Malden City Council 11-25-25

Test.

& Co.

Why is my camera not on? There we go. Okay, Chris, are you there? I can see you logged in. Can you hear me?

It doesn't look from here like he's muted.

Can I see that?

Yeah, are you logged in? Is that you, CS, Chris? Turn your camera on. And then also, can you?

We're going to do a loud mic.

It says you're just, oh, hang on, we're gonna allow, we're gonna hit allow camera and allow mic.

So now he can unmute.

Now unmute your microphone.

Okay.

And now turn on your camera. I can turn on your camera.

Oh, we're good. Thanks, you got me? Can you hear me?

Chris, can you hear me?

I heard you echo so they can hear you. You just can't hear them. Can you hear us?

Oh I wasn't talking into the microphone. Can you hear us?

It's good on our end. Yeah, microphone's working.

We just can't hear them. Looks like he's trying to talk to us and he can't. Hey, just let me know. I'll call you in a few. No, I don't think I'm going to call in. Hey. Hey.

I can see.

I just can't hear you.

I can't hear you, but you cannot hear us, so IT's here in the room with us trying to figure it out.

Okay. What's for me?

Yeah, you're coming through now. Could we be having a problem with what we had last week when Michael directed to the wrong speaker?

He's going in the back room. Let me hang up and see if we can figure this out. I'll shoot you a text message.

Hey y'all!

Terrible if you can't handle them. Yeah, tell them to hire me. I'll fucking be their tech person. Oh, I get paid big money, too. Hope they're having us, too. Right there. I should probably show them. It's fucking rude as fuck. I'll show you right there.

Hello, can you hear me?

Can you hear us?

I can hear you, yeah.

So you can hear us fine?

Yep.

Baxter, if you can hear us coming through the council chamber, would you unmute and please respond to us? Don't you know Baxter? Baxter can't hear us either.

Well, who knows if he's at his desktop.

Oh my God, why won't this thing stop?

Okay. So you came through fine. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if he has his sound muted. I don't know. It might be, it's gotta be on his end.

Oh, hang on, we gotta allow mic and allow camera. Okay, so Baxter, we just turned your, Microphone privileges on from the council chamber. If you can hear us, can you please respond, please?

Me either.

I think verified means they're an outlook person. They're an outlook. They're in the system. Hello? Yeah. Can you hear me talking to you through the microphone? That's what's going on. We're trying to figure out why we can't.

Hear you. His mic is muted right now.

Okay, I'm not telling him that. We're trying to do the best we can. Chris, hang on. We need to focus on what we're doing so that we can start the meeting in three minutes. I'm doing my best, buddy.

It's probably just added in.

There's somebody else on line beside you, somebody named Baxter. We've asked him if he can hear us to please try speaking. And he can't hear us either, so.

Well, we don't know if he's there.

Well, but it's not totally on our end because we just had somebody log in from a different computer at a different place in the building and it did work. So internally, it seems to be working. I don't know why we can't get you hooked in. Baxter's not in the building. I don't actually know who Baxter is. Right, but we did that, Chris, you understand we just did that as an experiment just to see if it worked. We had him log in from a different computer in the building just to see if it worked. It was just experimental. He's not actually watching the movie. What do we do now?

It appears to be working.

But it's not. Baxter can't hear us.

We don't know. Try somebody else. We don't know if they're even watching.

But we don't let the public talk, so it's like not. Right, but we're trying to get somebody just to respond. Oh, I see what you mean. Maybe if we elevated Chris to a presenter,

I don't know if it's a template issue.

Chris, Chris, I just made you a presenter, and I'm hoping that that means that you aren't just somebody that's lucky to watch, you're actually getting the privileges of taking part in the meeting. So, can you go back to your laptop and unmute and try to talk to me again, please, as a presenter?

Thank you.

I'm going to hang up just so that you can hear me. Okay, Chris, can you hear us now?

I can hear you wonderfully. I didn't put this on. Oh, I see. Okay, that worked.

I can hear you now.

Are you good? Perfect.

Okay, but I'm having, but why does he sound like that? You gotta talk directly into your microphone, Chris, so we can hear you.

Okay. Try it again. Caroline, can you hear me now?

Are we all good? Because I can hear you.

Yeah, we're good here.

Okay, hang tight. We're going to start the meeting in a few minutes.

As always, thank you, Carolyn. Thank you. Thanks, Anthony. Thank you.

Good to have a good tech guy around.

This happened to me on other city meetings where the Affordable Housing Trust, if they don't invite me as a presenter, I can't talk when I'm home. Thank you for watching!

Okay, the council will come to order. All rise and salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, invisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of our veteran service members and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. We will now have our land acknowledgement. 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. Thank you. The clerk will now call the roll.

Colón Hayes, Condon, Crowe, McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli. I'm gonna need you to unmute when you speak to us tonight, Councilor Simonelli. He's online with us.

I'm here. I'm here. I'm here.

Spadafora, Taylor, Winslow, Linehan, here. So we are all in attendance and because Councilor Simonelli is coming in video all votes tonight will be taken by roll call.

Yes, thank you for reminding us of that. OK, 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 meeting. So just to be aware, there will be audio and video recordings of tonight's meeting. First order of business. Oh, yep. Sorry, one second. Oh, hang on. I'm missing a mouse here. One moment. Yes, Councilor O'Malley.

I move to suspend rule 54.02 so that Councillor Simonelli can participate. That is the rule that limits attendees online to three per year. So I'd just like to move to suspend that rule.

So just for clarity, are you stating that he has exceeded his third meeting?

I just want out of abundance of caution.

I don't think that's necessary because the state has extended the COVID laws saying that things like this will be extended for another year. So that kind of supersedes our council rulebook as far as attendance goes.

OK, understood. So what the clerk is saying that the state's COVID, the extension to the COVID rules is actually above and beyond our council rules. I also did check. I'm not of the impression that he's exceeded his third meeting. I don't want to get into Councillor Simonelli's private business, but we are communicating with him if he needs to. continue to participate remotely, that would actually fall under an HR accommodation. So I don't I don't really want to discuss the particulars of his situation of why he's coming in remote at all.

That's not my intention.

OK, but I don't think we need to actually vote as a council on whether he's coming in remotely or whether he's allowed to do that or not. Understood. Okay. Thank you. So are you good? Okay. Okay. Next order of business.

On behalf of the Zonta Club of Malden, we have Maria Louise and Kathleen Manning-Hall to appear before the City Council to promote Zonta's 16 days of activism to end domestic violence. and to explain the silent witness display located in our lobby. Okay.

Welcome.

Yeah, you're on now. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for having us. Most of you are familiar with our organization. I know some Councilors are members. Council Linehan spoke at a fall conference a couple of weeks ago, and you've all supported us through the years and we appreciate it. Tonight, we hear as part of our 16 Days of Activism. I think most of you know that the Zonta Club of Malden is part of Zonta International, and our mission is to empower women and girls worldwide through service and advocacy. and this time of year, November 25th, that kicks off tonight to December 10th, we engage in 16 days of activism and we promote our Zonta Says No to Domestic Violence campaign. So we're here tonight to start that. We put out a display that's out in the lobby. They're called the silent witnesses. And we we usually kick it off.

kick off the 16 days with that display. Fortunately, public facilities allows us to do it here in the lobby. Each one of the silhouettes that you see represents an individual whose life was ended by domestic violence. and they are called silent witnesses because they can no longer speak for themselves. So we speak for them by telling their story. And on December 10th, we ask that you join us. We'll have a ceremony here in the lobby. to represent those that can't speak for themselves and that have died because of domestic violence during this past year here in Massachusetts. So that being said, we do want to invite everyone to stand with us as allies against this cause and bring domestic violence to the forefront during these 16 days. We've gone through the community.

We've visited the police department, the fire department. We're going to do the library soon. And here with City Hall. And we travel with our banner that says Zonta says no. And we'd like to do it with the city council this evening. We have many of our Zonta members here. So we invite you to join us in the fight.

Thank you so much. Do we have any questions or comments? Councilor Winslow.

Yes. What time on the 10th? 6.30. 6.30. Oh, great. Great. Thank you. But thank you for doing this so much. As someone who's families been affected by domestic violence really appreciate the attention of this hearing from women who had to and as well as anybody who's had to experience this before we had resources and a focus on this. Municipalities' reaction to domestic violence, that's just a family issue. something that has really changed in at least my lifetime, and it's made a tremendous difference for a lot of families. But we have to continue. Domestic violence continues, so it's important every year to remember. So I appreciate Santa doing this. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Any others?

Hang on. Councilor Taylor. Thank you so much. I just want to thank Maria for being here tonight. and for the rest of the Zonta Club members who are here to participate, I am proud to be a Zontian and thankful that so many people have signed on as allies against domestic violence. Thank you.

And I also want to mention that I'm here on behalf of Sharon Rose-Eyberg, who's head of our advocacy and service committee. She couldn't be here because of a family matter, but She's definitely the one that's been working to bring this campaign forward here in Malden.

Okay, well, did you want to take a recess now to take to do? We'd love that. Okay, fantastic. Well, then we will take a five minute recess and the council will reconvene shortly thereafter.

Holt.

