Malden City Council 03- 24- 2026

Okay, good evening, everyone. Apologies for the delay tonight due to our tech issues. Thank you so much for your patience. The council is now going to come to order at 7.23. I'll 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, 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. You okay? Okay.

Oh, no.

Did the chair break? Okay. Do we need to get a new chair? We can probably rule that one over if it's broken.

Is Councilor O'Malley gone?

Okay, moment of silence. Okay, apologies. We're going to continue with our moment of silence. Okay. Thank you. The Clerk will now call the roll.

Colón Hayes, Condon, Crowe, Linehan, McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Taylor, Winslow

Council President Linehan here. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Okay. 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. We also have a member of the Blue and Gold here recording. So just to be aware, there will be audio and video recordings of tonight's meeting. First order of business.

Representative from Friends of the Malden Public Library will appear before the council to present their annual calendar of events. and to update the city on projects the organization is working on to support the library in realizing its mission to serve the community.

Okay, thank you to the friends, welcome.

Good afternoon, everyone. I am very pleased to be here for the third time. As you may know, my term as president of the Friends of the Malden Public Library finished as of December of 2025. Our maximum term is three years, which I served happily and proudly. I would like to introduce some members of our board. Our new president couldn't be here this evening, but I'd like to present Melissa LaPlante, who is our new vice president. Marian Browning, our treasurer. Sheila Taymor, who is our Chair of Membership. and although I am no longer president, I am still on the board and I will be occupying the place of the external relations secretary.

So I will be working on. Thank you. Continue to grow the Friends and to continue expand our impact in the community and partnering with local organizations. Okay, so that is our logo, 2026. Please, next slide, please. Thank you. So once again, I just posted the mission just to make sure everybody is sure about what we do. are part of the Malden Public Library per se. We are a proper nonprofit organization. And the Friends support the library and its mission to serve our community, organizing fundraisers and collaborating in local events. We promote books, reading, the library itself, culture, diversity for all the citizens of Malden. So what I personally saw as our mission for the last three years was growing and developing with friends.

As we all know, after COVID, a lot of organizations were kind of on their last legs, and we tried in the last three years to revive the Friends, and we have been successful in that effort. So the way that we went about that was partnering with Malden organizations and businesses for mutual support. So if we wanted to reach out to, for example, the Emmanuel Baptist Church for Black History Month, That was our way to do it. For Malden Pride, for the North Shore Hispanic Association to be able to reach those people in our community, that's how we've been doing it. Traditionally, the Friends of the Malden Public Library had book sales in the library. So the idea was, even though it's wonderful to invite people to our beautiful library and have them come to our book sales, we needed to get out into the community. and that's how we did it.

We piggybacked on other organizations' events with a pop-up book sale. So the books that we are offering at these events are very carefully selected so that they will interest the people that are attending those events. So in the picture, you can see our board, Dave Ball also, who has been a steering committee member, now for a couple of years, myself, Huy Nguyen, who is our president, Angela Han, who is on the communications committee, Glyn Crum, who is, of course, our recording secretary, Marion, and Melissa, who you've already met. And our meetings are the first Tuesday of the month at 7 PM at the library with a Zoom option. Next slide, please.

Okay, so as I previously explained, our project was to get out into the community. This is how we did it. You can see that we started in 2024, 2025. We did most of the activities. And we have most of them on our calendar for 2026. MLK celebration, Black History Month event, Lunar New Year with the Chinese Culture Connection, Race Amity event. We participated in 2024. It didn't happen last year, and it will be on our calendar for this year as well. The Pride event, this will be our third year, and we've also partnered with Malden Pride with a Friends Pride book swap last year and this year, which is at Cafe Renard. And we just get together and people bring books and they can exchange it for another book.

It's a really happy and friendly event. The Hispanic Heritage Festival with the North Shore Hispanic Association. This will be our third year as well. Indigenous Peoples Day with Malden Reads. With the Chamber of Commerce, we always do the Halloween book giveaway. and we've done that forever and a day ever since I can remember. And then we have our two major book sales which are the spring book sale and the fall book sale where we partner with the Malden Fire Department and with the Malden Police Department. Next slide, please. New events in 2026. We're always innovating and doing more to get involved with the community.

We've decided that months that we don't have a programmed book sale, major book sale, we will be opening the book room for a couple of hours and inviting people in for a kind of more low-key book sale so that way, were able to get more people in. We're circulating those books out into the community. And once again, it's $1 and $2 per book. And all of the proceeds go to the Malden Public Library. The other event, okay, so we had that our first open day was January 14th and we will be scheduling more. We have had also our first Friends Gallery open house on February 21st. This is taking advantage of the normal open gallery hours from 2 to 4 on Saturdays. and the difference is that the friends go, we host it, we prepare light refreshments and we will be reaching out to our community partners

and inviting them to join us and take the tour of the gallery and enjoy some light snacks with us afterwards and socialize. So that's a new strategy to get more people into the gallery. Okay, so once again, I have loaded my presentation with tons of pictures. The pop-ups are just really, really joyous events. It's so nice to get out into the community. And what I personally have noticed in the three years that we've been doing this is now people not only recognize us, People are waiting for us. And so we'll appear. We'll start setting up our book table and getting all of our merchandise out. And people will come over. Oh, you're from the library. The Friends of the Library. So it's nice to be. accepted like that into different communities and really feel like one of the family. Every time we go, we're just welcomed and have a really good relationship with all of the different community groups.

