Okay, it's 7:06. The council will come to order. I'll rise and salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of our veterans, service members, and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. I'd like to do two additional moments of
silence tonight. Um, firstly, our city solicitor, Alicia McNeel's father, Oscar McNeel, who was a World War II veteran, passed away this weekend at the incredible age of 101. Ally, we're keeping you in our thoughts at this time of grieving. Um, I would ask for a
moment of silence in his memory. And secondly, I know I'm going to have a little trouble getting through this one. Um, I didn't have the pleasure of knowing this person, but anytime a young person from our community passes, it's incredibly tough. And I see a huge crowd
here um on this person's behalf. A young woman named Rena Santeo, a Walden High School graduate from the class of 2002, died unexpectedly last week while living in Texas, where she was at in school at the age of just 21.
Um, Rena was born and raised in Walden. um attended the Forestdale School in Malden High School and had served as a Navy medic for two years before an honorable discharge and was pursuing a degree in science before her passing. Rena maintained close ties to Malden and
I did have the opportunity to speak with a parent of one of her childhood best friends who shared with me a bit of her personality and the enormous loss that they are of course all feeling right now. Ren is being remembered as someone who was the glue of their childhood friend group. Someone who loved others
deeply and worked hard to keep their friendship ties close. She was a gifted athlete who grew up playing Malden soccer and went on to play for Malden High's varsity teams, who was also a musician um and played in the high school band and in the choir. I know so
many of her friends and family are not only here tonight but watching from afar. I just want to extend our sincerest condolences to all of you. And for anyone who would like to attend the services for Rena, visiting hours are going to be Sunday, this Sunday, September 7th, from 2:00 to 5:00 at
O'Donnell Funeral Home in Pee with the funeral being held the following day at 11:00 a.m. from the same location. So, if you would please, a moment of silence in her memory. Thank you very much. And the clerk will now call the role.
Council clone Hayes here. Council Condan here. Council Crow here. Council McDonald here. Council Ali. Council Sea here. Council Simonelli. Council Spaphora here. Council Taylor.
Council Winslow. Council President Lahan here. Okay. Thank you. Okay. 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. So, just to be aware, there will be audio and video
recordings of this meeting. First order of business, cemetery superintendent and tree warden Chris Rosa will appear before the council with the status update on recent projects as well as the new tree steward program that will soon be rolled out for residents citywide.
Welcome. Hi. Good evening, councils. Uh I don't know where to start first. I guess we'll start with the tree steward program. So, everybody has a package in front of them. Um,
one book, the top one is something we we put together last year. Uh, but I thought you guys should have a copy of it. So, that's kind of our tree planting and guidelines book that includes tree protection in parks, uh, public
sidewalks, things like that. Uh the second book you have is one uh that I just completed. It it's still in a draft form. Uh I'm just waiting for input from two state agencies that want to adopt it as their tree steward training program.
took me about eight months to write it. And uh it was all through a cool corridors grant that we received last year. And uh some of that money actually went to purchase some cool t-shirts too, like the one I'm wearing and the one I gave each of you. If the sizes don't
match, let me know and I'll get you another one. Uh but the idea behind the tree steward program is a lot of the grants that we apply for uh require some kind of community engagement and I figured this was the best way to help us
in the city. So we're going to open the enrollment for people to sign up if they'd like. There is going to be a minimum commitment of at least eight hours a week. We we can't we just don't want people getting a free t-shirt running around the city. So we do require some kind of commitment. They're
going to have the training manual which will teach them just about everything they need to know for the basics of trees. And then they're going to they're going to help us. They're going to be my my eyes on the ground. Show me where trees may be stressed, disease, dying,
uh weeding tree pits, which I know is popular on CClick Fix. Uh help out with the watering. I already have some volunteers that say, "I've got four trees that were just planted on my street. I'd love to water them." So that's the idea behind the tree steward program and to get more people involved
and let them learn the benefits of planting trees. Uh the past 3 years is when I started keeping count. We've planted almost 800 new shade trees. Uh about 2/3 of that are public
shade trees and the last third is private. Uh there's some misconception out there that I plant them all myself. I do not. I rely on uh the DPW, the water department helps plant trees, cemetery contractors, volunteers, Mystic
River Watershed. So it's really a collaborative effort uh all the way around. So, in the past two and a half years, I've received I've applied and received
u $665,000 worth of tree grants. So, we really haven't paid for trees or care in about 2 and 1/2 years, which is which is great. Uh we have 400,000 pending right
now for two grants that I wrote in June. Uh just waiting on the federal dispersement of those. I'm not sure how much we're going to get. I'm confident we're going to get at least half. And uh that grant, believe it or not, is already spent. I plan on handling the uh
ashbor problem on Commercial Street so we can get those down and get them replanted. Uh I also received a $475,000 CPC grant. I don't know if any of you have had a chance to get by the Forestdale Cemetery, but uh we planned
on that 475 being used just to repoint the entire wall along Forest Street. Bids came in much to my surprise in my favor. So, we were able to do all of Forest Street, uh the main street side, the two crypts inside and two inner
walls, and we still ended up about 30,000 under budget. So that was uh a huge success. Uh the cemetery, I'm sure a lot of you know that we're a a level one arboritum registered through the Morton Arboritum.
