just don't think it would be fair to vote this thing out tonight as it stands.

I think we're better off. So I think that my recommendation would be making a motion to move it into Public Safety Committee. Thank you.

Okay. So I want to continue discussion, but we do have that motion. I will note Public Safety... is chaired by Councilor Condon, but we do have both sponsors on that committee. Councilors McDonald and Winslow are both on that committee, so if there's openness to that, that might be...

I think public safety probably is maybe the appropriate thing. That might make sense. Okay.

I just think there's a lot more you've got to hash out.

The elderly statementship of Mr. Condon will be appreciated. And the input from Councillor Sica and Councillor Simonelli will be appreciated.

So I'm going to go next to Councillor O'Malley in the queue.

So I want to start by saying that I appreciate the difficult task that Malden Police have. and I also believe that that task is being made so much more difficult by the actions of untrained ICE agents who are making our nation and our community less safe. I know that our chief and the department have done a lot of groundwork to improve the relationship between law enforcement and the community and to see these amateurs undo and tear down so much effort is really a shame. I approach this as a descendant of immigrants who need not apply, who came without papers,

and I truly believe that history will view what is happening in Minnesota the way we remember the Boston Massacre. It's that big a deal for people. and our public safety officials, whether it's the police, our DAs like Mary and Ryan, our Attorney General Andrea Campbell, we all need to remember our oaths. And I remember my oath and I want to make sure that if a surge comes to Boston, there is no second Boston Massacre. We cannot have that.

I'm a student of history, and our founding fathers relied heavily and were influenced by John Locke, who wrote of Republican government in his second treatise in 1897. 89, that men or people being, as has been said, by nature free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of his estate and subject to the political power of another without his own consent. The only way whereby one divests himself of his natural liberty and puts on the bonds of civil society is by agreeing with other men or people to join and unite in a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceful living one amongst another in a secure enjoyment of their properties, and a greater security against any that are not of it.

Government gets its power from the people. It's not the other way around. So with that said, I agree with the sentiments that have been said tonight that this order resolution needs work. It needs diligence. It needs engagement. I think that work needs to be done in committee with calm talking and engagement. I'm not a fan of being performative even though others might not agree. and I agree that Public Safety would be the committee to put it in. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor O'Malley.

Councillor Colón Hayes. Thank you very much. I'm not going to say much because my colleagues have said a lot of what I was going to talk about, but this is obviously a timely matter. And we've all been scared and hurt and we've all heard back from our community members. and so I really appreciate my colleagues for bringing something forward so that we could at least start with it. But I did have some questions on it myself, so I'm glad to hear it's probably going to be forwarded, referred to a committee. I did try and, reach out to the chief because I did have questions about how this is worded. So thank you for coming here. That was very detailed. And thank you for that, for all you do here. I also reached out to our local nonprofits. I sent them the wording and asked for feedback. Nonprofits who work on the ground with immigrant populations, they wanted to see some more details.

without belaboring that, I'm glad it's going to be referred out for further talk, but I don't want to undermine how terrible of a position that we're in now, and that Malden being 40% of us are foreign born, where majority minority community we've all heard, I'm sure my colleagues have heard, I take calls on a daily basis it feels like lately about families who are scared, they didn't know where else to go, I know I'm working with Lucy, so are my colleagues, and we're trying to do things on the down low. I think that our community and our neighbors really, this is where we're all stepping up, and I'm sure you've all heard there's been community members that are doing amazing things. So we are doing something while we work on this. So that makes me feel good.

But wherever this gets referred to, I'm looking forward to a deeper conversation. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilor Colón Hayes. Councilor Condon.

Thank you very much, Madam President. Now I know why you made me Chairman of Public Safety. You don't like me, do you? Jesus. Okay. It was well written on both sides. I'm not going to paint everybody with one brush. Okay, I'm sure there's some good officers on the ice team. And until they come into the city, I'm not gonna make up my mind either. I'm really not. There's no reason why I should. I mean, my crime rate in Ward 2 and Ward 3, it's tremendous.

and I had a pretty smart guy one time tell me the strength of our community is the diversity we have and that's what keeps our crime rate down. and I know it'll stay down. So I'm a good listener though. I'm a very good listener. So there'll be people that bring up things that I want it here, and there'll be people that bring up things I don't want it here. You gotta look at what we have here as a community. I really don't see the people of Malden acting the way the people of Minnesota act. I'm sorry, I refuse to believe that. I lived here 76 years as a boy in Edgeworth.

and I'm still a boy in Edgeworth, but there's a lot to consider here. And those partnerships that we have, and I'm well aware of them, We can't do without. There's great, great accountability between all those organizations with the city of Malden. So we'll see what happens. Remember, Peg Crows was chairman.

She resigned.

Thank you, Councilor Condon. Thank you. Councilor McDonald, I see you have a hand raised. If you can unmute, you have the floor.

Yeah, thank you so much. Really appreciate all the conversation here and look forward to discussing different approaches in committee. I just wanted to clarify based on the chief's comments that There really is not an intent in this order, and I actually don't think it says this, but this would be a good example of what we need to clarify. It is not intended to stop any of the work that we do for criminal enforcement. Any of the good work that the Malden PD does, any of the investigations that are there, that's not really, that that isn't the intent and again that that's not how I would interpret it but I understand the need to clarify that so that's why I support sending it to committee but I just wanted to note in all in the in some of the examples provided there um from the chief and I and I do appreciate you taking the time chief to come down and talk with us.

And I'd be happy to chat with you by phone more about this to see if we can figure out how to say what I don't actually think we're that far apart. in a lot of these things. I think we just got to figure out how to say it clearly and not say things that we're not trying to say, which is the art of the writing. I take no great pride in, you know, I'm not married to any particular wording here. But I do just want to say clearly, especially for the folks who are watching this, that This is not an order that is about or intended to hamper our ability to do Criminal Investigations or enforce the law in the way that the Malden PD does and is charged to do and is our responsibility to do. and is all about those kinds of things that we mentioned here that Malden PD actually does not do, like enforcing civil immigration procedure. So thank you.

Thank you, Councilor McDonald. So we do have a motion on the floor seconded by Councilor Taylor. Okay, we are going to have to do a roll call. So let's go ahead and do that as soon as the Clerk is ready. This is a motion to refer to the Public Safety Committee for further Discussion.

Councilor Colón Hayes.

Okay, there's a request to read who's on the Public Safety Committee. Luckily, I had my committees printed out thanks to our Clerk tonight. Okay, so the Public Safety Committee is chaired by Councilor Condon, the Vice Chairs, Councilor McDonald, and the members is Councilor Sica, Simonelli, and Winslow. You're welcome.

President Linehan. That paper's been referred to public safety.

Okay, that is referred to public safety. So we are sadly not on page five. We are gonna go back in time. All the way back to the consent agenda. Rewind to the consent agenda. Thank you all for coming tonight. Okay. So, this evening's consent agenda consists of meeting minutes to be approved, one appointment to be placed on file, six petitions to be referred to the License Committee, three papers to be referred to Finance, and one communication to be placed on file. Does any councillor have a desire to remove anything from the consent agenda for the purpose of further discussion? I see Councillor Taylor.

Can we just remove out 5426?