So this is with the Emmanuel Baptist Church. Martin Luther King event and Black History Month event. Next slide, please. Second one this year was the Chinese Culture Connection. Once again, this is the third year we have participated with them. and once again it was just a great event, great to be out there, great to be participating. Next slide please. The spring book sale, once again we partner always with a coffee partner. Last year it was New England Coffee. We have a new small Malden business, which is the Apothecary, correct me? Thank you. Yes. who is a small business owner here in Malden.

She has done one or two of our book sales and we will be partnering with her from now on because it's just been very successful with her. She also, in her coffee truck, has a mini free library. So we'll be helping her stock that from books that we are getting rid of because we have too many copies or for whatever reason. She'll be able to stock her coffee truck so that she always has books. Next slide, please. Some more pop-up book sales. The Friends Pride Book Swap, that was just two weeks ago, I think. The Race Amity event, which once again, we'll be doing that in June. and the Juneteenth event were always there as well. Next slide, please. And everybody, please take note. May 15th of this year,

the most elegant event in Malden, the Wine Tasting Gala Fundraiser. So we started again from scratch two years ago because obviously during COVID we were not available that we were not able to gather. The first year, I consider it to have been a success. Second year was even more people. First year, I think we had about 125 people. Last year I think we were up to 190. This year we're expecting 200 or more. So it's catching on. Those are just a few pictures from the event. We offered mocktails last year for people who prefer not to drink alcohol. It was successful. We didn't get a lot of purchases.

So if anybody has any ideas about non-alcoholic options, please reach out and let me know. I'd like to have something really appetizing for people. Next slide, please. Some more pictures from the wine tasting. The picture on the top left is the silent auction, and that is something that has really taken off. We have a formula at the Friends. When we reach out to, for example, restaurants in the city, instead of just asking them for a donation, since we're very conscious about how local businesses suffered during COVID, Our offer is we will buy a gift certificate. Will you donate one? So we get two. We make up the baskets. And it was a very big success. We usually have seven nights of dining in Malden.

We had a spa gift certificate from Serenity in the City. If you haven't been there, you should go. We had a wine basket made up lots of different treats. So please, when you come, take a look at our silent auction. It's a lot of fun. Next slide, please. We also participate. in the Pine Banks Fairy Houses book giveaway. We've done that for two summers now, or two summers falls. And it's just once again a very joyous event, lots of little ones fluttering around. getting free books. So next slide, please. The GMAC event, we participated in that two years ago. I don't think that took place last year. but we will be looking to collaborate with them this year as well. September North Shore Hispanic Festival. This was an event that two years ago

Despite the rain, it still happened. We had our stand last year. It was a sunny, beautiful day. The music, the food, the fun. Really great event. We'll look forward to collaborating. I would like to point out Gladys Rivera-Rogers, who is also here to support us tonight, who is the president of the North Shore Hispanic Association. Next slide, please. Fall Book Sale partnering with Cornucopia last year and the Malden Police Department. Once again, just great to have our first responders at the book sale speaking to the families, greeting the children. giving out little treats to them. Fantastic opportunity to partner with the police department as well as the fire department. Next slide, please. Keep clicking. And one more. Thank you. So that's the Halloween book giveaway.

And ever since I returned to Malden, which was 2021, I believe. We've been collaborating with this. Last time we gave away 400 books. and carefully selected, carefully curated as usual. We've got Halloween books, we've got monsters, we've got dinosaurs, we've got Animals, we've got everything that kids can like. But that's Pistol Pete there too, who always comes to support us as well. Next slide, please. and also our winter concert which we do in collaboration with the Malden Historical Society. This year for the second time we partnered with the Mystic Side Opera House. and Natalia Sticco and her musicians came in and gave a fantastic concert. Once again, this concert is free.

Wonderfully elegant event in our beautiful galleries. and as you can see in the second picture, always a packed house. Next slide, please. And once again, this is our calendar of events. I've asked Carol Ann to print out a copy for each one of you. This will also be on our website, so if you need to consult. But as you can see, except for July and August, which we take a break to rest, we're pretty booked up each month with different events. So we're looking forward to collaborating with the wards and getting people, residents of Malden, into our events. And next slide, please. Oh, any questions? You can pass the next slide. And that is our Friends Appreciation Dinner. We do this once a year. As you know, we are all volunteers.

and I am not the only one who has given my time, my heart and my soul to this organization. We have a great team. I'm very proud of the team that we've constructed over the last three years. We've renovated. When I first sat down at the table, everybody kind of looked like me. And now we've got men on the board. We've got all kinds of Different people from Malden. We've also gotten a lot of people from the younger crowd, which is very important for the longevity of the organization. and everybody gets along. Everybody loves the library. Everybody loves their work. I always say there's something for everybody at the Friends. Some people go to the pop-ups. Some people come to meetings. Some people don't. Some people work in the book room. there's something for everybody. We play to our strengths. Everybody can do with the friends what they like. So thank you very much.

Questions?

Any questions from the council? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate you. I do see one light from Councilor LeLong.

Hi, I just wanted to just say thank you so much for everything that you do for a volunteer organization. Reading, especially for young children, is immeasurable. as they grow. And I just wanted to just say thank you for everything that you do and the time that it takes. You know, being part of a nonprofit, it's thankless. So what you do makes a difference. So just thank you.

And we have fun.

Thank you, Councilor LeWong. Councilor Winslow.

No, Mary Ellen, I just had a question. just the fundraising, especially at this time when we're talking about our library. Can you tell us a little bit about how the Friends contributes to the library in terms of what's the ultimate thing, relationship there?