Okay, our next order of business is public comment. Public comment is allowed under council rules. Each speaker is limited to subject matter relevant to this evening's agenda and everyone must keep their comments to two minutes or less. Clerk, do we have anybody signed up for public comment this evening?

We do not have anybody in person for public comment this evening, but we do have emails.

Okay, how many emails do we have tonight? Five, I think. Okay, so we have enough that we can read them?

We have enough that, yeah, we've got plenty of time. Okay, great. Let's go ahead and read those then. So the first one says, hello, I am a lifetime resident of Malden, which according to some council members makes me the enemy. I am writing to you in support of 455-25 to implement a hiring freeze. I also feel very strongly that any current position that was initially funded under the one time ARPA funding be reviewed. Regards, Maria Moreshi, 16 Springdale Street. The next one says, I just wanted to quickly state that I understand the idea behind the hiring freeze. However, I'm just confused why this is sponsored by Sica. It sounded like she was really upset that Jeff Donahue wasn't approved to join the vocational school board. which would have been a paid position and made him qualify for his pension from the city. Samantha LeBlanc, 30 Daniel Street. Dear Clerk and Council Members,

Let me first preface that I appreciate you and all of our city employees for your hard work and dedication to the city, whether we agree or disagree on issues. It's not easy being in the public sector with people coming at you from all directions and trying to keep everyone happy. We all know that is an impossible task. With that being said, I am writing to support resolution 455-25 hiring freeze sponsored by Councilor Sica. I urge the council to vote in favor of this resolution. I believe this would be a proactive first step in showing the residents of Malden that the city is working towards areas to help resolve the financial dilemma currently being faced. Additionally, I urge the council to not support a special election for a tax override until further measures and savings can be explored. Thank you for your consideration along with your commitment and dedication to Malden. Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful Thanksgiving. Sincerely, Janice Rice, Henry Street. Award seven.

I am writing in support of Jadine Sica's motion 455-25. The citizens of Malden, along with the citizens of the United States, are being squeezed already with tariff policies, making everything more expensive. Squeezed with corporations buying our property and then charging sky-high rents, squeezed by the horrendous bill which will cut subsidies from ACA pricing many out of the health insurance market. Maldonians do not need a Prop 2 1⁄2 override because the city cannot balance its budget. Sica seems to be the only one attempting to find alternatives that don't further squeeze Maldonians. This order should pass. Marjorie Welch, Lowell Street. Dear City Council, I am writing today in support of tonight's council agenda item, Resolve 45525. This resolution would be a good first step in the city addressing the upcoming predicted budget shortfall that may result in a Proposition 2 1⁄2 override vote.

I applaud Councilor Sica for putting this resolve on the agenda. Sincerely, James Sumner, 759 Highland Avenue, Malden. And that is all of them.

OK, thank you to our clerk. Our next order of business is the consent agenda. This evening's consent agenda consists of meeting minutes to be approved, one appointment to be placed on file, four petitions to be referred to the license committee, and one communication to be placed on file. Does any counselor have a desire to remove any of these items from the consent agenda for the purpose of further discussion. Okay, seeing none, we have a motion to approve by Councilor Sica. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, the Clerk will call the roll given Councilor Simonelli is joining us remotely.

To approve the consent agenda, Councilor Colón Hayes, Condon, Crowe, O'Malley, McDonald, Sica, Simonelli, Spadafora, Taylor, Winslow, Council President Linehan. Yes. Okay, that is an 11 to 0 vote. Okay, fantastic. Next order of business. Paper 454-25 Mayoral Reappointment Building Commissioner Nelson L. Miller, 235 Beach Avenue, Melrose as Director of Inspectional Services said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and to expire on December 19th, 2028.

Okay, so we'd be looking to refer this to personnel. Councilor Crowe, do you want to refer this paper?

We could do it on the floor, but I think having a good conversation with them can still invite them in.

OK, great. So on a motion by Councilor Crowe to refer this to the personnel committee. Did you want to approve it on the floor?

I think we should do it on the floor. Oh, I'm sorry. I misunderstood. and just to have that conversation. I think he answers everybody, but I think he's OK. Yeah.

So on a motion to approve on the floor. I'll second that. OK. Seconded by Councilor Sica, the clerk will call the roll.

Okay, to confirm the reappointment of Building Commissioner Miller. Councilor Colón Hayes. Yes. Councilor Condon.

Yes.

Councilor Crowe.

Yes.

Councilor McDonald. Yes. Councilor O'Malley. Yes. Councilor Sica. Yes. Councilor Simonelli.

Yes.

Councilor Spadafora. Yes. Councilor Taylor. Yes. Councilor Winslow. Yes. Council President Linehan. Yes. So that appointment has been confirmed by an 11 to 0 vote. Okay, thank you. Next order of business. Paper 455-25, resolve that it is the sense of the Malden City Council that the City of Malden impose an immediate hiring freeze on all new vacant or soon to be vacant positions across all City of Malden departments, boards, and commissions. No position shall be posted or filled unless expressly approved by vote of the City Council. This hiring freeze shall remain in effect until further order of the City Council. And may I just say, A snapshot of this I think was getting circulated to the city as an order but the agenda was revised and this is actually a resolve.

Yes, thank you for mentioning that because I did want to point that out. I had a couple questions about that as well and the difference being that an order obviously orders a department to do something whereas a resolve is the sense of the City Council. Okay, thank you to our Clerk, Councilor Sica for the paper. Thank you, Council President.

Yes, I noticed it immediately as soon as it came out, and I called to change it from the order to the resolve. So I apologize for that. I think it was literally within 15 minutes of it going out that it was revised, but it somehow already had gotten out that way. So the paper pretty much speaks for itself. While we can't order the mayor to implement a hiring freeze and come before us for every single job opening, board, and commission, I think that we really need to take a look and set our priorities especially with the discussions about the prop two and a half that we've been having. We can't We have to show some sort of responsibility to the residents that we're doing everything possible to control the costs that we take. And we can't ask Malden taxpayers to pay more while we continue to add positions to the payroll without a full financial review. So I'm just hoping that everybody up here will support this.

I've seen this on Facebook, tons of residents. I'm pretty sure we've kind of already have a little bit of something going on. I don't think we've been told formally what that is, but I think that this will send a message up to the mayor. and everybody else that, you know, maybe it's only people that we need to have that we cannot absolutely live without at this moment should we be filling those positions. So I hope everybody supports this resolve. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Sica. OK, first in the queue, I have Councillor O'Malley. Councillor O'Malley, you have the floor.

Thank you, Councillor Sica. I appreciate you putting out these ideas. And one of the questions I had is you had stated that The City Council cannot order the Mayor, but I didn't interpret your paper as ordering the Mayor. I viewed it as ordering department heads, so why was the Mayor mentioned?

Sorry, one second. It would be all of them because they're not all under our control, Councilor O'Malley. All the department heads are not all under our control. So we can't order people that don't report to us to do things.

Yes, we can. We do it all the time.

So if we write and I don't think- Well, I'm not in the practice of ordering people that don't report to us. I'm not even in the practice of people that report to us ordering them what to do. I think that they're in their job for a reason because they're good at what they do. Good at what I do over here. So I'm just I don't. Go ahead, finish us.

Yes, I think that This is just my, I think in terms of the council's power, we're a co-equal branch of government. We often have confirmation approval. We just confirmed the appointment of our building commissioner. but whether it's accessory dwelling units and using a particular process or writing an ordinance that has to be executed in a certain way, the city council orders all of our department heads to do things. I see where you're coming from, but I do think that if we wanted to order any department head, the question would be whether or not they decide to comply. But we absolutely have the power. And if I remember correctly, it was Councilor Anderson that said the only individual that we cannot order in the city is the mayor. So I think you are correct. We do not have the power to order the mayor the same way the mayor doesn't have the power to order us. But thank you for putting your paper forward.

Thank you, Councillor O'Malley. Councillor McDonald.

Yeah, thank you. And I appreciate the, you know, the sentiment towards like, let's be constructive towards filling this budget gap that we know we have for folks who didn't tune into the finance committee meeting that was happening just before this. We did hear from the mayor that there is effectively a hiring freeze like this in place right now, which is to say that only positions that are specially approved by the mayor are able to be posted. And I think I mean, I support that. I think that that's correct. I would like to be able to support this paper, but I would need I I think I would need some amendments to it in order for that to happen. One is that I don't think that we should be in the position of the council approving specific appointments. Like, I just don't think that's viable, nor do I think it's our role to or excuse me, specific postings. So I have that concern, too.

I want to say that a number of our union contracts require timely posting of things. and so I don't know if we've done a review of whether this triggers any concerns from any of those contracts. So we could either try to make an exemption for that as required by law or by contract. or just be clear that it is as necessary or that are critical for the functioning of the city or something like that. And I think that the and I also just wanna ask why you've included all boards and commissions in the same thing as a staff person because I think board and commission appointments automatically come up for reappointment. Only a few of them are stipended and those that are stipended is like very small amounts of money and our boards and commissions meet very sporadically. They may or may not have the ability to deal with the vacancy.

So why the boards and commissions at the same time as all of the staff roles, which I think have a much more direct impact on the budget.

Sica, would you like to respond?