Uh found out about an hour before I got here that my paperwork was processed and we are now a level two arboritum. So we're one of we're one of the top 10 in the state and as a level two we join UMass LOL uh
Northeastern University and PBD Essex Museum arboritum. So that was good news. Um we also last month achieved a certified wildlife habitat to the National Wildlife Federation for the cemetery.
Um, I'll digress to something I've been working on in on weekends helping council Lahan and councelor Spataphora with Felsmere Pond. We've had a fishing issue there. So, we've removed a lot of
the line from trees with the help of uh wildlife rehabber Linda Ramato and Maryanne Neville. And the counselors have been very gracious to allow us to roam the park and do what we have to do. We have new signage that's going to go up along with uh polyilament
uh stations where people can recycle the line and the hooks instead of leaving them all around the park. Uh I know that uh council Lahan and council spat saw my post on Facebook about the wildlife habitat and reached out to me and asked
me if we could do something for Felsmere Pond. So proud to say that as of two days ago, fellow mayor pond is a wildlife habitat as well. So [Applause]
I will not doesn't go to the house, goes to the pond. I see. Uh, and just some other things about trees, um, that you may or may not be aware of. When I first became the tree
warden almost three years ago, we signed our first vegetation management plan ever with National Grid. So, we continue to sign that every year, which gives us control of how they can prune our trees and when and how much. Um, we did identify the emerald ashbor situation
which we I personally went and looked at 304 ash trees through the city. Unfortunately, all but 13 of those are too far gone, but the 13 uh that we were able to treat successfully. It's year
three. They're still healthy uh are at Rock Park. So, thanks to Council Crow for letting me do that. Uh we purchased our first uh tree care and watering truck which was a $100,000 earmark that I received. So uh that's
being put to good use by the DPW. We just celebrated our 10th consecutive year of Tree City USA and our second consecutive growth award. and uh Arbor Day Foundation and Trees USA came to Malden High School in June for the first
time in Malden's history where every municipality in the state was invited to come and grab their awards and listen to me bore them with a speech. Uh, other than that, uh, we're working on a new ordinance that I I hope to have
in front of the council soon. And I'm still working on our second pocket forest, which will go in ward 8 into council seekers ward. That's been a little tougher than Goodwin A because I've got some some hoops to jump through because it's not our land. It's state
land. So, but I expect that to be settled soon. And that's really all I have. So, if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer. Fantastic. Thank you so much. You're welcome. I do see a lot of lights on. Unfortunately, they're not blinking. It
seems like everybody's able to put their lights or put their mics on. Um, so I do see the order that everybody came up, but I'm just going to ask folks to be really careful with side conversations because your mics are all live. So, if we could just make sure to keep mics up
like Yeah. or you can turn it off and re-enter the queue. But I had councelor Simelli first. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mr. President. Um Mr. Rosa, I just want to say that um
you know, I think you've been doing a fantastic job with both at the cemetery and being the arborist uh for the city. M's a big city and um you know it's a big undertaking uh doing what you're doing cuz you know people don't realize
um that you just can't take down a you know a perfectly healthy tree as much as it might be ugly to them and as much as they may not like it. Uh people don't understand some and it's it's it's funny because we you know we we've come from a time back in like the 70s and 80s when
you know people didn't want a tree in front of their house and now people do want trees in front of their house and then there's some people that don't want a tree in front of their house because they think that this tree somehow is going to grow like Jack and the Beantock overnight and uh cause all kinds of
problems to their gutters. and I try and tell them or you try and tell them that by the time that happens, your grandchildren will be old old enough to be owning this house. So, I appreciate all the work that you do. Every time I call you, you come out and take care of the uh you know, the the issues with the
constituents when it comes to the tree stuff. And there's a lot of work that goes behind it. You got to put it out there to be you know, bid, not bid, but uh have a public meeting for a couple of weeks and you got to keep track of that. and on top of doing all the tree plant that you're doing. I mean, you can see
you could see it in my in my neighborhood. So, I appreciate all the stuff that you do. It's a lot of work and it's this is very impressive with this book. I don't know how you found time to do all that, but you did and it looks good. So, keep up the good work. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thank you, council. W seven keeps me busy.