Everything we do goes into the Friends Bank account. We have a monthly meeting. And at every monthly meeting, the library presents a wish list. They detail the wish list to us. We go over all of the events that they're hosting at the library. Sometimes it's for snacks. Sometimes it's for craft materials. Sometimes it's for books. Sometimes it's just a myriad of different things. and we vote on it and we approve the wish list. Oh yes, the museum passes as well. We pay for those. Oh, interesting.

Okay, thank you.

Great. Thank you so much for the wonderful presentation. As always, we always love having you here. Thank you for being here. Okay. Our next order of business is a consent agenda. Tonight's consent agenda consists of five petitions to be referred to the License Committee. Does any Councilor have a desire to remove any of these items from the consent agenda for the purpose of further discussion? No? Okay, hearing none and seeing none, I hire a motion by Councilor Sica, seconded by Councilor Colón Hayes, to approve the consent agenda. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, the agenda is approved. Next order of business.

Paper 170-26, Mayoral Reappointment. Shanti Shilukori of 30 Franklin Street, Unit 123, Malden, as a member of the Disability Commission, said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council. and to expire May 15th, 2029.

Okay, Councilor Crowe for the appointment.

As we've done in the past for the mayoral reappointments, we've actually just passed them on the floor unless anyone has a desire to pull anybody into the Personnel on Appointment. So I make a motion that we approve Ashanti... Shulukori. Shulukori to the Disabilities Commission for her reappointment.

Okay, on a motion by Councillor Crowe, seconded by Councillor Simonelli, we do need a roll call to confirm on the floor.

Councillor Colón Hayes? Yes. Councillor Condon?

Yes.

Councillor Crowe?

Yes.

Councillor Luong? Yes. Councillor McDonald? Yes. Sica. Yes. Councilor Simonelli. Yes. Councilor Taylor. Yes. Councilor Winslow. Yes. Council President Linehan.

Yes. Okay, that reappointment is confirmed. Next order of business.

Paper 171-26, Mayoral Reappointment, Jean Voltaire, 500 Broadway, Unit 2114, Malden. As a member of the Registrar's Board of Voters, said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and to expire March 31st, 2029. Okay, back to Councilor Crowe.

Again, as a reappointment, I think Jean Voltaire has done a lot of work. I think the whole Board of Registers of Voters has done a lot of work, and so I make a motion that we reappoint Jean Voltaire. Second.

Did you want to speak to that, Councilor Winslow, as well?

Yeah, I want to appreciate Jean and the Board of Registrators' work, especially at this time where there's a lot of pressure and questioning about how we run our elections and that type of thing. This is the board that helps be the citizens' representations in the election process. So I appreciate that he and other people are stepping up to do that with our clerk's office. That does a great job. Thank you, Greg.

Absolutely. Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Okay, so on a motion by Councillor Crowe, seconded by Councillor Winslow, we'll need another roll call to confirm on the floor.

Councillor Colón Hayes. Yes. Councillor Condon. Yes. Councillor Crowe. Yes. Councillor Wong. Yes. Councillor McDonald. Yes. Yes. Councilor Sica. Yes. Councilor Simonelli. Yes. Councilor Taylor. Yes. Councilor Winslow. Yes. Council President Linehan. Yes. Okay, that confirmation has been approved by a ten to zero vote. Okay, next order of business. Paper 172. Resolved that it is the sense of the Malden City Council that it urges Malden State Legislative Delegation to support S2542, an act to build resilience for Massachusetts community, the Mass Ready Act, to strengthen climate resilience infrastructure. and to ensure it includes urgently needed flood protection upgrades to the Amelia Earhart Dam. This act would also increase funding for the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Grant Program, which Malden had benefited from in the past few years.

The Council specifically supports including language in the Mass Ready Acts Section on the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which earmarks as much as possible toward the overall project cost of over $100 million for long-term coastal flood resilience improvements to the Amelia Earhart Dam and its embankments. The proposed investment aligns directly with the flooding mitigation and climate adaptation priorities of Malden's Climate Action Plan adopted by the Council in 2024. The Climate Action and Sustainability Commission has endorsed this project in funding and has asked the Malden City Council to do the same. The Erhat Dam is the primary barrier to prevent flooding on the west side of Malden along the Malden River in the event of a significant storm surge and is cornerstone of our community's climate resilience. The increasing threats of sea level rise and extreme precipitation events pose a growing risk to Malden's neighborhoods and infrastructure throughout our city.

Improvements to elevate and strengthen the Amelia Earhart Dam and would significantly reduce the risk of catastrophic flooding and provide long-term protection to residents, businesses and public assets. This paper was sponsored by Councilor McDonald and Winslow.

Thank you, Madam Clerk, for reading the resolve. Councillor McDonald for the paper.

Thank you so much, Council Chair. So I want to preface this by saying this resolve has come to us by way of our Climate Action and Sustainability Commission. They met with the Mystic River Watershed Association, who was really focused on this as one of their priorities at the legislature. And the Climate Action and Sustainability Commission passed its own resolution in support of this particular provision. and ask the council to do the same. So I just want to give you an overview of really what this is. I think folks do know the Amelia Earhart Dam, right? It's the one by assembly and it protects the entire Mystic River watershed, but the, it is the, it controls the tidal, it's the tidal barrier to the Malden River. And so this is a, This is how we prevent storm surge from flooding the west side of our city. And the proposal is to raise the dam. And I think it's about 18 inches or so is the proposal. It's a pretty old structure.

