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 liberty and justice for all please remain
standing for a moment of silence in honor of our veterans service members and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice thank you the clerk will call the role council Cologne Hayes Council Condan Council Crow Council Lahan Council
McDonald Council Sega who's here but not in their chair council Simonelli Council Spataphora Council Taylor Council Winslow Council President Ali here under the provisions of the open meeting law for those of you
in attendance uh under the provisions of the open meeting law for those of you in attendance please be informed that Urban Media Arts Uma will be recording this evening's meeting uh so please be aware audio and video recordings of this meeting will be taking place first order of business we have public comment we do
not have anything tonight we have nothing uh that has been sent in and no one has signed up um so we're going to move on to our consent agenda the only thing on tonight's consent agenda are minutes from the meeting of April 8th
2025 does anyone want to remove the minutes from the consent agenda seeing none is there a motion motion councelor uh Simelli seconded by councelor uh Sika the all those in favor
please say I any opposed the minutes in the consent agenda have been approved next order of business paper 185-25 be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the code of the city of Malden 12.12.030 use regulations is hereby
amended as follows to update existing table of use regulations to correspond with the recent site plan review regulations for daycare cent's nonprofit educational facilities and religious facilities as ordained in paper 356 series of 2024 on councelor Winsow's
motion to uh well councelor Winsow would you like to to speak yeah I briefly um yeah so this as we all know we um recently passed um ordinance updates uh for site plan review for um daycarees
nonprofit educational institutions religious facilities um what we what so that was really adding a site plan review section to the ordinances our oversight was we did not change the table of uses to reflect that that that
there should be an SPR um for those um those uses so just to be clear that there's there site plan review for those uses when they come up so that I I thank uh uh city planner Romero for pointing that out and so this is just sort of an administrative uh correction to Remy
that oversight so um and she we we doing it tonight so that um the plan is to have a public hearing sometime in May and we wanted to make sure we got this out um now so that it can be scheduled for the public hearing and so I make a
motion that we refer this to a joint planning and uh rules and ordinance committee for a public hearing so seconded by councelor there's a motion to refer this to a joint ordinance and planning uh board hearing uh seconded by councelor Simelli any discussion on the
motion um all those in favor please say I i any opposed that has been referred uh unanimously next order of business paper 186-25 be it ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of Malden title 12 zoning is hereby amended as follows to be considered in
conjunction with paper 153 series of 2025 to clarify and update existing usable open space requirements and regulations regarding paving of yad areas of residential properties i'm going to hand it over to councelor Winslow for this paper yeah again this
is um a paper that we have had you under discussion and again because we're going to have um a joint planning and rules and ordinance committee coming up in May um this was put on the agenda so that this could be referred to that committee
so it could have a public hearing so that's the purpose of having this paper tonight so uh that'll be discussed further in um at that planning and rules and ordinance meeting so but it's an update to uh various regulations is described here so on councelor Winsow's motion to refer
this to a joint ordinance and planning board seconded by councelor Simonelli any discussion uh all those in favor please say I i any opposed that has been referred to a joint ordinance and planning board hearing next order of business
paper 157-25B to ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of Malden is hereby amended by adding 2.12.200 200 veteran service coordinator to include the following councelor Winslow for the paper can we
also have paper 15825 read as well so we can we can because we need to do we we want to do the motion to suspend the rules first okay all right okay 158 oh because so we didn't have the issue on 157 okay thank you all
right so so this is just simply to um you know ordain the ordinance we enrolled before what the mayor has requested that these two papers be expedited um you know the uh health director is retiring uh momentarily and
this will allow the um creation of the ordinances that you will you know create create and update the organization the inspectional services and the um the health and human services department so that um so this paper is just uh making
that update to the um the role of the veteran service coordinator make sure that they're reporting to the new director of Health and Human Services primarily so that's the purpose of this paper so So is that a motion to ordain a mo motion to ordain yeah second so on councelor Winsow's motion to ordain
seconded by councelor Simelli is there any discussion on on the motion uh seeing none the clerk will call the role council Colon Hayes yes council Condan yes council Crow yes council Lahan yes council McDonald Council Sega yes