I can briefly really quickly. I don't mind making amendments. This is just a resolve. So it's really just us saying, you know, try to do better type of a thing. This isn't They do not have to follow this by the letter of the law. So if you want to make amendments to it, I am fine with that. There are some boards and commissions that have seats that are necessary and not necessary. I threw those in there thinking that even if it's $2,000, $3,000, money adds up and it would eliminate a potential position that we would lose. So I was just trying to think of everything. everybody not just particularly the employees but the boards and commissions as well. There are some boards and commissions that don't meet regularly. I know that we've had discussions or I've talked to

Chuck, and a few other people where they've been talking about potentially lowering some of those stipends. So that's just why I included the boards and commissions into that particular resolve. And again, it's just a resolve. It's not law-binding or anything like that. So that's just why I included them.

Would it be okay if we asked Maria Louise to come forward and just say, to ask if the administration has an opinion on this resolution or, and moreover, did I characterize what was said in the finance committee correctly? Like, do you understand there to be, A hiring freeze in place with exceptions from the mayor. How would you characterize the current policy?

I wouldn't call it a hiring freeze, but it's more of a pause each position that becomes vacant is we have to evaluate it, assess it, talk to the department heads. There are some positions that have to be filled. if we lost one of the directors in the next few days, that has to be filled. There are other vacancies that departments can't do without. So we take each I call it a pause. We take each one that comes and evaluate it before we move forward on it. Whereas before, vacancies were just filled. if there was a resignation or retirement, they would just felt.

But right now we think about it, whether there can be a restructuring, whether the position can be you know, reformatted. I'm you know, we we we just assess it in a different way. But I wouldn't call it a freeze.

Okay. Do you have any if we clarified If we clarified the mayor's authority in this, do you have concerns about this resolution, this resolve?

If it's a resolve, I don't think I do. It just gives the sense of the council. I think an order would have been different. Boards and commissions are concerning. Having that as part of it because those vacancies come up more often. So you want to make sure that your boards and commissions have a meeting quorum and are functioning efficiently. So that poses more of a problem. Okay, thank you.

Maria, can I ask a follow-up question to Councilor McDonald's question on the specificity of the resolve? Understanding it's just the sense of the council. If we condensed it quite a bit to just state something simpler such as it's the sense of the council that we you know support the administration implementing a discretionary hiring freeze or pause and just leave it as simple as that take out the boards and commissions something like that that way it's more were rowing in the same direction. The council and the administration are we support what you're already doing and we support that there has to be some discretion in this with something with an edit or an amendment along those lines. be something that would be not adversarial and capture a little bit of what you're saying? Yeah, that would be fine.

That would definitely not be looked at as adversarial at all. OK. Thank you.

Do you have further comments?

Just that I do think it's meaningful for the council to say something like this so that the administration knows that we're on the same page about that. So I do appreciate that and would support an amendment along the lines that you just asked about, Council President.

Okay. Councilor Sica, did you have something in response to what Maria was? Okay. Yeah, really quickly, and then I'd have a lot of lights on.

I am totally fine with those amendments, but I just want to go on record with stating that I did not know that we had any sort of a pause in place until after this was posted to the agenda and then I was told. So at least my paper started the conversation about that because me sitting up here as a sitting city councilor had no idea that we had that pause. already in place. So I'm happy to hear that it was already in place. And this is, again, just the resolve. If you want to remove the boards and commissions, I am totally fine with it. But I just want to make sure we're making sure the positions that need to be filled get filled and the ones that don't maybe we can hold off for now and look back at them when we figure out the whole prop two and a half override discussion. So thank you.

Understood. And I do see your hand, Councilor Simonelli. We will get to you in the queue in just a moment. I have next, Councilor Winslow.

Yeah, no, I know when the override first came up, one of the questions I raised was, is this something we're considering? So I appreciate Councilor Sica putting it forward and that the mayor I actually just have a very simple amendment to basically put a period after across all city departments and then just delete everything else. I don't think we have to overthink this. I think we're on the same page with them. Yeah, we'll just say, you know, We are with the census, Malden City Council, the city of Malden imposed an immediate hiring freeze on all new vacant or soon to be vacant positions across all the city of all city city of Malden departments, period. So yeah, so just something simple. and I do agree we don't want to take a chance of a Board of Commission losing members to the point where we don't have a quorum. I mean, if our planning board doesn't have a quorum, things might get automatically approved. So I think this is simple. It gets the spirit and and it is just a resolve. I was concerned about the last line because it talks about bordering. The other two lines talk about, you know,

It seemed to be a little bit more stiff in the tone of order. So I think it's just simple that way. And I just don't think we should spend a lot of time wordsmithing on something that's understood. So thank you. That's OK.

Thank you, Councillor Winslow. Councillor O'Malley.

I can defer to Councilor Simonelli because I've already spoken. Oh, you're right.

I'm sorry. You did already speak on this. So I will take Councilor Colón Hayes, and then can you help me get Councilor Simonelli if he's- I think he's prepared to speak.

All we have to do is just let him know it's his turn.

Okay, I'm going to take Councilor Colón Hayes first, and then Councilor Simonelli will take you next.

Okay, thank you. Okay. So I agree. I think it's a good idea to have, I'm not sure about the word freeze based on what Maria Louise was just saying here, maybe a pause, but we could use freeze. My only concern with this was about possible directors. Like if we lost for knock on wood, like something of the DPW director, I can't imagine that we could function without a director level. So, if you feel it's okay to just put a period after that. I would like to see something like, let me think, essential employees, could we say something that's, aside from essential or is that, would that?

I had offered the word discretionary to try to capture that. Oh, okay. That's why I had tried to say something that gives that leeway to, you know, the administration to make those case by case, I guess, determinations.

I would be fine with that. I just wanted to make sure that even though it is a resolve that we're understanding that there are certain positions that we can't run without, but I have no problem not hiring Yeah, putting a freeze on other things. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Colón Hayes. Councillor Simonelli, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President. Can you hear me okay?

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay, well, I have a point of information for us from earlier. So I just want to say that I appreciate everybody's concern on where my whereabouts are, but I'm not kidnapped. I'm actually in Laguna Beach, California, having a great time on vacation from that last Campaign over in Everett that we just got through with for like six months straight and doing the city council stuff and putting people in treatment. So I appreciate everybody's concern, but this is only my second time on Zoom. So I just want to make sure you all understand that. As far as this paper, thank you. So as far as this paper is concerned, I support the paper. And look, I think that Councilor Winslow said it. the best that we don't have to overthink it. I think the Mayor is in sync. His whole administration is in sync. We all know that we have a serious Deficit problem that we're trying to overcome. And, you know, look, we put a hiring freeze. I would take the boards and commissions out of there because I don't know if

if that's a charter issue that you'd end up having with that or not, it would be legal to decide that. But, you know, I think that just putting out a hiring freeze You know, addressing Councilor Hayes' concern of a department head. You know, we can always thaw out the freeze and put that person in that position because the funding is actually budgeted for that line item. So I support the paper. I think that we should take the boards and commissions out of it. And I think that everybody, unless you've been living under a rock lately, are concerned about the... The prop two and a half and where we're going to be in the next couple of years. So I think everybody got a pretty good handle on it and we're all trying to do the best that we can. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilor Simonelli. All right. I'm going to go back to Councilor O'Malley.

Thank you. Yeah, so when the paper was put on the agenda, the first conversation or email I sent was to our HR director, Odalisa Macedo. and you know I had just kind of asked can you get me caught up on like what's currently going on and you know to the same thing that was shared by the administration you know there is there is a pause going on and my understanding that there's really only one position that is currently still being actively sought after, and that's a public health role. So I think they are taking it with a good balance to make sure the things that are essential are still going to be filled. And so I did second Councillor Winslow's motion. And with that, if we are able to amend the paper, I would gladly be added as a sponsor. So then thank you, Councillor Sica, for starting this conversation at the council level. and I appreciate that the administration and our HR director has been working on this behind the scenes.

Thank you, Councillor O'Malley. Councillor McDonald.

Winslow, would you be open to a friendly amendment to your amendment to add the word discretionary, an immediate discretionary hiring freeze? Okay. Mostly, I just want to make sure that like, well, yes, it is a resolve, but you know, your average Maldonian who spends time to dig up legislative records can sometimes, you know, read more into things than we need. So I just think it's helpful to say what we mean. and I feel like that captures the spirit of where we're at. So I'm happy to support that. Thank you.

Okay. So we have a motion to amend by Councilor Winslow, seconded by Councilor O'Malley to essentially delete from the word no onward and then add the word discretionary before the word or after the word immediate. And I'm sorry, after the word. Tell me where you want it.

I think it's after City of Malden Departments. Got it. We're going to have a query there and delete the rest of the paragraph. Understood, understood. And then also put the word discretionary in between immediate hiring.

Got it. Okay. Does everybody understand what we're voting on? Okay, so on the motion to amend, the Clerk will call the roll.

Council of Colón Hayes, Council of Condon, Council Crowe, Council McDonald, Council O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Spadafora, Taylor, Winslow, Linehan, and I am also adding Councilor O'Malley's name as a co-sponsor to that paper. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, so we now need a motion on the resolve. Motion. Okay, so moved by Councilor Sica, seconded by Councilor O'Malley. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilor Colón Hayes. Yes. Councilor Condon. Yes. Councilor Crowe. McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Spadafora, Taylor, Winslow, President Linehan. Yes. Okay, that resolve has been passed. Okay. As amended.

