Malden City Council 9-30-25

The council will come to order. All rise and salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of our veterans, service members, and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. We will also be doing an additional moment of silence for two Malden public servants who have recently passed Jim Nestor and James Holland. Jim Nestor was the ward four city councilor from 2007 to 2014. He passed away on September 10th. James Holland served 40 years as a Malden police officer, the last three as the chief before retiring in 2013. He also served as the Malden representative to the vocational school committee. May they both rest in peace. And I ask for a moment of silence in their memory. I'll now turn the mic over to Councillor Winslow for an additional moment of silence in memory of a constituent who passed away this past week.

Yes, my partner, William Street, passed away suddenly. So on behalf of the entire city council, We send our deepest sympathies to Lori, Alyssa, and Vanessa, who lost their beloved husband and father unexpectedly. We all know and refer to you collectively as the Arday family because of your loving dedication to each other, yet each of you have a strong and distinct sense of self. Mike particularly struck me as a dedicated trad dad, family-centered, hardworking, a loving and supportive father to his wife and daughters, a tech genius and a very quirky tinkerer, and a man who served his faith and his community to the fullest. In honoring Mike's memory, I think we should all strive to be more like Mike. I want to offer the following prayer for Mike, Chief Holland, and former counselor Nestor before we take another moment of silence. Let us treasure the time we have and resolve to use it well, counting each moment precious, a chance to apprehend some truth, to experience some beauty, to conquer some evil, to relieve some suffering, to love and be loved, to achieve something of lasting worth. Help us, God, to fulfill the promise that is in each of us and to so conduct ourselves that generations hence, it will be true to say of us, the world is better because for a brief space, they lived in it, amen. And just a moment of silence for Mike.

Thank you. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council Colón Hayes. Here. Council Condon. Here. Council Crowe. Here. Council McDonald. Here. Council O'Malley. Councilor Sica? Here. Councilor Simonelli? Here. Councilor Spadafora? Yes. Councilor Taylor? Here. Councilor Winslow? Here. Council President Linehan?

Here. Now under the provisions of the open meeting law for everyone in attendance, please be informed that UMA Urban Media Arts will be recording this evening's meeting. So just be aware, there will be audio and video recordings of this meeting. As our first order of business, I ask that you please all rise to recognize Mayor Christensen in attendance to address the council. Thank you, Mayor Christiansen. You have the floor.

Good evening, Madam President and honorable members of the City Council. Malden has always been a city that has had to do more with less. In comparison to other cities, our spending is low in most key areas. In fact, a review of our spending as compared to seven other cities with whom we share common traits shows that we spend less in virtually every category on a per capita basis. This information is highlighted on the boards you see around the room, and I want to repeat it for emphasis. From public safety to debt to general government spending, we are below the norm as compared to just about every other surrounding city. Despite this, we have found ourselves challenged every year trying to fund core services and having to utilize reserves to balance the budget. Even with a series of measures to address the ongoing structural deficit, including extending our pension schedule, refraining from adding personnel or creating new programs and not issuing any new debt. The situation remains the same, and that is our revenues no longer support our expenses. We must identify a long term fix to avoid completely depleting our reserves and drastically cutting services. It has become clear that additional funding above the current tax levy threshold is needed to stabilize our finances. It weighs on me heavily to have to take this step to go to the hardworking people of our community. But the alternative would mean drastic cuts and other challenges. Make no mistake about it. Cuts will be needed even with the addition of more revenue. Our goal with this request is to reduce that challenge to minimize the impact on the progress we have made as a city. Our employees will be part of the solution as we are in the process of moving healthcare away from being self-insured to being part of the state plan managed by the Group Insurance Commission. Current estimates are that this initiative will save us approximately $3 million per year. So we are recommending an increase to the annual tax levy limit of $5.4 million, such that when combined with the $3 million projected health insurance savings, we would begin the FY27 budget with a structurally balanced FY26 budget. This will be a start, but not the end. Tonight, we are asking that this paper be referred to the Finance Committee so that there can be detailed discussions about the impact it will have on our residents and the community. The most common question is how the override will affect my taxes. The exact tax increase for your property will depend on its assessed value. But an average single family home valued at $650,000 would see its property taxes increase by $351 annually or $30 a month as a result of the override. We would ask that people take the time to become informed because there has been no shortage of inaccurate and misleading information circulated since the docket was posted. There will be several public meetings so that information can be shared and questions addressed. In the meantime, you can visit cityofmalden.org slash override for further information. Our team will be available and ready to work with you collaboratively to provide the public with fact based answers so that they can make an informed decision regarding their vote. Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to the continued dialogue in committee.

Thank you, Mayor. We appreciate you coming tonight. And I just want to underscore for the public that what we're going to be voting on tonight, as you stated, is to refer this to the Finance Committee for further discussion. If it makes it to Finance Committee, we would, of course, be booking public meetings to help everybody understand what's at stake here. But again, we will be taking up public comment tonight as well and then taking up the paper out of respect for everybody who's joined us tonight. So thank you again for coming to present. Next order of business. Okay, next order of business is public comment, which is allowed under our council rules. Each speaker is limited to the subject matter relevant to our evening's agenda and must keep comments to two minutes or less. Clerk, do we have anybody signed up for public comment tonight?

We have two people. The first is Neil Kinnon.

Okay, Neil Kinnon, you have the floor. Please state your name and address or under new rules, actually you can just state your street if you'd rather.

Neil Kinnon, 11 Spruce Street, Malden. I only have a few things to say. The first one is late 80s. We went through a recession. 1999, 2000, we went through a recession. 2003, we went through a recession. Then a few of you were up here in 2008 and on when we went through what was called the Great Recession, the worst since the Great Depression. Since that time, we've had pretty good times. We had COVID, but you got vast sums of money to get you through it. And in all that time, City Council never went to the public and asked for an override. We were in good times, or at least relatively good times right now. So I find that pretty amazing. Secondly, just so the public knows, and I have not taken a position on this yet, completely definitively, but in the last five years, in 2021, you spent 182 million. This year, we budgeted 236 million. That's $53 million more. That's an average increase of 5.25%. We don't have a spending problem. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. If you think you're going to go on averaging 5.25%, people don't get that in their pay. You will break the city. You will break every individual. $350, it's less than a cup of coffee a day. I know that will be said sometime. But this never ends. The mayor said this isn't the end to it. Well, we shouldn't have given 7.9% two years ago and 7.13 years ago or 5.3% last year. That's enough for now, but the public needs to know this is a spending issue. Not with you. You need to fix your state delegation who hasn't done their job in over a decade and lays the bills on you without the money. Thank you.

Lara Thompson.

Thank you, Lara. Please state your name and address or your street for the record.

Yeah, I'm Lara Thompson. I'm at 53 Placestead Road. And I also have not really made up my mind about this. When I first heard about it, I was taken aback given the time, how tight things are for everybody right now. any amount of increase has an impact on everyone. Um, maybe not everyone, but most people I know. So, um, I'm concerned. Um, I feel like that I have seen things happen where money gets taken away and reallocated in other places. And I just wanna make sure that we know where the money's going, what's happening with the spending. There's transparency around spending. I don't have these answers. I hope if we go into, if we have meetings and discussions that there will be transparency with the public who will be suffering, you know, the ones paying those bills. And are there going to be new bills every year? Are there going to be increases? Because that's a cumulative effect. It may be 350 for the first year, but over the course of time, how much is that increase going to be? Those are my concerns and I'm concerned for my community and I want to make sure everybody, I love the city, I want to make sure everybody gets paid what they're owed, their time, their overtime, not having to go sue for it or whatever. I want to make sure that we know what's going on and there's more transparency. Thanks.

Thank you. Clerk, do we have additional comments received via email?