This is one of these climate resilience things that is going to be so important in the next decade or two as sea levels rise and we need to make sure that our communities don't suffer catastrophic damage. I do have a really quick picture that shows kind of the vulnerability in the next, you know, generation or two. And so I'm just going to share that very quickly. This is a A picture from Malden's Climate Action Plan. I don't know if you can see this very well, but the The lighter colors are more ready flooding, like with sea level rise, and the darker you get, the further you're out of them. So you can see this area all along the Malden River and particularly in wards one and two, are very vulnerable to even small amounts of sea level rise. You'll see there that the sea level rise, this is just coastline, this is not even flooding, at the one foot level,

some estimates say we could get to in the 2030s without correction could lead to that light blue flooding. the very lightest blue, and then storm surges beyond that. So it's really important that this be addressed soon. These projects take a lot of time. The point I just want to make sure that folks know is that the state does understand this priority. This dam is actually already in the Department of Conservation and Recreation, DCR's capital plan, but it is not enough money to do the project that they have in the capital plan. This is something that can be included in the Mass Ready Act, which is the environmental bond bill. but for those who follow bond bills, just because something is authorized does not mean it is necessarily likely to happen. But this in fact is likely to happen because it's already in the DCR capital plan. By adding this as an earmark to the bond bill,

which already has an emphasis on coastal resilience. We know there's a department ready to do this. They've already been working on the designs for the project. which includes not only the dam but the embankments on the sides of the dam because if you just raise the wall and then it's shorter on the other side, that doesn't work. And so GCR is ready to move this project ahead if we can make sure that the funding is there for it to happen. And all I will just say is these projects only get more expensive over time as dams degrade. Even since they've been talking about this, they've had to add more systems as they've gotten older. and just to be clear also that bond bills are not in direct competition for funding with the operating funds that, for example, fund our schools. It's a different appropriation process for that bonding authority. So I just want to be clear. that it's not a zero sum game we're dealing with. So I would ask for everyone's support. I have been in touch with Senator Lewis's office about this. They're paying attention, trying to figure out whether we can

get this added while the bill is in committee or be prepared to work with some of their colleagues on potential floor amendments if it gets to that. But it will mean a lot to have this front and center as a priority of Malden to protect our residents on the west side for the next generation.

So, thank you. Thank you, Councilor McDonald. Councilor Winslow.

Yeah, I really particularly support this because the east side is vulnerable. You saw that map that McDonald put up. You sort of see it was bifurcated in the middle. Amelia Earhart Dam sort of protects everything from Salem Woods School to the west. There's flood and other type of protection on the east side that needs as much, if not more, investment. So the good news is that DCR on that side with MassDOT are working to the floodgates near the Malden Revere line that, you know, what's Amazon now, need to be updated because they're not functioning right. So that's like a $4 million project. So this is the type of funding. And the other type of thing in the long run is to look at Town Line Brook, in Ward 7 and Ward 8 for resources to make those areas better. So that's the type of thing.

This bill will provide the funding that we can work with our climate resiliency staff at the Community Development Office to get these funding so we can protect. I know, Councilor Sica, often Delta Terrace is another thing that these are funds that can go into making those improvements we need. There has been planning that's been underway and on the east side as well and getting the funding lined up to protect that. I give credit to Rep. Altrino's office who's done a lot in spearheading that as well as Senator Lewis's office. but there is stuff on the east side that needs to be done and funded and again that is money that otherwise we might have to pay out of our operational budgets or just have the risk and you know in other communities where they're not dealing well with coastal resiliency and that type of thing that, you know, property insurance goes way up.

I mean, just look at the challenges they have in places like Florida. So getting ahead of this and protecting our community, it protects our homes and also saves our residents in the long run. So we got to do this. It's, you know, things are more difficult. So thank you, Craig.

Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Councilor Simonelli.

Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to support this paper as well. I think that it's something that we really gotta start taking a look at. I know that Councilor Sica and myself, and along with some other Councilors here, We've talked about it. We've actually walked along the path that Councilor Winslow was just referring to. And I think it's just something that's important, something that we really have to start taking a look at. I mean, we see, you know, Thank you. Thank you. O'Reilly, and the rest of the family. I think it's a great paper. I think it's something that we really should start taking a look at moving forward. I think it's just been, you know, something that we've put in the rearview mirror for too far now.

And I think that we should really start taking a comprehensive approach and proactive approach. So thank you. I like the paper. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Councilor Simonelli. Councilor Colón Hayes.

Yes, thank you so much. I'm fully in support, and I meant to get back and respond, so I'd love to be added as a sponsor. I'm a board member of the Mystic River Watershed Association, so this is... nothing new to me, but it's definitely something that I am, again, fully in support of and we do need to get working on this. I really appreciate the work that you put into this. Thank you.

Great, okay, so seeing no other lights, we need just a voice vote to pass the resolves, so do I hear a motion? Okay, Councilor Simonelli, seconded by Councilor Winslow, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the resolution passes 10 to 0. Next order of business.

173-26. The City Council will address the open meeting on complaints submitted on March 12, 2026 by Bruce Friedman of 8 Marvin Street, Malden against the Council related to the public release of 14 sets of executive session minutes as well as an email sent by Maria Louise.

Okay, so just by way of explanation, so typically we would be reviewing and then voting to refer, but because of the constraints of needing to not have, well because we have no meeting next week and because there's of course a deadline to respond to these, we unfortunately need to do everything tonight. So what we've decided to do is basically we need to refer and authorize legal to respond on our behalf all at one time this evening. So if counselors want to review the response one-on-one or have questions, we're offering the opportunity to meet with legal, but it would not be to obviously change anything. It would just be to ask questions or to understand more. but the deadline is to respond by next week and given that we don't have a meeting next week, we do need to do everything tonight. Is that fair assessment of what our game plan is?

