Malden City Council 02- 24- 2026

Me.

Thank you.

Okay, the council will come to order. All rise and salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America 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 veteran service members and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. Councilor Winslow for an additional moment of silence.

Yeah, this is a very poignant honor during Black History Month. Last week, Reverend Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader, head of the Rainbow Coalition, and a two-time candidate for U.S. president, passed away. He started as a youthful football player as a teen. He then became an associate of an advocate for nonviolent progress in civil rights under the tutorship of Martin Luther King, and he picked up MLK's work after that assassination by building the Rainbow Coalition, inspiring youth that they could be somebody and ultimately running twice for US president. I actually had the opportunity to see him speak at the California State Capitol when I worked there in the 1980s and remember him talking about

asking America to rethink the melting pot theory of assimilation. And his vision was of an America as a nation of people of many backgrounds, nationalities, ethnicities, and religions weaving themselves into a tapestry greater than any one group or individual could be. That vision is something that's been a guide store for my work here in Malden and I just wanted to share that and I think it's something we all need to remember at this time. So just wanted that moment of silence.

Thanks.

Thank you. The clerk will now call the roll. Oh, it's muted. I'm sorry. I couldn't tell what you were saying, Councilor. I see. Okay. Thank you.

Council Colón Hayes. Here. Council Condon. Here. Council Crowe. Here. Council LeWong. Here. McDonald, Councilor O'Malley, Councilor Sica, Councilor Simonelli, Councilor Taylor, Councilor Winslow, Council President Linehan.

Here. Okay, under the provisions of the open meeting law, for those 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 tonight's meeting. First order of business is public comment. Public comment is allowed under our council rules. Each speaker is limited to the subject matter relevant to our evening's agenda, and speakers must keep their comments to two minutes or less. Clerk, do we have anybody signed up for public comment tonight?

We do.

Bruce Friedman Oh, hang on, let me put the microphone on Please state your name and street for the record Bruce Friedman, Marvin Street

I'm here to speak about two issues relevant to the docketed items on tonight's meeting. The body should pass Councillor Sica's resolution and amendment known as paper 12926. This resolve and amendment are the first acknowledgement by this body to actually make cuts now. The public is watching you and cuts must be made. Regardless of any two and a half proposition passing or not, cuts must be made. It is up to this body to do so. I would like to extend a thank you to Councilors Sica and Crowe for sponsoring this and taking the very first step towards acknowledging that every dollar counts. This leads me to the second comment, which is based on papers 119.26, 129.26, Agenda Item Number 9, and 123.26, the reappointment of Yen Lip.

The City of Malden has failed to properly protect itself and as such has failed to properly protect the citizens and taxpayers from litigation resulting from the alleged acts of employees like Mr. Lipp. The City claims in its annual comprehensive financial reports that the city is exposed to various risks of loss and related to torts, theft of, damage to, and destruction of assets, errors and emissions, and natural disasters for which the city carries commercial insurance. People on this council have cited this report and its annual review by Rossetti, Clark & Associates as audits. However, I can find no evidence that the city carries any commercial insurance except for a single property insurance policy covering 25 buildings and their contents. If this is the only policy, a material misrepresentation has been made by the city for years, and the audit and the members of this body that continually refer to it as an audit have completely missed it.

If the city was so insured, the acts allegedly committed by Mr. Lipp would presumably have been covered. Such a policy would have also covered the cost of defense and provided defense counsel well-versed in the areas of issue at law. The city has not provided any such policies in response to multiple records requests. There is no publicly available documentation that reveals a budget or paid amount for such a policy. And the mayor has now permitted this city and its taxpayers to a $1.3 million settlement with Peter Tufts. This is a multi-year settlement that's been agreed to that apparently the city's uninsured for. The city is also responsible for $32,000.

Mr. Friedman, you've reached your time limit. Thank you. Thank you. Madam Clerk, have we received any comments by email?

We've received three. Okay, so the first one says, Dear City Council Members, Prior to voting to confirm the mayoral reappointment proposed by docket number 123-26 for the City Engineer Director of Engineering Department, Please review each and every relevant document in the matter of Superior Court Case 2181-CV-01248, Tufts, Pita et al. v. City of Malden et al., including all dispositions given under oath. all court testimony given under oath, serious OSHA violations for City of Malden excavation projects in the last six years, a video transcript of the January 27th City Council meeting and all remarks related to paper number 54-26 in a $300,000 appropriation from Available Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund retained earnings to fund a legal settlement between the City of Malden and Tufts Construction Incorporated.

I further ask that you include copies of the depositions and court testimony with the mayor's reappointment letter as attachments on the legislature record of this meeting. Thank you sincerely, Brian DeLacy, 1 Earl Street, Malden. The next one says, Dear Council President Linehan and City Councilors regarding paper 129-26 and item number two regarding the elimination of line items associated with the Fourth of July funds. As a resident in attendance of the 4th of July celebrations for many years and then as an active volunteer here in Ward 6, I find this event brings together the sense of community and American spirit and provides a fun activity day for all the children and adults at Trafton Park. I truly cannot see this family event being taken away from the residents of Malden. I have worked closely with Steve Winslow and other volunteers, and I am certain that there are cost-cutting measures we can actively take to reduce the spending costs

I would think we could manage with $7,000 and also get community and business donations to help not to lose this yearly event. Sincerely, Kate Allen, 26 Rockingham Avenue. To the Malden City Council, Mayor Gary Christensen and Chief Cronin, we write to you as clergy and faith leaders living and praying in Malden asking for your urgent and unequivocal action. You must protect our people by prohibiting city resources from being used in federal immigration enforcement activities. Verbal or informal assurances of noncompliance and symbolic resolutions are insufficient. The public discourse about immigration is often framed as quote unquote complicated. Let us offer you some moral clarity. The actions of ICE are evil. Murder is wrong. Abducting people off the street is wrong. Racial profiling is wrong. Imprisoning children is wrong. Imprisoning people with impunity just because you can is wrong. Mass detention and deportation are wrong.

All of these are actions ICE is taking now in clear view of the entire world. It is entirely obvious that ICE does not keep anyone safe. Any attempts to claim it does or to minimize its violence by implying that ICE, quote, has legitimate public safety functions, end quote, Quote, there are good ICE offices, end quote, are absurd. All of our faith traditions uphold the fundamental dignity of every human being. Full stop. Our faiths call us to love the stranger, to care for people in need, and to pursue justice. We know many of you are people of faith. We urge you to rely on your faith for courage in the face of evil. We remind Christians in particular that Jesus was born as a refugee child and called humanity to serve God by feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and liberating the imprisoned. You cannot pretend that assisting ICE in killing, beating, and traumatizing our community has anything to do with that call.

It is your moral obligation to as far as it depends on you, refuse to comply with ICE. You have the power to take one small step. In doing so, we await your action. In faith and hope that is signed by a number of clergy, but the letter itself was actually submitted by Elizabeth Santa of Blom, Earth Street.

Okay, I have a light from Councilor Winslow.

Yeah, I just had received a public comment from a constituent about quarter to five, so I know that's late. I just would ask for deference through... Motion to suspend the rules so that one comment could be read into the rules.

Okay. I have an additional light from Councilor Crowe.

I also got a comment. An email that was sent was after the 4 o'clock deadline, so if we're going to let one in, we should let both in.

Okay, so motion by Councilor Winslow, seconded by Councilor O'Malley to suspend council rules. in order to hear the, it sounds like two late emails after the 4 p.m. submission deadline. Do we need a roll call vote for that? No. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, so motion to suspend the rules has passed.

Okay, so the first one says, to whom it may concern, my name is Kimberly A. Goodman and I live at 66 Cliff Street in Malden. I have been a lifelong resident of Malden. Being from Ward 6, I have worked with Councilman Steven Winslow on beautification efforts in the neighborhood. I also have been able to enjoy, like with many other families, the Fourth of July celebration held at Trafton. I would first like to mention that everyone every year for the past few years when they walk by Maplewood Square or they walk by Cliff Street Gardens that the neighbors and I have worked with Councilman Winslow to obtain flowers. There has not been one family or person that has walked by and admired the beauty of the flowers in the spring, summer and fall. Without the funds to do this, the city area that we fill with flowers and maintain it with our efforts of watering throughout the season would be A muddy six foot wide by 11 foot long with just an overgrowth of weeds that the city does not maintain and will not maintain.

With some people walking by, if they did not see the flowers and the huge amount of effort our neighbors put into it, They would be throwing their trash and it would be a dumping ground for their dogs to defecate. As far as the Fourth of July celebration, it is the only time of year that any families get together to celebrate the birthday of our nation and as Maldonians, Meet one another, greet one another, smile, laugh, and enjoy. It brings the residents in Ward 6 together under the guidance of Councilman Winslow and the many volunteers that take the time and their resources to fulfill the many games for the children The food, the contest, and just the recognition of us as a city coming together for the Fourth of July. If the vote gets cast, the decision is made that the funds would be taken away. We are not making our city nothing but brick and cement. If you take away the funding of the Fourth of July festivities, we have nothing to celebrate as a community. A city with so many schools, school-aged children, working parents, families,

We have a holiday that makes us all united, yet there is a discussion of taking away the funding. Hadn't Malden's residents had enough things taken away? We used to have holiday parades, Memorial Day parades. Now we have to skip over to Melrose to even get to meet Santa at Christmas because Malden can't get it together to make our city a brighter, family-friendly place. Malden needs to stand for more than what we have allowed it to be shriveled down to Give us residents the joy of whether it be the Fourth of July celebrations or some beautification efforts that many of us take our time and effort to plant and grow. In fact, we as residents even take time watering these flowers at a cost of our own Just to try to help our environment look a little nicer. There seems to be no compromise. For example, if the cost is too expensive, then just lower it and let people work with something. Something is better than nothing. Respectfully submitted, Kimberly A. Goodman and the residents of Ward 6.

And then I just have to find the email that... Thank you. Dear Clerk Desiderio, I am writing to express my strong concerns about paper 129-26 to be discussed this evening. While we are in a budget crisis and it is important for everyone to do their part to cut costs, I am concerned that reducing City Councilor pay could cause a number of bad outcomes. Councilor pay is already set at a very low rate compared to the level of responsibility of the job in the level of service residents deserve. If we send the message that being a counselor is basically a volunteer level position, we as residents shouldn't be surprised if we get volunteer level service.