We do. The first one states, to the members of the city council, I am a proud lifelong resident of Malden and I'm writing in support of the proposed tax override docket 363-25. It is imperative that the city continue to fund public services at the current level, especially continued support of the library, public works department, and the Malden public school system. The ongoing services provided by the city to its citizens should be a priority, especially in times of economic uncertainty. Thank you. Tom Endicott, 201 Columbia Street. This one is from Martha North. I am definitely against a passing or even a consideration of a prop two and a half. Martha North, 50 Presley Street. Hi, just emailing to say we support the tax override at 21 Woodlawn Road. We want Malden to be the best it can be. And we're well aware that doesn't come for free. This is from Brian St. Marie. Dear members of the city council, I am writing to express my strong opposition to the tax override proposed in city council file 363-25. I have owned a house in Malden for 13 years and am proud to call Malden home. I work full time at a grocery store and live by myself. In order to make ends meet, I need to be frugal and budget my money carefully. As someone on the autism spectrum, I face a lot of challenges. But owning a home and being financially self sufficient are important to me. So I have worked hard and made sacrifices in order to accomplish these goals. With the prices of so many things going up, making ends meet is increasingly difficult for me and other hard working people. An increase in my property taxes is the last thing that I need. Personally, I would always prefer that government at all levels cut spending rather than raise taxes. No government program or service is more important to me than keeping as much of my own hard earned money as possible. Just as I have had to make difficult decisions in order to cut back on my expenses and stay within my means, I think that the city of Malden should do the same. Rather than asking hardworking people like me to contribute more, I strongly urge you to vote against the proposed tax override. Sincerely, Marissa Babin, 662 Highland Avenue. I'm writing to express support for the proposed Proposition two and a half override, I am a homeowner in Malden and I strongly support stabilizing the city finances in maintaining city services. Paying my fair share of taxes is a small thing to be asked in return. Theodore Brookings, 11 Wyoming Avenue. Dear members of the city council, I am writing to strongly oppose the proposed tax override. Residents in our city, homeowners and renters, are already facing steep increases in the cost of living. Asking taxpayers for even more money without demonstrating fiscal responsibility is not only unfair, it is irresponsible governance. The city has not clearly shown what steps have been taken to avoid the need for an override. Taxpayers deserve evidence that every option to cut costs and reprioritize spending has been exhausted. Without this, an override sends a troubling message, that instead of addressing inefficiencies or tightening budgets, the city will simply turn to residents for more revenue whenever it encounters financial challenges. What is needed is not another tax increase, but a clear strategic plan for the city's finances and priorities. Residents deserve to see a roadmap that explains how current resources are being managed, how future needs will be addressed, and what specific measures will be taken to keep spending under control. A tax override without such a plan is premature and short-sighted. Our community is full of hardworking people who sacrifice to pay their mortgages or rent, cover rising utility bills, and put food on the table. For many, even the smallest tax increase can mean a meal not eaten, a prescription not filled, or a bill left unpaid. These are not hypothetical hardships, they are the reality for many of our neighbors. Before placing more weight on the backs of residents, City leadership must show that it is capable of managing existing funds responsibly and charting a long term plan that balances needs with sustainability. I urge you to reject the proposed tax override. Instead, commit to fiscal discipline, transparency, and the development of a comprehensive strategic plan that puts residents first and ensures the city lives within its means. Bill Spadafora, Junior 37 Prospect Street. Regarding docket number 363-25, I am strongly in favor of the override. We have a civic duty to fund our city services and there's no viable alternative to this override. We can no longer kick the can down the road via temporary one time funds or reserves. Making up this difference via commercial tax is not realistic. First of all, that would take years to accomplish even if it was possible. And secondly, we can't mimic Cambridge's situation because we have Nothing close to MIT or Harvard to anchor a Kendall Square level commercial district. Finally, to address a straw man that I know is being raised on this subject, real estate taxes have basically nothing to do with Malden's affordability. That issue lies with the regional supply shortage, not taxes. Unlike the majority of the council, I am of the age when my peer group is buying houses now as opposed to 25 plus years ago. None of these people are being scared off of home ownership by a few thousand dollars in annual real estate tax. It is the monthly principal interest that is five times higher. Malden's residential exemption makes the taxes here very cheap, and a couple hundred dollars more a year from this override would not change that. Sean Bonanu, 47 Perkins Avenue. Dear members of the council, I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed tax override. Proposed in council file number 363-25. Before asking homeowners and renters to shoulder yet another financial burden, the city must first demonstrate that it has done everything possible to manage existing resources responsibly. It is unacceptable to request an override without first proving that every effort has been made to cut unnecessary spending, reprioritize budgets, and operate within the city's means. How can the city guarantee that any additional tax revenue will be spent appropriately? Without a clear and forcible plan and independent oversight, taxpayers have little confidence that new revenue will be managed any better than existing funds. Families, seniors, and renters across our community are already struggling with rising costs. The city must prove it is willing to make difficult decisions and reduce expenses before turning to taxpayers as the solution. I urge you to vote against the proposed tax override. And instead commit to transparency, fiscal discipline, and an independent audit of the city's finances. Yours truly, Ann Warren, 78 Rutland Street. I'm a condo owner as of last year. I'm okay with a prop two and a half override to help fund schools and other important aspects of the city. I did not get the residential tax exemption yet, but the increase seems to be manageable in my case, like about $15 a month pre-discount. When I get my discount, the savings from community electricity will probably negate that. Some ideas I have to help increase funding is to lower parking minimums. We could fit in at least one more commercial building at each shopping plaza, stop and shop Broadway Town Line. This was a quick email, sorry, and it's signed Samantha LeBlanc, 30 Daniel Street. Dear members of the city council, I am writing to express strong opposition to the proposed tax override in city council file 36325. Before asking residents to bear more financial burden, the city must first show that it has managed existing resources responsibly. To date, no clear explanation has been given as to what steps have been taken to avoid a tax increase. Taxpayers deserve transparency and accountability, not vague promises, before being asked to pay more. It is unacceptable to pursue an override without first cutting unnecessary spending and reprioritizing within current budgets. When has the finance committee met with department heads to thoroughly examine spending and identify savings? Without evidence of such review, residents cannot trust that all alternatives have been explored. Additionally, how will the city ensure that new tax revenue will serve real community needs and not discretionary council projects? Without a clear enforceable spending plan and independent oversight, confidence in fiscal management remains low. What's truly needed is not more taxes but a full independent financial audit. This would help identify inefficiencies and ensure funds are used wisely. Until that audit is completed, asking for more money is premature and unfair. Family, seniors and renters are already struggling with rising costs. The city must lead by example, tighten its own belt before expecting more from taxpayers. I urge you to vote no on the tax override and commit instead to greater transparency, fiscal discipline and an independent audit of city finances. Sincerely, Denise Belboni-Cowie, 81 Newland Street. I want to express my support of a Prop 2.5 override. Even at the simplest, most surface level look at finances at a local level, we can think about how inflation expenses has varied from 3% to 7% increase since 2001. Prop 2.5 only allows a 2.5% increase in property tax revenue increases each year. The city's revenue has been held back out of step with our expenses. To reduce expenses, we would be cutting current service levels, taking away from the resources our city offers our residents. Property taxes contribute about half of the revenue base of our city based on my reading of the budget. And therefore, even a small percentage increase can provide dramatic relief to our budget constraints. I am happy and proud to invest more in my community through the taxes I pay. It is one of the most passive ways we can all help support each other and our city. I encourage everyone to know how much they currently pay in property taxes and I encourage the city council to prioritize communication about how much each homeowner's taxes will change. I think many people would be relieved and less opposed if they had some idea what the override would mean for them personally. I feel the unknown is making many residents understandably upset and afraid. I know this news has just come out, but I would love to see and know how to find some resources on the City of Malden website about what the proposed levy limit override means for the next fiscal year and the years beyond as well. I look forward to learning more details and appreciate how hard it must have been to come forward with this proposal. Allison Matthews, 105 Elm Street. Dear Malden City Council, I write today regarding agenda item 363-25. I want to express my strong opposition to approving a ballot question regarding a tax override. I would like to hear what budget cuts can be made before a tax override that shifts the burden of balancing the city budget to the Malden residential taxpayers. Prop two and a half was put in place to help property owners retain their properties without unfair and excessive tax increases. A tax increase would simply make homes in Malden less affordable for all, but especially for folks with limited income. I ask that you vote no at this time to putting forth a ballot question and holding a special election to override Prop 2 1⁄2. Sincerely, James Sumner, 759 Highland Avenue. I support Malden scheduling a special election to vote on a tax override. Many neighboring cities have successfully passed overrides in recent years and I believe it's time for Malden to do the same. The proposed 5% increase in property taxes, $21 a month on my property strikes me as a reasonable step to maintain level funding for central city services staffing and our schools Malden has already committed to funding our share of the Wakefield vocational school construction and of honoring teacher union contracts We can't go back this override will allow our city to progress and remain competitive I support the conversation and the vote Thank You Courtney Dutra 26 Huntley Street Malden And that's all

That was a lot. Thank you so much for that, clerk. For our next order of business, I'd like to take up the paper out of order, if that's okay with everybody. Paper 633-25.