council Simmonelli Council Spaphora yes council Taylor yes council Winslow yes council President Dali yes that paper has been ordained the paper is ordained unanimously and so this next paper is a little bit more complicated which we will get into
um paper 158-25 be ordained by the Maldin city council that the code of the city of Malden title 2 chapters 12 and 16 and title 9 chapter 16 are hereby amended as noted in the body of said paper effective upon the successful passage of
a home rule petition approving corresponding amendments to the city charter councelor Winslow so um this paper again it's been requested by the mayor that we um seek to ordain this tonight and what we realized in reviewing the paper was
that um you know we were working on all these set of papers in connection with the development of a home rule petition that will be taken up on April 29th um this update set of updates um you
know because the health director is leaving we want to um have those in place so that the process to hire the new health and human service director is in place right now that responsibility goes with the board of health this would cl you know the new ordinance puts that
um in the hands of the mayor and the council so that's that's one thing and then just clarifying the reorganization of the departments so that the inspectors are going to be in inspections are going to be under inspection services and human services
and health issues are going to be under the the new department so it's just really clarifying that that because the health um director is resigning i mean I even got a email from the um head of the board of health sconey um and she was wondering I mean if if the health director is leaving do we need someone
in that role in the interim so that this is really just to make sure that we can expeditiously hire the new health and human services directors so that there's as little a gap in the uh leadership of the you know under our health and human services so that's really the main point
of it so I think that so and because we enrolled and we did not and that enrollment included the date being effective when the home rule petition is we do have to amend the enrolled um ordinance and I think that was we I I guess I make a motion that
we the motion we have some lights and but yes so so just if I could explain um also from the chair and I'm going to go to councelor Simmonelli um we have to amend the paper th this paper um said does doesn't need a a amendment
to the or to the charter we can do it by ordinance but the preamble said it wouldn't take effect until the charter was ratified and so it's unnecessarily delayed accidentally because it was included with everything and so what we have to do is we have to unenroll
it amend it to strike that it would be come take effect immediately because we're trying to hire this this new um replacement uh we would then enroll it again if we want to pass it all in the same night we would need
to suspend the rules and then ordain it suspending the rules takes eight votes ordaining it would in the same night takes nine votes um so that's why it's kind of complicated um but before we go down that route I want to make sure that we answer any questions so Councelor
Simelli thank you Mr president and thank you for clarifying that i I don't I don't have a problem with the paper i'm supportive of it um I think it's necessary i I just I point of information i just thought that um I thought Chris Weber was going to hang around for I know he's retired or retiring but I thought he was hanging
around in the interim or something until we got a replacement that's not happening april was it and he's not around no more that's it who's handling his responsibilities now nobody is he an assistant so I think technically it falls to the board of
health and then staff so but so it's not clear so we got to get this thing done that's okay all right yeah I'm all for it i'm all for it yeah i I just thought I heard a rumor that he was going to kind of hang around a little bit yeah he hung around you know for long but yeah it is time we got to move on that's why
the the mayor's office is pressing this so that that you know that it clarifies that you know one of the things that's happening with the ordinance is that I mean right now it's the board of health who hires the health director so the mayor and then but with approval of the city council will be hiring the the
health director yeah let's do that right away then yeah that's important okay all right so um so I guess I would make a motion to suspend the rule to unenroll um to unenroll the um paper 15825 so so on councelor Winsow's motion to unenroll
58 15825 second by councelor Simonelli any discussion i know this is kind of complicated so a yes vote would unenroll this paper um a no vote would keep it enrolled the Yeah the clerk will call the the role
to unenroll the paper council Cologne Hayes council Condan council Crow yes council Lahan yes council McDonald yes councel Seca yes council Simmonelli yes council Sphapora yes council Taylor council Winsow yes council President Dali yes okay so now I will make a
motion that passed unanimously it's been unenrolled councelor W so now I make a motion that we amend the paper so that it be take effect immediately so the the motion by councelor Winsow is to amend it so that it uh it takes effect immediately upon passage uh
seconded by councelor Simelli any discussion yes vote would amend a no vote would not amend uh the clerk will call the role on the amendment council Hayes council Condan council Crow yes council Lan council McDonald council Sea yes council
Simelli council Spa council Taylor yes council Winslow yes council President Dali yes the paper is amended okay and so then I make a motion to enroll the paper as amended we're going to enroll as amended first y uh on Councelor