Yes, so we would like a motion to refer it and to also authorize it be sent off to the AG's office.

Okay, so that's the motion that we're looking for. A vote to refer to legal and authorize legal to submit to the Attorney General on our behalf.

I'll make that motion.

Okay. Yep, sorry, you can put your light on, Councilor Crowe.

We've all got the response. We had the opportunity actually to ask some questions ahead of time.

Okay, great.

Before this, if we had some, so I make that motion that we refer and respond.

Okay, with many thanks to the Clerk for distributing that. Okay, on a motion by Councilor Crowe, seconded. I heard Councilor Colón Hayes first. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, thank you very much. Next order of business.

A representative from the solicitor's office will follow up on paper 154-26 with an update to the council on the investigation into the other open meeting law complaint filed by Bruce Friedman of 8 Marvin Street. from March 4th, 2026, related to the release of executive session minutes.

Okay, so who do we have? Sorry, Zaheer, I couldn't see you over there. So we have our Assistant City Solicitor Zaheer Samee joining us tonight. Let me put your podium microphone on. Okay, thank you so much. You have the floor.

Hi, good evening. So here's to me, Assistant City Solicitor. So this was an open meeting law complaint by Mr. Friedman. He filed it, I believe, on March 4th. And one of our other Assistant City Solicitors, Prasanna Rajasekaran, investigated and wrote the response, which is dated March 24, 2026. And I believe you all have had a chance to review that, if I'm not mistaken. Oh, sorry, sorry.

Apologies to everyone.

Please continue, sorry about that.

Yeah, so the original complaint was a complaint about failure to release executive session minutes. It's actually three sets of minutes. dated for meetings February 3rd, 10th, and 17th. The February 3rd and 17th ones had to do with the Tufts construction litigation and the February 10th executive session minutes had to do with the benevolent botanicals litigation. All of them have been released already since the complaint was filed. They were released in, I believe, around March 10th or so. So the complaint's actually kind of moot at this point. But they've all been released. So Mr. Friedman and anyone else who wants to see the minutes, they're out there. And so the response basically says, one, it's moot.

However, the other part of the response is that on the merits, there was a justifiable reason to withhold the minutes until the Benevolent Botanicals litigation, actually both litigations were finally concluded. they were tentatively concluded. In one case there was a possible appeal pending. Once the appeal was withdrawn the minutes were released very shortly thereafter. And in the other litigation there was a settlement which still need to be sort of buttoned up and finalized and pending the finalization of that settlement the minutes were withheld but in early March when that was concluded those minutes were also released. So basically it says it's moot and there was no violation.

Yeah, we need a motion to authorize Lela to submit to the Attorney General and the complainant. pending any questions. I do see a light from Councilor McDonald.

I'm happy to make that motion. I just wanted to ask, Sahir, do you know, with the approval of the one that we just did from the March 12th complaint, How many open meeting law complaints will we have responded to Bruce Friedman about relating to these executive session minutes in this calendar year? Is it five?

Probably five. I would say around five.

Five?

since the beginning of the year. Yeah, I think that might be a new record for the first couple of months of the year. A couple of years back that we had, there was a situation where there were three complaints, sort of one after the other. but I think this is about five.

Okay. Well, I would be happy to make that motion to acknowledge, what do I have to do, approve?

We need a motion to authorize legal to submit This to the Attorney General and the complainant.

So moved.

Okay. Do I have a second? Seconded by Councilor Taylor. We can do a voice vote. So all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That is authorized by a vote 10 to 0.

Next order of business. Thank you, Zaheer. Paper 174-26, Committee Report. The Standing Committee on License to whom was referred Papers 115 through 117, Series of 2026, having considered the same, make the following report. Committee recommends petitions 115 to 117 out favorably to the full council. Committee further recommends paper 370 series of 2025 originally granted as a conditional 90-day license now be extended until December 31st, 2026. Committee further recommends paper 451 series of 2025, originally granted as a conditional 90-day license, now be extended until December 31st, 2026, and to be adjusted from 66 to 41 cars in accordance with the establishment's newly updated plot plan.

Okay, on a motion by Councilor Sica, seconded by Councilor Taylor to receive the committee report, all in favor? Aye.

Paper 115-26, Petition Class 2, Friends Auto Group, LLC, 225 Eastern Avenue, 17 Vehicles. Paper 116-26, Petition Taxi Driver, John A. Danka, 26 Highland Court, Renewal. Paper 117-26, Petition, Taxi Driver, Sophia Pepper, 290 Stephenson, Amman Street, Apartment 307, Somerville, Renewal. Paper 370-25, Petition Class 2, AGM Auto Sales Incorporated, 160 Eastern Avenue, 21 cars. Paper 451-25, Petition Class 2, Maxima Auto Sales, 277 Broadway, Malden originally. for 66 cars.

Okay. Councilor Sica for the committee.

Thank you, Council President. The License Committee met last Tuesday to discuss all these petitions. They were all passed unanimously, so I make a motion to grant all these petitions on the floor.

Okay, on a motion by Councilor Sica, seconded by Councilor Simonelli. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Those petitions are granted. Next order of business.

Paper 175-26, Committee Report. The Standing Committee on Finance, in a joint session with Rules and Ordinance Committee, to whom was referred Papers 158 and 159, Series of 2026, having considered the same, make the following report.

Okay, on a motion by Councilor McDonald, seconded by Councilor Taylor to receive the committee report. All in favor? Aye.