363-25, order that the city of Malden hold a special municipal election on February 10th, 2026, and to include the following ballot question. Shall the city of Malden be allowed to assess an additional $5.4 million in real estate and personal property taxes? For the purposes of stabilizing the city's budget and to support ongoing city services across all departments, including public schools, public safety, public library, public works, and general government, for which the monies will be used for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026. A yes vote would support an increase in real estate and personal property taxes beginning with fiscal year 2026. A no vote would make no change to the current tax structure.

Thank you. And just before we get started, I want to again remind folks that a yes vote tonight would be to refer to finance. Um, so what we're going to be discussing tonight is whether to send this to committee where we will have that discussion about the intricacies of whether we want to hold a special municipal election. It would then get referred back to the council where we would have additional discussion. Um, and so just to lay the groundwork before we get started, I already see a couple of lights and I'm going to take counselor Simonelli first.

Thank you, Madam President. Listen, I never thought I'd see myself being here at this vote. But coming up here, I was totally against this Proposition 2 and 1 half override. I think it's unfair to the homeowners. It's tough enough out there for people to make ends meet. We're not a rich city. But listening to other folks, and then you've got services for people at the same time. So it's like, what do we do? But you know what I want to know? I want to know how the hell we get here. That's what I want to know, because I'm here tonight and I'm hearing all this stuff. And as we've been moving along throughout the year, we haven't been seeing this. Nobody's seen the big picture of this happening as we're moving down the road that this is going to happen. I mean, Councilor Spadafora been saying now for four years since I've been up here that people, we got to start looking at losing commercial properties and gaining commercial and trying to do stuff to get commercial property here. So you can get more tax revenue for it, because you get no tax revenue in apartments. It's like a warehouse rate. That's what they get. So you see these apartments going up everywhere, whether they're affordable or not. There's like warehouse tax on that. Yeah, you're going to have to do a lot of talking to me, man, to get me to pass this thing. Because I'll be honest with you, I just can't put a burden like this on the homeowners of the city of Malden and the taxpayers. And you know what? Listen, it's a tough job we got. And if we got to cut, you cut. And that's just the way it is. I've been there, I've been there 2011, after 9-11, we had a cut. See, the problem is, is the city of Malden throughout the years has sold off all kinds of property, never held anything. You go to a city like Everett, and they got like five pieces of property that are worth millions of dollars. So they can sell those off. Well, you'd have to get a whole rule petition first, because you'd have to go and defend the public properties first. But you can do that, we did it. I did it. In 2011, raised $3 million, closed the budget, so we'd have to lay nobody off. But listen, at the end of the day, if we're spending too much money, and I'm with some of these people, I'd like to see this in front of me. If we're spending too much money, then it's time to cut. I'll do it. If everybody else don't want to, that's it. That's the way it goes. I don't see ever doing a proposition two and a half override. Anybody else? Where's the casino money, where's that going? So listen, look, I'm going to be honest with you. I had a serious problem of even sending this to committee, because we shouldn't even be here right now. We shouldn't. We're a lot smarter than that. We should have projected this, but we didn't. So I still have a hard problem even sending this to committee. But to be fair to the council, and the mayor, and to the city workers of this city, who do a fantastic job by the way, I'll make that exception. Because honestly, there's some things I'd like to know. I'd like to know where the spending goes. Because I'm going to tell you, let me just say this, right? I'm a regular guy. I think you all know that. Okay, I've been through the gates of hell and back, and I think you know that too. But I've always budgeted my money so that I can make sure that I don't overspend throughout the month so I can pay my rent. Isn't this the same? Isn't this the same? If we say, we put this program in process, and if we hire these people, how is that going to affect us? Not this year. But in three years. We didn't do that. We just went ahead and just spent, and look at it. And in fairness to the administration, they do a great job with what they got. And you only have so much money. So, I mean, they do the best they can. But I blame us all tonight for being here. I really do. I blame us all. Because we should have kept a better finger on this, and we should have seen this coming. All of a sudden, I get told last week that we're having a meeting on whether we're gonna do a proposition two and a half override. Last week, I thought we had $44 million in the general fund rainy day account for the next two years, we'd be all set. So I know you're talking about doing it now and having it for 2027, but like Neil Kinnon said, it gives us a couple of years to get on our state delegation. And if they don't do the job, we run against them. That's how it works. If they're not bringing in the revenue that the mayor needs to run the city, then one of us or one of you should be running for state rep next. If they're not bringing in the revenue. Listen, when do you ever see that guy? So maybe they should pull him over here by his underwear and bring him in here and explain to us, you know, how come we don't, how come he's not bringing in the funding? Where's the funding coming from? I mean, I just think this is a horrible position. It's a horrible position for us. It's a horrible position for the mayor to be in. The guy's done a fantastic job since he's been in office, and it's killing him, and I know it is. And for those reasons, I'll support it going into finance, because I have some questions, but it's gonna take a lot of convincing for my vote. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilor Simonelli. Next, I have Councilor Spadafora.

Why don't I follow that up? Sorry. No, don't be sorry. So I like when the room was filled. I don't like the situation we're in. But I'll try to speak from the heart and tell everybody I can't believe what I've been talking about. And I think everybody in this room up here knows the same situation. We've had a front row seat for this. And I know the police and the fire unions have been in the room when I've said, this is coming. Now collectively, we did nothing. So you lose your job, you don't keep spending the same way. So we do have a spending problem. Now I do like looking at all the data, but I'm gonna start with the first thing. Council Simonelli, Neal Kinnan, and I've said it publicly, the school funding formula is screwing the city. And it's not screwing the schools, it's screwing everybody outside the schools. So indulge me. These figures are as of 2024. Just to give you what this brings us to. We're a gateway city, and by the way, I don't think a Proposition 2 1⁄2, and I might be wrong, has ever passed in a gateway community. Basically, it's the poor cities. The formula right now does not consider actual revenue, and this is looking at 2003 data, excuse me. Right now, we have to contribute as 2023 35%, let's call it 36. It's 35.76 compared to our peers, because we're going to hear about how the other communities have had to do this. Revere is 27.7. Everett is 23.67. Lawrence is 9.53. So do the math. We pay more. But what does that mean for this room? That means if we just used an average, the city of Malden would be getting $30 million more. And what that formula requires us to do is if we don't meet the funding formula for the schools, We have to basically rob everybody else to pay that part of the budget, because they set a minimum. So all the unions in here call the state reps, call the senator, call the governor, because we're getting screwed. Simple as that. It's not picking one union, one department over the other. There's not enough money. $30 million. And that's an average. more money than we would be getting right now, same tax base. That's a fact. That's math. And if anybody wants to debate it, we'll debate it. The problem is it's politics. And if we get a change, another community gets screwed. Then you know what? We should all go to the governor's office and demand it be fixed. We're the highest dense. We're the most diversified. We need the money. We need the money. That's A. B, and I've been saying it for years, we're running to the bottom. We're over 90 percent residential. Ninety percent. So that means we have 10 percent for commercial and industrial. Let me give you some quick numbers, because I'm going to use the benefit of everybody being here to show what I mean. Chelsea has a population of 40,000 people as of 2024. Their combined industrial, commercial, and tax base as of last year was $25 million. The city of Malden, I'm rounding up, is $17 million. We have a population of 66,000 of 2024. We're not gonna use Somerville because it's disgusting. Somerville, No, not in a bad way. I'm saying it's gross how much money they're getting from commercial and industrial. They almost have $50 million in commercial and residential. More than that's a 58% tax difference. Not that they're paying more, but we're not using that money for anything. It's not what you make. It's what you keep. You build a house, you build an apartment. There could be services in there, children. You've got to pay it. It's the government, not commercial. So for every dollar you're getting, you're probably keeping 98 cents. You're not spending more money in that. We need, you're right, and the person who wrote it said, we're not gonna change it fast. You're damn right we're not. I've been asking for it for five years. If we go to 100% residential, We either become Lawrence or Lowell, that's what's gonna happen, because every tax increase is going to all the residents. Simple as that. More importantly, I forgot about this. Personal property tax, that's on equipment, and I know Nate's here, if I get it wrong. Furniture, machines, all these things that usually goes to business. City of Marlin last year collected $4.8 million in personal property tax. Again, we don't share that revenue. It's called non-compensatory. Basically, it goes right in our pocket. We get to keep more of it. Everett got $12 million. 12. Somerville got 10. Saugus got 3. Medford got 4. We're the lowest. Let me see what Chelsea got. Chelsea got 6. That's tied to commercial rate. It's not hard to figure out what we got to do here, people. Call the state, try focusing on a plan and a vision, have a little patience, and increase our commercial tax base. Stop taking every little piece of property that we have, gas stations, convenience stores, and turning them into housing. It's killing us. It's killing us. And to be quite honest with you, it's killing you. Whether you're an employee here or a resident, it's killing you. I don't want to talk about hotel tax, right? Because we all know what that's going to do. Hotel tax, right? We're not going to talk about liquor licenses every year. We're not going to talk about meals tax every year, right? All the stuff that comes along with those businesses. And God forbid they hire somebody. Now, the other thing, and I'll turn it over. I will be quick. This is not court. I have a question, but I'll hold that to the end. My other point was Two communities around us, Melrose and Medford, did do an override. I told you about the commercial base. I told you how we're getting screwed there, right? So before Medford did their override, they laid off 32 people. It doesn't say. I don't think it was police or fire or teachers. I think it was just 32 people. And I know it's not good news for those 32 people, but they cleaned up their act. Melrose laid off 50. Good, better, and different mall than Hyde Mall. And again, we're in a front row seat. We're all collectively. I didn't vote for the budget last year because of this. Simply didn't vote for the budget last year. We saw the plane crash, we did nothing, and we hoped that we were going to land, and we did it. I didn't think it was going to come this fast, especially not before an election day. My point is, this is a fundamental structural deficit that has short-term solutions and long-term solutions. Asking the residents the first thing to do is put their hand in the pocket is not the best thing I think we should do. Now, I'm not saying we're probably not going to get there. But my last thing to the, and I don't know who to ask. My question is simply this. I know collectively it's small dollars. I understand that. And for some, I think for most of us, it's not going to be a painful endeavor. But I also hear that Malden's very poor and, you know, we have high heating bills. We're the second highest state in the country other than Hawaii to live in. So people are, People do not live comfortably without making probably $100,000. Let's be very realistic. So if you make $100,000, $30 a month is probably the difference between buying, I don't know, fruit and vegetables or a Big Mac. That's the reality. We see it every day. My question is, if this were to pass, does this solve our problem? Do we have to come back in two years or the year after and ask for more money? Because the way I see it, $8 million gets us back to what we borrowed last year out of our free cash to equal. I told everybody before, we have a structural deficit. That means there's a hole in the middle of the ground. And no matter how much money we pour in that hole, the hole is still going to be there. So it's not what happens this year that concerns me as much as if we don't fix that school spending formula, which is going to require us probably to give another $1.5 million this year. This isn't going to be an override. This is going to be a subscription model like Netflix. Every year, we're going to be asking for more than 2.5%. And then Malden will never become affordable. We will never be able to look people in the face. So we've got to collectively look at these problems. Leadership means two things. Understanding the problem, and to be quite honest, you're having the guts to fix the problem. And not everybody in here is probably going to be happy with that, but that's what we're going to have to do. But don't think we don't understand the problem. We do. Fix the tax base so we're not putting all the eggs in one basket, and have a plan, and work on the plan. And then collectively, let's get whoever the delegate is. If it's the senator, that's fine. If not? I would tell you, I would go to the state house with everybody in here. This is not going to go away. And in two years, there'll be a new council up here if this continues. I promise you that. And that's not what this is about. This is about making sure people can stay in their home, making affordable. And I'm not picking on any of my colleagues. We're all in it together, regardless how I voted. But the idea of everything's important and we're going to fix this in one year, to be quite honest here, it's bullshit. And everybody up here knows it. It's bullshit. Fix it, identify the problem, have some real decisions, because I don't believe it's do we make cuts and pass the override. It's we need to make cuts and pass the override and pray to God something happens good in two years, because that's the reality. I apologize for my time. Thank you very much, Madam President.