That would be especially harmful for lower income folks and those who are not native English speakers who may need more help navigating city services. Convincing qualified people to run for these jobs is already hard enough. A reduction in pay could make that process even harder and make running for city council jobs out of reach for many working and middle class residents, especially with our high cost of living being so high. Reducing diversity. For example, by gender, economic status, people with young children, etc., among our elected officials is the opposite of the direction we should be going. We've made some positive strides on this point recently, and I would hate to see us go backwards. I am confident the council can agree on alternate areas to cut costs that would avoid these negative impacts. And Sally Amanda Smith, Ward 1, Resident Ferry Street. And that is all. That concludes our emails.

Okay. Thank you very much. Our next agenda item is the consent agenda. This evening's consent agenda consists of meeting minutes to be approved, one appointment to be placed on file, three petitions to be referred to the license committee, and two communications to be placed on file. Does any counselor have a desire to remove any of these items from the consent agenda for the purpose of further discussion? OK. on a motion by Councilor Sica, seconded by Councilor Taylor to approve the consent agenda. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the agenda is approved. Next order of business.

Paper 120-26, Mayoral Reappointment. Diego Baricelli of 33 Glen Street, Malden, as member of the Public Works Commission, said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire on March 1, 2029.

Okay, Councilor Crowe.

We'd like to, can we, should we go individually only? Because I just want to say that I think given our, like, Our situation that we're in sort of like in talking to department heads, we should be referring department heads only to the personnel and appointments just to have the conversation about What's going on? What they see? What they see is coming down the road. And so usually we do these in groups and reappointments, mayoral reappointments. We've passed on the floor. So I'd like to pass those on the floor and refer any department head going forward to the Personnel and Employment Committee.

I have a question.

Yeah, go ahead. So just to clarify, Councilor Crowe, we do have two department heads. Correct. But we also have a police commissioner. What do you propose we do with that appointment? I just was clarifying because she's a figure of authority a little bit more than just a board of commission so I wanted clarity on that.

I think she's with the Yeah, got it. Thank you.

Okay. Well, we can also have discussion on that. I do have one light so far. Councilor Winslow?

Yeah, I think that's a good strategy. You know, I do want to also say I know that Yem Lips, one of the appointees, and I think it makes very much sense to send that to personal appointments and have those discussions. sort of disclose of what we talk about in executive session related to Tufts case. But I do want to say that particularly through COVID when we were working on several things related to our lead lines and our storm drains, I work very closely with our city engineer, Yim Lip, and I've seen his work. And he has been an incredible asset to our city compared to prior city engineers I've worked with. that he's run our contracts very efficiently, been very thoughtful. And so I'm just a big supporter.

And I think it will, when we're, the suit is, Thank you very much. I just want to say that I strongly endorse that, but I think it's very worthy to have them come down and speak to everybody. Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Councilor Winslow.

Councilor Colón-Hayes. Thank you, and thank you. Crowe, I was going to suggest something similar, so I appreciate that. But just to be clear, the mayoral's appointment for, let's see, there's one, two, three other ones. One for the planning board. So there's two department heads, I think. Okay, Yim Lip and Anthony Rodriguez. Okay.

Correct.

And so the rest you don't want to forward?

No, it's been our past practice that the mayoral reappointments to boards and commissions have been passed on the floor or rejected on the floor. And, you know, we've sent the person to personnel appointments. We have not sent... Many of the reappointments, only absolutely the new appointments. And I do think that having more conversations with our department heads is warranted even prior to tonight's meeting. So I do think sending on department heads to have more conversations.

Okay, no, I agree with that. I also, I did have a question, though in general, When we haven't spoken yet in finance about anything related to like paid positions, that was another question I was thinking like should we be just reappointing these yet when we haven't talked about our budget, but I'm fine with moving that forward and go forward with that. Okay.

Okay, and I did want to mention, I think we've also sometimes looked at the 20-year plus reappointments and had conversations with those folks. That's been our past practice. I don't think anybody on here falls into that boat, though. Okay, Councilor O'Malley.

I just also want to reiterate what Councilor Winslow said. City Engineer Lipp, I think, is a really fantastic city engineer. I think when you're looking at the state of our crosswalks, and many of the other infrastructure as he was referring to. I think that City Engineer Lipp has done an amazing job when it comes to that. I absolutely agree that we should be having more conversations with our department heads. And so I do support the approach. I think we've pretty openly talked about the Tufts case. And from my understanding, and again, this is just my understanding, I believe that the lawsuit had merit in its initial filing. That's my understanding. And part of that was based on

Engineer Lipp's designation of whether or not something was ledge or not ledge. I cannot do that. I'm not an engineer. And so I have a lot of faith in Engineer Lipp and his ability. Whether or not it was litigated appropriately, I can't comment on it. but that's my understanding of where things kind of went off the rail. And so, yes, I wanna have conversations, but I do think that Mr. Lipp has been doing a great job as our city engineer. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, so we have, Do we have a motion on the floor regarding the two department heads?

Yes. I don't know if Clerk Desiderio needs to read all the appointments and then we refer two and then Take up the vote on the rest.

Let me just take those two papers separate. Yeah, we can do a voice vote to refer to personnel.

Okay. So we have a motion by Councilor Crowe, seconded by Councilor Winslow? Yeah. Okay, to refer 123-26 and 125-26.

So 123-26, the mayor will reappointment of him left. Oh. 123-26, the mayoral reappointment of Yim Lip as the city engineer. And paper 125-26, the mayoral reappointment of Anthony Rodriguez, 100 Tremont Street, Malden, as the director of information technology. will be both referred with your vote.

Okay. To refer to personnel. So all in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Aye.

Okay, so that is referred to personnel. And then why don't we read the rest of the papers?

Okay, so I read paper 120 into the record. Does anybody have a motion?

To approve. To approve the reappointment of Diego Barragelli.

Thank you, Councilor. Okay, all in favor?

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Are we doing all of them or just individual? Individual.

I can read them all into the record at the same time if you'd like, but these do require roll call votes.

Can we do them? This is just Diego right now.

Correct.

I thought she said we'll take them separate. Can we read all of them and then do a roll call vote?

We can. We'll be Roll calling on all five papers at the same time?

I'm just saying, I don't know, that seems a little odd.

We don't know. Okay. Okay. Paper 121-26, the mayoral reappointment. Diane Tuner of 19 Marion Street, Malden, as member of the planning board, set term to commence upon confirmation by the city council and expire on March 1st, 2023. Paper 122-26, mayoral reappointment. Maria D'Esposito of 81 Floral Avenue, Malden, as an associate member of the Board of Appeal, said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire on March 1, 2029. Paper 124-26, Mayoral Reappointment. Barbara Murphy, 28 Forest Street, Malden, as the Police Commissioner. Said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire on March 1st, 2029. Paper 126-26, Mayoral Reappointment Stephanie Stone of 19 Pine Street, Malden, as a member of the Planning Board, said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire March 1, 2031. Okay.

That we approve the reappointment.

Second. Okay. I saw a second by Councilor Condon. We will take a roll call to vote that batch of papers.

Councilor Colón-Hayes. Yes. Councilor Condon. Crowe, Councilor Luong, Councilor MacDonald, Councilor O'Malley, Councilor Sica, Councilor Seminelli, Councilor Taylor, Councilor Winslow. Council President Eleven, Council President Linehan.

I'm counting votes. It's not Stranger Things.

Yes. OK, spoiler alert. Those were all confirmed by a vote of 11 to 0. Thank you. I do have superpowers, but not like that.

I just wanted to say as I've said it every time we've done this that it doesn't preclude us from asking anybody to come and talk to us about anything. So we just go through a different kind of process and invite them down to have more deeper conversations. If anyone still wants to do that, let me know. Me and Councilor Taylor will handle that.

Thank you, Councillor Crowe. And Councillor O'Malley, did you have a question?

I just had a point of information. I just wanted to congratulate Commissioner Murphy, who is in the audience tonight, and I really appreciate you coming, and I appreciate all the work you're doing as our Police Commissioner.

Okay, so those reappointments are confirmed. Next order of business.

Council will hold a public hearing on a National Grid petition to install underground conduits. This refers to paper 127-26. I don't believe we have National Grid in the building tonight. Do we? No.

Got it, thank you.

So if anybody from National Grid is online, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand so that I may recognize you. They were having scheduling conflicts because of the snowstorm. Most of their employees are working on power restoration right now. I do see some people online, but I'm not sure if they belong to National Grid or not. And nobody seems to be raising their hand. So we might have to table this. We'll have to repost the public hearing.

Unless the Councilor of 46 Newland Street

Well, we've already discussed it, and I think there are some questions that need to be addressed by National Grid, so maybe the councillors are not ready and prepared to proceed without them.

Do you have a motion?

I'll second.

All right, we have a motion by Councilor Simonelli to table, seconded by Councilor Sica. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Oh, yep, Councilor O'Malley, let me put your light on one second.

I just had a point of order, if it makes it easier for the Clerk. Does it make sense that we open the hearing and then table the hearing rather than you having to send out all new things for a new hearing?

Normally, yes. And also, there seem to be people in the audience that might want to be recognized. But in this particular case, We would have to repost it anyway because the councillors from 5 and 7 have questions specifically for National Grid.

Understood.

I was trying to figure out a way to make it easier. We could open the hearing, but then just have them come back for clarification. And then we won't have to resubmit the abutters list.

Saves you postage.

What do you think? I think that would be a... Okay, so do you want to... Okay, we can do that. Open the hearing then? Okay, so... Instead of making them come back.

Yeah, since they took the time to come down. Okay, so at this time I'll declare the public hearing open. Anyone wishing to speak in favor of the petition, please come forward and state your name and address or street name for the record. Anyone wishing to speak in favor? Helps if I put the podium light on. And thank you, Councilor O'Malley, for the helpful suggestion.

Am I good? You should be good now.

Thank you.

I'm Catherine Campion with WS Development. We're the owners of Broadway Plaza. We are hoping to install EV chargers on the property, obtaining some Massachusetts incentives to do so, and this easement would allow us to work with National Grid to do this. Obviously, we're supportive because it's our property, but we really wanted to be here in case there were questions as well.

Okay, questions from the council? Appreciate you being here. Just for National Grid, okay. That's fine.

Tough day, understandable, yeah.

So I actually had a similar question as what Councillor Sica was just saying. So on the schematic, I think this might be beneficial for the public too. So the address on the hearing, is listed as new on the street, but it sounds, and I was confused looking at it too and thought this was for a private residence, but it sounds like the EV chargers are actually gonna be in the shopping plaza. Will these be public chargers? Can you talk a little bit about kind of what that layout's gonna be?