That is passed as amended. Thank you to the clerk. Next order of business.

The next four papers are enrolled ordinances that just need to be ordained. The first is 275-25, be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the Code of the City of Malden 1.04.070 Procedure for Selling Tax Title Property is hereby amended by striking it in its entirety and inserting the following as is attached in the body of the paper.

Okay, Councilor Winslow for the paper.

Yeah, just to remind everybody, this is something that our Treasurer's Office put forward. because of some legal cases as well as some statutory changes when we take tax title property now we actually if the property is sold for more than the taxes do we have to create reserve funds and this also clarifies that in some situations we might want to purchase the property and keep it ourselves. otherwise what we want. So it's just to create that procedure on how we do tax title consistent with the law, both statute and as well as Supreme Court rulings. So we voted to enroll if this is just a vote to be ordained, so I make a motion to ordain the ordinance.

Okay, do I have a second on ordaining the ordinance? Second. Okay, seconded by Councilor Crowe, the Clerk will call the roll.

McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Spadafora, Taylor, Winslow, Council President Linehan. Yes. Okay, that paper has been ordained by an 11 to 0 vote. Okay, thank you. Next. Ordinance. Paper 276-25 be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the code of the City of Malden 9.16 rental units inspection required is hereby amended as is outlined in the body of the attached paper.

Okay, Councilor Winslow. Are you?

Yes. Okay, there we go. Yeah, I mean, we did vote to enroll this last time. This is a paper that Councilor McDonald was the lead sponsor on. We had talked about this in Rules and Ordinance, made various changes, and that has been reflected in the record now. So now it's just a matter of voting to ordain the paper as we voted to amend it.

Okay, Councilor McDonald, would you like to move to ordain? I would. Okay, on a motion by Councilor McDonald, seconded by Councilor Winslow? Okay, sounds great. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Winslow. Council President Linehan. Yes. OK, that paper has been ordained by an 11 to 0 vote. OK, great. Next paper. Paper 277-25. Be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the code of the City of Malden 9.24.010 Winslow again. Yeah, we did enroll this last time.

This was really to do something in parallel with the rental registry and just clarify that we're asking that as the rental registry was going to help do more inspections of rental units So this was to look to make sure that the lead any there's testing for lead in the water as part of that inspection. So this just updated a bit of our regulation of lead pipes to clarify how the process will work in terms of inspecting the water and asking that the owners get the water tested in conjunction with the inspection. So that's really the purpose of this. was sort of done in parallel, so Councilor McDonald has more to say, but yeah.

Do you have anything you want to add? Okay, sure.

Yeah, just a quick clarification that we have changed it slightly so that if you are certified by the Department of Engineering, that you don't have lead service lines coming into your property, then you don't have to do the testing. It's actually just about trying to make sure that we can confirm that you don't have the lines. And so just for folks, because that is different from what's been in the past. So all this is really doing is updating the enforcement of our existing ordinance to the rental registry regular inspections. the ordinance itself that rental units should not have lead lines is has been in place for years. And I think Councilor Spadafora might have was this part of that. Did you sponsor this at the same time as the Yeah, this is the same ordinance that also requires that you replace little lines at the point that you sell the property. So this is just, we are updating the enforcement mechanism for that existing ordinance. Understood.

Thanks for that clarification. Okay, so I make a motion to ordain this.

Okay, on a motion by Councillor Winslow, seconded by Councillor McDonald to ordain this, will the Clerk please call the roll?

Councillor Colón Hayes, Councillor Condon, Councillor Crowe. Yes. Councilor McDonald. Yes. Councilor O'Malley. Yes. Councilor Sica. Yes. Councilor Simonelli

Yes.

Councilor Spadafora. Yes. Councilor Taylor. Yes. Councilor Winslow. Yes. Councilor President Linehan. Yes. Okay, that paper has been ordained by an 11-0 vote.

Okay, and the final paper?

Paper 361-25, be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the Code of the City of Malden 2.24.015 Department Head Salary Schedule is hereby amended by adding the updated salary schedule chart effective July 1st, 2025. Okay, Councilor Winslow.

Yes, we did vote to amend the There was a schedule submitted to the council for three years of changes to the salary schedule for these positions. The committee recommended that we approved the first year and sort of put the other two years aside. We didn't vote those recommend one way or another. And so we did vote at the council meeting where this came up and was enrolled. we did vote to change the schedule for this fiscal year and then just we can wait till later to decide about approving the other changes to the schedule. So we're doing it step by step. So that's what we're voting on is to change the schedule for this fiscal year, starting July 1st, 2025. So our department heads would get this year's salary raises, right? Thank you, Greg.

Okay, thank you, Councilor Winslow. Any questions? Further discussion? Okay, on a motion by Councilor Winslow, seconded by Oh, oh, sorry, I didn't see. Okay, Councilor Simonelli, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President. So, I don't know, I'm just a little confused. We're going to give a raise to the popular heads. Look, I got nothing against the popular heads. I work with them all the time. But again, you know, we're going to be scheduling raises, giving raises, and we're looking for the taxpayers to pay more on their property taxes on a two and a half, potentially two and a half override, whatever, get it all chopped up and make it look nice. I just, you know, can someone explain that to me?

OK, Councilor Winslow or Councilor McDonald, I can take either or both of you.

I mean, I think we're just trying to make a fair balance. I mean, this schedule was negotiated way before the override was considered. We have done a lot of three-year contracts for a lot of our unions. The department head was sort of the last. So we're just trying to create a fair balance. The normal procedure would have been just to approve the MOA for three years. given the override, the thought was let's create a balance here that we have the money budgeted this fiscal year in hand. And we are already spending kind of a deficit. So the thought is, and you know, This is what the paper is. We can't ordain this or not, but we try to strike a balance between respecting, you know, something that's fairly bargained and versus our financial situation. So I think that's you know, that was why we voted to do it sort of a

a piece at a time so that we will know in June when we know whether an override has been put on the ballot, voted on. We'll know what our financial situation is there and we'll take it up there. We were trying to just create a fair balance between a fairly negotiated agreement and the budget situation that came up after that agreement was signed. Thank you.

OK, thank you, Councillor Winslow, Councillor McDonald. Yeah, thank you. I'll just hone in on the fact that there is no finance paper that is attached to this paper because we already budgeted for this. This doesn't change any of the future fiscal years because the we didn't recommend any of those changes. And the prop two and a half override conversation is about next fiscal year. So we're just dealing with the year that we've already budgeted and we already had the money to spend. is how I think about it. And to Councilor Winslow's point, if we don't do this, what it does is force the it would force the mayor to reopen the bargaining negotiations with the department heads. which to be honest, I'd rather have them looking for ways to make their departments more efficient than arguing with the mayor's team at the moment. So I actually think we need the leadership of our department heads right now

and so to pay them the money that we already budgeted to pay them in the current fiscal year feels reasonable to me.

Thank you, Councilor McDonald.

May I respond?

Yep, go ahead.

Thank you Madam President. Look, I'm not looking to make anybody be insufficient or argue with Department heads. And I understand collective bargaining, impact bargaining. I've done it with the Department of Corrections and 10 different bargaining units. That's what I did. So I'm not Let me ask you, what's the number? What would be the overall number? And if we did it, let's say we didn't, which I'm probably gonna, but I'm saying if we did it, that money could potentially, even though it was funded, and we don't know what's coming in the future. Couldn't that money would be left over at the end of this year and go back into the general fund to help offset some other costs potentially? But what's the overall number? I haven't heard one. I mean, these are the things that we should be talking about and concerned. Like, what's the overall number for this, for the department head raises?

And can we, if we wanted to, if we could say we didn't give it to them, which it looks like we're gonna, but I'm saying if we didn't, this is for the public, if we didn't, what is that number? And could that go back into the general fund? Those are my questions.

So, Councilor Simonelli, let me just say, I don't think we got a a specific estimate of this because it had already been budgeted. I mean, this is a pretty standard cost of living adjustment. And I believe if we did not approve this, they would be the only classification of employees to not get a cost of living adjustment this year. Is that right, Maria? Okay, the only existing agreement. The others are in negotiations right now. So I think that would set them apart from the other staff. So we did not ask for the cost because it had already been budgeted and we'd already approved it.

Are you good with that, Councilor Simonelli? Because we do have a couple other lights I'd like to move on, and we can come back since we aren't talking about the financial paper. No, I'm fine. I'm fine. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Colón Hayes.

Thank you. So this is the last time this came up. I did vote no because at that time I heard that rank and file folks still didn't have a contract Sign. And so I'm sure this is going to pass tonight, but I'm going to vote no on this again, just to keep steady based on what we heard and also hearing from our rank and file that they don't have a signed contract either. So thank you.

Okay, thank you, Councillor Colón Hayes. Councillor O'Malley.