So the first paper of the two was for ordinance. It's paper 158-26. be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the Code of the City of Malden 2.24.030 Public Works, Parks, Traffic, Water, Sewer, and Cemetery Salary Schedule is hereby amended by adding the updated salary schedule chart effective July 1st, 2024. Councillor Winslow for the committee.

Yeah, the Rules and Ordinance Committee met tonight to discuss the updated salary schedule and the controller Rannigan was there. This is proposed as a result of a recently reached collective bargaining agreement with the relevant union of our public works workers. This is just the frontline staff. I believe it's 27 people that are involved. They have not had a, their contract has not been in effect since you know June of 2024 so they've been going a year and a half I mean during that year and a half these folks have been on the front lines of dealing with the trash strike dealing with our recent blizzard so they've been working very hard and so the committee did recommend that salary schedule and I do note that this is only updating the schedule for the past year and a half up to June 30th, 2026 so it's not

and so forth. That was something that both the controller's office and the negotiators from the city as well as the union decided that we were just working to get this mostly retroactive and Place. So that's really the main purpose. And especially, I think, for this group of workers that had a very unusual couple of years here that they really deserve this. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilor Winslow. I see a light by Councilor Colón Hayes. Thank you.

Well, I'd like to second that. And then also, if anybody's listening, It made me very happy to second that. You're right. They had been waiting a long time, and I had been hearing from a lot of folks out there. So I'm extremely happy that this went through after all those years of waiting. And it was one of the reasons why I did vote no. to the director's level because rank and file was still waiting. So I'm really, really happy to second this. Thank you very much.

So you're seconding, Councilor Winslow, I assume a motion to enroll?

Motion to enroll, yes, yeah.

Okay. Any other questions or lights? Seeing none, all in favor of enrolling? Aye. Any opposed?

So then I'm going to make a motion to suspend the rules so we can ordain and enroll in one night.

I'll second that. Okay, so to suspend we need, what is it, two-thirds? We need eight votes. We need eight votes.

Okay, so on Council Winslow's motion, seconding Council Sica to suspend the Council rules. President Linehan. Yes.

Okay, so we need a motion to ordain.

So motion to ordain the updates to DPW salary schedule.

Okay, so a motion by Councilor Winslow. I heard Councilor Sica second.

Colón Hayes, Condon, Crowe, Linehan, McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Taylor. Yes. Councilor Winslow. Yes. Council President Linehan. Yes. Okay. So that has been ordained, enrolled and ordained unanimously. And then the companion paper that goes with it. McDonald. Thank you, Council President.

This paper, again, addresses retroactive new grades to bring us up to the current fiscal year. and it does include some other small stipend benefits and other parts of the contract that have financial implications, but it's mostly the standard three and 3% increases that has been pretty pretty consistent across so many of our bargaining units in the last in the last two years. And so the appropriation before us, I just want to acknowledge, and we talked about this briefly in committee, is awkwardly timed with an override election scheduled for next week in which a core question is what Malden residents are willing to pay to fund our core city services like Public Works. That being said, I think we were comfortable in the Finance Committee

moving this forward because, again, it is retroactive and just brings our frontline DPW workers up to par where we are right now. and Controller Ranigan, CFO Ranigan acknowledged that this council was not willing to entertain and so forth. And I think that's what we need to do. We're waiting to see what will happen with the override vote and what the future prospects are. This one is just particularly has been hanging out there for a particularly long time. So I would just defer to my colleagues about would you like to pass this now and go ahead and bring the DPW workers up to up to time, I think it would be within our rights to certainly hold off for another week.

It is not typical that we hear for the first time a salary schedule and approve it and the finance order. We don't always do that all in the same night, but we do know that our DPW workers have been, as Councilor Winslow said, working really hard for us through a draft strike and a huge amount of snow. So I leave that question to my colleagues with no doubt about the need to support our DPW workers, but just acknowledging the complexity of the timing of this particular paper.

Thank you, Councilor McDonald. I do see some lights for discussion, so I'm going to go to Councilor Simonelli first.

Thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to just give you my sentiment. I think I expressed it a little bit earlier today about, you know, talking with several of the DPW workers, particularly the parks department folks, because they're down in my neighborhood every morning getting the parks ready. and they've been waiting for this money for a while and I think that it would be, you know, It'd be good for us to pass this tonight so we can get these guys up to speed. They can get their retroactive money and move forward. I mean, it's inevitable. It's going to happen at some point in time. So why make them wait any longer? And I think it would just be a good sentiment to send out to them to let them know how much we really appreciate the work that they do for us year to year. So that's all. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Simonelli. Councillor Luong. All set.

I'm all set.

You're all set. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no further lights, do we have a motion? I apologize. I was taking care of some paperwork. You made a motion, Councillor Simonelli.

Seconded by Condon.

Seconded by Condon. Okay, so the motion we have is to adopt the order, and we do need a roll call.

Councillor Colón Hayes. Yes. Yes. Councillor Condon. Yes, Councilor Crowe? Yes. Yes. Councilor LeJuan? Yes. Yes. Councilor McDonald? Yes. Yes. Councilor Sica? Yes. Yes. Councilor Simonelli? Yes. Yes. Yes, Councilor Winslow. Yes. Yes, Council President Linehan. Yes. Yes, so that has been adopted unanimously.

Okay, next order of business.

Didn't look like Steve.

It didn't. I did the same thing. I thought Steve hadn't signed it.

I don't think you signed it. Sorry, I'm just going to take a minute to say whoever didn't sign the election warrant already, I think I'm missing two signatures.