Thank you, Councillor Spadafora.

Councillor McDonald. Yeah, thank you so much. I actually just wanted to start by saying I know our mayor and his team brought charts with some of these some of the data about our spending and our financial situation relative to other communities. And could we hear what's on those charts and could we maybe position them so that the folks who are watching online can see what's on the charts that are here? Is that OK? That's perfectly fine. Could we I'm not sure which of you is best to describe the charts, but I think that we usually see the We've got some charts here. What's the best camera? Usually we get a camera.

Yeah, so I don't think we have them digitally available to show on screen, but if we could move them.

Move them so they're on camera, kind of facing the other direction, like we would get somebody standing at the podium.

Right, what is the best way to do that? Maybe if we just turn them around?

Yeah, just turn them around maybe.

Thank you. Thank you, Councillor O'Malley.

And I- How much of this though?

Can I ask our UMA folks who are on the cameras, can they see these charts? Because I actually, I don't know whether this is going to work. Thank you for blocking me, Ron. Really appreciate that. I think we're going to be able to see them best if they're next to the podium facing the other way like we would see somebody on camera.

You know what I'm saying?

All right, there we go. Oh, we got some charts.

Oh, there we go, there we go, there we go.

Could someone, could one of you from your team please come and just describe what's on these charts for folks who can't read them at home? Can you just describe what's on the charts? Can you, please Chuck, just read the charts.

Okay. So, Thank you. So I just want to reiterate, as the mayor said in his opening comments, we have a website that was created, cityofmalden.org backslash override. These charts are all out there along with a bunch of other information, a link where a homeowner can plug in their address, get their actual assessed value. see what the actual override would mean to them on a yearly basis. But yeah, we can just go through these charts one by one. Like I said, Right now, we're looking at the required school spending percentage one. Yeah. So I think that, to Counselor Spadafora's point earlier, that's the crux of the problem here, where this is the only slide where Malden is the highest to the far right. Or the blue, the tall one on the right. The tall blue on the right, yeah. We're required to contribute more money.

I can. That's on the screen.

Yeah. To the school department than any other city around us. I mean, that's what's crippling us.

And can you just describe it? So at the top, Malden is 40 something at the top of that. This is required. This is the amount that the state says we have to spend on our schools or we are violating the law. And that's for 40 something percent. I can't. OK, we can't.

These are live on the website right now. That's correct. I did check that before the meeting started. So for the public watching. If they want to navigate to city of Malden dot org slash override, all of these charts are working so people can follow along in real time if they would like to.

On the left hand side of the website, there's all the different links. There's a link that will bring you right to all of these slides along with explanations. The next slide to the right. It shows tax receipts, local receipts, unrestricted aid broken up for last fiscal year. You'll see a trend here. Malden is the lowest. out of all the surrounding cities and towns. The one on the bottom shows police and fire per capita spending for last fiscal year. Again, Malden is the lowest. So we hear a lot about Malden has a spending problem. We're spending less per capita than every other city or town around us. We move over here, total expenditures, not just for police or fire, but total expenditures per capita. Malden, again, is listed in blue on the left-hand side. We're the lowest of all seven communities. The slide on the bottom, I think, is a good highlight to Malden. We have the lowest average single family home tax bill for FY25. We're, again, on the left-hand side in blue. As the mayor mentioned, we've been really good at containing debt. The slide over to the right. Yeah, so Malden is on the left hand side in blue. We're the second lowest. We have the second lowest debt payment in FY25. I can't see who the Medford is the only community lower than us. And then other government spending, which is DPW, general government, city hall, human services, broken up spending per capita. Again, Malden is the second community to the left in blue. We're the second lowest out of the seven in spending per capita there as well. So I think it's important just to note that the slides definitely show that spending-wise, as compared to our peers, we're definitely spending much less per capita than comparable cities and towns. But again, to Councilor Spadafora's point, that first slide that we looked at, required school spending as a percentage of local taxes for the school, that's what's really crippling us. As Councillor Spadafora said, it's upwards of $30 million a year that we're losing out on because of that broken formula. Thank you, Chuck.

Yes. Yeah. Sorry, I was just taking a breath and I know I'm trying to interrupt.