I have the answers. So I have to say, Councillor Simonelli, I appreciate your contribution to this discussion. As Councillor Colón Hayes did just remind us, yourself, myself, Councillor Colón Hayes, and Councillor Condon voted against enrolling this ordinance the last time for the exact reasons that you were mentioning. I did actually ask what the financial impact would be of this and for fiscal year 2026, it's over $115,000. for 2020, well, and for 2027, it would be 64,000 and then an additional 57,000 or 66,000 the following years. But I think you are correct. if the money is not spent, it does get rolled into next year into our general fund. It would be a turn back. So there would be a financial benefit impact to next fiscal year.

So I continue to be opposed. I think it sends the wrong message at the moment. but I understand where everyone else is coming from also. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor O'Malley. Do I have any further discussion questions on this? Okay. Okay, so motion by Councilor Winslow to ordain. Do I have a second? Second by Councilor Taylor. Okay, the Clerk will now call the roll.

Council of Colón Hayes. No. No. Council Condon. Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, I didn't realize he stepped out. I'm sorry. I wouldn't have started the roll.

Can someone go get him?

Can someone go get him? How about you?

I can't, not from where I'm at. I'm 2,500 miles away, fellas. Next week, I'll go get them.

You can keep going. Okay. Councilor Crowe? Yes. Yes. Councilor McDonald? Yes. Yes. Councilor O'Malley? No. No. Councilor Sica? Yes.

No.

No. Councilor Spadafora? Yes. Yes. Councilor Taylor? Yes. Yes. Councilor Winslow? Yes. Yes. Council President Linehan? Yes. That is a seven to three. Do you want me to call it or wait another minute for Councilor Condon?

I'm OK if we call it. We're OK if we call it.

Yeah.

You think so?

OK.

I'm sorry. I didn't realize that he had stepped out. I would have waited.

I didn't even see him leave. Yeah.

Oh, dear. Oh, my God, what is happening? Paul! Paul's here!

Just curious what his vote would be anyway.

Condon, I think I heard you say you wanted to vote yes to ordain the salary schedule. Okay, so Councilor Condon indicated his vote is yes. That means that passes by an 8-2-3 vote. Okay.

So that is ordained.

That paper is ordained. Okay.

Okay. Next order of business.

Paper 456-25, Committee Report, the Standing Committee on Personnel and Appointments, to whom was referred Paper 408, Series of 2025. Having considered the same, make the following report.

Okay, on a motion by Councillor Crowe, seconded by Councillor Colón Hayes to accept the committee report, Clerk will call the roll.

Councillor Colón Hayes. Yes. Councillor Condon. Yes. Councillor Crowe. Yes. McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Spadafora, Taylor, Winslow, Linehan. So the report has been received. Okay, will you please read the paper? Paper 408-25, Mayoral Appointment, Olivia Hemmons, 769 Main Street, Apartment 1, Malden, as a member of the Conservation Commission. Said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council. and to expire September 15th, 2027.

Okay, Councilor Crowe for the paper.

Thank you, Madam President. So earlier this evening, we met with Ms. Hammond and she just recently, only a couple months ago, moved to Malden and wanted to jump right in. looked at the city website and really wanted to find where she could fit in her professional and personal things that she could bring to the city. And so she did look at the climate action plan, Council McDonald. and then she saw on the Conservation Commission that there was an opening so she jumped right in. We had a wonderful conversation with her and she is an ecologist and environmental scientist and she is well versed in environmental regulations. She talked about some experience with municipal storm water management and green storm water infrastructure. has had some great questions and really some great conversations about what she could bring to the table and what the table can bring to her too.

And so she was really excited to dive in and make her mark in Malden. By unanimous vote, we made a motion to approve this appointment.

Okay, great. So on a motion by Councilor Crowe to approve the appointment. I agree, she was lovely. We had a great conversation, really enjoyed meeting her. O'Malley. Yes, you have the floor.

May I make the motion to approve?

It is your constituent. Thank you. Okay, on a motion by Councilor O'Malley, seconded by Councilor Crowe, will the Clerk please call the roll?

Councilor Colón Hayes. Condon, Crowe, McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Spadafora, Taylor, Winslow. Council President Linehan. Yes. So that confirmation passes by an 11-0 vote. Okay, next paper. Next report. Paper 457-25, Committee Report. The Standing Committee on License. to whom was referred papers 370 and 409 through 431 series of 2025, having considered the same, make the following report.

Okay, on a motion by Councilor Sica, seconded by Councilor Taylor. Oh, Councilor Taylor's not here. Who was in? Okay, thank you, Councilor McDonald. To accept the committee report, Clerk will please call the roll.

Councilor Colón Hayes. Yes. Condon, Crowe, McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Spadafora, Winslow, Linehan, 10 to 0 vote.

These are a lot of petitions. Do we want to read all of these?

Yep. OK. You know which ones to read all together, right?

Do we? Do we? I don't. So do you want me to?

So read them all except for that one that we've decided to table.

Well, we've got two that are tabled down here.

That one. Yeah, those two. So we're going to keep those aside and read all these. And then the other ones, when you read them, just read them conditionally. I will. How's that?

Councilor Colón Hayes has an recusal she needs to do. She sent for one of them. Oh. I don't know which one. Chris Berge.

Chris Bergen.

The tariff card. Understood.

Why?

Are we recusing?

Campaign manager.

Okay.

Paper 370-25, Class II License, AGM Auto Sales Incorporated, 160 Eastern Avenue, 21 Cars Renewal. This was recommended as a conditional approval for three months. Petition 409-25, Amusement Machines, Loyal Order of the Moose Lodge, 1910-562 Broadway, Two Machines Renewal. Paper 410-25, Amusement Machines, Italian American War Veterans Post 1640 Oakland Street, Four Machines Renewal. 411-25 Amusement Machines, Pearl Street Station, 53 Summit Street, Two Machines Renewal Paper 412-25 Petition Class 2, Broadway Auto Sales, 628 Broadway, Zero Cars Renewal Paper 413-25, Petition Class 2, GP Motorcycle Supplies, 420 Broadway, Malden, Four Motorcycles, Renewal.

414-25 Petition Class 2 License Procedure, Motors of Malden Incorporated, 600 Broadway, 37 cars renewal. That was a conditional recommendation petition. 415-25 class 2 prestigious motors of Malden incorporated 590 Broadway 30 cars renewal. Also that was a conditional recommendation. Paper 416-25 class 2 reliance motor auto group. LLC, 28 Broadway, 38 Cars Renewal, Paper 417-25, Class 2, Richard Motor Cars Incorporated, 672 Broadway, 77 Cars Renewal, Paper 418-25, Class 2, River Auto Sales Incorporated, 77 Eastern Avenue 21 Cars Renewal Paper 419-25 Class 2 Scott M Fitzpatrick DBA Wentworth Auto Sales 730 Eastern Avenue 15 Spaces Renewal Paper 420-25 Class 2 Top Cars Motor Group Incorporated

259 Main Street, 30 Cars Renewal, Paper 421-25, Class 3, Malden Broadway Auto Body Incorporated, 590 Broadway Renewal, Paper 422-25, Extended Hours, Williams Services, LLC, DBA, Laundry Plus, 705 Eastern Avenue, hours seven days, open to the public, 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Open 24 hours a day for commercial purposes. Renewal. Paper 423-25, extended hours, eat the opening restaurant. 1B Highland Avenue hours Tuesday and Wednesday 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Thursday through Sunday 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. new paper 4-24 24-25, excuse me, extended hours, Main Street laundromat, 780 Main Street, hours, seven days, 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. renewal. Paper 425-25, Extended Hours, GNV, Convenience, Incorporated, DBA, Supreme Food Mart, 1018 Eastern Avenue. Hours, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Renewal, paper 426-25.

Petition extended hours, the Brewster Company, DBA McDonald's, 114 Broadway. Hours, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, conditional upon the dining room closing at 9 PM. The drive-thru is open 24-7. Paper 427-25, extended hours, Speedway, LLC, for store 44222. 2 on 4 Broadway, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day renewal. Paper 428-25, extended hours, UD Foods, Incorporated, DBA, 711, 169 Salem Street, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day renewal. Paper 429-25, Fortune Teller, Chris Bergen, Full Heart Tarot, Readings and More, 73 Linden Avenue, Apartment Number 1, Renewal. And then there were two papers on the agenda, but we are not taking them up tonight because they were tabled in committee. The final two, Paper 430 and 431 were both tabled in committee, so we're not referring those out tonight.

Okay. Councilor Winslow, did you have a question before Councilor Sica introduces the papers?

I just had a question on Paper 440. 14, and 415. So if Councilor Sica could.

Okay, let me have Councilor Sica introduce the committee report. Oh, sorry, did your light not go on?

No, it's on. Okay, go ahead. I'm confused. We're getting ready to vote on these. If he has a question, it needs to be said before I have a conversation. OK, that's fine. Councilor Winslow, you have the floor.

No, I just give the committee report.

And in your committee report, you'll be explaining why that's conditional. Oh, OK.

I just want to understand what the conditions are. That's OK.

So the license committee met this evening. We discussed all of these petitions, the majority of them renewals with our compliance guys, the compliance guys. when these class two dealers and such come in for renewal, they go out, they check, make sure everybody's doing what they're supposed to. when they went to Prestige they were over quite a bit a number of cars so we decided that we were going to conditionally approve that license where it's the end of the year and compliance is going to do weekly, bi-weekly checks of the property to make sure that they were notified yesterday that they were over. and they will be fined for being over so they are now going, we're going to conditionally approve it and have compliance just do weekly or bi-weekly checks. We didn't specify when they were going to go but they were just going to keep a little extra eye on that particular license.