Sure, yeah, they'll be public chargers. If you're familiar with the property, it's in kind of the center of the parking lot. Against an island where there's grass and trees today, so there's room to install the equipment without losing parking. It's in the parking fields closest to 99 Asian Mart, but it's also walkable to all the stores. centrally located within the property. They would be open to the public, it's just however Electrify America is who's gonna run these for us, you just have to pay through them in order to charge.

Interesting, okay. And how many will there be? Six. Oh, wow. Okay. Oh, wow. Now we've got lights. Okay. Councilor O'Malley.

Do you mind if I ask questions? The only question I had, and maybe I will find this out more, it sounds like are you taking away green space to install these? And the only question I would then ask is, Have you checked your special permits or whatever permits you might have from the city to make sure that whatever you're removing isn't required by some type of other approval?

Yeah, thank you. So we have a lot of A long history of permits with the city, and we've actually been working with the city with the Rainbow Adult Daycare, came before the planning board recently. So we have an open dialogue on trees and what's required, what we need to do. We have a couple places within the property that we can replicate and try and do some trees. So it is taking away a couple trees. The thought is there could be additional green space in between. We also have plans this year, if you're familiar with the property too, install some additional landscaped islands today there's a lot of islands kind of the end of parking that is just paved or striping and so we're going to actually install some landscaped areas which will also help further define the vehicular route through the property so It might today take some away, but overall we're going to be adding.

Understood. And just to be clear, Councillor Simonelli is the man to talk to when it comes to this, and I appreciate you letting me ask some questions about trees. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor O'Malley. Councillor Winslow.

Yeah, no, I know, you know, Ward 6 is right, actually includes part of Broadway Plaza, but not this part. So I know when it came to my attention, I made sure Councilor Simonelli was aware of, but I think this is, you know, a great project. Having just bought an EV myself recently, to know this might be the closest kind of public chargers to my neighborhood. So it's good to have those options and shopping plazas make sense because you might go Eat Dinner or something like that. There's something to do as you're charging, that type of thing. So I think it's a good use. So I'm supportive. And hopefully, Councilor Simonelli's questions get answered. And I know you've been patient on this. Thank you, Greg.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Councilor McDonald.

Yeah, thank you so much for being here. And I'm also really excited about EV chargers. This is part of our city's climate action plan is to support more EV chargers. Can I just ask about the chargers? Are they level 2 or level 3 chargers?

I'm not positive off the top of my head, but I can definitely get that information back to you.

Like are they the super fast ones that charge in like 90 minutes?

I know there was talk of doing that, I'm just not positive right now. We're doing eight of these across our portfolio, so I just want to make sure I get the right information from all of them.

That would be helpful and would make sense why we need a special connection to the utility. because that's such a high power, a level three charger in particular is such a high power thing that it's actually, they can be challenging to cite, but we don't have any of those in Malden. So if we were adding level three chargers, I think that'd be especially exciting. I do just want to note that on the east side of the city, we have the least number of existing chargers. There are more downtown. The Salemwood School is the closest, and those are all level two chargers. So I hope we can work all those things out because I think that's You know, an access and equity issue for folks who live on the east side to be able to get access to that. And I also, I didn't know the thing about you adding more like tree pits in the parking lot. but that's very exciting. I don't know if you've ever seen a heat map of the city of Malden, but your property is bright red alongside a couple of our other large parking lots, right? And that's probably not surprising to you. So just any way that we can help

both with the storm runoff with the like heat island effects that come from these large parking lots is I think a real benefit to the neighborhood. So being able to spread that out and add more trees I think is a huge benefit and I'm glad that you're moving in that direction.

Thank you. Thanks. And I'll follow up with confirmation on the level of charters.

That would be great. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilor McDonald. Councilor Simonelli.

Thank you, Madam President. I'm not opposed to this. I just would like to hear from National Grid, maybe talk to you guys a little bit more, and a couple of my colleagues on the council. So I'd like to table it until I can do that. That would be great.

I guess it sounds like we did already take that vote. I don't know who this question would be for, but there's no EV chargers at MC. That's surprising to me.

How do we know of? How do we know of?

Okay, well, I'm interested in that. Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. Okay, well, thank you so much for being here. I don't see any other questions from the council, but we do still have a public hearing open, so I'm going to ask again if anybody else wants to come up and speak in favor. Okay, seeing none and hearing none, I will declare that portion of the hearing closed. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition to the petition? Anyone wishing to speak in opposition, please come forward and state your name and address. Okay, hearing none, seeing none, I'll declare that portion of the hearing closed. And we've already tabled. Yeah, we're not voting. Did you have another question, Councilor O'Malley?

I just want to clarify that we're tabling the hearing. Right?

No. We just did the hearing.

Okay.

Council President noted that the hearing has now been closed. We've already voted to table the paper.

Okay.

So when National Grid is able to come back, we can then...

Okay, understood.

Without reopening the hearing, we can vote the paper then.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, so let me take care of shutting off the podium. Okay, so we can move on to our next order of business.

Paper 128-26. The City Council will address the open meeting law complaint submitted on February 17th, 2026, revised on February 19th. by Ryan O'Malley of 706A Main Street, Malden against the council related to accusations made involving the executive session of February 10th, 2026.

Okay, thank you to the clerk. So because this does pertain to a matter in executive session, we are only going to be entertaining a motion to refer this to legal. I do see a light by Councilor McDonald.

I just want to make that motion to refer to the legal team. Second.

Okay, thank you. On a motion by Councilor McDonald, seconded by Councilor Crowe, we can take a voice vote. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

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 in 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 requests 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 of $180,500. for the upcoming fiscal year. Number one, the elimination of line items associated with award improvement funds. Number two, the elimination of line items associated with Fourth of July funds. Number three, the elimination of Council President Annual Stipend, an action that will be supported by the body with the proposed amendment to MCC 2.20.020. 4.

The reduction of annual base compensation for each member of the City Council by $7,500 in action that will be supported by the body with the proposed amendment to MCC 2.20.020. Sponsors SICA and Crowe.

Okay, Councilor O'Malley with a point of order.

So my point of order is that I'm not sure if this is an order. And out of abundance of caution, I checked with Mass.gov and the AGO's website. I also called the State Ethics Commission. Haven't heard back yet. But referring to the conflict of interest resources for municipal employees part D, I'm just going to quote a short portion of it. A municipal employee may not participate in any particular matter in which he, they, or a member of their immediate family has a financial interest. They may not participate in any particular matter in which a prospective employer or business organization in which they are a director, officer, trustee, or employee has a financial interest. Participation includes discussing as well as voting on a matter and delegating a matter to someone else. A financial interest may create a conflict of interest whether it is small or large and this is the crucial part, and positive or negative. So with that, I'm gonna recuse myself. Thank you.

Councillor Crowe.

Well, you know, Given that, I'm not sure if we split the vote and table a couple of those things until we find out some answers, but I did want to speak to the resolve.

Okay. Councillor Sica, are you okay with that? I was going to go to you first as the lead sponsor.

No, you should go to her, but again, maybe if it is something we should not be doing, I thought we kind of invested this, but we'll find out.

I'm open to discussion. I hadn't considered that.

I'm totally fine with it if we remove three and four for the moment. On the resolve, if we made an amendment, I don't know how we split this and have a discussion. I'm absolutely fine with waiting for an opinion. I don't want to do anything that we're not supposed to. This resolve was intended for us to start a discussion on how we could find ways as a city council to reduce You know, line items and budgets. We have a tough budget cycle coming up, so I will do... I am fine. It's fine. I don't want to have any issues.

I don't, I'm not necessarily, I understand he said whether positive or negative, but I think that this would more align on us giving ourself a raise than potentially giving ourself... City Clerk, what do you think?

I mean, at the very least, you do have the option of splitting the paper. and taking the first two line items which do not have to do with your personal funds. Those are city funds that are used for city events. And then splitting paper items number three and four into a different paper that can be discussed at a later time, that would certainly be an option to you. I think if you table the entire paper, then it does not allow for debate. Right, or at the very least to start the conversation, which is what you're aiming to do, but it didn't occur to me that this might be an ethics violation because you're not trying to benefit in any way.

You're actually taking away. My feeling from the chair is that I had not considered that it would be an ethics violation, but in researching it, the genesis of the paper that set The last raise and that put it in ordinance that it would actually put it on the HR director which it's kind of ironic that former councilor Murphy is here because that was actually your idea which I thought was a pretty brilliant thing to do when you were leaving the council because the whole point was to take it out of our hands to ever have to set an increase or decrease to our own pay. Whether or not it's an ethical question, I think that was the right thing to do at that time because it, and I researched this also coming into tonight, Many other cities of comparable size to us tie the council compensation either to cost of living adjustments that the other city staff get or to when the mayor gets an increase so that it's never a situation where the council

Thank you. I think we do have a duty to look at ourselves and the budgets that are under our purview when we have an override on the table or when we have a budget gap on the table. My personal feelings about whether our salary is the right way to do that, I think we could actually set that aside. And as the president, my role is to keep our decorum in order, and that's my big worry about the discussion around this paper. Maybe we avoid having bad Decorum tonight by splitting the paper.

I'm fine with that. You have other lights?

I'm fine with that. I see a lot of lights, though, so I do want to not stifle discussion. I have Councilor McDonald next.

Yeah, well, I wanted to speak to the paper, but I also now feel like we've been stuck on a point of order conversation and the sponsors haven't actually had a chance to speak to the paper. So I'm having to defer to them to speak. I don't think we have split the paper yet.

No, we have not.

So I can... Would my colleagues prefer to speak on the paper as sponsors first?

That's fine with me. Do we have to split it before we speak on it? I mean, this is only a resolve. It's not like we're... This is just a sense of the council that, you know, was looking to go to the mayor. I think... I'm not really certain if it's a state ethics violation because we would still have to vote on this. This is just a resolve for the mayor to look at all options, including all of our things. So if I have something a little bit prepared, I'll take out the three and four that I was going to discuss just to err on the side of caution just to make sure. So, okay.

We don't need a vote to split the paper. So if you both are comfortable with doing that, let's consider that. We'll omit conversation on items three and four. And we'll just proceed with questions one and two.

Can I just note for the record, though, before you do that, that I don't, it must be appropriate for this body to discuss it because otherwise I don't know how we set it in law. Like we had to discuss it to set the ordinance. Now, there may be better processes to do that, and I think that is a worthy conversation. But I just want to say, The law, I believe state law, says that we can't affect our salaries anyways, right?