Yes. I don't think we need further discussion or a vote to do that, so we'll remove. Thank you. Item 54-26. I saw another light. Who had had their light on? Same one? Okay. Okay. So we will take that up as a separate item. Seeing no other lights, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Okay, motion by Councilor Luong, seconded by Councilor Crowe, and we will do a roll call vote.

Taylor, Winslow, Council President Linehan. Yes. Okay, the consent agenda has been approved and we now will- So we'll take up 54-26. Thank you, paper 54-26 order. that $300,000 is appropriated from available water sewer enterprise fund retained earnings to fund a legal settlement between the City of Malden and Tufts Construction Incorporated.

Okay. So we have, I see our controller and our legal team here, if we have questions or discussion on this. Oh, I see Councilor O'Malley. You have the floor.

Thank you. So to quote Councilor Crowe, you know, I feel like this is cart before the horse to some degree, or maybe it's cart. After Horse, no, that's...

I guess that's your catchphrase now.

So, you know, it appears to me that our legal department, the three individuals sitting in the room tonight, have entered into a legally binding settlement agreement without having the settlement authority of the city council. This appears to be a significant ethical failing in my opinion. and it shows a lack of competence and integrity that is alarming to me. And I believe that their actions have put the city of Malden in significant legal peril. This is a contractually binding settlement agreement without settlement authority. And so I don't know where we're at, but I am very concerned with the direction of the legal department and the behavior of our attorneys. Thank you.

So I'm just gonna remind folks that this is, we're looking to refer this, correct, Finance. No. Or what do we need to do?

So it was on the consent agenda in order to be referred to Finance as most financial papers automatically are. but this paper was actually discussed with the full council. It might be a little repetitive to send it back into committee and I think the more efficient thing would be to discuss and approve it on the floor this evening.

Okay. Okay, Councilor Simonelli.

I got a point of information, if someone could give it to me. So, what I hate to see happen here tonight is, to have roll out what we went into executive session last week for.

Which we can't discuss on the floor.

Right, and when that somehow spill out, into this arena tonight and that we want to be very careful in moving forward in doing so. I'm not quite clear what the topic is tonight.

Yeah, I was trying to clarify and I got the procedure wrong, which I apologize. We do need to make a financial vote. That's what we're doing. Yes, Councilor Winslow.

Sorry, I'm just... Rule 42.01 says all orders for appropriation to be made by transfer or loan shall not be acted upon until the matter has been referred to and reported upon by the Finance Committee. So... Our own rules. So we'd have to have a motion to suspend the rules first. We were going to do it differently. I believe any financial paper has to go to finance committee first. Okay, thank you.

Unless you suspend tonight, right?

Unless you suspend our rule. Right. Are you, you're all... Yeah, I just want to make that clear. No, I appreciate that. I appreciate it.

Second.

Okay, Councilor O'Malley, did you want to speak? Okay, you can go ahead.

Yeah, I would urge that we do not suspend the rules. I urge that we refer this to the Finance Committee for further discussion. One of the reasons being is I think that if it quacks like a duck and it waddles like a duck, it's probably a duck. And we're attempting, or our legal department is attempting, to use our water and sewer enterprise funds that are meant to improve our water and sewer system, replace lead lines, to settle a defamation case. There are questions whether or not this violates state public finance laws. I think that we really need real legal opinions, not opinions that are being colored by political things. We need legal opinions. We need legal advice, not political advice. And I really would like to ensure that the Division of Local Services confirms that we can use

I think it's inappropriate and I really would like our finance committee to look into this and I would like to actually reach out to the Division of Local Services, the Inspector General if need be, to really make sure that what we're doing isn't getting us into more legal peril, because I do believe the legal settlement that was signed and agreed upon by the legal department has put us in more legal peril Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Councilor O'Malley. We do have a motion on the floor, and I do see some lights, I assume, to discuss the motion. Councilor Colón Hayes, okay, I'll take you next. And then I want to say for our legal and Financial Team, I will give you an opportunity to address the questions that have come up.

Okay, great. That was going to be one of my questions. Of course. So, I am not a lawyer, nor do I pretend to be one, but I do have some questions for the, and it has to do with transparency to the public. I understand that we went into executive session, so we can't talk about that, but I'm looking at this like as if I was a resident and going, What is that about? Usually when a paper gets referred to the finance committee, someone presents it, there's a sponsor, it's usually the mayor, we get some background before we vote. So my question is just, why don't we just, if we refer it to finance at some point, this is probably gonna be a question for legal, maybe we'll have more information that we can give the public. So again,

I don't want to get into legal matters, but I am having a problem just approving this without the public completely understanding it.

And I just wanted to reiterate also what the Clerk had said at the outset was that because we met in executive session and we received that background that we have essentially had that committee meeting or that discussion and that is the recommendation as to why we can, if we vote to do so, after having discussion and hearing from our legal and financial team that we could proceed to suspend our rules and take that vote on the floor because we've essentially had the discussion that would have otherwise taken place in committee.

Thank you. No, I totally understood. OK. OK. Restating it. I still have, because it was an executive session, my problem was just with the public knowing about it. That's all. I understand we know about it. It's about the public. So that's the question I have. So thank you.

Okay, thank you, Councilor Colón Hayes. Next, I have Councilor Condon.

Yes, I'd like to pose a question to our legal team. Are we under the gun here? to have this settled on it by a certain date.

Madam President, through you to the Councilor. My name is Mark Rumley. I'm Special Counsel in the City of Malden. It wasn't any final settlement agreement signed in court. In court a week ago this morning, this is Tuesday, so it was a week ago today, we went before both sides, plaintiff and defendant, went before the judge and reported that during the course of the days before, just three days before there were numerous discussions about settling this case. When that occurs, the court enters an order called an ISI order, which I have explained before. and that means you have 30 days to wrap things up. And it doesn't mean that it was finally settled last Tuesday morning because if it was, there'd be no need to be here. But we are here and we have 30 days so the answer to your question is The court needs to hear back no later than, I believe it's February 19th, which is 30 days from last Tuesday morning.

And that was the day the trial was supposed to begin. That was the day we were going to impanel. and we reported that we had a tentative meeting of the minds on the settlement of this matter. And this matter, which is public record, the complaint is public record, was not simply a defamation case, it was based upon contract and there was an allegation of defamation and it expanded as it goes on. So to characterize it simply as a defamation case is inaccurate to say the least.

Thank you.

If I might now. Yes. Mr. Rannigan, as far as, this is a jury trial, correct? That might not be Chuck's area of expertise.

It was scheduled for a jury. That's correct, Councilor.

Now, I've been up here long enough to see some of these things just go kind of wild. particularly with the jury. But did he work on this company? Did they work on pipes and water lines? and if they did, does that allow us to use the enterprise fund?

Yes, Councillor. So Tufts Construction was under several contracts with the City of Malden. There was dispute over some of the contracts that they were under, some of the contracts that they may have been under. all of those contracts were water sewer related. There were no contracts with Tufts Construction unrelated to water sewer. Hence the reason for the appropriation before the council tonight.

Chuck, can you just state your name and title for folks watching at home?

Sure. Charles Rannigan, city controller.

Thank you.