So we just put the word in conditionally for now to make sure that he's doing what he needs to do over there at 600 Broadway.

Okay, thank you. And this was the location where they kind of overlapped in the licensing procedure, so it's a little bit.

Yeah, there's actually two different parcels of land, yes. So one is at 600, one is at 590. So he has two separate licenses for the same business because they're side by side and Looks like one big lot, but yes.

Right. And then in the last round, they had to submit the updated plot plans. And so, great. Well, thanks for the committee for doing that. No worries. Thank you very much.

Perfect, thank you. So the license committee voted to renew these petitions unanimously, favorably. So I make a motion to grant all of these petitions. With the exception of the last two that were tabled. She didn't call them yet. They didn't call them.

Understood.

Okay. Sorry.

No problem. So on the motion by Councilor Sica, seconded by Councilor Taylor, Clerk will please call the roll. Oh, sorry, Councilor O'Malley.

If I want to vote no on those two, how do I do that?

What two?

The two that you just talked about, Prestige.

590 and 600 Broadway.

Can we just take those up separately then? Just those two?

Yeah, we can vote separately for those.

O'Malley.

Just really quickly before you vote no on those. Every single class two dealer in the city do not comply with the amount of numbers that they're supposed to have. Everyone is always over. So if you're going to vote No to renew this one, you should probably vote no to renew all of them because none of them comply with the ordinance that we have in place.

I can't speak to that.

It's fine.

Thank you.

But yeah, we can do it separate. Okay, so we're going to vote on 414-25 and 415-25? Yep. Okay.

Okay, taking up just papers 414 and 415. Condon. This is a motion to grant according to conditions as expressed by the License Committee. Yes. On those two papers alone. Council Condon.

Understood.

Crowe, McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Spadafora, Taylor, Winslow, Council President Linehan. Yes. Okay, so that is a nine to one vote that those two have been granted. And now it's okay with everybody if we take up one roll call vote for all the remaining license petitions? That's fine with me. Okay, Council Condon. Crowe, McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Spadafora, Taylor, Winslow, Linehan. Yes. Okay, so those are all granted by ten to zero vote. Okay, next order of business. Paper four, should we call council? We should, yes. Can somebody, thank you Lisa. Thank you Lisa.

Yep, the next order of business is paper 458-25. Order the city council vote whether to go into executive.

No, no, no.

What did I miss?

Did we do the livery? I didn't talk about them.

We tabled them in committee so that we didn't present them tonight.

That's right. Sorry. I apologize. In my mind, I was thinking we still had to talk about it tonight. Oh, OK. We didn't take it up. So I apologize.

Do we need to go to table them, though?

well no they were tabled in committee so i just announced that even though they're on the agenda you weren't presenting on them tonight because license hasn't released them you did that earlier never made it to the floor they never made it to the floor I didn't hear. They remain on the floor. OK. Perfect. Never made it to the floor. They never made it to the floor. Correct. Thank you, council. That's right. So we get to move on? OK. OK. paper 458-25 order the City Council will vote whether to go into executive session with legal counsel in accordance with exemption 1 Massachusetts general laws chapter 30 a section 21A1 and Exemption 7 Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 38, Section 21A7 to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law.

specifically to comply with the provisions of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 30A, Section 23B to act on the pending open meeting law complaint filed by Jadine Sica of 12 Cleveland Street on November 19th, 2025 against the City Council related to alleged serial deliberation regarding paper 432-25, the appointment of Jeffrey Donahue to the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational Technical School Committee. on November 18th, 2025, where such discussion and open meeting may have detrimental effect on the litigation position of the city. Okay.

Okay. So unlike our usual process, this is a slightly different Exemption under the laws the clerk just read so at this time I would be accepting a motion to either enter or not enter executive committee Okay, do I have a second to stay? I prefer positive motion. So a motion to entertain this on the floor.

The motion would be whether or not you're going into executive session. So the motion would be to adopt the order. And if you don't want to go into executive session, you would vote no. The motion is to adopt. It has to be a positive.

Okay, can you state that one more time? The motion is to adopt the order and a yes vote or a no vote is what?

A yes vote is to go into executive session and a no vote is to not go into executive session.

Okay. Everybody clear? If the vote is no, then the paper will be discussed on the floor.

Okay. So- Yes, Councilor O'Malley. One second. Let me put your light on.

So I think that the way you would want to word it so everyone understands is you would move to adopt the order hoping the same shall fail because you want it to fail. It's a it's a positive motion. you're moving to adopt the order, but you're hoping it fails, right? Because that's what you want to do.

Yes, because the order is to go into the same motion.

It just clarifies that you're not in support of the motion.

Yep, I think that's. So a no vote keeps it on the floor in a nutshell.

A yes vote takes us out back. A no vote keeps us here on the floor. Okay. Okay. Councilor Colón Hayes. No. No. Councilor Condon. No. No. Councilor Crowe. No, Councilor McDonald, No, Councilor O'Malley, No, Councilor Sica, No, Councilor Simonelli, No, Councilor Spadafora, No, Councilor Taylor No. Councilor Winslow? No. No. Council President Linehan?

No.

No. Okay, so that motion fails by a vote of 0 to 11, so we will open up discussion on the floor.

Okay, I'm going to go to Councilor Sica. I want to remind folks to please keep a level of decorum as much as we can. I really don't want to have to cut lights off. I know this is a sensitive topic. I know that everybody wants to have a fair chance to speak on the paper. And I'm going to turn it over to Councilor Sica, but just please keep that in mind.

Do you not read the open meeting law violation?

I do have it open.

Did you want me to read it into the record?

I thought we have in the vest.

Okay, so I do have it in front of me. If you don't mind. the open meeting law strictly prohibits serial deliberation. That is a series of private nonpublic communications among members of a public body that taken together involve a quorum and constitute deliberation outside of a posted public meeting. Based on information available to me, these are the words of Councilor Sica, Hayes has engaged in private communications with at least five other members of the Malden City Council representing a quorum. For the purpose of influencing or shaping the council's deliberations on paper 432-25, regarding the appointment of Jeffrey Donahue presently before us. These communications reportedly occurred via text message, email, and or phone calls and were explicitly related to strategy, positions and intended outcomes regarding the agenda item from last night.

Such serial private communications violate MGL Chapter 30A, Subsection 18, which requires deliberations to occur in an open and publicly accessible meeting. and the Attorney General's guidance prohibits quote daisy chain or quote hub and spoke communications that collectively involve a quorum. while publicly advocating transparency. These private discussions directly undermine the public's right to observe the deliberative process. The integrity of tonight's proceedings is compromised when members participate in off record deliberation. intended to influence the outcome of a public vote. And then it goes further to say actions wish to be seen is to preserve the integrity of this process to ensure compliance with the open meeting law. I respectfully request the following.

that Councilor Hayes recuse herself from all participation, deliberation and voting on this matter due to the serial deliberation described above that the council take corrective actions, including public acknowledgement of the violation and implementation of safeguards to prevent further serial deliberation or private lobbying among members. that this complaint be forwarded to the Attorney General's Division of Open Government for review as required by law. And that is Jadine Sica, November 19th, 2025.

Can I before before you speak, Councilor Sica, can I ask the clerk to explain procedurally what it is that we need to have as an outcome from this? Because obviously the public is not usually in executive session with us.

So what happens when an open meeting law is brought before the body? is they have to acknowledge it as you're doing tonight at the next posted meeting of the full body. And then what happens now is the body will vote whether or not they want to answer this on their own accord if they want to assign it to the legal department and have the legal department do an investigation and represent them when submitting the response to the Attorney General's Office. or how you shall proceed at this point. So if you do vote to give it to the city solicitor's office, they'll do an investigation, they'll come back, they'll let us know what their findings are, and then they'll represent this body to the attorney general's office.

Okay, and we do have a member of the legal department here tonight just to lay that groundwork. So, Councilor Sica, you have the floor.

Thank you, Council President. I believe rules should apply to everybody and that is why I decided to put in this open meeting law violation because last week, I think it was Monday evening, it was brought to my attention that Councilor Colón Hayes was making phone calls regarding an agenda item that was on the docket for the following evening. And I I wasn't really sure how many people she had gotten to until I started having a conversation with a few. So I just want to let everybody at home know I'm going to go over a couple of things that Carol Ann might have already said. But under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, serial deliberation is strictly prohibited.

members of a public body may not hold a series of private communications that taken together involve a quorum discussing or influence public business outside of a posted meeting. In this matter, Councilor Colón Hayes contacted multiple councilors privately. She made calls, text messages, and left voicemails specifically to influence deliberations. She stated in her own messages that when she called Councilor Crowe and texted Councilor Taylor, she also texted Councilor Simonelli, that she called Councilor Linehan already and she spoke with Councilor O'Malley. So if I do the math, that's six, that's a quorum of our 11. Each of these communications may have been conducted one by one

but collectively they reached and involved a quorum of this full city council, which is the very definition of a serial deliberation under mass general law. The content and purpose of these outreach efforts were clearly intended to shape opinions, coordinate positions, and influence last Tuesday night's deliberations on an agenda item before us. all of which must legally occur only during an open and public meeting. The law is clear. When a counselor connects multiple members through a chain of private calls, texts and conversations, and the topic matter. The topic is the matter before this body. It becomes an unlawful private deliberation by a quorum.