It can only take effect... That was a question that I had for the clerk last week because I said... I wasn't sure if it was going to be for the upcoming budget of 2027 or if it was the next election term. I did research it and it said Whether it was an increase or a decrease, we could not set it for this cycle.

It can only take effect after the next election.

Exactly.

That was my understanding as well. So I think that's part of why it is not.

It did say increase or decrease for this election term. We put it on just to kind of have the discussion because I think we can still have the discussion. It just necessarily won't be voted on or go into effect until a year from July 1st.

In that sense, maybe splitting it is more prudent then because the Fourth of July fund.

It would be the election cycle, not the fiscal year cycle.

It would be an election cycle. So after the next election...

That's two years away, whereas if we want to affect this budget that the March 31st election is pertaining to, these other funds could be taken away effective July 1st.

Yes, not now, effective July 1.

Effective July 1, just like the override vote would be. Okay, so I'm going to say that I think splitting the paper is even more the right thing to do then. Okay, but we don't need a vote to split the paper, so it's split. Do you want to go ahead?

Sure. So, I apologize. Okay, so we find ourselves in a season of budgetary constraints. We are asking our department heads to do more with less. We are asking our residents to trust Thank you. Thank you. If we are unwilling to sacrifice, the resolution proposes a total savings of, we are now down to $95,000. with the papers with number one and number two. So number one would be the elimination of award improvement funds and number two would be the elimination of the Fourth of July funds.

In a tight budget year, for the first two, we have to ask ourselves, do these need to come out of the general fund, or can we find other ways to make these things happen? I want to be clear. Nowhere in this resolve did it say I was looking to cancel the 4th of July. It's amazing how everybody has a different perspective and that's what makes us so amazing. that somebody looked at it as a way of eliminating the 4th of July completely. I looked at it as a way of I didn't need the money from the city. I wasn't gonna ask the taxpayers, but I was gonna go around you know normally every 4th of July when I'm planning the 4th of July I sit at my dining room table and I make I have the clerk of committees Make a letter that I type up.

She copies them. I put them in envelopes and I sit there and stuffed envelopes and I send them to every business in Woody and then some. There's some citywide businesses that I send to. And that's how I I am a lot, I am able to have the many things, not just the Fourth of July, I'm talking Fish and Derby, being able to do the Trunk or Treat with Peg, the Color Party, The Backpack Drive, all of that comes from businesses that donate. So I just want to be very clear, eliminating the first two line items does not mean all celebrations are over. In fact, I am personally committed to hosting all my events, including the Fourth of July, through community sponsorships and private donations. I have actually had people, regular presidents reach out and say, count me in for a donation.

I actually think that all of us sitting up here may benefit more from it because I think people will really want to help. Not many will know this, but when I was a kid, my parents had to buy tickets to go to the Fourth of July. It wasn't free. I don't know how much they were. I tried to figure it out. No one can remember how much it was. But there were these little strips at the bottom, perforated strips, and it said slush, novelty, hamburger or hot dog, chips. Everything that was offered at the event had a little perforated strip on it. You had to pay for the bike raffles. There were so many different things that they did, not necessarily me, to generate funds of this event.

including the counselor that was before me, she eliminated the tickets and only charged for bike raffles. When I came on board, I eliminated the price of everything. I paid for everything. I think Councilor Crowe knows, there's a few others. Throughout the year, I am a crazy coupon lady. I am on the BJ's app constantly checking, usually a couple weeks after Christmas, There's all the toys that are at BJ's are on mega clearance. I paid $2 for $20 toys. And that's how I stretched my buck to be able to have everything that I have on the 4th of July. and it looks like I spent a million dollars because I know how to make a buck go longer than it needs to be. And I'm willing to help all of my colleagues up here do just that

If a $95,000 savings is a clerk and a half salary in City Hall, especially in our City Clerk's Department, that could save a body and a half. or a part-time staffer and a full-time staffer. So I just was trying to think of ways to think of outside the box where we could come, you know, 95,000 is not a lot of money, but if we start talking about all these little things that add up, it's eventually going to add up to a bigger number. I get it's only a very small percentage of the amount of money that we need, but I think we need to stop. Looking at how we can cut costs so our residents take us seriously when we're asking them to do a Prop 2.5 override on March 31st. I don't think we should wait until after that. I think we should be at least talking about

How we can, how there are, you know, where we can save and where we can't save. So, thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Sica. I'm going to go to Councilor Crowe as the other sponsor of the paper and then come back to Councilor McDonald who is next up in our queue.

Thank you, Madam President. And, you know, I agree with Council Sica. I do believe in the override. I'm just going to say that right now because I do know I've been to the Finance Committee meetings. Even prior to this, we had been talking about this, that we felt like the tsunami was coming and the tsunami hit earlier than we thought it was going to. That's what I feel like. And I do think that I have full faith in the mayor and the finance team that they are going to be coming up, whether this goes through or not, even if this goes through, whatever the $2 million cuts. And usually, again, I'm just going to reiterate the way the budget comes down is it's the mayor's budget, comes to the city council. We have three options. We can approve, reduce, or reject.

So if to add to anything, we have to negotiate with the mayor that this is our priorities and we want to add this to the budget. I think this is unprecedented times. This has never happened in the city of Malden. So maybe... that we start taking some votes. Because the city is still looking for these, where these cuts are going to happen. And maybe as a council, we start saying, these are areas we're willing to negotiate. We're okay if the 4th of July, because I'm going to start really wrapping up my, Lisa get ready, my letter writing campaign for donations for the 4th of July, because I'm committed to having that too. Councilor Condon, day, you know, 3rd and 4th of July. But some of the other things, and there's probably other little things, and I keep saying that we have to, as a city, identify our capital needs and our smaller needs.

The 4th of July, to a lot of people, is a capital in need, but it's really a smaller need in a city. Meaning, I need a vacation, but I can't afford it. I don't have time to go any place. So that's a smaller need at the moment. The other thing is we do have to show we have some skin in the game. I've said this in finance committee meetings. And so we have to figure out where we are willing to say, it's OK. argue back with you on some of these things. Maybe we have more. But it does open up a conversation. And I agree with Councilor Sica that it might be a little bit, but every drop in the bucket starts to fill up the bucket. I know I sound like a cliche but I feel like we have to start indicating where we think as the council the cuts can come Because we're waiting for the mayor's budget.

Instead of cutting then, we say this is where we're going to be more proactive as well.

Thank you, Councilor Crowe. Condon.

Yes. Thank you, Council President. I think eventually this is going to end up probably in an ordinance. I'd like to see it go to finance, possibly ordinance. I'd let Councilor McDonald decide which way he'd like to go. But there's a... A lot more discussion on some of this stuff. It's just not like the 4th of July. It's one day where you really see the diversity In this community come out, the kids all competing against each other and laughing and joking. It's a great day that you'd hate to see go.

I think if we get this discussion going, maybe we can open up some avenues and address this. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor O'Connor. And Councilor McDonald.

Yeah, thank you, Council President. I do want to thank the sponsors for getting this piece of the conversation started. I feel like the kind of paper that only ward counselors could introduce, you know? So as a councilor at large, let me just say that I do support reductions in these lines, absolutely. And I think that the and I will say I do think it is important that we have some funding and I'll come back to that briefly. But the reality is it's a fair amount of money and we have multiple events of the same type in multiple parts of the city. And I think that we could take this opportunity to not only reduce some expectations a bit, but also really rethink how we do these events. My concern with turning to entirely private funded events is that I think these are very, this is a big part of the job of being a city councilor as it's been understood in Malden.

And if that's your passion, then I think that's great. But I think the way that the accounts are assigned to individual awards creates this expectation that I think can be time consuming and difficult to live up to even if you are passionate about it. Or maybe you're passionate about Halloween, about the Fourth of July or something. I think looking at some more flexibility, looking at consolidation of these ways, maybe more centralized budgets rather than assigned to individual councilors, I will say this is the only city that I can find that has this practice. There are event budgets and there are council budgets, but the idea that they're assigned to specific individuals to manage who are elected officials is not common, and I think that there could be more streamlined ways of doing that. So I think that in reimagining how we do that, how we allocate money for public events, it also gives us the chance to think about our own time as city councilors and what goes into that and what would we like to go into that.

and that's why I don't want it to, if it's all private, then one, I think that just demands more of our time as elected officials to do that. But two, and I think more importantly, it matters that these events are public events that are supported with public money. I think it sends a signal that we invest in our community. I agree that the full breadth of Malden is there. There's a particular thing where folks who are brand new not just to Malden but to this country and have an imagination about what it can be to raise your family here where there are jobs and housing and decent schools and this version of literally the American dream that is that you can then go and participate in for free with your kids. That is really powerful to watch. That sense of creating the neighborhood relationships right there and that the city supports that that there's no way to make that, oh, sorry, that's only for this set of people or this neighborhood. But we say, no, this is publicly funded because it matters.

It matters that we see our neighbors. It matters that we have this time together. and it matters that you see the transparency of where that core funding is coming from. So I do think it's important to have some public funds but maybe it's half of what we're doing right now. to have more conversation about that and figure out what's everybody's best take on that in the finance committee, if that's the right place to do that. And just make sure that we're being good stewards of our time as a resource as well as Our public funds. But I do think it's time to tighten up these budgets. And I think it's rather than debating what that language in this resolve should be, I'm happy to figure out a way to refer this or have a different conversation. in more detail and support that as I can. So thank you for bringing this forward.

Thank you, Councilor McDonald. Councilor Winslow.

Yeah, no, I do think that Before we move ahead on this resolution, we should really have some discussion perhaps in the Finance Committee with the Comptroller's Office to really understand is this the only set of funds that is being dedicated to city celebrations? because this seems to be, my understanding, there might be other funds. So we should look at any funds that are under the control of city councilors, not just this set of funds, and then really audit ourselves and I think the other thing is in just discussing with some people in my my own residence you know my own volunteer committee they've gone out and done some of this fundraising and I give credit Councilor Sica is out there but There's only so many funds out there, and if Councilor Seeger has already got them secured, we're finding that the Ward 6 businesses, we can't ask because you've already asked. So that's going to be a problem. Do we want to be scrounging or, you know, Throwing elbows against each other.