Okay, Charles. So you feel comfortable that we Because I personally feel anytime you can settle something like this over three fiscal years, three years to pay the money that we're resolving it at. and that puts us in decent shape as far as getting this off our back.

Correct. I do want to just reiterate the paper before the council tonight. is to appropriate $300,000 today, tomorrow, next week, whatever it might be. Whatever the future of that settlement is, is not what I'm here to talk about, is not what the council's voting on tonight. It's a one-time $300,000 appropriation from retained earnings from the Water Sewer Enterprise Fund, which is the equivalent McDonald's favorite term, free cash and the general fund. And it's just, it's simply reserves, right? It's how many, how much reserves does the city have in its general fund, in the water sewer enterprise fund, and the other enterprise fund that the council votes on every year is cable access. If you remember a few weeks ago, a month ago, The council voted to appropriate $50,000 of retained earnings from the cable access fund. So that's all this is. It's just water sewer reserves.

Okay, I think we can come up with... reasons to possibly delay resolving this, but I think it would be foolish on this council's part to do that because we only got 20 days to get this thing through the committee and get it before the council, suspend rules, and vote one way or the other. I'm not asking anybody to vote a certain way. However, I think we know what's going on here a little bit with the legal department. they seem to be very satisfied with, and Mark has a tremendous amount of experience on this stuff.

So, I mean, we're not lawyers, so. I look forward to getting this thing out on time. Thank you, Charles.

Thank you, Councilor Condon. Councilor McDonald, I see you've had your hand raised. You can unmute if you're able to.

Thank you, Council President. Honestly, I think I could go either way about this in terms of voting it on the floor tonight. I do feel like we've had discussion, or if we want to send it to the Finance Committee, we can have a discussion about this. The thing I just want to point out is that the Finance Committee can come back with a recommendation on the appropriation, but it just feels like there are a lot of legal questions, legal strategy questions, legal authority questions hanging in the air. that we're not gonna be able to resolve. And so I just want to, one, make sure we're not referring this to the finance committee to address legal issues that we really aren't equipped to do. And if that's where this ends up going, like we can't adjudicate that. So I just wanna make sure that expectations are clear if we revert to committee and if those are other questions that they get resolved in the right venue because we're not gonna be able to go down that kind of, Winslow. Winslow. Thank you, Councilor McDonald.

Thank you, Councilor McDonald. Councilor Winslow.

Councilor Winslow.

Yeah.

I do, you know, I appreciate Councilor O'Malley's raising issue of just making sure that, you know, This, you know, the water and sewer enterprise fund is an appropriate place to draw these funds from. And if there's a state guidance on that, I don't know if that in executive session we really particularly addressed that type of issue. So I'm sort of reluctant to suspend the rules. I mean, we have enough time to get an answer from that and then come back to vote on it. So I'm sort of, I actually having, I am an attorney, been an attorney working for the government and you have those situations where you negotiate with another attorney and you have this is subject to decision by your client.

The other thing, being a government attorney, it's not always clear who has authority in the government agency to make that decision. So that's kind of what we wrestle with. But I think essentially what has been made clear to the council is that this 30-day NESE agreement is sort of that type of thing where our attorneys, I mean, I think we've had this discussion that it's clear that The reason why we have a city solicitor in its office is to handle the legal disputes of the city and make resolution of those. So I think it's within the authority. And I think that my belief is that the Solicitor's Office is following the appropriate procedures and working with the Mayor's Office and the Council to resolve this in a reasonable and transparent manner and I think we heard and Executive Session, what the legal and strategic basis for that was.

So I'm confident in what the council is, but having, I don't want to, approve an appropriation that would not, you know, if there is, I guess, Chuck, I guess I would maybe just ask the question of Chuck. Is there, you know, I know like in terms of, you know, we have all these public records requests, there's, there are agencies that sort of help guide municipalities on certain decisions of under state law. So what is, you know, Local Services Division. Is that where you turn for guidance on what you can spend money for? And is this a question that's been asked? Would you reach out for them for guidance or that type of thing?

Yeah, Councilor, that's a great question. I was just about to walk over to Mark Rumley I've reached out to the Department of Revenue Division of Local Services on several occasions to ask for, I don't want to say legal advice, but financial advice from a legal standpoint. And 100% of the time, their answer to me was reach out to your city solicitor. Get an opinion from your city solicitor and that is what they 100% of the time recommend to Malden, and every other, all the other 351 cities and towns.

So they don't have like a, you know, like often there's opinions about, you know, from the Secretary of State's office about public records and or, you know, or

Contract, so they don't have that kind of... No, so I think the problem is this example, it's so specific, there would be no general, you know, like a drop-down on an FAQ as to the City of Malden versus Tufts Construction. This is so specific. that there wouldn't be just a standard yes or no.

So they have guidance, though, that you might typically look in terms of what you can. I know there's specific guidance we can't. Pay someone for something that hasn't been delivered. So that's sort of there's...

So that's a state law. So again, that would come back to legal advice where they would say reach out to your city solicitor. You know, if someone developed a good relationship with someone, they might give you legal advice, but more often than not, they would simply say reach out to your local city solicitors.

So I guess I'd ask the Solicitor's Office, is it your advice that the city could make this appropriation? Or is that something you need to take more time and we should take to the Finance Committee. So I guess that's the question I have. That would be the only thing I'm really looking for the Finance Committee to consider, not suspending the rules, so yeah.

Good evening, Alicia McNeil, City Solicitor for Malden. Yes, Councilor Winslow, I did check with the Controller's Office regarding the Water and Sewer Fund. and it is my understanding that that is the fund that we would use to pay for this type of litigation settlement.

So you're saying you referred to Chuck, or did you, I'm just saying is that, so it's your legal opinion that we can spend water and sewer enterprise funds on this particular settlement?

Yes, it is. After I did consult with, are controller, and it is my legal opinion that this is where the funds would be legally come from.

All right. Thank you very much. You're welcome. All right. That answers my question.

Okay, and I just want to reiterate that both our solicitor and controller reiterated the same opinion to me when we were docketing this as well. I would appreciate also just Circling back to Councilor O'Malley's question though, I don't know, maybe this is for both of you. The question about whether this affects capital projects and lead lines I think is one that we're all gonna get follow up from the public on. The legality of whether we can use this money and whether it's taking away from other things I think is two different things I wanna be really clear on.

Sure, great question. The paper before the Council tonight is unappropriated money within the Water Sewer Enterprise Fund. So every year a Water Sewer Enterprise budget is presented to the Council. The $300,000 before the Council tonight is unappropriated, unspoken for. So it was not allocated towards lead lines. It was not allocated towards water main replacement. The current balance as of July 1, 2025, of retained earnings in the Water Sewer Enterprise Fund was $963,000, I believe. So the request before you tonight is to appropriate $300,000 of that $963,000, which is unspoken for. So in absolutely no way is it taking away from any work today.

not to say that a year from now, two years from now, we couldn't appropriate that $300,000 for something else, but as of today, this day in January, whatever the date is. No, it's not spoken for to do any capital projects.

Okay. And if we did want to take this to the Finance Committee and come back, we would be looking at, was it February 10th? February 10th. Is that in relation to the February 19th deadline. Is that workable or is that really cutting it too close?