Well, we don't have Ryan here.

We don't have Ryan, so who are we missing? Did Chris? We need Chris to sign this. Did you sign this?

We'll send it down. All right, thank you. Okay.

Paper 176-26, Committee Report, the Standing Committee on Finance, to whom was referred, Paper 129. Series of 2026, having considered the same, make the following report. Committee unanimously recommends the paper out favorably to the full council with the following amendments. Strike the word cut after Christensen and insert submit cuts to. strike the word will after following ways which and insert could, strike the elimination of the and insert reduction of in lines one and two.

Okay, on a motion by Councilor McDonald, seconded by Councilor Taylor to receive the committee report. All in favor? Aye.

Paper 129-26 resolved that it is the sense of the Malden City Council that during this time of budgetary constraints, the Council is committed to the principles of fiscal responsibility and the efficient management of public funds that prioritize essential services and long-term financial stability. the Council wishes to demonstrate a pledge of shared sacrifice and budgetary discipline and therefore request the Honorable Mayor Gary Christensen cut specific discretionary monies and reallocate for use in the general fund in the following ways which will result in savings McDonald for the committee.

Thank you, Council President. So we had a good discussion about this paper in committee. I'll let the sponsor speak to the substance of the paper if you'd like to, but just to recap, where the conversation landed. There was a range of opinions about whether we should be having this conversation right now and to what degree and to what specificity about these different cuts. Where we landed was that this is certainly an appropriate set of things for the council to be talking about because it's money that we control. and that we should be clear with the general public that if we cannot fund an override that we're gonna have to cut some things and this is probably one of the things that will be impacted is this funding for community and many, many events. But we didn't want to get quite to the level of specifying, does that mean we zero them all out now? Are we trying to cut half? What if one option passes but not the other, et cetera?

So the amendments that were approved in committee just make this convey that sentiment without trying to solve the problem in a cart before the horse kind of way. So when you integrate the amendments, It will read, the council wishes to demonstrate a pledge of shared sacrifice and budgetary discipline and therefore request the Honorable Mayor Gary Christensen to submit cuts, i.e. in the annual budget, to specific discretionary monies and reallocate for use in the general fund in the following ways, which will result in savings of up to 95,000. which we clarified that was up to for the upcoming fiscal year, the reduction of line items associated with reward improvement funds and the reduction of line items associated with 4th of July funds. One last note, folks may remember that when this paper was originally submitted, it also included a set of provisions about the council's own compensation, and that was split off into a separate paper. So in committee, we only discussed this portion of that original paper.

and the remaining piece of that was placed on file before being referred to committee. So that is what has been referred out. I know we don't often refer resolutions to committee and bring them back, but this one felt like it was important to clarify what the committee was recommending the council ultimately say about our intent with these funds.

Thank you, Councillor McDonald. Did either of the original sponsors want to speak to the paper before we take up the votes on the amendments?

I was going to say, I think Councillor McDonald explained quite well what the sentiment was, so I'll make a motion to approve.

Okay, so we need a vote to adopt the amendments according to the committee report first, and then we can vote to pass the result if that is the motion. Okay, so moved by Councilor McDonald, seconded by Councilor Crowe to adopt the amendments. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. And do I have a motion to pass the resolve? Motion. Okay. Motion by Councilor Sica, seconded by Councilor Crowe. All in favor? Aye. Okay. The resolve is passed. Does anybody have personal privilege? I see Councilor Taylor hot on the mic.

Thank you so much. I just want to remind everybody that last year, Ward 5 did a community yard sale and this year Marlene Gala who put it together and has been working on it very hard extended it to the entire city this year. Anybody interested, there is still time to sign up by March 31st and you can go to maldenward5.com and and search under the calendar for the yard sale and it has the link to sign up, get involved and hopefully sell some of your stuff and maybe travel around the city April 25th and see what people have their trash, maybe your treasure.

I'm excited about it. I'm signed up for the Beebe location and I just want to put a plug in because I know a lot of Ward 3 folks asked me last year if we could get in on it and I've been trying to spread the word but I don't I feel like signups at Beebe are maybe a little bit low. So I just want to reiterate, if folks don't want to host it at your house, it's the same cost, right?

It's the same cost. It's $10. If you sign up and you're at the Beebe or the Forestdale, your $10 will actually be a donation back to that school if it's not used for promotional or whatever. There's not a huge amount of cost associated with it. So it'll be split. in those ways to help our PTOs.

That's awesome. Thank you, Councilor Taylor. Councilor Winslow.

Yeah, just this Saturday at 9 o'clock down at Salemwood School, we're having a trail cleanup. So please come down. The more people we have, the more length of the trail we can get to. So please come down to that. We'll be there 9 to 11-ish or whatever. So I appreciate the Key Club from the high school coming out and some other people. So we'll be down there with pickers and bags and that to get that cleaned up. And sometimes we go into the neighborhood a little bit too. and then on May 16th, we are going to have the Maplewood Fest from two to five in Maplewood Square. And we are seeking crafters and artists who wanted to have booths and stuff like that. So do that. and just a heads up for people in Ward 6 and throughout the community, we're gonna have our Independence Day celebration on July 3rd, the Friday before the 4th. So that's just, I feel that'll be great for the community and our volunteers.

So we're going to do that on July 3rd at regular time, 9 to 1 standard. I have my liberty tie on today because just to remind people this coming Tuesday the council has asked the folks to vote on a tax increase and we know that 250 years ago, people in what is now the United States, the colonies, did not want to have a government where people who aren't represented and how their taxes are raised. So this is your opportunity. By law, under Prop 2 1⁄2, if we as a community and so forth. We want our taxes raised above 2.5%.