So that's one of the concerns I have. We should also look, I mean, the ancillary costs related to DPW and police support for events is something that I think we got to think of. Thank you. Thank you. Cutting back these funds 25% or something like that. That's maybe something we should consider. And that's kind of, in talking to my volunteer committee, that's something that they think they can handle. and you know one of the things having been someone who set up a non-profit that's still here today bike to the scene work with other non-profits one of the things is that have some Stability in funding, and one way you do that is have multiple sources of funding. Volunteers are, I've literally had people leave

groups when they're asked to fundraise. So that is, it can destroy your volunteer base. Councilor Sica does a great job, but not everybody, and Ward 6 people have made clear to me, they want We've created a nonprofit, the Maplewood Association, that is here to help these. We do 4th of July, we do Maplewood Fest, we're doing Halloween stuff. They wanted to be independent and not rely on the ward councilor. because that can change. They want something that's, if we're gonna plan on doing less city funding, we need to also think about the infrastructure to make sure that our volunteers can live beyond that, not just rely on. And I also think, personally, I always have an issue in terms of our ethics law, our political fundraising laws. Is it really appropriate for city councilors to be out there Squeeze in our businesses.

I think that's one of the questions that's always been a mystery to me and one reason why I work to try to insulate myself from having to ask directly. It seems to me one question has never really quite been answered. So that's the first thing. I mean, one of the things I want to also dispel the notion that the ward improvement funds are going only to putting on 4th of July. In Ward 6, we do a lot of other things. I manage those funds carefully. And I have to say that people that I work with are often more flinty than I ever am in making sure that every penny is spent well and that that They're getting materials and other things to help beautify the ward. I get pickup sticks so that I can easily have cleanups in Ward 6 in Maplewood and beyond along the bike trail. I use our improvement funds. The only dog park in our city is in Trafton Park. I've got to make sure there's bags there.

I have a volunteer who will put the dog poop bags there if I give them to her. Those type of things. One of the things is it's a safety issue. We have constituents crossing to Trafton Park, going to Salem with school, going to Forrestdale School crossing Lebanon Street and Maplewood Street who have asked for safety things. It's not that much, you know, a few hundred bucks to get a crossing sign. It's something simple that we can do. And I don't have to, you know, So that's the type of thing. I've been using some of my money to make those safety improvements, to make Maplewood cleaner and that. So it's not all going to 4th of July.

So that's one of the things, you know, zero out those funds will lose my ability to leverage my residents to help out and make our community more affordably beautiful. That's just one of the things. Sometimes you can be penny pinched and you can have other things that go awry. And it's not to say, I mean, I had my very violent Valentine's night. We raised a little money for our flowers, but it's not right now. It's not the great fundraiser that it needs to be. and also some of the thoughts about 4th of July. My wife and I bought our house near Trafton Park in 1991 and soon after that we started getting involved, especially when our granddaughters came along in going to 4th of July Volunteering. Initially, there was a lot of people from the St. Joseph's Men's Club who would get their girls out. We had a two-day celebration back in the day. We would put up our circus tent.

and, you know, they have a big grilling and stuff like that. You know, that club's gone now. It's sort of, Councilor Kennan, you know, and the charter school picked it up for a while. That's how I met Ron Hogan and Eric Rubin because they were working for the charter school. They would be at the grill. That's how I met them. The charter school doesn't support that anymore. More recently, you know, Councilor Kamel and I myself have done that. But, you know, the volunteer groups have shifted. And the, you know, literally the brawn is one of the things I miss out on. We have come up with, we fund our food in a different way, but it's one of those things, having all that over 25 years of experience volunteering and seeing these things,

One of the things, and I remember the model that Councilor Sica talked about of having, it was $5 to get that little chip and you'd have to go to get your hot dog and pizza and stuff. One of the things I remember is kids from the neighborhood coming. and like I wanted, can I do this in the hearing? Oh, it's $5 and they would leave. So it was a little bit of an enclave of just the old timers and actually it was Councilor Kennan at the time that, I don't know when the city funding might have come in, but whatever. There was, under Councilor Kennan, we found a way to not have to charge. And it's really brought in new people. I've tried to kind of rejigger the events to make them a little bit more welcoming. So it is the type of thing I do get concerned about eliminating some funding.

And the other thing I'd say, just working with volunteers, having multiple sources of funding, and not burning out your volunteers, running around for raffle prizes and other type of things, it's a great way to lose volunteers very quickly. I have spoken to them. They're willing to work with us. They do raise money. They're willing to raise a little bit more. But zeroing this out is a little bit much. So that's one of the things. And I especially think, at a time when our nation is so divided, I'm glad that we in Malden find ways, as we have for 250 years, to celebrate independence. We fought for common people. to be free themselves and future generations from the dictates of a kin and aristocrats and who are enriching themselves and overlooking the needs of common people to keep this at a common level. I really like having eight different word things. I know there's always this talk about going to one. It's so overwhelming. It's nice to have.

I was councilor at large. I had to go to all of them. It was really fun to see the different flavor, Councilor Anderson there having his contest and Chris and stuff like that. And Councilor Sica, it's great to see people, you know, Ward 1 and 2 doing a movie night and then the crazy thing by Dever. It was great to see the different places. Ward 3, the dunk tank was there for a while, so there's a lot of different places, Ward 4. So I just think that it's great, and I'm committed to raise funds, but I really get concerned. Then just related to the second part, I know it's sort of a different paper, but we can talk about that, but we can talk a lot more about how to put less money into... What we're spending on councils. I have to say, I am not eligible for a pension because of my pension I get from Gloucester.

So the city's not going to put any money up for my pension. My health care is covered through my wife's insurance. So my presence here is saving the city a lot of bit and the choices I've made. So there's other things we can discuss besides If we're talking about trying to save money for the counselors, there's some bolder things we can talk about rather than shaving things. So that's something we, you know, if we're going to open that can of worms, I got some ideas that can save at least that amount of money. All right. Thank you very much for your patience. Thank you, Councilor Winslow.

Councilor Simonelli.

Thank you, Madam President. Well, you know, I kind of agree with Councilor Winslow. You know, first of all, in my neighborhood, you know, I have Two housing projects, three housing projects, a senior building. So a lot of people can't afford that $5 ticket to be able to get that hot dog or to be able to get that slice of pizza. The worst thing in the world when kids come to the event and they can't participate in the event and they've got to walk home with their head down. Something that we've been doing. What's amazing to me is that You know, we're celebrating our 250th year of this country being America, and we're talking about cutting the Fourth of July funds down. Listen, if you really want to make a real impact, because what you're talking is, it was $180,000, now it's down to $95,000.

and that's not even a drop in the bucket with the approximate $5 million shortfall that we have. So if you really want to do something, then I suggest that we forfeit all our pay, all of it. along with the insurance. Get rid of the insurance because I don't take it either. So get rid of the insurance. and get rid of the total amount of pay. If you really want to put your money where your mouth is and make a real big difference, that's what you should do. Not take it away from the children that are looking forward to an event once a year. I think that's especially where we're heading into the 250th year of this country, and you want to do it then. And then on top of that, I would say, if you're going to make suggestions, then I say, listen, again, You hear it out of my mouth right here, right now. You're going to have my pay. I'll forfeit that pay. I'll forfeit the health insurance. Will you all? I'd like to see it.

Secondly, I think we should go down line item to line item. Go after every department, every department head, see how much money they're making, and then suggest that we take a cut on their pay as well, along with fire, police, DPW, across the board, including us. I think that's what we should be doing because that's real money. That's where we'll be making a difference in the five million dollar deficit instead of having a knee jerk reaction for whatever reason you're having a knee jerk reaction for. and I'm appalled at the fact that this is the first that me and my colleagues are finding out about it over this weekend and we found out about it when it was put on the docket when we weren't even included in this paper. No one called me on the phone. I don't know if anybody called anybody else to see if that would be something that we would be willing to do.

Instead, it's just dropped on us, especially during a time that we're asking the taxpayers to override two and a half. I just think that it's a little, again, once again, a little too little, too late. And again, 180,000, 95,000 is a drop in the bucket. Compared to what we really have to make up overall for the city. That's why we're asking for the two and a half-hour ride in the first place. So, but again, I say put your money where your mouth is. I'm saying that I'd be willing to forfeit my pay for the city council and the health insurance and do this for free. Now, I'd like to see some of my other city councils do the same thing. With that being said, I would like to say that we should table this. and put it to the Budget Committee and have discussion on it in the Budget Committee and not hear on the floor from a knee-jerk reaction that we weren't even including on from...

I don't know, when was our last meet? Tuesday? And nothing was said to us until the docket come out on what? Friday? So, you know, I think that's kind of... Unclassy, first of all. And second of all, no respect for your colleagues. You can call them up on the phone. Anybody got a problem with that, you can see me with a curtain going down. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilor Simonelli.

So I do have a motion.

Do we have a second to Councilor Simonelli's motion? Was it to table or to?

It was to set it to the finance.

It does not stifle discussion.

I'll go with the motion.

Correct.

Correct. And I have just have one more light and then I see Councilor Sica you want to respond, I assume. Okay, I'm going to take Councilor Colón-Hayes.

Thank you. So I wasn't sure if I was going to say anything tonight because I I'm a counselor at large, and I do feel like it's the ward counselors that are really going to take the brunt of this. I was going to speak to the pay, but since we took that off, because I was concerned that we wouldn't be able to do that, in this cycle, so it wasn't even helping now, but that was taken care of. So I'm just gonna say a couple of things about, for the ward counselors, I wouldn't mind definitely taking a look at ways we could help raise some funding together, I live in ward three, I know my ward councilor. does the best she can also, but we don't have a lot of businesses.

We have zero.

Zero businesses. So my fear is that it's going to be inequitable across the city for many reasons, ones like you were talking about, like you have lower income folks Maybe they can't donate. I've also always been very impressed by your couponing. I see that. But we don't all do that as well. And I would like to see us You know, using our time in other ways, especially now during this crisis, but I did want to speak for the ward counselors and I felt like that this puts a lot of extra burden on them having to fundraise for a lot of it, you know, in the middle, You know, even though this is a crisis. But the other point, too, about public monies being spent for things, Councilor McDonald had mentioned for Fourth of July.

One thing that I wanted to let folks know is that the Juneteenth Committee, we talk a lot about that and it really means a lot when the city puts in as well because it means a lot to say, we recognize this, we recognize this, It's, we should be holding this and we're gonna put a little in with it also. They don't have to pay for everything, but that has been a subject of conversation to the point where we were hoping to actually get it in a line item. It could be a very small thing. but it does mean something. So I wanted to bring that up too about the events. In any case, I think it's good to go to finance. We can brainstorm on this and hopefully figure out a way that will help and not be uneven across the wards. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Colón-Hayes. Councilor Sica.