I'm sure it does. Yeah. Thank you, Councelor Simmonelli. Councelor Condan. Thank you, Madame President. I think I'm going to turn others off. I've got a written down queue here. I'm going to turn folks back on when I when your turn is back up if that's okay. Just to keep the feedback down.
Chris, last year I know it was a a good year for trees, but out of the all the trees you planted, how many about uh last year? 668 if I remember right. And that includes DeA. That included Deborah. Correct.
How many you figure we lost? So th this year was an abnormal year. We we had a 98% success rate. This year was a little tougher. A lot of road salt, the drought. Uh I'd say we lost about 6%.
So maybe 40. 6%. Yeah. That's uh I think that's a tremendous uh job to do that because years past seem like we really lose them all. But I was
there when you ran that class at DEA teaching those guys how to uh plant the trees, right? Strapping them in and the whole thing, you know. So, you deserve to be commended and uh I thank you particularly. I I know I got a lot of
trees down in Denver, but I went a lot of years without trees, so they all went to what four. Thank you. You're welcome, C. Thank you, Councelor Condan. Counselor Omali.
Thank you, Mr. Rosa. You've done an amazing job as tree warden and superintendent. I know it's a hard job, but I just want to say thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Um, I also want to give credit where credit's due. You know, I know a long time ago the former W 3 counselor John Mat was instrumental in getting our
designation as a Tree City USA. Uh, but I do have to say that where you've taken it since since that time is leaps and bounds. Uh, and I'm just so happy that you are our tree warden and that you really care about the the tree canopy in our community. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. Just a note on that too is is Mr. Mat
was instrumental in that when the first uh five or six years for Tree City USA, they base it on a per capita spending and the minimum is $2.50 per capita to be considered. So for the first six
years we were right around that 250 260 270 mark. Last year was the highest ever with almost $13 per capita. So Wow. So it's worked. Great. Thank you, Councelor Ali. I'm going to go to Councelor Taylor next.