Not at all. I really do appreciate. Yeah, I was looking at these charts also. And so you can look at them in a little more detail. Yeah, I think. OK, this is great. We're moving them back. Thank you. Appreciate that. And so. I, you know, I do just want to clarify the purpose of sending something to committee is so we can ask questions. So I hope we can at least pay our mayor the respect of sending this to committee. But I want to say, you know, this sucks, gang. Like, I'm frustrated. I think we're all frustrated. Can we agree that we're all frustrated? Is anybody not frustrated? I think we're all frustrated. We're frustrated because This economy, the inflation is way too high. People can't afford to live. We're frustrated because of the housing crisis is pricing people out of the community. We're frustrated because we want to support our dedicated public servants and make sure that they get paid fairly. We're frustrated because the costs of health care are through the roof. 15% last year. And anybody who runs a business, an organization, who has tried to make payroll, has taken a look at health care costs, I mean, you just shudder. And that's not stopping anytime soon. So we're frustrated about the reality that we're in. We're frustrated about what the state requires us to do. And I want to spend a little more time on that. I'm going to come back to that. We are frustrated about the fact that we have not been able to grow our commercial tax base the way that some of our neighbors have. I completely agree that we have to talk a lot more about that. And we're frustrated that it doesn't seem like we've been in a public conversation yet. Although I have to say, Mr. Mayor, this has worked to start a public conversation about what is needed. And when I listen to the folks who have written in and explained their thoughts to and for this override already, it impresses on me how important it is to make sure that this is a public conversation. The nature of an operating override like this is that the people decide, voters decide, actually not us. It's not the people at this. We get to say whether you decide, the voters, but it actually is up to the voters of this community to decide the future of this city. And I think that that is appropriate. I hope that we're not seeking to short circuit the will of the voters by trying to grandstand on any individual agenda. I actually hope everyone has not made up your mind at this point because this is the first meeting we are having about this friends. Like let's ask a lot of questions. Let's dig into the data. I think that there's a really strong case just to start out that Malden has in fact managed its money and gone through a lot of different things to get here. It is. I mean, anyone who sat at this table should be able to show that this is 100 percent not the first thing we're doing. Mr. Mayor, you started by ticking off a whole series of things that we've already done that we've all often voted on. We've restructured our payments on pensions. We're going to a new health care pool. We have not added positions in the last year. We've reduced the debt service, cut that in half in the last couple of years. And we continue to spend low despite being a high need community. So the reality is, though, that we have to decide what we're going to do. Completely agree we need more commercial taxes. And yes, that's right, that takes years. It takes a concentrated effort. I really don't want to see us go to the voters and ask you to weigh in without being really clear about how we're going to kickstart that whole piece of our leadership. That's on us to help make that happen. It absolutely is. But as angry as we are, as frustrated as we are, and in so many ways legitimately so, We have to decide what we're going to do. And the choices that we have in front of us for next year are pretty stark. I want to go back to the school funding piece because this is unique to Malden. The other the other cities that we're comparing ourselves to don't have this situation here. Right. And we talked about this a lot at this table. So if you know all these things like just bear with me for folks who are just tuning in the state. law says here's a formula and it tells you how much it costs to educate the kids in your community and we got high need kids in our community we've got great schools i'm a parent i got two kids in the schools and that formula says this is how much it costs we look at everything we look at the needs of your kids we look at where they're coming from are they english language learners do they have special education needs and this is how much it costs And then the state says, of that cost, here's how much you should pay, local community. And they have a separate formula for that. And that formula, my friends, does not work. It does not work. And that is not news. We have passed multiple resolutions. I've sponsored them. Other people have sponsored them. We've had our state delegation. We have been pushing on this. That is absolutely right. And it has not changed. The one thing that has happened is there is now a task force looking into this with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. And by God, I'm going to be at those hearings and tell them what I think needs to change about the formula. Again, not going to happen by the start of the next fiscal year. So if you're out here wondering, why has Malden not managed its finances better? I would just point, if you look at nothing else, just know that we are at the floor, and I mean the minimum. We're checking dollars to make sure that we're not breaking the law about how much we have to spend on our schools right now, and that that has gone up $20 million since 2023. The state law, that is what's different about. That's why it's not just your family pocketbook. OK, the the state doesn't come in and say you have to spend $20 million more on the schools or you're breaking the law. That is different. And they have not given us a single new tool to do that. And yet still, we have kept spending low. We've done all these other things. So that is a huge part of why we're here today, even though we are in very good company with Medford and Melrose and Stoneham and pretty much every other city that doesn't have a giant casino parked in it that is, you know, basically an ATM for the local city budget or assembly row is pretty much the same thing. So we don't have that, but we do have choices and we can be as frustrated as we want, but we have to figure out what are we going to do? Do we want to absorb the cuts that would be required to close this gap? And it's not going to come out of the schools because we we can't even if we wanted to. And we should invest in our schools. That's great. But it is going to come out of everything else in the city. It's going to come out of the hide of, yes, fire and police and library and public safety and public health and everything else. And that sucks that that's the choice. But that is the choice that we are at. And I really look forward to talking about that in the Finance Committee. Oh, and there's one other thing is that we all voted for the vote. I mean, the city passed the vote that we didn't. The voters passed the new funding for the Metropolitan North Vocational Technical High School. That's a $300 million project of which we pay about 10%. So, you know, I think we do the best we can here. But I really want us to talk about this in finance and see what all of our questions are. No stone unturned before we decide whether to proceed with this. I really appreciate the honesty of asking our residents to engage in an adult conversation, a mature and honest and open conversation about what city we want to have. That's the conversation I want to have. That's the conversation we're going to be having in finance. I urge you to send in your questions as we consider this and let's figure out what it takes to invest in our city and allow our voters to guide us in the path forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor McDonald. Councillor Winslow.