Thank you. This is my final time. I just wanted to Let the public know that I will put my money where my mouth is, and I would do this job for zero dollars, because when I decided to run for this seat back in 2013, It wasn't about the lucrative paycheck. It was about giving back to the community that I grew up in, the community that I love. The community that I want to see move Malden forward. This has nothing to do with the pay. I was going to say that earlier, but I didn't because we weren't discussing three and four. But I just want to go on the record as stating, I don't sit up here for $25,000 a year. I sit up here. because I love Malden.

And unlike some comments that were made this evening, I don't think this, Reducing the pay will stop people from wanting to run for this seat because I don't think all of us up here did it for the lucrative pay. So I just want to go on record in saying that I did not do this for the pay. And I think a lot of us city officials do not do it for the pay. Because if we did, we wouldn't be able to be here. You can't live off of $25,000. So, thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Sica. I do see one more light from Councillor Taylor.

Thank you very much. So, just to go on record, I don't do this for the pay. I didn't sign up for the pay, but I couldn't do it without the pay. That pay and those health benefits are what keeping my kids going right now. And all the other jobs that I take so I'm able to fit this one in, is what keeps us going. So we do not all have the same background and the same ability to do things. I cannot spend time fundraising. I have been very clear about the fact that this job makes five for me that I am struggling through, but I make sure to prioritize this. It is not because I want the money, but I need that money in order to be able to do this. And I think a lot of us are in that boat. The time that I take off of work to come into meetings, the time I was spending a Friday afternoon with a friend and I stopped because I had to spend an hour and a half dealing with national grid.

I couldn't afford to do these things if it wasn't for that small stipend. And that is already a sacrifice, because that doesn't even cover my rent. Nor does the take-home amount cover my food shopping bills for the month. But it's a small amount that keeps me able to do this job because I want to, because I love this city. So much that I sacrifice every day to be able to come here and do this job. And I don't want it out there in the public that we do it for the money or we're getting rich, but we also may need that money to supplement our incomes to be able to keep going. And I just, I know that doesn't, it's not what everybody wants to hear. They want to see us sacrifice, but we do sacrifice. We sacrifice when people come to us online, when they say things to our kids. We sacrifice every single day to keep coming back to this job. Sometimes here until 1 o'clock in the morning. Sometimes we're here 12 hours a day.

We can't sit here and make it feel like one of us is doing it with better intentions than another. No one's doing it to get rich. 25,000 doesn't go far. After insurance, my direct deposit is $359. My last food shopping bill was $258. like I'm not but I need it to be able to supplement so that I can move forward and keep doing this so I just want to make that extremely clear when we're voting on this and we're talking about our salaries No one's sitting here talking about the salary because they don't love doing this. It is always a sacrifice, and I do love it, and I would do it for free if I could afford it. If anybody wants to finance my lifestyle, let's do it. It'll come for free, but until then, I cannot.

Okay, thank you. Councilor Crowe.

Again, I don't think the people are doing this, let me tell you, you know, It hurts me too, and we're not even talking about salaries again, because that's off the table at the moment. I think it needed just to be a conversation about signaling the community where we as counselors are already saying, yes, maybe we don't reduce it by a zero, maybe we reduce it by a percentage, taking off three and four. Talking about ward improvement, I do the same thing, Councilor Winslow. It does give me a stop sign that has come down and said having ordered the traffic commission to ask them that they don't have any money either. but we need to, we can't keep saying that we need this, we need this, we need this, we need this.

We got to cut and I have full faith in the mayor and the financial team that they're putting it together. But some pieces at least need to be out into the community. And I think that if we, my neighbor's calling, that we as the council can start signaling Yes, we agree with this. Instead of waiting for the mayor's budget to come down and then either reducing, okaying, or rejecting, or having to negotiate that we don't agree with that, we don't agree with this, And it's wonderful when, and I know most councilors, I'm sure, I don't know, but have had either conversations or signaled the mayor where they think some cuts should happen. but that's not the whole body. So it can't be what, you know, Council of Condon things should be cut.

It has to be what the body is willing to cut too. So we need to start having conversations about what we are okay with cutting. And I agree with Councilor Taylor. It's not like I have more dedication because of this or that, I mean, with some of the funding. And I know that that was like a difficult conversation, but we need to have these difficult conversations. and we need to start signaling because there will be a lot of cuts if this does not pass. But even we got to give some signaling that we're in this with the community. And I know the mayor is, I know the finance team is, but we need to start signaling to the community as well where we are.

Thank you, Councilor Crowe. Councilor McDonald for the second time.

I just wanted to say briefly about the approach to talking about cuts. I do want folks to know, who maybe didn't make it to the first public forum that we had about the override, that we did share I actually wasn't there, but was shared an example of what the kind of cuts we would be looking at, what would be the impact across city departments. And it was a demonstration, it wasn't an actual proposal. But I do just want to be clear that that was, you know, and that was like I think a 14% reduction in headcount kind of across the board proportionally. And what would that be? How many firefighters would that be? How many folks at the DPW would that be? So I want to just make sure that the public hears that there is a lot of good conversation happening right now, and we're going to continue to do that, about what this level of reduction in service would look like.

Discussion hopefully highlights for our community is that there are real impacts to our reductions. It is not let's just trim these things we don't need. We are talking about doing less, offering less, and that's what This is and we're starting with the places that we have more control over and I think that's appropriate. But I actually don't want us to deny the public the agency in deciding, do you wanna gut all public funding for events? To me, that would be a conversation if the override failed. I think showing that we can have a plan for some reductions regardless, that makes sense to me. It doesn't make sense to me if the public says actually we want to invest in the city to then turn around and be like, sorry, we already cut all funding for all public events that you dearly love. That doesn't feel like it's actually in the spirit of the democratic process, which is like, Why we're asking voters to weigh in on this. I think what's incumbent upon us is to make sure we are prepared to act on what the results of that override are.

And I think this helps us show that we in fact are. So I just wanted to say that. just on the subject of our compensation. And I just want to appreciate Councilor Taylor's clear defense of why it's important to fund public officials. I don't want to be glib about this, but you get what you pay for with public officials. This is a hard job. Yes, no one does it for the money. Yes, you do not pay me enough to take the abuse that we all take online. I don't wanna put a price tag on that, but it's high and you ain't gonna pay it. But what does matter is access to this job to the full diversity of our community, and there is no way, there is no way, and you can look at the research on this, that people at different stages of life, different stages of income, education, family would be able to participate as elected officials in this city if we substantially reduce the compensation.

There's just no way. That's a pretty common story. And I think that is wrong. I think that would be wrong. I think it would be immoral. And I think that it sets up a dangerous dynamic whereby by being a public servant It means that that implies that we should take any amount of abuse that is leveled our way. And I don't think that's the case. I mean, we need to recognize labor as labor. The same reason I would not call in departments and staff and ask them, Hi, how much can we cut your pay? I wouldn't do it to us either because I recognize that our labor is in fact labor. And of course we can't do that with city staff because they're unionized. There are contracts that we follow about pay and so on. I do think that it's just important to recognize that the work that we do here is valid and should be compensated in a respectful way, perhaps not at the total fair market way because you do have to sacrifice to serve, I recognize that.

but I think that really matters for the quality of government that we can get and the fairness of our democracy and who can serve. I would actually like to call the vote on the referral of the first part of this paper to finance.

I think it's beyond time that we did that. So we have a motion on the floor. Seconded by Councillor Winslow. for, sorry, I flipped.

This will be a referral to finance. For the first half of the paper.

Right, exempting numbers three and four. Correct. Okay, so we can do a voice vote for this. So all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? And we have one recused.

With the second half of the paper, do you want to entertain a tabling motion? Do you want to refer that out as well, but as a separate paper?

I don't want to refer it out, no. Do we have discussion on that, Councilor McDonald?

I actually think it would be better to put it on file and just resubmit this. And I think we could ask for some information about how we set compensation from our legal department if we want to do that. But I think otherwise we're going to have like half a paper that sits on the docket awkwardly. That's a fair point.

Okay.

Sorry, we have a... Yeah, I'm all right with that. You're okay with that? Okay, so we have a motion by Councilor Crowe. Who seconded that? Councilor Simonelli? Okay, that's fine. We'll have Councilor McDonald second that. All in favor of placing that on file? Aye. Any opposed? And we have one recused. Okay, next order of business. We should. I don't know where Councilor O'Malley actually physically went. In the back. Yeah. Okay. We'll just go get them.

Paper 130-26, resolved. that it is the sense of the Malden City Council that no resources of the City of Malden should be used to assist. You keep doing that tonight. Paper 130-26 resolved that it is the sense of the Malden City Council that no resources of the City of Malden should be used to assist with the federal government's responsibility for civil, non-criminal immigration enforcement in any manner not required by law, Court order or subpoena. This includes not assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, or other federal agencies charged with this responsibility. The City Council asks that all City staff and representatives comply with this intent to the best of their ability and within the limits of the law. This resolution is not intended to violate any federal law nor shall it be interpreted to do so. We support the protections of the United States Constitution for due process and condemn aggressive and inhumane tactics of ICE agents in Malden and other communities across the country.

As a diverse and immigrant-rich community, We dedicate our resources to creating a safe, livable, and welcoming community for all. And this is sponsored by Councilors McDonald and Winslow.

Okay. See, we're just getting started for tonight. Go to Councilor McDonald for the paper.

Thank you, Council President. So this paper comes obviously after we've been having some conversation and we still have the order on the agenda to discuss. What I wanna say though is that the challenge and the need despite much of our conversation about this paper hasn't gone away. The reality is right now that Malden and every community that has a substantial immigrant population is under direct threat from our federal government. And it is not just about what's in the headlines. The deportations, arrests, family separations are happening, have been happening in Malden at a much higher rate in the last year. and so it's us for us as leaders I think we have to make sure that we are doing everything that we can that is under our control to not participate in this oppressive regime and

to keep our people safe, like actually do the things that we can do to reduce the risk that they will be targeted by the federal government. And while I think by and large what we've heard is that we are doing, we are not intentionally and any of our departments trying to give information to ICE or to DHS that would make our folks easier to target. but that we really need to think carefully about whether there are places where we are doing this unintentionally. That's actually my hope from this paper is that every city agency and department and staff person ask themselves a question Is there any intersection in my work to the federal government's push on this and where I'm doing more than I'm required to do by law? And if so, let's not do it. Let's err on the side of protecting our folks.

and I know that goes really against the presumption that we've been able to have for so many generations that the feds are here to help us. I do not believe that the head of the, you know, leadership of the federal government is here to help us even if individual folks that we know in individual agencies and departments have been supportive of this city. But I think we are in an incredibly dangerous time and we have to be cautious. So I hope and believe there's broad agreement and understanding that that's a good thing to do and that we actually don't support this. I want to emphasize, I do think it is our job to comment on this. This is one of the top issues I get asked about in the community. We have the data to know that this is happening. We know that other cities are taking action through executive orders. through council actions and select boards and so on. So I think it is really important that there be a standard that we are looking towards.