Well, as I've stated on this case before, the settlement was tentative. So there are other elements to it that are non-monetary. They deal with procedures before the court. We're trying to wrap all of those up before the 19th, and it would be nice to have the payment of $300,000 ready when we're ready to sign a final settlement agreement. There are various elements to that that are being talked about right now but are not finalized. So it would be nice to have the payment aspect of this resolved as quickly as possible so that we can resolve the rest of that. I can assure you. that those matters which are procedural and have to be set forth in writing which are non-monetary, no one's going to be signing those until that check is ready. I want to have that done simultaneously. Here are the documents. Here's the check. Here's the pen. And then the case gets resolved.

So if we cut it too close, then we're going to have to go back to court and explain what happened and how come the matter isn't finally settled. And if that occurs, and I'm just speaking hypothetically now, If that occurs, then the other side, their attorneys can try to ask the court to ascribe attorney's fees for them on top of any settlement because of the delay in this matter. and that's not a very prudent way to conduct business. So the answer to your question is two weeks from now I believe is still before the 19th, but it does make things difficult in order to finalize this tentative settlement.

I'm going to continue taking questions from the council. Councillor Colón Hayes. Thank you.

Sorry, Charles, can you please step back up? So I'm having a hard time. voting for this, not because of legal issues. I understood that fully in executive session and I understand what's going on here. With the, appropriation from the lead pipe funding. Why didn't we use free cash so none of this lead pipe conversation could be brought up? One of the things I'm thinking about now is I understand it's not appropriate right now. Down the road, we want to continue to replace our lead pipes. Is this going to make it so that we are having less lead pipes because we've already taken money from it? So what was the difference between free cash and the enterprise that they were taking out?

So the paper before the council tonight, as I said earlier, the reason that we decided to use the water sewer enterprise fund retain earnings was because the contract and the The current contracts and the potential future contracts with Tufts Construction were 100% related to water and sewer. So the reserves, the retained earnings in the water sewer enterprise fund were chosen for that. legally, could we use the general fund reserves to pay that? Sure. On the reverse side, legally, we couldn't use the water sewer enterprise fund to pay for a non-water sewer expense. Got it. So, I mean, to answer your question, yes, we could use general fund reserves to pay for it. But that was not the scope of the projects that we were under contract with. It was water sewer related. and that's why the recommendation was to use retained earnings.

Okay and that's because it could leave us with more free cash for other products you know that I understand what you just said there so that's why you're using It's helping us, like, reserve our food.

It's maintaining its identity, right? So the intent was water sewer. So that's all it's doing. It's maintaining the identity of the, you know, the purpose.

Okay. Thank you so much. So I'm not... are you going to vote yes on this? I'm having an issue with transparency to the public about this funding, which usually happens in finance. So I'm sure it'll pass, but that's just Let everybody know. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Colón Hayes. Councillor Simonelli.

Thanks. Thank you, Madam Chair. Can this money be carried over at all, the money, the $300,000? If we didn't use it for a settlement, would that money be able to be carried over? Even though it's not mock money now for specific projects, but if we did have one, let's say one of us councillors, Pipe Burst in the middle of the street, that little street all over that comes out to like $300,000. So we'd have less because we're using it for that, right? Would you be able to carry it over if you didn't have to use it, I guess, is my question.

Correct, yeah. So the water sewer retained earnings, the general fund free cash, every June 30th, the fiscal year closes out. We do our year-end books. We submit that to the Department of Revenue, and they certify on an annual basis, normally in October, gives us a couple of months to close out the books. They certified the new fiscal year's free cash and or retained earnings appropriation. So anything unspent this year carries over into next year.

Okay. So this is untapped money that potentially... Any one of us Councilors can use for a project in their district.

Only after an appropriation.

Only after an appropriation.

All right.

Yeah, I guess that's my answer. Thank you. Uh-oh. No, it's good.

I'm good. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Councilor Simonelli. O'Malley for the second time.

So I just want to put it out there that when Councilor Winslow asked our city solicitor what she did to determine what her legal opinion was, She didn't seek any legal advice. She instead went to a non-attorney and asked the non-attorney what his legal opinion was. That's what I heard. I think that is not appropriate. I don't think that's a real legal opinion. I think it's your gut feeling, but I don't think it's based in the law. And I guess the question I would ask, the hypothetical I would ask, is if a member of our water department took a copper water pipe and decided to murder someone while on the job. Would we be able to settle the murder case with water and sewer enterprise funds?

I'm not going to answer that hypothetical because I don't know. There's a lot of things that I would have to evaluate for. to answer that hypothetical, that's number one. But going back to your comment, I did not talk to our controller to seek legal advice. I consulted with our controller to determine whether or not we could use that fund for this particular settlement because that was the type of fund that was involved with the contract. So for you to say that I said that I checked with the Comptroller seeking legal advice, no, I did not seek with the Comptroller. I did not speak with the Comptroller to seek legal advice, and I'm not sure why I would seek another opinion from another attorney if I've done my own research on whether or not we could use this fund.

And what was that research?

The research was talking with attorneys in my office doing some legal research on Lexis, talking and doing other research.

Yeah, I mean, I don't see the connection. My understanding is that an open session Our legal department was heard conferring with the opposing counsel about recharacterizing, making sure that the settlement was not characterized as a settlement for the defamation suit, even though that is what the bulk of the claims are. My understanding is that there's a small portion of the claim related to whether or not some of the material removed was ledge versus just urban infill and that claim was maybe around $100,000 or something around that like. But the bulk, the vast majority of the claim, the millions of dollars of claim was related to a incident that happened months later that is characterized by the plaintiffs as defamation. I think it does not pass the smell test.

I'm very disappointed in the legal department that you provide this type of advice that puts us in legal peril. The question I would ask is, what happens if we do not accept this settlement? What happens if we do not decide to fund this? I've read the last sentence of the judge's order that Barring unusual circumstances beyond the controls of the parties, however, this case will not be returned to the active trial list, failing the timely filing of an agreement for judgment or stipulation of dismissal, the parties are free to enforce their settlement agreement either in this court by way of motion during the Nisi period or a separately filed action for breach of contract. So the judge is characterizing this as though there's a binding contract.

Councillor O'Malley.

What happens if we do not pass this?

Councillor O'Malley, I'm not sure where you're getting your evidence or your and so forth. So I think it's important to get information rather from in terms of how much of the the dispute was related to defamation and how much was related not only to Trench versus Rock, how much was related to other contracts. I'm not sure where you're getting your information from, but that is incorrect what you're stating.

What was incorrect about it?

Because you're saying that the vast majority of it was related to defamation.

My understanding is that the claim was, based on what was publicly available, that there was a bad reference that then caused this contractor to lose contracts in other communities. Okay. That was the bulk of the claim, my understanding. Is that not correct?

That is incorrect. I'm not sure how. So based on your reading of a complaint, you could determine what monetary value was associated with the defamation versus the contract part of it? Is that what you're saying? Based on reading a complaint?

My understanding.

Is that based on reading a complaint?

A very small portion was related to this dirt thing, and the bulk of it was lost contracts. That's my understanding. Your understanding comes from reading the complaint? My understanding comes from many different places.

Okay. I'm gonna let Attorney Lumley answer your question.