Thank you. Um I just really want to say I I'm very grateful that you came tonight and went over all of this. I think it's important to recognize our department heads and the people in our city who put so much time and effort above and beyond into making this city
what it is and where it's going. And I really appreciate all that you do um and how you've worked with the counselors, with the community um to just make Malden what it is, which I think is a pretty great place. So, thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Taylor. Councelor McDonald. Thank you so much, Chris. I just have to say you are such a gem and an asset to this city and I'm and I'm really grateful to hear this update. Um, in addition to trees, raising property
values and just being really beautiful to look at, I think it's important for the public to understand that it that increasing our tree plantings like we've been doing, like you've been leading us to do, is a key part of our climate resilience and climate mitigation strategy. It cleans our air. It helps us
lower the heat island effects and the temperatures that are really concentrated in certain parts of the city. Um, and so I I just want to recognize how like strategic and long-term this is in addition to um, you know, being popular and that the that you do this in a way that really brings
people along. So that's why I love seeing this tree steward program. I feel like I'm going to have to actually read all of these books that you gave me in order to wear the shirt with integrity. And you require That's right. Um, I did have a question. Do you have, I mean, do you have a
picture in your mind of the tree city that you'd like to see in the future that we are working towards or I know we're just doing the, you know, as much as we can every time we have the opportunity. Um, you're really good at finding those opportunities, but is there a is there a bigger vision that you have for what is possible in Malden as we really begin to set the pace here
for other cities and towns? Yes. So, so right now we have about 16% canopy coverage throughout the city. So, the goal is to get to 40. Wow. That's really where we should be. Uh, but my ideal vision is, and I think
you've been in the cemetery, but we we did install the first permeable pavement road in the city of Malden. We used the Forest Ale as a test section. So, if you drive down that road and you see the permeable pavements that, like you just said, conform with our climate action
plan, reduce the heat island effect, recharge the groundwater, and the trees that we planted along that, that's that's really what I' I'd love every street to look like eventually. I don't think I'll make it to see that, but I I'll try. Well, I really appreciate that, and I
think uh I'm all for seeing how far we can get in that direction because I think that's a great innovation. So, thank you so much, Chris. Thank you, Council. Thank you, Councelor McDonald. Uh, Councelor Colon Hayes, thank you very much. I'll I'll keep it short. Um, but I do want to tell you how great you are and I remember way back
when you used to work at a landscaping company here in in Malden um many years ago and how great you were then and just to see what you've done here in the city is amazing. I cannot wait to go home. I know that sounds really like nerdy, but I can't wait to read these books. Thank
you so much for giving them to us and um I know my husband who's like a bird watcher and goes walking um in the cemetery in the Felsman, he's going to be very excited to see this. So, so thank you so much for everything that you do for this city. Thank you. I'll email you a quiz for when you're done.
Thank you. And I just wanted to say from the chair, I wanted to give a perspective for folks watching as someone who's been here about six years, just the difference as a counselor, especially a ward counselor of when I came in, you know, if you wanted to get a tree, it could take months if not years. Um, you had to source the funds.
You, you know, I certainly am not an arborist, have no expertise in what is an appropriate breed, location, really anything. um and finding the location and finding the right, you know, just funding and timeline for planting was not something that I was frankly really overwhelmed and wanted to try to meet
that need for residents who wanted them, but it was not something that I felt like should be up toward counselors. And so the difference of my first year or two trying to meet that need versus when you joined and when you have had this vision and strategy and bringing in the grant funding that you've brought in and
seeing the difference it makes and seeing that baked into the street paving process and the the work that you do so that it's not only off our plates but that we can tell residents someone knows what they're talking about. And if you know you're worried about it being under a power line or growing roots where they
shouldn't grow. Being able to have you come meet with them, talk on the phone and explain, no, we really are doing this in a strategic way and there's someone who has deep expertise and can explain to you why a certain breed or type has been selected. the change and the shift in their confidence in the
city's um approach to tree planting and just our entire strategy, the world of difference that that makes in how residents trust is in us and also just the burden that's off of counselors to have to come up with that strategy ourselves. I know there's been a lot of groundwork laid over many years to get
to the point where we're able to bring you in to be able to do that work, but from my perspective, it is just night and day different. And the reaction that I get from residents is it's just amazing. There's just so much more trust and belief in what we're doing as a city. And having gone through this in my ward with some entire neighborhoods that