I wanna just briefly say in terms of process, this started out as an order that Councilor Winslow and I had submitted that was a bit broader, it got referred to the Public Safety Committee, and we'll talk about this in a second with the actual paper. This is the tech, this is very close to, it actually has additional feedback from our colleagues and from our legal department and others, But this is close to an amendment that we were going to propose in the Public Safety Committee and didn't get the chance to do so. But it also became really clear in this process that there was not the support at this body or in the administration or various department heads to pass an order that would have the effect of policy and that instead the preference and the balance of that support was for a strong statement, which this is. That's what a resolve is. I still think that matters.

I still think it matters to say clearly that we, the council, hope and expect this, that we think this is important, and to get that on the record and for our colleagues and our community to be able to see that. But it was clear to me that there was not going to be the support to advance this as an order and so this is our fallback I hope you all support this paper. Community is watching us and paying attention to what the council does right now and that it will matter. And just thank you to everyone who has actually engaged with this and commented about it and talked to your neighbors about it. because I think this is such a key issue for the safety and the future of our community. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor McDonald. Councilor Winslow.

Yeah, no, that's a great statement, Councilor McDonald, and I don't intend to kind of I do strongly agree that we need to take a public stand against what we see as unlawful, unsafe, and unhelpful Federal Immigration Actions. I happened to be at a meeting where our Middlesex DA Marianne Ryan was there and I asked her about what her office is doing because they're right more on the front lines than we are. And she said even going back to 2017, federal agents went into a state courthouse in the middle of a murder trial and took the suspect out of the courthouse. And that was very disruptive, of course. and it upset the victims by not giving them the opportunity to participate in justice being done. I give credit to DA Ryan that she went to federal court

and got an order against such actions against the federal government. But now, eight years later, that same type of thing is happening again. And that can happen in our city, in city property, and that type of thing. and I think it may be even worse in some ways. We have federal agents that are more bent on meeting quotas than working for our safety in Malden. Malden, throughout our existence, has been a community of families comprised of foreign-born and native family members, many fleeing persecution, violence, or poverty. Federal laws and policies in action need to recognize that basic reality about Malden. And our federal partners need to respect that our local practices working with immigrants of any status have evolved to protect both citizens and non-citizens from violence and predation from within and beyond our boundaries, whether local, state or national.

So that's really what this is about. And I think that was a good conversation in public safety, but I do think that We do need to make a stand as a council, and I think this is a great approach. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Winslow.

Councillor Colón-Hayes. Thank you very much. Thank you to my colleagues so much for sticking this through and working on new or different language so that hopefully this does pass unanimously. and it is important and for anyone that is watching, and we hear some pushback that things that happen at the state level, the world level doesn't affect Malden but that is absolutely wrong and we know that from hearing back from our constituents and and it's important to say it out loud and we aren't protected here in Malden. I had forwarded this report to my colleagues too so they can use some of this data here, but we do have the Leah Zalman Center here for immigrant health research. I don't know if anyone here has ever been there, but they're phenomenal. They're here in Malden. I've worked with them.

they just put out a report and it was published, The Actions and Impacts of US Immigration Customs Enforcement in Massachusetts in 2025. It's a report of real actual things that happened in our community, in our surrounding community, it is happening. So it's extremely important that we make this stand and I am in full support of this and I'd love to be added as a sponsor and I really appreciate all the work that you've done. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilor Colón-Hayes. Councilor Sica.

Thank you, Council President. I just want to say thank you to the sponsors for this paper, for changing it from the order to the resolve. This is something I can absolutely I've spoken to the police chief along with some department heads and city employees who are much Feeling much better with it being a resolve than an order, so I appreciate you, and I just wanted to know that I will be supportive of this, and I would also like to be added as a co-sponsor as well.

Great. Thank you, Councilor Sica. Councilor Simonelli.

Thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to make sure that the mayor's office, if we can call up Marie Louise, maybe, through you, Chair.

Absolutely.

Madam President, I just wanted to make sure that the mayor's office is on board with this meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, Mary. Can you introduce yourself?

Thank you. Yes, so I do want to thank Council McDonald and Council Winslow because they did include us in Coming up with this resolve, first of all, changing it to a resolve was very helpful. and we appreciated having the input and also we got the input of our police chief as well. So we're very appreciative of that and do support this resolve. As a matter of fact, Mayor will probably be issuing a statement along with this passage. I'm assuming it'll pass, hopefully.

Great, thank you.

So if I may, I'd like to be a sponsor on the paper as well.

Okay, sounds good. Any other discussion? Okay, I will just say from the chair, I think one of the privileges of being the president is that you do get to see a lot of the sausage making behind the scenes There was a tremendous amount of work on this to listen to the discussion that came out of committee last week. I really want to applaud the authors of the resolve. There was just a lot of input and just trying to take into consideration A lot of high volume community feedback, department heads, a lot of our colleagues, you know, a lot of back and forth on this, but I think this is a good outcome where folks have been listened to and heard and To underscore what others have said, I think the community, as we all said in committee last week, the community is really needing to hear from us on this issue. This is a very tense time, and I think our voice is needed on this, so I am hopeful that we can Call the question so that we can have a vote on this.

So we have a motion. Did you? Okay. You want to make a motion? Okay. I'll go to Councilor MacDonald for a motion. Councilor Winslow, do you want a second? Okay. So we just need a voice vote on this paper. Councilor Simonelli, did you have another question? Your light was just still on from before. Okay, great. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that is passed. Next order of business.

A representative from the solicitor's office will follow up on paper 104-26 with an update to the council on the investigation into the open meeting law complaint filed by Bruce Friedman v. Marvin Street on February 5th, 2026. related to redactions made to executive session minutes from the meeting of January 20th, 2026.

Okay, I'll invite our assistant solicitor to come up, introduce yourself and. Explain your response if you can, and if we have any questions, we can discuss. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you. Yeah, to introduce myself, my name is Prasanna Radhasekaran. I'm an assistant city solicitor with the legal department So I'll keep this fairly brief, but this complaint had to do with City Council's withholding of executive session minutes pertaining to the Tufts trial. The bottom line here is that at this point there's no open meeting law violation because releasing executive session minutes about This trial would be premature where the trial, where the case is still open. Litigation is ongoing, case is still open. So releasing the executive session minutes about the case would defeat the purpose of the executive session. And that is one reason to withhold The minutes by law. So that's basic explanation. I'm happy to answer any more questions about it.

That's our position.

Okay. Thank you. Do we have any questions or discussion or Motion to authorize legal to submit the complaint to the AG's office. Second. Okay, on a motion by Councilor Crowe, seconded by Councilor Sica, we can take a voice vote, so all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That was easy. Thank you for being here. Yep, thank you. Next order of business.

Paper 131-26, Committee Report. The Standing Committee on Public Property to whom was referred Paper 471 Series of 2025, having considered the same. Make the following report. Committee recommends this paper to the full council favorably for the treasurer to be authorized to sell the property when and if so approved by land court.

Okay, on a motion by Councilor Luong, seconded by Councilor McDonald to receive the report. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

Paper 471-25, order. The council will vote on whether to sell or retain the property known as 33 Tuff Street and by city assessor's parcel identification number 078358819 as in accordance with tax title litigation and foreclosure action with the Massachusetts Land Court. Case number 22, TL000313.

Okay, Councilor Luong for the paper.

Thank you so much. This went through our council, I mean, not council. On a long night, it went through my committee and it was favorably voted out. We had our treasurer here and he explained the process and I kind of want to take a second There's been a lot of discussion online, especially with the Prop 2 1⁄2, on why we don't just take everybody's properties that owe us taxes and sell them off and that would You know, balance our budget. And what I think people have... Well, no, trust me, I've been dragged a bit online. So I just want to address that to say... We do a really good job here in Malden to be respectful of the property owners, to be respectful of what's owed to us and we go through, there's a series of steps that takes from months to years before a property can come before.

So this is probably, don't quote me, probably my fifth property in two meetings that we've voted to sell. And my colleague, Council McDonald, had made some Very good points in those committee meetings, making sure that the people in which we have foreclosed on have places to go and either the tenants or themselves. So I just kind of want to put that out there that this A foreclosure of a property isn't done instantaneously, and it's certainly not going to affect this year's budget or next year's budget for that matter. So I just kind of wanted to make that kind of clear to everyone. So we ask for this to be brought out faithfully. Favorably to the council.

So you make a motion to adopt the order?

Yes, I do. Thank you.

And I want to thank you, Councilor Luong, for taking this on. I certainly, when I appointed you to chair this committee, I had full confidence that you could handle it, but It has been an onslaught of papers early in the year. So I want to thank you for handling that very capably. Everyone else on the committee has chaired the committee at some point or another, which was intentional on my part so that you'd have that support. But it has still been a very high volume of business. I want to thank you for taking that on. I know we've had the support of the treasurer, but it has truly been a lot of work. So thank you for moving that along. So we have a motion to adopt the order, seconded by Councilor Simonella. Taylor. All in favor?

So just to be specific, you're voting to adopt the order and you're going to authorize the treasurer to either retain or sell. Correct.

Okay. You have to say what that is.

To authorize.

We authorize the product to sell.

You're authorizing the treasurer to sell. Correct.

Thank you.

Where's he going? Taylor. Well, it doesn't matter. He was here and then he was gone. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the order is adopted. Next order of business.

Paper 132-26, Committee Report. The Standing Committee on Public Safety to whom was referred, Paper 72, Series of 2026. Having considered the same, make the following report. Committee refers this paper out to the full council without recommendation.

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

72-26 order that as a diverse and immigrant rich community the limited resource of the city of Malden shall be fully dedicated to address the local needs and priorities of Malden's residents, businesses, and visitors. The goal of this order is to provide for a safe, livable, and welcoming community for all. No city employees, departments, appointees, processes or representatives shall assist in fulfilling the unique and separate responsibilities of the federal government, including immigration enforcement, or cooperate with any federal agencies or policies contrary to the stated goal of this order. This order shall be followed to the maximum extent permitted by law provided that it shall not require the city to break pre-existing contracts or agreements with federal entities.