Excuse me, defamation is mentioned in the complaint When a case goes on in trial, there are many different things that unfold. Not only was the basis of the original complaint both contract and defamation, but as time went on through the first trial and into the second trial, judges were making particular rulings or reserving particular rulings. One of the elements of this case which makes this far away from defamation was the allegation of the plaintiffs, and you'll find this in Judge Pena's omnibus order, where he reserves judgment on whether or not The actions of the city of Malden to terminate the contract, not defamation, but to terminate the contract led to a number of other contracts that the plaintiff couldn't get.

There were 13 of them just up to the time, in between the time period after Malden terminated the contract, which was in September of a particular year. I think it was 23. It was terminated by Kate Fallon. and then afterwards they had 13 contracts that they couldn't get. None of those contracts had anything to do with defamation. And if you added up the bulk of those 13 contracts and the opportunities that the plaintiff couldn't get, that added up to $19 million. Now, if a jury came back and even said that they could have three or four of those contracts and not the 13, even that would have led to a judgment against the city of applying all the percentages there a judgment against the city of multiple million dollars and then you apply, and this is part of the analysis that trial lawyers do, then you apply the interest which would have gone back to 2021

and even if they only got four, the judge, the jury would give them just four of those 13 contracts, the judgment against the city would be millions of dollars, millions of dollars alone. Thus we came to the agreement that we came to just in order to take that risk and to try to make it into a real number. I don't want to wax poetic, but in Willy Wonka, there's an expression where it says, never doubt what no one can be sure of. And so we don't doubt what a jury could come back on, but I assure you this, This jury would have come back in a place which was, in my estimation, much higher than the agreed settlement. It's reasonable, it's prudent, and it serves the taxpayers of this community.

My question was what happens if we do not approve this? You didn't answer my question.

You didn't ask me a question.

It sounds like you were deferred to by the city solicitor. What happens if we do not approve this is what my question was.

Well, again, we'd have to see what happens. But if I was on the other side and this wasn't approved at some juncture, I would come back against the city and say, We had a tentative deal and they just totally and completely ignored it and I'd ask for attorneys fees. At very least that would happen and at very most the judge might say, you know, that did happen and there could be other sanctions and there may be by some judge the ability to enforce a judgment against the city. I don't know exactly what would happen because I don't have that crystal ball. But I do know something would happen, and what would happen would not be good for the city of Malden. That's what would happen.

Which brings me back to my cart before the horse. How can you enter into a contractual settlement agreement without getting the approval of the City Council? Yes, you may. It was inappropriate. This vote should have happened first. We should have known about this beforehand. As we know, this shouldn't even have been in a second trial. So I just say, I think it makes no sense to rush into this. I think we need to get our ducks in a row. Make sure what we are doing is legally allowed and that we're getting good advice. Thank you.

May I, Madam President? Yes, you may. Just briefly. The knowledge of this council about this case really goes back to the executive session that we had after the first trial. So there was knowledge of this case, certainly. But what I want to address is this. The question really comes down to is how do negotiations unfold? and, in this case, the negotiations on settlement happened in the three or four days prior to this trial. That's when they got heated up. We had had a certain point where we said, it looks like it's not going to settle. and on the Saturday before the Tuesday, all of a sudden the plaintiff called and said, can we talk? And so there was a series of conversations that happened after about 3 o'clock on Saturday right through Monday on Martin Luther King Day. They went all the way through. I don't know the number of calls there were, but there were a lot of them, and we were all involved in the discussion. and we discussed this with the mayor's office and the mayor, talked to the mayor that Saturday night and Sunday and Monday, who is the chief executive officer.

Now ask yourself, what if I said to myself, well, let's go to the council first. You would have had about 15 or 16 phone calls, and we would have tried to reach a consensus among the entire council at that point. Doesn't make any sense in terms of negotiation. the executive powers and the mayor. So he said, that's the tentative deal, let's just see how it goes. So we told you about it as soon as we could. That night on the day of the trial, the mayor as the chief executive was able to go through parameters and shape the possible tentative agreement and now we come to the council. Why? Because the first payment on this tentative agreement is $300,000 and you are the appropriating body. It's really quite elementary, and that's why we're here. So to try to characterize it as some type of backdoor deal, some type of illegal process coming forward does not do you a service.

You are being asked to do what you are called to do under the charter, which is to appropriate money. and so that's where we are. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilor McDonald, you've been very patient. You can unmute your mic.

I just wanted to call the previous question.

Winslow, do you have a question on that? I'm so sorry, I keep flicking your mic.

One more question for Controller Ranigan. It's come up related to being able to fund lead pipe removal. We as a council voted for an MWRI zero interest loan that basically covers that anyway, right? So we have a sort of almost a... and an equity loan that we can tap when and if we need. So we have the financial resources to do that.

Absolutely. So for lead pipes, the council has voted year over year over the last, I don't know, four or five years to appropriate three quarters of a million dollars in the enterprise fund for lead pipe removal. the MWRA 0% loan. We have a federal earmark that Catherine Clark secured for us. So there's multiple funding sources. We have been over the last five years ultra aggressive in doing that, more than doubling the DEP mandate. So by no means is the replacement of lead lines going to be slowed down by a $300,000 appropriation.

Right, because I thought we just, within the past year, we voted specifically on a paper that the MWA started a zero interest loan program. So that's what I remember. All right, thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Okay, I've lost track of the motion on the floor. Who made that?

We've got a motion by Councilor Condon, seconded by Councilor Simonelli to suspend. McDonald,

Yes?

Councilor O'Malley? No. Councilor Simonelli? Yes. Councilor Taylor? Yes. Councilor Winslow? Yes. Councilor President Linehan? Yes. Okay, so the rules have been suspended.

What was the vote to suspend the rules? That was eight to two. Okay, eight to two to suspend the rules. Okay, do we have a motion? Okay. Clarifying question for Councillor O'Malley.

I just wanted to clarify, suspending rules is two-thirds or three-fourths?

It's two-thirds.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Councillor O'Malley. So a motion by Councillor Condon, seconded by Councilor Simonelli, to... This would be to approve the order.

Approve the order. Councilor Colón Hayes.

No.

Councilor Condon. Yes. Crowe, Lawong, McDonald, O'Malley, Simonelli, Taylor, Winslow, Council President Linehan. Yes. So again, that was an eight to two. The order has been approved.

Eight to two, the order is adopted. Okay. Thank you, everyone. We are still on page three. and we didn't do the consent agenda itself, did we? Or did we get through that? We did. We did, okay.

We did approve the consent agenda and we're moving on now to paper 56-26. Council reappointment, Lisa Cagno.

Oh, I don't think we did 55. Did we do the planning board?

I'm sorry. Paper 55 was part of the consent agenda.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

It's been placed on file. Okay. Thank you. reappointment, Lisa Cagnall, 31 Quincy Street, as Clerk of Committee, said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and to expire on January 31st, 2028.

Okay, on a motion by Councillor Crowe, seconded by Councillor Simonelli to approve, we will call the roll.