Yeah, thank you, Councillor McDonald and fellow councillors. I mean, you can hear people are very passionate about this. I mean, you're Family budget is always a very tight thing. And I actually thank the mayor and the team for bringing this forward now. I mean, I always look at I've been in the over the past few years looking at getting a new refrigerator, a new car. And the sooner you start thinking and putting the numbers together in your budget, the better. I mean, if you wait to the point where your refrigerator breaks down, not only do you have the cost of new refrigerator, but all that food that was in there gets spoiled. So I think that's the type of thing we have to think of if we don't. if we're not there proactively with DPW fixing some potholes, people get flat tires. If we don't have a fire force that's meeting, you know, insurance standards, your insurance rates go up. So we have to remember there are consequences to making sure, and I do have to say, having worked in Somerville, having worked with Medford and Everett in terms of the Telecom City project, now River's Edge, working up in Gloucester, I've seen a lot of different things happening in the city. I do have to say, Our financial team is very solid. And so I think of this thing. I think we all as counselors, we know the school funding formula is obviously we are a big disadvantage. I think one of the things I often say about that dilemma is having worked on regional things. There's about 10 communities that fall into this category of having a high percentage of expectation. And we have been trying to work with those gateway communities. The challenge is sometimes there's not enough dogs to pull this. If 10 communities benefit from some change in legislation, but the other 340 lose, that's a difficult political situation. So that's what we hear. It's a tough thing. It's an unfortunate thing. I think we still need to continue to work at that. I even proposed to Senator Lewis to try to create some incentive on override so that if we passed an override, that we would get some extra state money. So we would say that he wants to see us put in our share. Well, if we're going to do that as a community, we should get some more benefit to break that logjam. But that's the type of thing we have to be when we get stuck. What I found out is we have to be more creative sometimes to just, you know, we at the legislative level. So that's the type of thing. But, you know, I do have to say, I mean, it's we wouldn't be New Englanders if we weren't fighting about some taxes coming up. That's that's New England for us. So it's definitely something But there's also this truism about, you know, there's nothing certain but death and taxes. I mean, that's the type of thing we struggle with it. We do that. And, you know, the reality is, is under current law, prop two and a half that people, not the city council, make the decision about if your tax rates are going to go up more than two and a half percent. And, you know, for forty five years, no mayor or council has stepped forward to ask this residents to even consider this. And so, like I say, this is very unprecedented. And I do, you know, Mayor Christensen, he worked for the Middlesex Sheriff's Department. He has a great financial team. And I know, you know, Ron Hogan's here. These are Malden high grads or whatever, Malden graduates who know the grittiness here. They know in their heart that, Malden is a community that is a working class community. They are so aware. And that's why we've gotten this far. They have done everything we could to try to make sure we spent wisely. And we've consolidated our inspection department to make that more efficient. We reworked our health department. Our police and fire department are meeting great state and national standards. But we also have not really expanded those even though our population has gone up 10%. So we have done a lot. So I think the thing about starting this out now is we have time to figure out and listen to all the public input. Yes, are there places in the budget where we can scrutinize more? But it's also the type of thing to craft something that we can at least question that we could put out to the voters. But also work with our state delegation to see, I know if you're on a fixed income, a senior citizen, that's really tough. I mean, literally you get maybe 30 bucks a month extra in terms of your cost of living increases. So that's a really tough thing. So we have to see if there's ways in crafting this. We have passed a tax increase. I worked with the group that helped create the Community Preservation Act in Malden, which is a small, you know, maybe $50 a year increase that people voted on. And I give credit to that team. They made sure they took set it up so that every senior exemption, everything we could do to make sure that had the least impact on our residents was done. So that's one of the things I think we all will be committing to as counselors. is whatever proposal we will be put out there, we will work as hard as we can to make sure there's nobody that this might tip them in. Like if you have a homeowner and your stove or refrigerator is gonna break down, I mean, mine costs about 600 bucks. So we're talking about, that's a good amount of people, but for something. So it is trying to figure out how we're gonna pay for that. And I say, if we, one of the things, I'm very happy with since I've come on the council is before we were on the council, we had the council here had voted like $50 million to help fix our water lines and pave streets. And one of the things I observed was that we had not hired any staff to oversee that money. And it was spent very unwisely. And since we've increased our engineering staff and other type of things, the money that we've put out there is being spent more wisely and efficiently. So there's type of things you can be penny wise and pound foolish. And so that's the type of thing we have to look at that. We do need to see where we can pinch, but let's not be so foolish that we get to the point where we have so many potholes that maybe you're saving, you know, 300 bucks a year in taxes. But hey, it's $600 to fix your couple of tires that got flat or that your your homeowners insurance going up. I mean, look what's happening in Florida down there. So those type of things we have to be aware of. We have a great fire department, other things, public safety. So that is the type of thing. So I really, I am supportive of sending this to committee. And I really think we do have to listen to people, make sure we come up with, tap every avenue, go to our state delegation to make sure that if we advance this to the voters to vote, that that proposal we put forward is not going to put anybody in fiscal peril, that we have every opportunity. So that's really what I think. We have time. It's better than if your landlord tells you nine months from now your rent is going up. That's disturbing. It's very upsetting. But in the end, if you wait till that time your eviction notice comes in, that's not the time to think. We have time to prepare. I give credit to the mayor for sticking this up now to put it even in election season, to put it out there to do this so we have this conversation and we have time to talk now and Before, I think the other thing, if anybody was about 2008, one of the things that also motivated me as a counselor, the thing that happened in 2008, 2011, when we went to blue bags, one of the biggest things that upset so many people about that, besides the cost, was the fact that it literally happened at the 11th hour with no community input. So I give credit to Mayor Christensen. Rather than pulling something out of his hat on June 30th, 2026 to balance the 2027 budget we're going to have this conversation now and we can work on it so so let's be open-minded let's have that conversation you know we are we all love Malden and but we also want to make sure that no one gets put over a fiscal cliff on what this happens but but you heard from the public comments there are people that are willing to try to work this through so we have to work that balance through so I just committed to talking about this committee, having a great community conversation, coming up with some proposal that is as palpable as possible. And ultimately, that's our role as a council. Then we bring it to the people. That's the people's right to vote on it. And then we as councillors will deal with the, you know, we will follow the people's will. So that's really, we just want to make sure we put something out there that people can really educate themselves about, make that consideration. And we as councillors will all be committed follow the people's will so that's really what i have to say just just one last thing talking about commercial development when i was i worked at city somerville when they were planning out assembly square um and and and one of the things i have to say was that there was a determined group of residents who supported they wanted initially that was supposed to be a stop and shop to be uh ikea the residents there were determined to make sure that if they brought a new orange line station into um Assembly Square, that that was going to be a major development. The city, to make sure that happened, the state wasn't coming up with a match. They voted on a $50 million bond. I mean, you can see why Somerville has such a high bond rate. But to get the level of commercial development that you want, we've got to be bolder as a city. So as we work on our master plan, you've got to remember, we can't fix ourselves to three-story buildings across the city to think that we're going to make up for the commercial type of thing that's happening in Somerville or Everett. That casino ain't three stories tall. The buildings in Assembly Square or Union Square aren't three stories tall. So if we really think we're going to build a commercial tax base and not be bolder, we are fooling ourselves. And like I say, I've seen it. Those communities plunged deeply into that. That's something we have to think about. We're going to have to go through that process too. tax base they built is not just by accident. They really leaned into that. They put money into it and they redid their zoning. Somerville zoning is totally different. Our zoning is stuck in the 1980s. So it's the type of thing we are talking about commercial development as a solution. And that's and and Councilor Winslow, that's five years out, two councilors waiting with their light on. So that's what I see. Let's lean in. Let's get this conversation going. Thank you. And go forward from there. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilor Colón Hayes. Okay, thank you very much. So I feel like we sat through a few Finance 101 lectures, so I'm not going to go into any of these details. What I am going to say is, We'll be honest, I have spoken previously about a prop two and a half override. Personally, I feel that I am privileged enough to think, yeah, I could I can afford that. And, you know, we get we pay for and we don't want to make making any cuts. No way are we should we be cutting anyone who's in this room, especially our safety folks. But this isn't about me and it's about. The people and I immediately heard the second this was put on the agenda, tons of phone calls from people very concerned and worried. And of course, you know, we need to listen to everybody. I also just want to say that none of this should come as a surprise. I've only been on the city council for four years, but Mr. Hogan's come to us. I can remember at least twice with huge financial issues that we all heard. I put them out on my Facebook immediately just to let everybody else know we are having some problems coming down the road. At that point, I immediately asked, and this was I think it was four years ago, let's talk about a debt override. And that was because we were talking about the garages and how much they were going to cost us to repair. And also the vote, which I voted on. I love the vote. We need to have that there. But we knew both of those were coming down the road and that they were going to cost us a lot of money. Um, I don't want to look like we could have, should have would have, but I'm going to vote yes, of course, to, you know, more talk into the finance committee, but I am so still on the fence about what we need to do as a community to get us through this. We have lots of questions. Um, we need to, you know, ask more what we can do before we put this on, um, the ballot. One of them I had talked about last night was, um, an audit and not the audit that we do annually. We all know we do an audit annually. I mean, a deeper dive audit and. one that comes from the state and we need to talk about it. I did read some of the mayor's memo and I like the fact that he was talking about bringing it to the CEIC committee to have some community discussions. I think that's great, but I would love to ask that it's a combination, right? This is coming from you. I'd love to work with your office. I don't think it should just fall on us, but if we're going to hold meetings, we should probably all hold them together. Um, so we'll talk about that in the meeting. Um, I don't want it just to fall on us. I think we should as a city be working as a team, legislative executive branch, um, to get us through this. So I look forward, um, to talking more about this, listening more really from the people and not lecturing. I heard, you know, a lot of lecturing tonight. So, um, I'll vote yes. Please have this amount of people showing up to all our meetings and I will be on, um, every social media and anything that I can please, you know, putting out all information and ask us questions and we need to, you know, get us all through this. And again, I am on the fence, so I'm going to be listening to everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Cologne-Hayes.

Councillor O'Malley.