These private contacts undermine transparency, violate the public's trust, and compromise the integrity of our decision making process. of these communications and the fact they were initiated for the purpose of impacting deliberations, this constitutes a clear violation of the open meeting laws prohibition on serial deliberation. To protect what remains of the integrity of this process, Councilor Colón Hayes should be recusing herself from all further discussion and actions on this particular agenda item. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Sica. Thank you also for keeping your remarks relatively brief. I'm going to go to Councilor Colón Hayes next, and then I'm going to take the lights that are in the queue from there. Councilor Colón Hayes, you have the floor.

Thank you very much. So I'm not going to get into the details, but I definitely would like this referred to our city solicitor's office. The law is the law. Mike was just read. I do not believe at all that I went over a quorum. And you'll find that when we actually go through an investigation. I'm really looking forward to doing that and referring it out to the city solicitor's office so we can get a resolution to this. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Colón Hayes. Councilor McDonald, you're next.

I just wanted to make the motion to refer this to the legal department for an investigation review, which is what we do with every single one of the open meeting law complaint violations, you know, complaints that we receive, which we receive our fair share, maybe more. and I say that basically recognizing that I don't really think more discussion at this table is fruitful at this stage from my perspective. We have to let them do that anyways. So that's my motion.

Thank you. We do have a motion and a second on the floor. I have two more lights and I'm going to go to Councilor Winslow and then I'll take Councilor Taylor.

Yeah, I do support the motion to refer this for in an investigation by legal. I know the circumstance I was in, it came up related to when I was elected by you all to be council president. There was a similar dynamic in a political situation. So the legal office did a very thorough investigation. And the result of that was accepted by the Attorney General. So I think that's the way to go. Thank you, Greg.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Councilor Taylor.

I just I'm I'm curious. I know we've talked a lot up here. I've asked several times that we have some sort of standards that allow us to know when we're breaking open meeting law. And, you know, I would almost I was curious if Councilor Sica was requesting that this go to our legal office or straight to the Attorney General and if there's a difference there and what that difference might be.

Can you state that again? I'm so sorry.

Sorry. Whether or not this should go to our legal office or straight to the Attorney General's, because what I thought I heard was that she wanted it sent to the state and just kind of taken out of the city level altogether.

So thank you for that, Councilor Taylor, because it's I'm actually sitting up here and I'm kind of a little bit baffled because normally when we go into executive session, we have a lot more discussion than we just did on this floor. instead of just handing it over to the legal department. I feel like that's usually the last resort is handing it over to the legal department. I'm not quite sure why everyone's looking to stifle debate up here this evening on this topic. Normally, we have a little bit of more of a robust conversation on what the open meeting law violation is and tonight I'm just hearing, okay, I just wanna refer it, which seems crazy to me because it's gonna be weeks before we hear about this again. And I would like to have a conversation about it on the floor this evening. I have the proof that she did.

I'm not just up here accusing somebody with baseless accusations. I actually have voicemails, text messages, Hardcore black and white proof that Councilor Colón Hayes violated. I don't even know if we need to refer it to the legal department to be quite honest with what I have. Does that answer your question?

Sorry, Councilor Taylor, there you go. I guess then the question was if we were discussing it on the floor, should we continue to discuss it on the floor? if we have this evidence, should it be brought forth? Is that?

And we can have our representative from our solicitor's office come up and speak to that if folks want to hear from him. But my understanding is that when we refer to legal, there's essentially Research done into the specifics of what did occur, which would utilize the documents that Councilor Sica is referring to, and that that report typically comes back to us. We could then take that discussion and go and have another docketed Executive Session that we could then vote to take in behind closed doors or on the floor. I think when we've done that always behind the scenes, it's probably just we're not remembering that we come back and forth a few times. because we're not, in my opinion, we are not accustomed to doing these on the floor. We haven't done this for a while. So I don't know if you want to come up and speak to that. That's my sense of how, would you mind coming up and speaking at the podium? I think that that's how that would proceed is essentially we would be asking the legal team. I have too many mics on and we're reverberating, but that's how that would proceed. Is that accurate?

Yeah, our recommendation is to refer to our office and we can come back and discuss again whether it be an executive session or otherwise.

Sorry, Councilor Sica, you can absolutely respond.

Thank you. Really quick. Can you remind me again? It's been a while since we've had an open meeting law. How long it's going to take for you to conduct this investigation? How long do you have?

Do you know? I don't know if there's a market rate timeline on it. We'll be slowed down by the holiday this week. I mean, you're all very accessible to us every time we call.

Is it 14? Is it 30? I don't think it's more than 30 days that we're supposed to respond to this. But again, I I'm fine with referring it over to the legal team, but I'm just I we usually deliberate on it a little bit more than we're deliberating on it this evening, which is I'm a little I'm a little, I don't know. I feel like I would like a little more deliberation on this topic before we hand it over to the legal department for further research. Are we not allowed to deliberate it this evening?

I wouldn't say that you're not allowed, but we're not going to come to a conclusion on it tonight.

And I don't expect to come to a conclusion, but I'm just wondering. Am I the only one that knows that there was a serial deliberation going on at this?

Well, Councilor Sica, I don't think we're stifling debate. I have one light on, Councilor O'Malley, that I would like to get to. I think every Councillor that would like to speak to this has had a chance and actually now seeing Councillor Simonelli would also like to speak to it. But what I'm hearing and we do have a motion on the floor that I want to take the vote on as soon as we can. out of respect for those that made the motion. And the second is that we want to refer to legal, have some professional research done and then come back. I think we have ample opportunity to continue to debate. There's nobody's ability to speak to this as being Limited. I'm sorry, did you have anything else that you wanted to add? I wasn't trying to shut you down at all.

No, I think it's just the vision of our department is to just Not Russia decision tonight, just to have it referred to us, make sure that we're being fair to everyone involved. But again, if you're going to discuss more, you're going to discuss, but we're just not going to get to a conclusion tonight either way. So our recommendation is to refer.

Really quickly.

Okay, and then I really do need to move on to Councilor O'Malley.

He's been waiting. And that is fine. I'm not looking for a decision this evening. I'm just looking for a little bit more deliberation. We are never tongue tied up here. And tonight we happen to be tongue tied with this particular topic. A little blown away by it, but I would like to have a little bit more discussion about this. I'm not looking for a decision. If we have a little discussion and then we hand it over to the legal team to do their research and I can hand them over, whatever I have and if anybody else up here was contacted or has anything that they can add to their research that would be great but I do think there should be a little bit more of a discussion on this because if not We have 14 business days. So we're going to wait 14 business days to come back and have this discussion again when this is something that just happened a week ago. I would rather get it all out tonight. Thank you. Understood.

And just, Councillor O'Malley, before we take your, I just want, like from the chair, I think what I would hope to have as an outcome too is for everybody to have an understanding of not just what the serial communication description is that was in the complaint, but I'm almost wondering if some one of the reasons that folks aren't asking more is that we're not under we want to make sure that we understand exactly what it is that we need to not do in the future. I think that when we've had similar situations like this in the past, having that be a clear outcome that whether that's a training or just really clearly stating in the response from the legal department that what we need to not what we all need to know not to do I think that's probably you know I'll speak for myself and say Winslow spoke to the complaint that we had in the past when he was elected council president. That was a moment, I think, where a lot of us had to digest kind of like what you do and where that line is. So I think that that's probably some of what's going on here. Speaking again, just for my own personal self.

And I mean, we can absolutely revisit this, whether it's an open complaint or not. We can talk about the open meeting while I'll talk about, you know, what can and cannot be discussed when and where. But as far as where we're at tonight, if you wanted to deliberate a bit, I believe that you could. but if you would rather refer to our department, that is ultimately our recommendation and we can always come back. We can come back, we can talk more and we'll have a better idea of what we got going on here.

Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you for your patience, Councilor O'Malley. You have the floor.

To Councilor Taylor's point, I believe that the process is it automatically goes to the state. So I believe it already is with the Attorney General. and regardless of what we do, they're going to do their review. It does a lot have to do with what Councilor Sica would like to see after this, but the council responds however the council responds. If the legal department is doing it, they have to come back to us with what they want to say, and we have to approve of that. So we will talk about this again. I think that that's probably why.

Thank you for that, Councilor O'Malley. Okay. Councilor Crowe.

I think Councilor Simonelli was ahead of me.

Okay. Councilor Simonelli, you can go ahead and unmute.

Well, I'm already unmuted. You should know me by now, Madam President. But can you hear me?

Yes.

You can? You don't sound so excited. Listen, I want to just say this, that these are serious accusations, and I think it behooves us not to say anything at this moment because it's going to be referred to the... Attorney General's Office and the City Solicitor's Office so that they can do their investigation. And obviously, you know, if the evidence is there, they'll find it. and then we'll have ample enough time to debate on what to do about it if we have any say over it at all once it hits the Attorney General's office. I'm not too clear on what happens at that point. But there's a due process for everything. and, you know, this is a very difficult thing for me and for the neighborhood that I come from because, you know, I don't like to... I just don't like to... See people in trouble and get people in trouble and capitalize on it. That's just not my style.