Winsow's motion to enroll as amended seconded by councelor Simonelli the clerk will call the role council clone Hayes yes council Condan council Crow yes council Lahan yes council McDonald council Sega yes council Simmonelli council Spapora yes council Taylor
council Winsow yes council President Dali yes and it's rule 40.03 that you would want to suspend all right so um so I make a motion that we follow rule 40.3 so that we um we
suspend the rules to allow us to ordain and enroll these uh paper in the same night on um so on councelor Winsow's motion I saw councelor's uh councelor crow to to suspend um all the so the clerk will call the
role on the suspension of the rules suspension of rules council colon hayes council Condan council Crow yes council Lahan yes council McDonald council Sega yes council Simmonelli yes council Spaphora council Taylor council Winslow yes council President Dali yes the rules
have been suspended that is unanimous it's got this the it got to the threshold that it needed the rules are suspended councelor Winsow you have a motion to ordain yeah motion to ordain the paper second by councelor Simmonelli on the ordaining motion the clerk will
call the role council Colon Hayes council Condan Council Crow Council Lahan Council McDonald Council Sega Council Simmonelli Council Spaphora Council Taylor Council Winsow Yes council President Ali yes the paper is ordained all right great thank you so
much okay it's unusual we don't do that too often thank you for everybody's understanding on that one so just a lot going on for that so uh the next thing we have is committee reports paper 187-25 the standing committee on finance to home was referred paper 152 series of
2025 having considered the same make the following report committee recommends this paper out favorably to the full council uh councelor McDonald a motion to receive the committee report is there a second second seconded by councelor
Crowe uh all those in favor please say I any opposed the committee report is received the clerk will read the paper paper 152-25 order that the city council amend its local room occupancy excise under MGL chapter 64G subsection 3A from
the current 4% to the rate of 6% uh councelor McDonald for the committee thank you council president so this was a proposal that came out of the many back and forth discussions that we've been having with the mayor's finance team about potential sources of income
and so they brought to us the recommendation um that we raise the local room occupancy tax this is a local option that currently caps out at 6% and they surveyed other neighboring communities they are all at 6% malden is
the outlier at only 4% so this applies to yes the one hotel in Malden as well as a couple of bed and breakfasts and a few other uh licensed lodging um locations they estimate this would raise about 75 to 100,000 in additional income
and so the city coun the finance committee um recommended this favorably unanimously back to the full city council as a common sense way to help address our budget shortfall one other note is that uh additional like a higher local option ceiling is one of the
things that's being considered under the um the the state bill about local what's it called m the municipal empowerment act thank you Councelor Wzo and so if that does happen they may come back to us and see about 7% or 8% or whatever it
is um but as it is this was a this is a pretty easy yes from the finance committee to recommend this back for approval our goal is to do this now so it can just go ahead and get baked into the budget projections it has to be done by the end of May but we figured let's go ahead and do it now it has to be done by the end of May to go effect and go
into effect in July one um so no time like the present thank you any questions awesome so uh thank you Councelor McDonald on Council McDonald's motion to adopt the order seconded by Councelor
Simelli the clerk will call the role council yes council Council Crow Council Lahan Council McDonald Council Sega yes council Simmonelli Council Spataphora Council Taylor Council Winsow Council
President Doali yes the we now have tabled papers is there a motion to take any papers from the table i believe that we tabled oh councelor Winslow yeah privilege councelor Secret i have
personal privilege too okay councelor McDonald yeah i'd like to move that we take paper 7425 off the table second councelor McDonald's motion to take 7425 from the table seconded by Councelor
Crow uh the clerk will call the role okay so on the motion to the paper from the table council Clone Hayes yes council Condan Council Crow yes council Lahan yes council McDonald yes council Sega yes council Simonelli Council
Spataphora Council Taylor Council Winsow Council President Ali yes that has been removed from the table councelor McDonald yes so we had some good discussion about this last week um hopefully everybody had a chance to review the legal guidance in this um and
also we have Dan Cau from the CPC here to answer any questions dan did also helpfully let us know you know after our discussion last week which was really trying to drill down into the question of where is the line of what we can both legally and appropriately support with public funds um in terms of anything
that is um you know any building that's used by a religious entity in of course including a church and the um and one thing that Dan also helpfully pointed out is that there's only nine buildings in Malden that are on the National Register of Historic Places um and this
is the only church so just to to say in terms of precedent that we're setting obviously we're trying to be mindful of that and be really explicit in this recommendation that was unanimous in its support from the finance committee but also to say that given that some of some what the record will reflect is that the