Councillor Colón Hayes? Yes. Councillor Condon? Crowe, Lawong, McDonald, O'Malley, Simonelli, Taylor, Winslow. Council President Linehan. Yes. So that is confirmed. Okay. Unanimously. Okay. Okay. Paper 57-26. Mayoral reappointment Angie Lau of 35 Mount Vernon Street, Boston as a member of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board. Said term to commence upon confirmation by the council and to expire on January 31st, 2028.

Crowe for the appointment.

It has been, you know, our sort of practice for reappointments, Bay Oral reappointments, that we actually approve them on the floor. I did hear, I'm open to debate in someone's public comment, because they're not Malden residents. And so I do want to explain that two of the people that are on the Affordable Housing Trust are not Malden residents. but that is because they have an expertise in affordable housing and housing development. So when we have boards and commissions, we can kind of go outside the mall for specific things. I want to make a motion that we approve the next mayoral reappointments.

And I'd actually like to speak to this one as well because I am the appointee to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board. I think with with Brian and Angie, you know, when you're putting together a slate of appointees to a board like that where you require specific expertise, it's important to obviously to get the mix of expertise that's needed. But in Angie's case, she's executive director of of a community development corporation that is serving and building in Malden right now. We don't have a CDC exclusively based in Malden. They're building two properties right now. have been lucky that Angie has served. And again, Brian comes from the financing world. These are seats that I think if at any point there was a Malden resident that filled a similar role, There's no reason why we couldn't have a Malden resident, but at the moment, this is two highly qualified folks who are serving roles that directly serve the community and are actively building affordable housing projects in the city right now.

So it is a question that I get a lot. as someone who's on the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board. And Roxanne, as a resident, contributes in a really deep manner. So I would look for every second.

Very eloquently explained.

Yeah, well, I feel strongly about it because it's a board that's doing good work and I don't want their expertise to be disparaged either. And who seconded that? My apologies. Councilor Simonelli?

Yep, I have Crowe and Simonelli to confirm. Paper 57, which is Angie.

Okay. Can we read them all?

I was going to ask because it sounded like you said you wanted to make a motion for multiple papers. Okay. That would be great. So let me read them all. Paper 58-26, Mayoral Reappointment of Roxanne Redington Wilde of 35 Bancroft Road, Malden, as a member of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board, said term to commence. upon confirmation by the City Council and to expire on January 31st, 2028, Paper 59-26, Mayoral Reappointment, Brian Slater of 195 Beach Avenue, Melrose, as a member of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board. said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and to expire on January 31st, 2028. So this is Crowe and Simmo on all of them.

I was going to say we have to do a roll call for all of these, right? One roll call for all three.

Councilor Colón Hayes.

I'm sorry, did you have your light on? Did you have a question? I'm so sorry. No, you know what? It's not a question and I am gonna vote yes. I just feel like I wanted to give a shout out to Roxanne. We've talked to a couple of other folks, but Roxanne, Reddington-Wild is phenomenal. And she does so much work here for housing. And she does live in Malden. So I figured since Brian and Angie were mentioned, I'm going to give a throw out. But go ahead with the vote. Thank you.

Okay, so you said yes to all three of the appointments. Councilor Condon? Yes. Councilor Crowe? Yes. Councilor LeWong? Yes. Councilor McDonald?

Yes.

Councilor O'Malley is not in the room. Councilor Simonelli? Yes. Councilor Taylor? Yes. Winslow, Council President Linehan. Yes. Okay, so all three of those have been reconfirmed. Paper 60-26, order that the City Council opt the City of Malden into early in-person early voting for the 2026 Special Municipal Election and to designate the City Clerk's Office 215 Pleasant Street, Room 220 as the central early voting location during the regular City Hall business hours from Monday, March 16th through Thursday, March 26th.

Okay, any discussion on this or be looking for a motion to adopt? Okay, so moved by Councilor Taylor, seconded by Winslow, we will call the roll.

Councilor Colón Hayes? Yes. Councilor Condon? Yes. Councilor Luong? Yes. Councilor McDonald?

Yes.

Councilor Simonelli?

Oh, my God. We might need to take a recess after this. Councilor Taylor?

Yes. Councilor Winslow? Yes. Councilor O'Malley? Paper 60-26, opting into early voting for the special municipal election. Thank you, sir. Council President Linehan. Yes. Okay, so that paper, that order has been adopted. Paper 61-26, order that the City Council designate the following locations as polling places for the entirety of the 2026 election cycle. And our normal polling locations are explained in the body of this paper. Nothing has changed from last year.

Okay. Any discussion on this, or do we have a motion to adopt? Motion. Okay. Motion by Councilor Winslow, seconded by Councilor Luong. We'll call the roll.

Council Colón Hayes. Yes. Council Condon. Yes. Luong, MacDonald, O'Malley, Simonelli, Taylor, Winslow, Linehan. That order has been adopted. Unanimously, Paper 62-26 order that the City detail a minimum of one officer for each polling building to be determined by the Chief of Police and the City Clerk or their respective designees.

Okay, any discussion, questions? Do I have a motion? Motion by Councilor Taylor, seconded by Councilor LeWong. We'll call the roll.

Councilor Colón Hayes. Yes. Councilor Condon. Yes. Councilor Crowe. Luong, McDonald, O'Malley, Simonelli, Taylor, Winslow. Council President Linehan. Yes. Okay, that order has been adopted.

Thank you. I'm going to call a five-minute recess to give people just a quick break. Okay. I'm dropping like flies here.

Yeah.

I need some water too.

Colleagues, can I just note your microphones are on?

That's all.

will come to order. Next order of business.

Paper 73-26. The council will address the open meeting law complaint filed by Bruce Friedman of 8 Marvin Street on January 21st, 2026. against the City Council related to the emergency meeting of January 20th, 2026, which was posted under the provisions of MGL Chapter 30A, Section 20B.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. At this time, I'll invite our legal team to address the council. Oh, helps if I put on your podium mic, doesn't it? Thank you so much.

Hi, good evening. So here's to me, Assistant City Solicitor. So I think you guys know the routine when an open meeting law complaint is made to a public body, which is you, you guys will first put it on your agenda and then decide how you want to respond. Very often in the past you have referred it to the city solicitor's office to respond and we will be happy to do that for you. and I think I've explained to you before, I always try to do an investigation into the complaint. I try to even reach out to the complainant to see if they have any facts substantiating the complaint. Occasionally I hear from them, oftentimes I don't, but I always like to give them the opportunity. I oftentimes will, if I feel the need to, speak to every one of the city councillors. and anyone else who might have knowledge substantiating the complaint.

And I'm sure I will do a thorough investigation in this one like I do in all of them. And I actually wanted to ask the Chair if you could allow me to request from the complainant more information to substantiate the complaint. That does a couple of things. helps the investigation, but it also gives us a little more time to respond under the rules of the Attorney General's regulations under the opening meeting law. So I may not need the time, but it's always nice to have it. just in case. And given how serious some of these allegations are with fraud and lies and whatnot, I'm sure we want to do a thorough investigation so we can tar and feather those who are responsible.

So I would ask the chair if you could just delegate to me the authority to request more time from the complainant if you refer it to our office.

Okay, understood. Any questions from my colleagues? Bless you. Councilor O'Malley. Whoops, hang on. OK, you have the floor.