went through the wholesale, you know, gas line replacement, water line, then street rebuilding, sidewalk rebuilding, and then to get to the planting and they see that there's this wholesale vision and that it culminates in climate sustainability approaches, that there's a reason that we want to put trees in,
that it's going to save folks on their utilities, that it makes the street more livable, and that there's this really this full package approach. um it is a complete world of difference to how folks feel about their city. So, I just wanted to share that as a ward counselor who deals with the the calls from the
residents. And it really is, you know, to counselor Simonelli's point, it's very rare that people call and say, "I don't want a tree anymore." Or if they do and we're able to get them on the phone with you and you explain, well, it's, you know, it's going to keep your house cooler or it cleans the air. You
know, sometimes you can actually change someone's mind and that's a pretty cool thing to have that conversation with folks. Um, and that's before you get to all the cool work that we're doing at the pond. So, I just really want to elevate that so folks understand it and can appreciate it. And I did also want
to just give some kudos to our Girl Scouts who helped to build the um the fishing line recycling stuff. 100% you got it over the finish line and we wouldn't be where we are without you going out on the weekends and building those. Um, but I know that it was something that our little girl scouts
helped to get started. So, I want to give them a shout out. Um, and also just really thank the clerk's office for helping us to do the translations for those signs, too, because we want to be inclusive with our signage. That is something that I get a ton of questions about. Are we going to make sure that our signs are understandable for our
whole community? And Anna was fantastic, not just translating it, but making suggestions for how we could use graphics that were more culturally competent and just use, you know, images that were that helped Chris and I to understand how to make those signs the best they could be. So we have we're getting getting somewhere with some of
those elements of the master plan at Felsmere Pond and trees are part of that and I think when you start with okay we have fishing lines stuck in trees but what more can we do like that was really the launching off point to do so much more work. So I want to thank you for that big vision that you bring to everything because it helped what can be
a very overwhelming property to manage in W 3 um to be something I felt like we could tackle in in bite-sized chunks and not feel like oh my gosh how are we going to do all this? How are we going to address all the problems that are there and make residents feel confident that we can start to make some headway there? So, thank you.
Thank you. I do have help though. You know, my fiance's out there with me every weekend and uh the nibbles the Neville are with me every weekend, so I I don't want to take all the credit, but yeah, we we we do what we can. Well, thank you. You're welcome. Yeah. Counselor Spataphor.
Yeah. So, the first question is I think you got to stop going to fiance and settle that. you know, [Laughter] she she won't commit. We can we can solve that problem. We'll talk later. Maybe listen, I had I had it. You know, I I think uh all the
council said it much better than I I would say, but uh you know, you you read now that uh trees and and vegetation is just as important as any utility that the city has, right? In terms of the importance of it in the environment and you know, psychologically and things like that. You know, they call it green infrastructure and it's believable,
right? They tell you go take a walk in nature and you you kind of decompress and it works. Um I also remember my first couple months as a council was the worst experience I ever did is I had one resident call me up and say take the tree down and I was able to take the tree down and then three other residents on the other side got mad cuz I took the tree down. So you can't win
but I think to to like council said you don't see that as often not just because of your help. We're also planting the right trees. Correct. Right. In the past, we were just planting I think maybe what maybe it was just the cheapest or what was there before and it was growing, you know, every which way to Sunday and it wasn't
the proper tree uh for the environment. I think you've come along and you've changed that. Uh that that's just as important of planting a tree is planting the right tree, especially in the urban environment. So, I think that's a big part of it. Uh a lot of help has gone into this and like you said, it's been a long a long time covered, but I think you've just taken the program to another
step. You can see it's a passion of yours. uh you're always out there doing things and uh it's great to have some of your talent in the city. Uh I've known you for a long time. Uh the one thing I want to ask is the tree plantings that you mentioned, the 668 I think you said.
Is that include the DCR? It does. It does. And has that been successful? Meaning, didn't we have like a million dollars that we could use for the There was a number, right? A cap that we could we could use. No, we don't. There's no number of budget. They committed to be here for 3
years y and plant approximately 2500 trees. Now that is changed because when they first got here really the only ward they were planting in was ward 7 and the outskirts
of uh six and one because those were the environmental justice areas. Okay. Uh DCR and EA have redone the maps. So now Malden is all environmental justice except for a couple of streets up near the hospital. So they've expanded.
I don't know. I trees twice. Yes, you get trees twice. Um so it's expanded. So now I I think they've already been here 3 years. I honestly think they'll be here at least another four and they will double that tree amount.