However, I mean, the facts are the facts. I mean, you know, I can't dispute them. They are what they are. but again, I think it behooves all of us to really move with caution at this point in time and let the city solicitor's office do their job come out with their findings for us, whether it hits the Attorney General's office or not. I don't know if it's one or the other, or it could be both. I'm not too clear on that. Maybe the city solicitor can educate us a little bit more on that. But I think that, you know, my 14 years on the City Council, I've never seen anything like this before. So, you guys are something. So I'm just going to say that... I think we should really walk with caution at this point. And I think that when accusations are being made, whether they're firm or not, You know, there is a due process, and we all are city councilors, and I think that we should act accordingly.

You know, I've said this before, and I've said this in executive session, and I'm going to say it again. We're one of 11. We should be helping each other out here. We should be working with one another. We should be moving the city forward in the direction that it should be going, that the mayor's office would like to see it going because we elected him. So we should be working alongside of him. We've got Proposition 2 1⁄2 overrides. Some councilors want to add another $100 million deficit on top of it. We've got some serious issues that need some serious answers. and we're going to sit up here and, you know, go back and forth with one another. I just, I just don't, I just, I'm bewildered. So anyway, I'm just looking. Again, you know, and Councilor Sica, look at it, she's got the evidence and, you know, and she's doing the right thing as far as taking action on it. I'm not going to say she's not. She is.

But again, I would just advise this council, not being an attorney, just being a street smart kid, to walk with caution on this. Especially when you're accusing somebody of accusations, I think it would be best for all of us. If we do not deliberate tonight and we give this to the city solicitor's office so that they can come back to us and say, here's what it is. Yes, it was a clear violation of the open meeting law. No, it wasn't a clear violation of the open law or it's on shaky grounds and advise us. That's what they get paid for. That's what we put them in office for. I'm not an attorney. So I would like to have the advice of the attorney before I stick my big foot in my big mouth and get myself in trouble for saying the wrong thing. and I think that's why you have awkward silence up there right now because people are feeling the same way I'm feeling they're just not saying it yet so I think it would be best once again I'll say it for the last time

Give it to the city solicitor's office and let them report back to us. I don't mind waiting 14 days. I don't mind waiting until after the holidays. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Simonelli. Councillor Crowe.

I'll just be really brief. I do agree with sending it to the city solicitor's office. And I think the lack of deliberation is because it pulls in a different person that's not part of this body, that is a Malden resident, that we don't want to be debating that are the nature of the texts or calls. So I think that's a little concerning to me to start bringing in someone else that is beyond this body. So I think that's why I wouldn't deliberate that because I wouldn't want anything to be said, to be implied, to be about somebody else that is not part of the body.

Thank you, Councilor Crowe. And I want to actually echo that point because I think coming in tonight, that was one of my probably the thing I was most worried about just because it does involve an appointment. that was, you know, it really is actually not appropriate for us to be deliberating the appointment. And I think that was the thing I was most worried about trying to keep on track. And I actually really want to thank everybody for kind of not going there because it would have been out of bounds and, you know, I'm glad that we didn't do that, Councilor Sica. One more time, can you be brief? I really want to call the vote. Oh, well, now we have Councilman McDonald. All right, we're never getting out of here.

I'm sorry. I'll try to be brief. This really has nothing to do with the appointment of former Councilor Jeff Donahue for the school committee position. this has to do with a violation of the open meeting law. It doesn't matter if this was another agenda item that we were discussing. I actually reached out to Jeff I don't even know the end of last week when I filed this to ask him if he would mind if I read some of the text messages that I received or the voicemail that I had because it does Call him some not so nice choice words. And he had no problem with me playing the recording or reading the text messages out loud. So I, again, If we were in the back room in executive session, we would not have just handed it right over to the legal department.

We would have had a conversation and talked about what had transpired. Like, why are we here? If I have all the evidence here tonight, I don't understand why we can't discuss the evidence that I have and not have to waste the city solicitor's time to do an investigation because I'm pretty confident what I have Constitutes Quorum of this full city council. So I don't want to wait two weeks. I mean, if Council of Colón Hayes ends up needing to recuse herself from this particular agenda item, the the vote needs a representative. The city of Malden right now currently has no representative. And the longer we delay this, the longer we delay that and the whole process that comes along with it. So I would really like to have a little bit more of a conversation here on this topic tonight. Thank you. Thank you.

Councilor McDonald.

So I made my motion. Yes, because I do not think it is appropriate for us to have that conversation before our own legal department can evaluate that evidence. If you've got the receipts, Councilor Sica, it'll be quick and we'll be back here real soon. and I certainly haven't had a chance to review any evidence, nor do I think that would have been appropriate because I think it should be sent to the legal department, which is what we do in all cases because they have to prepare the written response that we submit. So I and just personally, like I we spend a lot of time on our own open meeting law violations, gang, and it's a little bit bananas. And I would just like us to take the roll call vote so that we can do the thing we have to do. and then we will come back here and reconvene to be able to discuss this, I'm sure, to our heart's content. So could we please take the roll?

So I have a motion by Councilor McDonald Who seconded? Councilor Colón Hayes. Thank you. All right, Clerk, will you please call the roll?

This is a motion to refer this matter to the legal department for further investigation. Councilor Colón Hayes? Yes. Yes. Councilor Condon?

Yes.

Councilor Crowe?

Yes.

McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Spadafora, Taylor, Winslow, Council President Linehan. Yes. Okay, so that motion has passed by a nine to two vote.

Thank you. Okay, next order of business. Okay, does anybody have personal privilege? Yes, I do. Oh, okay, Councillor Simonelli, let's take you first.

All right, thank you very much. Now I can get off this foolish thing. Listen, I just want to let everybody know that the holiday lights are being put up at Lincoln Commons as we speak. and I will be back next week to welcome you all down to Lincoln Commons for some hot chocolate and maybe, just maybe, I can convince Santa Claus to come down and say hello to everybody. So we're waiting on him now. He's very busy at the North Pole doing those letters. So I appreciate everybody tonight, and thank you very much for your cooperation, folks.

Thank you so much. Councillor O'Malley.

Thank you. So this past Sunday, Malden Arts held their first public art trolley tour. I want to thank Old Town Trolley of Malden for sponsoring the event. They were very lucky to sell out all of the seats on the trolley. And they made a point to go to every ward. So every ward in Malden has public art. And the trolley went and saw all of that great Crowe. Thank you, Madam President.

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving everybody on Thursday. and the Bread of Life, again, will be hosting their Don't Be Alone for Thanksgiving at the Malden High School on Thursday, what time? At 12 o'clock. But they're also looking for Councilor Spadafora and Maria Louise has been working on Organizing deliveries and they pack up over a thousand meals, but not just Maldonians, but people in surrounding communities So always need more people to to deliver those meals lots of hands 1,300 and so if you want to, if you have not signed up already, you can reach out to Maria, Luis. Sorry, no, more people, it's easier. Or you can come to, Malden High School between 9.30 and 10 at the cafeteria to really help out because it is really heartwarming and it is important to our community and surrounding communities.

So thank you, Councilor Spadafora and Maria for putting that together.

Thank you, Councilor Crowe. Councilor Winslow.

Yeah, we don't want to forget on Thursday at 10 o'clock, Medford and Malden are playing over at the stadium in Medford there. So come out and go Malden. I do want to thank the Department of Public Works and the Maplewood Association for working together to get up the the tree in Maplewood Square, which is up now, a nice tree that was donated by Fina Rinaldi of Emerald Street and donation by Big C Welding to get the lights up. So we will be having kind of some caroling and a lighting ceremony on Friday, December 5th at 5 o'clock, and hot chocolate and candy canes and stuff like that. So I encourage everybody to come out for that. Thanks, bye-bye.

Great, thank you. Councilor Colón Hayes. Yes, I just wanted to, give a shout out to the Malden Warming Center. It's been a while since I was able to attend one of their trainings for a volunteer, and they did a phenomenal job. The room was packed. I'm really looking forward to being able to give my time and volunteer. circumstance had it for the past couple of years that I wasn't able to do that. But that was the last training. So if you do The website is maldenwarmingcenter.org. There are other ways that you can donate. And I think I might have heard it was the last training until they open. So there might be another one. So check the website. But I just wanted to say thank you for that. It is a wonderful community to be a part of. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Colón Hayes. Councillor Condon.

Thank you, Madam President. I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish all the people of Ward 2 a Happy Thanksgiving, along with the rest of the city of Malden. And be thankful for what you have.

Thank you. Amen to that. Well, from the chair, I just want to remind folks that on Saturday after Thanksgiving, we'll be lighting up the tree at Felsmere Pond. So come on down at dusk around 4 p.m. Spadafora and I will be happy to host you there with some hot chocolate. Bring your furry friends and your whole family. We'll have music and treats and a visit from Santa himself. So you don't want to miss it. Hope to see you there. And with that, Does anybody have a motion to adjourn? Okay. Motion by Councilor McDonald, seconded by Councilor Condon. Actually, we lost Councilor Simonelli, so all in favor? Aye. Good night, everyone.