Tuesday is your opportunity and as a council we will ultimately follow the will of the voters one way or the other but get out and vote and we will see what happens and then Speak on Tuesday or before then, or then it will be up to the council to follow the wishes of the voters that come out. Thanks.

Indeed it will. Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Councilor Sica.

Thank you, Council President. I just want to wish everybody a happy Passover, a happy Easter next week, since we don't have Council on Tuesday, and also to remind everybody that the annual award eight egg hunt is Saturday, April 4th at 10 a.m. sharp. Make sure you're there at 10 a.m. At 10.05, the eggs will be gone, I promise you. There will be no eggs left. People come. I used to, years ago when I first started this, I used to put like a time to start and a time to end this and people would show up at like quarter of 11 and they're like, where's the eggs? And I'm like... The eggs are gone 45 minutes ago, so just make sure you're at Linden Steam Academy, Linden Park at Huntingfield by 10 a.m. shop. with your little Easter basket or your bag, we'll pass out some bags and the bunny himself will be there for some pictures. hopefully the weather will be cooperating.

For a minute I was wondering if the snow was still gonna be there, if we were gonna even be able to have this event, but I just ordered 5,000 eggs the other day. They are in my basement and they're filled, yes. and it'll be a great time, so thank you.

Sounds adorable. Okay, thanks, Councilor Sica, Councilor McDonald.

Thank you, Council President. So just a couple more things about the override election. One is that our final forum will be this Wednesday, tomorrow night. at 6 p.m. at the Linden School Auditorium. So this will be the last of five forums. There is a presentation that goes over the whole budgetary situation. And then there's the opportunity for folks to ask questions who do come. I also want to make sure folks know there's still early voting available this week. I voted right before our council meeting, although my sticker fell off. I promise I had my sticker and it just fell off. It's in the hall. Lisa says it's in the hall. and then someone's gonna run around acting like they voted. No, so no, please, but just wanna make sure folks know that you can vote tomorrow, Wednesday and also Thursday One City Hall is open if that would be easier for you. And on Tuesday is normal polling hours at your normal polling location.

and what that means of course then is that we are going to not have a school day in our K-8 and ELC schools. The high school is open, but most schools and the other schools in Malden, Malden Public Schools will be closed because they're serving as polling locations. There is an open gym program sponsored by the Malden Recreation Center. with MPS and the Malden PD. And so you can sign up on the Malden Rec Center's website for one of the two sessions in the morning or in the afternoon if it'd be helpful to have some place to be able to bring your Kid grades K through six at some point on that day off. So I really wanna appreciate Malden Rec for creating that option for parents and families. Are you gonna talk about this? and I just want to remind folks again on your calendar, the Green Malden Fair is going to be Saturday, April 24th. Just keep reminding you about that. Come on down. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Councilor McDonald. Councilor Colón Hayes.

Thank you very much. We all have a flyer here given by the president of the North Shore Hispanic Association, Gladys Rivera-Rogers, and that's for an event that has been done every year. I've been a part of that association I want to say almost 10 years maybe, but this year they're doing it a little different. So it's Thursday, April 30th, 6 to 8. and it will be at a restaurant. So that's a new, at the Steakhouse on 100 Ferry Street. And if you want to have an ad, you can go to the North Shore Hispanic Association at gmail.com, and they're $100, and that's for the North Shore Hispanic Association. And unfortunately I'm gonna announce another event that's on that exact day, so I'm very sad about that.

but the RiverWorks, we're having a public meeting for the RiverWorks project and we wanted to, update the community on how great the project has been going and that it should be open this summer, which is going to be fantastic. Yes, so that's going to be at the Senior Center from the same time, from 6 to 7.30, 8 o'clock. There's going to be slides, a presentation, some fun activities for kids. And it's really just a spring into action kind of thing, a spring update to get everybody really excited that this is actually going to happen. There'll be a couple of canoes and kayaks there also. You can take some pictures in there. Okay, so thanks.

Cool photo op. Yes, exactly. What date was that, Karen? April 30th. My birthday. I might be eating cake somewhere else. Just kidding. Okay, seeing, oh wait, I was going to say seeing no other lights, but Long popped in there at the 11th hour.

Yes, I actually meant to say this earlier in the month, but I just wanted to say thank you to our crossing guards. It's Crossing Guard Appreciation Month, and they have done such a great job. and I'm sure we can have them on next month and they can tell us all the projects that they're working on but I just wanted to say shout out to them and just say thank you. It's also the end of Women's History Month So thank you to all the powerful women that have focused our lives and made a difference in Malden through the years, 250 years. So that's it. I just want to say thanks.

Yeah, we should congratulate one of our very own being honored this week at Women Making a Difference. Congratulations, Councilor Taylor.

of Maldon is doing their annual, 26th annual Women Making a Difference. Councilor Taylor is one of our , as well as Linda Cochran, Aymen Bouzine Saeed, Elizabeth Santiago. We have a humanitarian. excuse my voice, was Officer Amanda Grenier. and the fabulous Bride of Life. So we're really excited to honor everybody. It's gonna be a great evening. It's at Rosario's Restaurant up on Saugus. So yeah, hopefully people can make it.

Great, thank you for that.

You're welcome.

Okay, so now, seeing no other lights, do I have a motion to adjourn? Okay, so moved by Councilor Crowe, seconded by Councilor Luong. All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned at 8.29. I know we could have been done a whole half hour earlier, but it's okay.