recognized historic nature of the property is part of the decision and that does not that does not broadly extend to another whole class of properties it's a pretty it's a pretty narrow list and I think reflects the fact that this particular congregation has been um committed to that kind of historic preservation for some time so I
wanted to know you know do folks have any more conversations about this do we want to talk about this do we feel ready for a vote i'm not trying to push us i just I think we've raised all of the questions that there are to raise at this point
i see I see councelor Crow has a light um I just had a quick question i know in committee we did take out some reference to that it could not be the funds could not be used for religious um some of the uses so do we have to
amend this paper or is it came out a committee without that can you Caroline do we need because we discussed in the committee report do we need to formally make that amendment to the paper or do we you do so the committee report was received to be amended but you never got to the point of voting for the amendment
okay would you like to make that amendment second so on councelor Crow's motion to amend the paper as recommended by the committee report yes seconded by councelor Winsow winslow um is there any discussion on on this amendment you know can I just read
that really quickly yeah please the the text was so it's a it's a clause to the end provided that the appropriation is not or being is not used is not to be is not to be used to repair or restore any item whose sole purpose is religious
meaning it doesn't have another purpose of holding up the roof but it is something that is um really only for religious practice so on that's what I said on that uh on that the clerk uh well I think I think for an amendment we can just take a a
voice vote so on the amendment all those in favor please say I i any opposed the paper is amended is there a motion to adopt the order is that Yes adopt the
order as amended to adopt the order as amended by councelor McDonald is there a second i'll second councelor Sika sorry and councelor uh Colon i saw councelor Clone make the motion so Oh okay so Councelor Clone Hayes's
motion seconded by uh Councelor Seika the clerk will call the role councelor Cologne Hayes council Condan council Crowe yes council Lahan council McDonald yes council Seca yes council Simonelli yes council Spataphora yes council
Taylor council Winsow yes council President Ali yes that that order has been adopted by 11 to Z that has been adopted um the the the docket is clear do we have any personal privilege councelor Sika thank you
Council President i just want to remind everybody because I totally was not thinking about it till this morning that this weekend is Easter and Council Bataphor and I are hosting our annual um what eight egg hunt at uh Lynen Park
Hunting Field 10:00 a.m shop and when I say 10:00 a.m shop I mean by 10:05 there will be no eggs on the ground so please do not show up at 10:30 and ask where the egg hunt is this is one of our events that does not last very long so
you're better off to get there a little bit before 10:00 a.m um there will be the Easter Bunny there to take pictures with if you would like to see the bunny but if you are in need of eggs please be at the park by 10 we usually kick off
right at 10 and it might not even be 10:05 it might be 10:01 that there are no eggs left so and the mayor is one of the ones that collects a bunch so um this Saturday 10:00 April 19th Lynen
Park Hunting Field for our annual egg hunt and I want to wish everybody a happy Easter thank you thank you uh councelor Winslow yeah yeah also want to thank everybody uh and wish everybody a wonderful Easter uh that
would be great and uh we have Patriots Day coming up so uh Malden Maldonians 250 years ago we're participating in in that to uh to start the American Revolution so um that spirit lives on
here so um so just celebrate that and I just wanted to say that related to our city charter um I'm working with the um clerk's office to schedule the hearing on the home rule petition i'm anticipating that that will be happening
as part of the council meeting on April 29th so that is um there'll be a specific public hearing where members of the public can make comments um before we adopt that and we'll have the home petition ready for that so working on that so just letting people know that um
that was what people had to request thank you thank you Councilor Windsor for that i appre we appre do appreciate that you're moving forward with that i think that was really helpful councelor McDonald thank you i wanted to do some promo for the Green Molden Fair the 3rd annual it is Saturday April 26th 12:00
p.m to 3 p.m at Pine Banks it's at the that fieldhouse um that you never go to otherwise but it's where the Green Molden Fair is kind of behind the soccer fields and the um and the ball fields and um it's it's such a great event there's a lot of
things that you can get and and sign up for at the fair so that's why it's so great that includes uh rare recycling opportunities so that in so for this year that is styrofoam you can bring your styrofoam containers latex paints electronics school and office supplies
um documents so shredding document shredding and textiles you can dispose of all of those for free um there are the vendors include the Mystic River Wershed Association Black Earth Compost our compost program community organizations like um Clean Water Action