Okay, and this was already discussed in part during the previous resolve. So we have a motion by Councilor Sica to place on file. Seconded, oh, Councilor McDonald, did you want to speak to this paper as well? Of course, you have the floor.

Yeah, just very briefly, I do want to share with the community about what were the concerns that got raised in committee that helped, that moved the conversation in a different direction. and that the concerns that were brought to the committee including by our police chief and our treasurer and then later also shared by the mayor's office were around whether this order or really any version of this order would offer enough clarity to our city staff about what is expected of them and what is appropriate and what the policy of the city is and then what the consequences if they do not comply with that or if they violate that are. So that was the level of concern that led to us taking a different tack. I do want to say I think it is appropriate for the council to set policy for the city. We do so through ordinance.

and I think that it is important that this particular issue have the force of policy. I think I'm gonna get outvoted on that, but I understand that. I just wanna say on the record that I, I would have preferred that we'd spend a little bit more time rather than referring it back out to the committee to see if we could get to some kind of shared language or agreement. We had proposed a motion to table that also failed. We are where we are in the process. I understand that. And I would have hoped we could spend some more time seeing if we could get to something that I think was a little bit stronger and more meaningful and saw if we could have addressed some of those operational questions. McDonald, I see a light from Councilor O'Malley.

Yeah, I was going to comment on the resolve, but I decided not to rain on people's parades, and I figured I'd leave it for the order. I was not in full support of this order. As it was written, I think it needed to go through work in committee, which I appreciate that Councillor MacDonald and Councillor Winslow had done that work and had an amendment that was ready. I had wished the committee would have taken that up. But I understand that they referred this out without a recommendation. I do want to state and reiterate what Councilor McDonald stated is that we are the City Council and we do set policy and we shouldn't be afraid of that. You know, the resolve is a resolve. It's the sense of the city council. But it does not have to be complied with. And so, you know, I supported it. I'm not opposed to it, but it doesn't have the effect of policy.

People know that we feel this way, but there is no consequences and there's no requirement that people follow that resolve. So while this order is not in a form that I would support, I think that the amendment that Councilor Winslow and Councilor MacDonald came up with as an order would have been a great solution for that. but I understand y'all had to make the sausage as Councilor Linehan had stated. So I understand that politics is the fine art of compromise. I don't know how I'm gonna vote on this order now that it's here. I don't know what the motion is gonna be, I guess. No motions are on the floor.

There was a motion to place on file. Oh, to place on file.

Okay, great, thanks.

Okay, thank you, Councilor O'Malley. So I had a motion by Councilor Sica. Did we have a second to that? Okay, second by Councilor Winslow. All in favor of the motion to place on file? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Okay, two opposed.

I heard two. Was that O'Malley and McDonald's?

And McDonald's, thank you.

Paper 133-26, the Committee Report. The Standing Committee on License to whom was referred, Papers 45, 47 through 51, and 85 through 96. Series of 2026, having considered the same, make the following report. Committee recommends these papers out favorably to the full council. Committee further recommends paper 84, series of 2026, out favorably with a conditional 90-day class 2 license.

Okay, on a motion by Councilor Sica, seconded by Councilor Condon to receive the committee report. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the committee report is received. Okay, here we go.

Paper 45-26, Class 2, Frank's Auto Sales, 189 Highland Avenue, 5 cars. Paper 47-26, Livery Company, Bella Luxury Transportation, 19 Mount Vernon Street, 1 vehicle renewal. Paper 48-26, Livery Driver, Michael Cheka, 19 Mount Vernon Street, Renewal. Paper 49-26, Livery Company, Ruby Lynn Transportation, LLC, 259 Mountain Avenue, One Vehicle, Renewal. Paper 50-26, Livery Driver, Linda Della Cano, 259 Mountain Avenue, Renewal. Paper 51-26, Taxi Company, Malden Transportation Incorporated, 290 Eastern Avenue, 10 Cabs, Renewal. Paper 84-26, Class 2, Malden Auto. Center, LLC, 189 Eastern Avenue, 31 vehicles new. Paper 85-26, Livery Company, JML Luxury, 500 Broadway, apartment 5158, one vehicle renewal.

Paper 86-26, Livery Driver, Joel M. Lopez, 500 Broadway, Apartment 5158, Renewal. Paper 87-26, Livery Company, Casanova, Demita, 411 Salem Street, One Vehicle Renewal, Paper 88-26, Livery Driver. Casson Demita, 411 Salem Street Renewal, 89-26, Taxi Driver. John D. Domenico, 5 Admirals Way, Chelsea Renewal, Paper 90-26, Taxi Driver, Albert Frost, 679 Broadway, Apartment 2R, Chelsea Renewal Paper 91-26 Taxi Driver Christopher Jackson, 24 Surfside Road, Apartment 6, Lynn, Renewal Paper 92-26 Taxi Driver Stephen A. Lauber, 3 Meredith Way, Rockland, Renewal Paper 93-26 Taxi Driver David Macamanera, 51 Melrose Street, 2A Melrose, Renewal Paper 94-26 Taxi Driver Donald F. Porter, 500 Broadway, Apartment 4, 110 Malden, Renewal

Paper 95-26, Taxi Driver, Valentin, Chalet 30, Washington Street, Apartment 508, Brighton, Renewal, Paper 96-26, Taxi Driver, Carlos F. Vargas, 29, Michoacan Road, Apartment 2039, Woburn, Renewal

Okay, on a motion by Councillor Sica to receive the committee report. All in favor? Oh wait, we already did that. We received the committee report already. I just read all the records. Sorry. It is getting late. We used to do it the opposite way, I apologize. It's okay. Councilor Sica for the committee.

Thank you. So the license committee met last week, I think it was, to discuss all these petitions. There was no issues with compliance, and we recommended them all out favorably. Motion to grant the petitions.

Okay, on a motion by Councilor Sica, seconded by Councilor Colón-Hayes to grant the petitions. Oh, sorry about that, Councilor O'Malley, go right ahead.

What was the condition on the conditional license?

It wasn't any issues with the license holder. It's the property owner that's storing cars at the location. So the property owner has... The license holder has been told that he has to Tell the property owner, the compliance guys had a whole thing. We had the gentleman in last week. We're going to give him 90 days to rectify all the things that are going on over there, and we will be revisiting in 90 days.

Okay, and I apologize. I'm just looking up. No, no worries. I'm looking up the address now.

It is the corner of Wyeth and Easton across from Point 180.

Oh, 189 Eastern.

Okay, okay, I understood. Okay, thank you.

Okay. Okay. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Those are granted. Next order of business.

Paper 134-26, order that the City Council will vote to go into executive session with legal counsel regarding the matter of Benevolent Botanicals and 926 Eastern Avenue v. the City of Malden for the purposes of Exemption 3, Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 30A, 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 and if so declared by the chair and if so allowed by the body to admit Maria Louise, special assistant to the mayor, and Ron Hogan,

Chair of the Cannabis Licensing and Enforcement Commission Okay, so citing Exemption 3 on Mass General Law Chapter 30A Section 21A wherein discussing paper 134-26 in open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the city's litigating position. Do we have a motion to enter into executive session? So moved by Councilor Luong, seconded by Councilor Taylor. and we will call the roll and then after that we can take personal privilege before we enter executive session. Yes, Councilor O'Malley.

I won't belabor the topic. I would just like to have this conversation in open session. I know that's not going to pass so we can continue with

Okay, so we'll take a vote on the motion on the floor.

Councilor Colón-Hayes. Yes. Councilor Condon. Yes. Councilor Crowe. Yes. Councilor Wong. Yes. Councilor McDonald. Yes. Councilor O'Malley. Yes.

Wait, you just said the opposite. Even for you, that was confusing. Councilor Sica.

No. Councilor Simonelli. is not here. Councilor Taylor? Yes. Councilor Winslow? Yes. Council President Linehan? Yes. So that passed eight to two.

With one missing.

With one missing.

Okay. So let's do personal privilege before we go into executive session. Councilor Colón-Hayes.

Okay, so I am going to give my last shout out for Malden Juneteenth's fundraiser, which is this Friday at the Irish American. I know you've all gotten emails and would really love for you to support this. When we were talking earlier about The money that we raise on the Juneteenth bingo which starts at 5.30 at the Irish American this Friday It's $30 a ticket, gives you five bingo cards, is how we try and supplement having everything for free on our Juneteenth event this summer. So we would love to see you all there. We've been pushing this hard, so hopefully, and it's also a lot of fun. Just gonna say that, a lot of fun.

Thank you. Okay, thank you, Councilor Colón-Hayes. Councilor Winslow.

Yeah, a couple things. On Thursday the 26th, 6 o'clock over at the Everett Recreation Center, there's a presentation on air pollution. in Malden and Everett communities. So just letting people know I'm going to try to make that. And then I did also want to alert people, particularly in Ward 6 on the east side of town, We are moving ahead with a proposal to put speed humps up in Maplewood Highlands to kind of follow up on the great work up on Bainbridge Street. That's going to be held on March 11th. Thank you. Thank you. This is spring and summer, right?

Great. Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Councilor McDonald.

I want to make sure that the community knows about our upcoming Public Forums on the override and about the city's budget situation. We had our first on February 11th at Salemwood. Our next is coming up this Saturday at 10 a.m. and this one is online so you can access it wherever you are. This is also one where we will have, we have live interpretation through our Microsoft Teams platform, so you can get that in multiple languages. The three other forums that have been scheduled at this point, on Thursday, March 5th at six o'clock, We will have one at the BB School Auditorium. On Monday, March 16th at 6 p.m., we'll have one at the Ferryway School Auditorium. and on Wednesday, March 25th at 6 p.m. we'll have one at the Linden STEAM Academy Auditorium. So we're trying to make sure we spread out around the city

Those forums are a chance to ask questions and to hear, it'll start with an overview presentation from the city that will talk about both the reason for the override, the potential impacts that the override does not pass, and talk about the ballot and how the voting itself is working since this is the first time that we've ever done this. and we've had representatives from the mayor, I believe the mayor himself was there as well as other representatives from the mayor's finance team and Councilor Linehan was there to help host the first one.

That went great.

Yeah, and it went great. I will be at the next ones. I just have a conflict at that one. But I encourage my colleagues to come, to invite people you know. This is a great way to just increase the public awareness and understanding of what these issues are. and why they're important for our voters to weigh in on for the future of our community. Thank you very much.

Great. Thank you, Councilor McDonald. So seeing no other lights at this time, the council will now enter into executive session. and the body will not reconvene for any further business this evening. We will adjourn directly from executive session. Thank you, everyone.