Thank you. You know, I think something that's really important is that we don't fearmonger no matter what your position is. You know, and I have heard that, you know, if we don't do this, you know, we're going to be cutting rank and file. Employees and I think it's important for people to know that that's a choice. That's not that's not a requirement that we cut rank and file employees but it's also true that what we're dealing with right now is the consequences of Years of bad decisions that we've made and these bad decisions To be clear the responsibility of all of us. This is not all on the mayor's shoulders by any means We are all elected officials. We've been hearing this from our financial team for years and I've been on the council now for 10 years. We were talking about it 10 years ago. We're still talking about it now. And during those years, we had all the information we possibly could need. We've seen this happening. I've mentioned this many times. Many of my colleagues have mentioned this. But what has happened, in my opinion, this is my personal opinion, is that it's tough to get reelected every two or four years or whatever your term is. And so oftentimes there's a disincentive to actually address the structural problems that Councillor Spadafora was talking about. You know, people often put their short-term political aspirations over the long-term health of the city. And I want to also reiterate what has been said, including Councillor Winslow, which I was happy to hear. A lot of this responsibility does fall at the feet of our state delegation. And I'm going to say it, particularly Senator Jason Lewis. Senator Jason Lewis came into this room when we were talking about our education formula and said that Malden doesn't pay enough taxes. Direct quote. Paraphrase. I don't want to get sued. And I want to say to the public, when does Councilor Spadafora, Simonelli, the mayor, and myself all agree? And Neil Kennan. When do we all agree? I would say that that shows you where the problem is at. And we can't just be putting the fact that we don't want to upset the apple cart and we want to preserve our political aspirations because we want to go for that next thing. Let's actually solve the problems. Let's work together as a community. And what has been very explicitly said is that the state delegation, at least on the Senate side, will not help change the Chapter 70 formula until we pass an override. At the same time, our Department of Secondary and Elementary Education left the city. The state is literally turning its back on Malden. They are leaving Malden. And it's not just the education formula where they're turning their backs on us, but the loss of DESE impacts our revenues from our meals taxes to being able to increase the daytime density so our businesses survive. How in the world did DESE leave? They went to Everett. So I would say that when it comes to a prop two and a half override, the council really, there's no restrictions on where that money can be spent. The city council has no control over where that money will be spent. It goes into general revenue. Our finance committee though, their only role is to recommend cuts to the budget. And that's a responsibility that has not happened in probably close to 10 years now. When I first came on, there were often discussions about we need to cut this budget line item. so that we can maintain the long-term health. That hasn't been happening. I appreciate that Councilor MacDonald has made the Finance Committee accessible, but it's not just about hearing the problems, it's about solving the problems. And I will say that before we do a Prop 2 1⁄2 override, we really need to look at other ways to solve this problem. Councilor Colón Hayes had mentioned some stuff about debt, so a debt exclusion, is basically when you put something on the ballot and you say, hey, we want to do a capital project and we need the funds to do this. The way we have been funding capital projects is from the general fund. If you're spending your general revenue fund money, that should be going to operations on capital projects, you don't have any money left. So rather than funding lead pipes, we could be funding lead pipes out of a debt exclusion. We could be funding new schools out of a debt exclusion. could be funding the the voc debt out of a debt exclusion parks a new fire station road work storm drains currently that's all coming out of general revenue new growth i appreciate the mayor and the in the team for looking to bring new growth to our community but new growth is how we get out of this and i know that there has been an anti-development thing for a long time but new growth is above and beyond the 2.5 percent If you encourage high quality development, that is gonna bring in more revenue for us above the two and a half percent. So we can actually afford the things that we expect. And I'll give you an example. We had two class A office buildings that were being proposed on Pleasant Street. But unfortunately, because of the permitting and delays that happened at the local level, that pushed it into the pandemic and then into the tariff wars. And it's not possible for them to build these commercial buildings anymore. a base that Councillor Spadafora wants to build. Another way to do this is to bring new businesses. So changing our zoning to allow for more buy-right commercial and retail businesses. I actually can say that Councillor Spadafora and I crossed the aisle many years ago, maybe in 2019, and we passed a comprehensive reform for commercial development along the Malden River. These are the things that we can do. It's not just about saying, hi, we need to reach into your pocket and take your money. I appreciate that this is the challenge, but the mayor needs a team here. We as a city need to be together on what is the problem. The problem is the education formula. So I don't want to belabor the point, but we really need to resolve that. And I will also say that I don't think it's fair to the public to have this election in the middle of winter. I just don't think that's fair. It really reminds me of what happened with the Vogue, which was, I think, the lowest turnout election that we ever had. And as Councillor McDonald stated, the Vogue debt is one of the other reasons why we're having a significant issue. That doesn't mean I'm anti-Vogue. That doesn't mean I don't want there to be trades. My father was a union painter. I want that. Preferably, I would have liked a Vogue to be built in Malden so it's more convenient for our students to go there. But, you know, we have what we have. Let's try to figure out a way to resolve this. And I would fully support a debt exclusion because then I know it's going to lead pipes. I know it's going to schools. I know it's going to a park. There's another way. I hope we will explore that in finance. Thank you all. Thank you to the mayor for bringing this to the public, because I do agree with Councilor McDonald. It has brought this to the surface, and I think that we're going to resolve it this time. I think that collectively we're going to be moving forward. We know what the problem is, and we're going to tackle it. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor O'Malley. So at this time, I'll be looking for a motion to refer this to finance. Oh my goodness. Okay, I'll take Councilor Sica, seconded by Councilor Taylor. All in favor? Aye. Okay, that motion carries. Thank you all for coming. Next order of business. Are we back to the consent agenda? Do you mind reading that? Okay, I appreciate it. We can, we don't have a vote on all the rest of the agenda. Are you okay?

Okay, all right, we're good, we're good.

I don't think the hearing is going to be there.

Thank you.

okay thank you everybody for that moving on to the next order of business 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 license committee and one paper to be referred to rules and ordinance does any council have a desire to remove any of these items from the consent agenda for the purpose of further discussion okay a motion by councillor crowe seconded by councillor Colón Hayes all in favor

Aye. That carries. Next order of business.

Council will hold a public hearing on National Grid petition to install a new poll on paper 362-25. Do we have a representative from National Grid in the meeting with us tonight or online? If they are online, please raise your hand. Okay, great, thank you. Okay, so we have Cameron Hansel.

Oh, whoa. Oh, no.

Sorry, Cameron, just hang on with us for a minute. Cameron, if you could unmute yourself, please, we're going to make you a presenter. I'm going to read the paper into the record first and then we will actually. OK. Paper 362-25 petition, Massachusetts Electric Company, DBA National Grid, plan number 31192064. National grid to install one SO pole P2363-84 on Waite Street with a sidewalk anchor and to install guy wire from P2363. to P2363-84 to prevent P2363 from leaning over. And this is a public hearing on this petition.

Okay, so I will declare the public hearing open. Anyone wishing to speak in favor, please? Well, I guess we can recognize Cameron. If you're able to speak, you can unmute and we can recognize you to state your name and address for the record.

Hmm. Cameron, are you able to turn on your microphone and your camera so that we can speak with you?

Even just the microphone would be fine. I don't know, can't hear anything. Where is it muted? The audio at the bottom?

That's the computer that's muted. We should be able to hear him through the- Cameron, are you able to hear us?

Yes.

Oh, there you are. There we go. That's better.

Thank you. Cameron is with us.

Okay. Can you hear me now?

Yes, we can. You can go ahead, Cameron. Thank you.

Okay. So, yeah, basically the new poll is going to go on sidewalk on wait street uh and then there will be additional supports tying it to the pole at the corner of wait street and church street to prevent it from falling over okay do we have questions for cameron councillor winslow this is in your ward right yeah okay oh sorry hang on let me light you up one second

Okay, Councillor Winslow.

So yeah, I met with National Grid as well as the Flins who live at this location. The Flins actually raised this with National Grid. What's happening is that there's a line of holes on Church Street that connects across Wade Street. And what's happening is that the poles on Church Street are pulling their line, pulling the pole and then pulling the line at their house. They're concerned that their power is going to get snapped. So the purpose of this pole is to stabilize that. Often when you have power going around a corner, the poles may get pulled out by the tension from other poles. to put in a stabilizing pole. And, you know, the Flins were happy. The location is, Wade Street is actually one of a few streets from Ward 6 that actually has a grassy strip between the sidewalk and that home. So the pole will be located there. They'll be in a location that's not going to interfere with the trees. So it's actually pretty good. So it's just something that'll be helpful to stabilize the, you know, the poles and make sure that others don't get out of alignment and stuff like that. and also make sure that Flynn's power doesn't go out. So, I am supportive of this and, you know, we had that conversation, so yeah.

Okay. Thank you, Councillor Winslow. Any other questions from among the council for Cameron? Okay. What's that?

You just want to open the hearing end or what?

Oh, sorry, Councillor Spadafora. Go right ahead. Cameron, is there anything else going on that poll?

The new poll, no. It's only there for, it'll only be there for support.

So nothing's going on that poll. There's no other telecommunications, nothing else. You're not going to lease it out to a cable box.

No, it's a single owned only national grid poll.

All right. I just want to, I put my footnote in here, not that I'm against that stuff, but this is, this is the trick with national grid. They put polls up and then they rent it out. And then we have 15 polls that, hinder I think progress but I understand the situation for Council Winslow it's structural and I want to make sure that's safe but I think sometimes we get taken advantage of because you guys put poles up and then rent it out and then the neighbors call up and say why is there six poles in front of my house and two of them got electricity on them the other ones got cable boxes so as long as you got that on the record I'm fine with it I'm happy to support Council Winslow's initiative thank you okay thank you Councillor Spadafora Councillor O'Malley

I'm sure that they don't have a plan to do it now because the pole doesn't exist. But that doesn't change the fact that their intention can change. And that would still be true, what he said. I think the question is going to be whether or not electricity will be run to that pole. That would enable what you're describing. Good point. But if you wanted to put a condition that there would be no electricity or no small cell antennas on the pole.

Or any cave boxes or anything.

Yeah, I don't I can't speak to cable boxes on the polls, but. Yeah, that's what I thought.

OK, so let's conclude the hearing before we obviously do any conditions. Does anybody else in the chamber wish to speak in favor of this petition? Going once, going twice. OK, seeing none, does anybody wish to speak in opposition to this petition? OK, seeing none, I will close the hearing and I will entertain a motion with or without conditions on whether to grant this petition. Yep. Councillor Winslow.