Creative Heights Friends of Felsmere Heights um the Greening the Gateway Cities program so you can sign up to get a tree Homeworks Energy and the Laminar Collective which help um electrify your homes and make them more energy efficient you can learn about Malden community electricity our bulk purchasing program the Molden Public
Libraryies library of things so you can borrow things so you don't have to buy consumer you know consumer products the tree warden will of course be there chris Rosa would not miss this i know um National Grid's electric vehicle charging program the YWCA Malden's bike helmet giveaway um and our open space
and recreation and open space and recreation plan and hopefully some new members of our um climate action sustainability commission so it's going to be a grand time hope you can come and check it out and I'll see you there and I I just want I will not be here to make this announcement next week i'll be out
next week so maybe one of you can remind the good people of Malden about this next week before you shut your microphone off as someone who also cares about the Earth what do I do with my batteries like I have a giant bucket of batteries like just normal
does everyone already know this am I the only person that doesn't know i have a giant bucket of like double AAA batteries and I and I don't know I know not to throw them in the trash but I don't you're saying so I'm hearing from counselor spoutfor that it's Home Depot but can I bring my batteries you
Yep you can the city So when I googled how do I recycle batteries the city says throw them away um I feel like that's not the best answer i agree i've seen them No I've seen them at Home Depot right i know those will break those bags I'll tell
you i feel like I have seen them at Home Depot you can just bring the batteries there and recycle them and that's not just for lithium ion okay you not I I'm I'm going to be I'm I'm going to be fully above board i was not prepared to answer this question understood i'll let you know next time i But someone must be
so let's get a good answer okay well by let's by next by next week we're going to figure out what to do with batteries what to do with batteries and it might be as easy as go to Home Depot we'll we'll also look into light bulbs oh and one other thing for the Green Mountain Fair i know folks had asked about rain barrels we have paused our rain barrel
giveaway program because it's been housed at the DPW in order to do the park construction they didn't have a place to store the barrels so that will be coming back i think there there might be a place to sign up if you're interested but we're not going to have the same barrel giveaway at the same time and I know folks had asked about
that so stay tuned awesome thank you i appreciate it sorry for the curveball i think Lowe's also takes the batteries not just some people uh councelor Lennan thank you i think I just learned I might be a battery scoff and I didn't know well if you want to see what
happens when people don't dispose of things come on down to my park cleanup on Saturday it's always an interesting time in the woods um so Saturday morning just a reminder myself and the Girl Scouts are going to be hosting a clean up at Felsmere Pond um starts at 9:00
a.m goes till about 11:00 show up anytime in that window i'll have snack supplies those fun little trash grabbers that everybody loves um and if any of your students need uh what am I trying to say community service hours bring the forms digital paper and I'm happy to
sign those so the weather looks amazing and I'd hope to see a great crowd councelor Cologne Hayes thank you very much Council President um I just wanted to let people know that the Northshore Hispanic Association is having their annual fundraiser where um we honor
Hispanic Americans making a difference and we have some great honores um we have our own Laura Perez from Malden um Recreational Department uh we have Sandra um Coreno from the North East Metro Tech
High School um myself and uh Juan Lopez um who is a community leader and he's been actually um he's been at all of our events and is MC's them he's great and Glattus Vega from the LA Collaboriva from or they also go by the Chelsea
collaborative um and she's done some amazing work especially during COVID so we have some great honores um you can purchase tickets let's see um there was a QR code that I you can't do it from there but you can email um Glattus
Rivera Rogers at the Northshore Hispanic Association.com thank you so much and there's going to be live music and Latin food thank you counselor i just want to uh wish everybody a happy Easter i believe Passover is next week
as well i think it's Tuesday is it today oh is it now see I'm not up to date with my my Passover calendar but wishing everybody a happy Passover but the real reason why I did click the mic not to be repetitive I did want to let council and Melanie know that Home Depot in partnership with Cal 2 Recycle offers a
store recycling for rechargeable batteries customers can drop off used rechargeable batteries that weigh up to 11 pounds which I don't think you have and are under 300 watt recycling designed uh designated bins located in most Home Depots in the front rechargeable yes that's lithium ion yes
so you can't do the normal batteries yes you can okay i mean you can but Well I have Yeah now it's it's like where they it's last time I remember seeing them there it's where the carriages are kept they have like a bin there you throw them in there okay yeah yeah well it was it it was
giving all the it was given some states require certain things like California has different requirements so I appreciate that thank you motion to on on councelor Sika's motion to adjurnn seconded by councelor Crow uh all those in favor please say I any opposed we are
adjourned at at 7:39