Yeah, I just want to go on the record for your report that I do not believe that there was an emergency. I think I said similarly last week when I objected to us going into executive session. And as we know, we were not asked to take any action in executive session. so there was no reason to go into executive session. We could have had executive session today when the legal department could have asked us to vote to approve the settlement that they entered into. there was no reason to do it on an emergency basis last week. It could have been done today. And if it was done today, prior to them entering into an agreement without our approval, it would have allowed us to do the due diligence that we had a right to do as a city council. So yeah, I do not believe that. It was an emergency and I think it was an open meeting law violation.

So that would be my statement that I'd ask that you forward to the Attorney General. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor O'Malley. Any further questions, discussion, or motion to refer to the legal department?

Okay.

So we have a motion by Councilor Crowe to refer to the legal department with authority from the chair to ask for an extension.

Yep. Councilor Colón Hayes. Yes. Councilor Condon. Yes. Councilor Crowe. Yes. Councilor LeWong. Yes. Councilor McDonald.

Yes.

Councilor O'Malley. Councilor Taylor, Councilor Winslow, Council President Linehan.

Yes.

Okay, so that matter has been referred.

Okay, and the vote on that was, how many are we left with now? That was an 8-1 vote. 8-1 vote. That was referred. Okay, thank you. Next order of business.

Paper number 74-26, Committee Report. The Standing Committee on License to whom was referred, Papers 2-15 and 27-29. Series of 2026, having considered the same, make the following report. Committee recommends these petitions out favorably to the full council.

Okay, on a motion by Councilor Condon, seconded by Councilor Colón Hayes to accept the committee report, we'll call the roll.

Councilor Colón Hayes? Yes. Councilor Condon? Yes. Councilor Crowe? Yes. Councilor Wong? Yes. Councilor McDonald?

Yes.

Councilor O'Malley. Yes. Councilor Taylor. Yes. Councilor Winslow. Yes. Council President Linehan.

Yes. Okay. Councilor Condon for the committee. Well, I'm sorry, do you want to read all of them? What do you want to...

My recommendation would be I will read them all into the record. Council Condon can offer his comments and then maybe we just vote them as a whole.

Okay, that sounds fine. Okay, so. You'd like that?

Is that okay? Okay. 2-26 Petition. Amusement Machines, Flaming Grill & Buffet, 52 Broadway, Three Machines Renewal, Paper 3-26, Class 2, Auto Bazaar Corporation, 17 Charles Street, 12 Cars Renewal, Paper 4-26. Class 2, Quality Auto, Sales Incorporated, 856 Eastern Avenue, 5 Cars Renewal. Paper 5-26, Class 2, O'Ganos, Towing Service Incorporated, 1081 Fellsway, 17, Cars Renewal. Paper 6-26, Class 2, O'Ganos, Towing Service Incorporated, 1176 Eastern Avenue, 10, Cars Renewal. Paper 7-26, Livery Company, Melange, Transportation Incorporated, 27 Garland Avenue, one vehicle new. Paper 8-26, Livery Drive, Emanuel, Belonga, 27 Garland Avenue, new. Paper 9-26, Livery Company, Boston Glide Transportation, 65 Lebanon Street, one vehicle, new.

Paper 10-26, Livery Driver, Mauricio A. Vasquez, 6511 On Street, Malden, New. Paper 11-26, Livery Company, Brandon Limo and VIP Transport and Multiservices, LLC, 661 Main Street, Apartment 29, One Vehicle New, Paper 12-26, Livery Driver, Pierre B. Jean, What would you say? Coutet. Coutet, 661 Main Street, Apartment 29, New. Paper 13-26, Livery Company, HPL Group, LLC, 500 Broadway, Apartment 4139, One Vehicle. This is an existing license that is adding a vehicle to it. Paper 14-26, livery driver, Ali Yassin, 3 Parkway Court, Apartment 10, Chelsea, new. Paper 15-26 Taxi Driver, Anthony J. Wood, 156 Franklin Street, Malden, New. Paper 27-26, Livery Company.

Zingzai Tea Service, LLC, 15 Burge, Place 1 Vehicle Renewal, Paper 28-26, Livery Driver, Xizheng Lang, Lang, 134 North Street, Lexington, Renewal, Paper 29-26, Class 2, Nix Farm, Car Center, 121 Beach Street, Four Cars, Renewal. Okay.

Councilor Condon for the committee.

Thank you, Madam President. As always, our compliance people know all these people that are applying for the licenses. And if they inspect, go down there, and they had no problems with any of these licenses, so I would move that we grant them.

Okay, on a motion by Councilor Condon, seconded by Councilor Colón Hayes, we will call the roll.

Councilor Colón Hayes. Yes. Councilor Condon.

Yes.

Councilor Crowe. Yes. Councilor Wong. Yes. Councilor McDonald. Yes.

Yes.

Councilor O'Malley, Councilor Taylor, Councilor Winslow, Council President Linehan. Yes. Those are unanimously granted. Okay. Next order of business. Paper 75-26, Committee Report, the Standing Committee on Public Property, to whom was referred Papers 16 through 20, Series of 2026, having considered the same, make the following report. Committee recommends these orders out favorably to the full City Council. to sell all five properties listed pending judgment.

Okay. On a motion by Councillor Luong, seconded by Councillor McDonald to accept the committee report, we'll call the roll.

Councillor Colón Hayes. Yes. Condon, Crowe, Luong, McDonald, O'Malley, Taylor, Winslow, President Linehan. Yes. Okay, the report has been received.

Okay, so we're doing all five properties. Do we need to vote them separately? Do we want to read them and then vote them together? How do we want to do this?

Let me read them all in two, and then we can receive your committee report from the chair of public property, and then you can decide if you want to make a motion to vote them all at once.

That sounds good. Okay.

Okay, thank you. So the first paper is 16-26 order. The Council will vote on whether to sell or retain the property known as 141 Pierce Street, Unit 14 by City Assessor's Parcel Identification Number 091-773-304-14 I'm sorry, 302-14 as in accordance with tax title litigation and foreclosure action with the Massachusetts Land Court case number 24TL000380, paper 17-26, order. The City Council will vote whether to sell or retain the property known as 19 Murray Hill Park and by City Assessors Postal Identification Number 027103315 as in accordance with tax title litigation and foreclosure action with the Massachusetts Land Court case number 24 TL000371.

Paper 18-26, the Council will vote on whether to sell or retain the property known as 109 West Street and by City Assessor's Postal Identification Number 034194411 as in accordance with tax title litigation in foreclosure action with the Massachusetts Land Court case number 22 TL000342, paper 19-26, the council will vote. on whether to sell or retain the property known as 157 Columbia Street and by city assessor's parcel identification number 137-800-003. as in accordance with tax title litigation and foreclosure action with the Massachusetts Land Court case number 22 TL 000329. Paper 20-26, the council will vote on whether to sell or retain

the property known as 195 Beltran Street and by the city assessor's parcel identification number 008063302 as in accordance with tax title litigation and foreclosure action with the Massachusetts Land Court case number 13 TL 147156. Okay, thank you to our Clerk.

Councilor Luong for the committee.

Yes, thank you. Sorry. Thanks. Yes, so we had Treasurer. Yes, please.

Thank you, Dan Grover, Treasurer.