So my suggestion is we authorize this petition for the purpose of a sidewalk anchor pole that does not include power or other accompaniments. So that's really, they normally don't, so I think that should be working.

Do we have a second to that motion? I'll make a second. Okay, on a motion by Councillor Winslow, seconded by Councillor Spadafora, all in favor?

Aye.

Okay, that motion carries. The petition is granted. Thank you, Cameron.

Thank you.

So the standard positions with the granting of a petition such as this is that the engineer will be called when Dig Safe is notified, the streets and sidewalks to be restored to the satisfaction of the Director of Public Works, and to include Councilor Winslow's condition as well of no power of the accompaniments on the pole now or in the future.

Okay, so next order of business.

Paper 364 dash 25 order authorizing the city of Malden to borrow one point five million dollars from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development or any other entity associated therewith to support a second phase of construction for the Malden River Works project.

OK, Councillor McDonald.

I can save us all a little time by noting that I think we all love and support this project, but we need some time to talk about this paper. So I would just to be clear, this is another one. Because all financial papers are proposed by the mayor. And I, as the city council finance chair, put my name on it to escort the paper through the process. But this is not my paper. So we will, I'd like to make a motion that we refer this to the finance committee.

Before we take that vote, I'm going to ask the clerk to actually read the memo that accompanies the paper with apologies. We should have done that first. Sure.

Dear members of the City Council, the City of Malden is seeking a Section 108 loan in the amount of $1.5 million for the second vertical construction phase of the Malden River Works project. The second phase of work will include the construction of a boathouse in the Malden River Works Park and a salt shed in the DPW yard. This construction will cost an estimated $4.1 million. We are planning for approximately $1.1 million of the project's existing grant funding to go towards this phase. We are also pursuing other funding sources, including Baird Foundation funding and a grant through the state's Office of Coastal Zone Management, though neither of these funding sources is confirmed as of now. As you may know, Section 108 loan programs is a federal program for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cities like ours can borrow up to five times our annual Community Development Block Grant Entitlement Award, less our outstanding commitments and balances, which in our case comes to $3.2 million. Previous Section 108 loans include Roosevelt Park, 2018 Road Repairs, the Senior Center and the Mayor's Housing Task Force, now called Problem Property Unit. As with previous Section 108 loans, principal and interest would be paid over 15 years using CDBG funds. Your authorization of this borrowing will allow us to proceed in applying for the loan, which will bring us closer to determining likely principal and interest payments. As you also know, the Malden River Works project will be impactful on multiple levels. The project not only creates access to one of Malden's greatest natural resources, the Malden River, but it also addresses critical flooding issues and needed improvements in the DPW yard. Boathouse construction is particularly necessary to support Malden High School's popular rowing team, and salt shed construction is necessary to prevent winter rock salt runoff into the Malden River. The entire project has broad community support, Thanks to its active and motivated steering committee. Please let me know if you need additional information, and thank you for your attention to this. Madison Sealy, Gary Christensen, Mayor, City of Malden.

Okay, thank you. So on a motion by Councilor McDonald, and who seconded that? Me. Councilor Colón Hayes. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay, that passes favorably. To refer to finance. Next order of business.

Paper 365-25, order that the city council will vote whether to go into executive session with legal counsel for the city regarding the matter of Tufts Construction Incorporated v. City of Malden for the purpose of exemption three, Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 301, Section 21A3, to discuss strategy with respect to litigation where such discussion in open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigation position of the city, if so declared by the chair. And if so, allowed by the body to admit Maria Louise special assistant to the mayor. Roll call required.

Yep. Okay. So citing exemption three of Mass General Law Chapter 30A, Section 21E, wherein discussing paper 424-25 in open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the city's litigating position. Do I have a motion to enter into executive session? Motion. Okay, on a motion by Councillor Sica. We have discussion on the motion. Councillor O'Malley?

I would move that we have this discussion in open session. We've started doing that. We started talking about our legal cases in open session now. So I'd prefer that we do that.

Thank you. Do we have discussion on Councillor O'Malley's motion? Is that in the hall?

The paper?

No, the motion.

We don't have a second on the motion yet, so. I'll second Councilor Sica's motion.

So, Councilor Sica's motion prevails because it was taken up first, correct clerk? Okay, so on Councilor Sica's motion, seconded by Councilor Crowe to enter executive session. Do we need a roll call vote? We do. Okay, clerk, will you please call the roll?

Council Colón Hayes? Yes. Council Condon? Yes. Council Crowe? Councilor McDonald? Yes. Councilor O'Malley? No. Councilor Sica? Yes. Councilor Simonelli is no longer with us. Councilor Spadafora? Yes. Councilor Taylor? Yes. Councilor Winslow? Yes. Council President Linehan?

Yes. Okay, the council will enter into executive session. The body will not- We can certainly do personal privilege, is that okay with everyone? Okay, so we will do personal privilege. We will not reconvene after. We will adjourn directly from executive session after we conduct personal privilege. Councilor Sica for personal privilege.

Thank you, Councilwoman Linehan. I just want to remind everybody that this Sunday is our annual public safety day down at Linden Park. It is from- I'm sorry, sir. We're still in session, everybody. 11 a.m. Can we please have a little quiet in the chamber? 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. I'm sorry. Council of Santa Clara. It's Public Safety Day on Sunday. I know, but I didn't realize you were there. We're going to do personal privilege right now, so God knows we might not be out of here till midnight. But just want to remind everybody that this Sunday, rain or shine, Public Safety Day, Linden Park. I unfortunately will not be present this year. I'm so sad over this, but I have a family wedding that I need to go to in Arizona, and nobody wanted to change the date, so. But it's fine. It'll run perfectly. You won't even know that I'm not there. So I hope everyone has an amazing time on Sunday and I look forward to seeing pitches of everybody. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Sica. Councillor Winslow.

Yeah, I just I wanted to thank the Ward 6 voters who came out for the September 16th primary. I'm honored to have been the leading candidate there and remind everybody we do have the election on November 4th. So I'm so everybody. I saw the councillors at large yesterday at that debate. Congratulations to everybody on that. It's great to get the word out to voters. Just a few things. Councillor Crowe and I will actually be at Public Safety Day working to give out some bike helmets, so that is happening. We'll fill in there a bit for Councillor Sica. And then on October 26th at the Salemwood School, the Maplewood Association is hosting the Halloween event there with the Salemwood PTO. So I'm looking forward to having people come out on the 26th. I think it's starting around 11 o'clock and going till about three. So just want to let people know about that. Bye.

Wonderful. Thank you, Councillor Taylor.

Did I not? Oh, hang on. I shut it off. I don't know what I'm doing.

You're all set now.

Thank you. So I just want to remind everybody tomorrow we're hosting Italian Heritage Celebration. October is Italian Heritage Month, and it'll be right at the City Hall Plaza. So please stop by. I've been told that the Traveling Acaficari is going to make affogatos, so gelato with espresso, as well as there will be cannolis, donation from Bianchi's Sausages, and panadosi bread. So learn a lot about Italian history and culture, and come celebrate with us tomorrow night from 5 to 7. And then October 18th, we will be Haunting the Woods at Pine Banks again. And I hope you will all join us. It'll start at 5.30, go to 8 p.m. So get in touch. We'll have flyers out soon, but get in touch if you want to participate. Thanks.

Awesome. Thank you. And last but not least, Councilor O'Malley. Oh, that's okay. Everybody's hot with their...

Thank you very much. Um, I just want to thank the volunteers that came out to Waits Mount this weekend for a cleanup. Uh, we had a great, we had amazing weather and a great turnout and I really appreciate it to everyone. A special thank you to the great Malden outdoors, uh, and DJ for organizing, uh, you know, more volunteers, particularly from the climbing community. Um, I also want to give a shout out to, the fact that the Live Like Becca Scholarship Fund night or day is occurring on Saturday, October 4th at 2 p.m. You can still buy your tickets. It would be great to show up and remember the great contributions of a good friend of mine, Becca Knight, who unfortunately passed away from a tragic whitewater rafting trip. And we get together every year to remember her and to fundraise for scholarships for Malden students. That same day, there will also be a climbing festival at Waits Mount put on by the Great Malden Outdoors. I believe it's at 3 p.m., but please go and check out the time to confirm. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor O'Malley. Okay, we will reconvene in executive session, and once again, we will not be returning here. We are going to adjourn directly from our executive session. Thank you, everyone, for coming tonight.