I just wanted to add One piece of information related to paper 16-26. It was specifically asked by Councilor McDonald in our committee meeting to see if we could reach out to 141 Pierce Street, the resident there with housing families because it was At that time, our current knowledge that there was a tenant living there. We have come to find that that person actually had moved out in December. The owner is occupying that property. We were able to get in touch with them. You know, they asked what they could do. We told them that they could pay. They may be looking to get a loan to take care of this, but I just wanted to make sure that I address the fact that we were specifically asked to reach out to the tenant. They are no longer there.

Okay, thank you for that. Thank you. So we've gone into, during the meeting we went into, our treasurer went into detail about everything from the start of a taking of a property all the way to the taking of a property. And it was the consensus of the committee to refer these to be sold.

Okay, so you have a motion to recommend that the city sell all of these. Do you wanna take them? How many do we have? One, two, three, four, five. Would you like us to vote on them all together? Yes. Okay, so we have a motion to vote to sell These five properties, seconded by Councillor Colón Hayes, we will call the roll.

Councillor Colón Hayes. Yes. Councillor Condon. Yes. Councillor Crowe. Yes. Councillor LeJuan. Yes. Councillor McDonald.

Yes.

Councilor O'Malley. Yes. Councilor Taylor. Yes. Councilor Winslow. Yes. Council President Linehan.

Yes.

Okay, so that passes, all of those orders pass unanimously to sell the properties.

Okay, thank you. Next order of business. is your dog is personal privilege. Does anybody have personal privilege tonight? Councilor Winslow?

Yeah, no, I just want to thank the Department of Bubble Works, our parking department and police and fire. for all their work during the snow emergency. This is a big storm. The first time, I mean, I've been an award counselor for, you know, this is my fifth year now. This is the first big storm like this. So it's a lot there. I appreciate that. The patience of neighbors and the assistance a lot of neighbors did with each other of helping shoveling here, snow blowing there. There's still a lot of snow out there, both on city streets and sidewalks. Do get out there. The 24 hours is ticking now to get your sidewalk shoveled, so please get out there. You have until tomorrow to do that. And hopefully our businesses are doing it right now. They have a shorter time frame. and if you do for residents, do reach out to your counselors but also put C-Click fixes in.

There's literally scores or more of complaints or issues that come up so get them in the queue. You know, talking about them on social media does not necessarily bring them attention to counselors or our public works department. The way you do that is see, click, fix. But always happy to, as a ward counselor, to follow up as well. You know, and also just, you know, we are going through a transition for our public works director, a little awkward timing. So, you know, but I think, you know, Paul Myers, our interim director, was the operations director, so very familiar. I mean, actually, I'm pretty pleased the fact that we haven't had to do this much snow removal. And all in all, the streets in Ward 6 were relatively clear, not perfect. but that's usually what happens after a snowstorm.

It takes a few days to make sure every street gets cleared out and with so many, you know, I think we do have to work a little bit harder on having people park on the right side of the street. I know there's a few streets in my ward that people did not. And those are the streets that are in worse shape. So it takes the cooperation of residents really make sure that at least we can get one path cleared and eventually get the streets better cleared. But we're working on it and just keep in touch with DPW through, you know, See, Click, Fix and your counselor and it will get done. And heck, we might have to go all do it again this weekend, so. And then just another announcement. something to look forward to in February.

We are going to do the second annual Very Vinyl Valentine's celebration for the Maplewood Association that helps raise money for spring flowers in Maplewood Square. and around Ward 6. So that's happening on Sunday, February 15th from 5 to 7.30 at Patrick's in Maplewood Square. So I'll host some refreshments. Bring your either new or old vinyl. You can play a record and make a donation to do that. And it's all kind of fun. It's not going to interfere with your couples night on the 14th, so we pushed it back a day so you can go out on your own. But this is open. You don't have to feel you have to just come out and have fun. All you have to do is love music and have some vinyl. That's all we're asking for. It's not any other pressure than that.

So thank you. Love it. Okay. Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Councilor O'Malley.

I just want to thank the DPW workers and Bob Knox for their efforts. The fact that this storm happened for so long and there was two bands of it really made it difficult. They were up all night and they had to get back up and do it again. with very little sleep. So I do appreciate all the hard work. They have to drive around very carefully so that they don't cause any damage with the plows. It's very difficult to do this job, and I just appreciate their work. I do want to congratulate Bob Knox for his new opportunity in Everett, also known as South Malden. Our communities are tied together and it's great that someone like Bob who's from Malden and has really taken care of our community for so long is able to go to a community like Everett. I'd like to wish everyone a confusing Groundhog's Day. I don't know what you wish people on Groundhog's Day. So I figured it's kind of a confusing holiday.

I don't remember if the rodent is supposed to see the shadow or not see the shadow, but yeah, so there's that. Lastly, I appreciate my colleagues up here and I would say that whether it's on the national level where an executive tries to take on more power than they're normally allotted, from the legislative branch specifically or locally here. I do think important decisions like settling lawsuits should be vetted by more than one person. and I do believe that at least while I've been on the council, the city council has always been brought up to speed on these things and has been asked to take a vote to settle a case. I think having a number of people involved to vet that provides accountability.

And the question you have to ask yourself is not is Mayor Christensen going to make the right decision, but is the next mayor going to make the right decision or the mayor after that? As we've seen on the national level, you know, concentrating power in the executive can go off the rails. So I appreciate y'all listening to me tonight. I know I can come across as pedantic, but it does come from a good point that or a meaningful point that I truly feel is in the best interest of our community. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor O'Malley. Councilor Condon.

This was a tough storm for the DPW to start with. And they did a pretty good job opening the streets. Now, if we're going to get hit this weekend, I hope that they concentrate. Some of the streets, the side streets in particular, can only get one car down. So hopefully they can try to widen these streets. for the weekend, otherwise it's gonna be a nightmare if we get any kind of snow. So please try to widen the streets a little bit. Thank you.

Yep, I agree. Thank you, Councilor Condon. Councilor Colón Hayes.

Thank you, and thank you to all the ward councillors that were taking probably tremendous amounts of calls. I talked to my Ward 3 Councilor, Council President, and I was like, thank you for being you. So I did get some, but nowhere near what you all got. So I'm going to be saying this probably every week until we get there, but we are holding our Juneteenth Music Bingo. So for those of you who have ever been there, it is so super fun. It's held on February 27th, which is Black History Month, and that is intentional. as we're raising money. This helps us raise money so that we can continue the Juneteenth celebration that we do with losing funds and all. This is more important now than ever. So there is an event I'll invite you all. I'll also send it to Lisa to forward. But it's at the Irish American, 630 to 9.

and it is $30 which is cheap for five cards. You win prizes and there's some food there. And honestly, it really is a community building with super great music. So I hope you all buy at least a ticket maybe a table, thank you.

That sounds awesome. Okay, seeing no other lights, do I have a motion to adjourn? Okay, motion by Councilor O'Malley, seconded by Councilor Condon, and we will call the roll.

President Linehan. Yes. Okay, we are adjourned. It is 10.08.

Thank you, everyone.

You know, my mother-in-law loved it, and it's totally not her normal cup of tea, and I was really glad. Well it was so funny because Mark, so they had invited Mark to be on the selection.