And is the same is that program this is the one where they'll they'll plant it on private property, right? Correct. And they'll come and water it. It was good to see the truck the other day from DCR because I haven't seen that in a while. I did have some neighbors and I called you and a couple Yes. that wanted those trees which they could water themselves. I mean I know that but they
So DCR waters their trees, DPW waters the trees that we plant. Correct. So is that so that program is still out there? It is. So for the audience and maybe the council, how does if if a resident wants a tree planted in their property? How do they how do they access? They can go to mass urban canopy.org org
and there's a contact number for Malden or they can reach out to me and I have uh Anna Nanchadi's number. She's the Malden Forester and I can pass that out as well. And they'd probably but plant in the spring. They wouldn't plant now, right? They're going to be doing a fall planting. Uh
this fall though, I've I've kind of committed them to planting more public shade trees. some of the grants I got. I opened 160 new tree pits throughout the city. So, they're going to try to plant those 160 pits that I opened this fall.
Well, I think it's uh it's it's great work and you know, you can see well, we might not all see right when it when it comes to fruition what the city looks like when you get the 40% mark, but I think if you go down certain streets in the community that's got older trees, you can really appreciate it. Like even the even the fells the Felsway, right?
You have all those sycamores and you you really appreciate especially come now, right? you get to see that all those leaves fall, but you can tell the difference of a street that doesn't have any tree canopy and how it looks average versus the majestic of I think the fells when you go down there. So, great work and uh appreciate it.
Thank you. Thank you, councelor Spaphor. Councelor Crow, hang on. Not working. There we go. Done myself. Thank you, um, Madam President, and I, you know, echo the kudos of all the work that you have done. I really do appreciate how much time and effort
you've put into Bell Rock Park. those, you know, really mature trees that we could have lost would have just been really devastating. Um, and I know that, um, Commercial Street is we're going to have no trees on that because they're all have the ash bore. But one of the
things I, um, I wanted to ask about and doing all these grants is fantastic. It is a lot of work. But as even as wood counselors or every counselor, when you're working with some developers, you mean like sometimes, you know, you ask for crosswalk, you ask for something else. Um and you know a lot of times
we've been asked to add some trees because it might be taking down a tree or doing something else. So is there a mechan and and I think the ordinance that you're you're talking about some people that aren't you know doing what they're supposed to be doing. Yes. If there is a mechanism to ensure that
sort of any of those funds so if I a developer I have them do some trees we know how much the trees might be but I don't need the trees right now because it's not the right time to plant the trees. Is there a mechanism to sort of make sure to kind of help support um you
know the city and in the grants that you're writing? Excuse me. There there is. So that's going to be in the new ordinance. One of the biggest issues we have with trees is construction around trees. Whether it's water contractors, utility contractors, road contractors, uh nobody
really pays attention. They just put the machine in and rip the roots and and that's that's the biggest problem with our trees. So with that and new developments, the new ordinance actually lays out fines and replacement values. So our
ordinance that exists now, the biggest penalty is $500, but that doesn't really do much considering a new tree nowadays is about $500. Um, so it's going to go by the size of the tree. So, for an
example, uh a 30-inch diameter tree, if you were to damage it, kill it, cut it down illegally, uh the mitigation values on that are about $25,000 and replacement trees per caliber per
inch. So, I mean, it's it's most cities are doing this. Um I actually did the mitig mitigation values with a friend of mine in Northampton. Here's a double mine. I thought that was a little harsh, but
we can expand that over time. But I think the first person that does it and has to pay $25,000 for a tree, I don't I don't think they'll ever do it again and we have issued those fines. So, all right. Just to make sure that those
those funds do go into really the replanting and the and that's something I'll talk to the controller about. I'm sure that's all going to be part of the ordinance process. Great. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you, Councelor Crow. Councelor Winsel. Yeah, Chris. I mean, this is amazing. I I you know, I think it's funny on the
the east side of town, there's Maplewood and Lynden because when those areas were being developed, trees were really part of the selling point. And I think really until about the 1930s when the hurricane of 38, you look at the old pictures of Maplewood and Lynden of just how extensive the canopy was and how dense
it was. And in some ways, it never quite recovered after that. And then you had I call it the car talk area one one day I was listening to car talk on bu and someone called in from Malden and they said is oh Malden that's Medford without any trees. So so we went through that as
kind of the the lowest. So I think now we are in the Chris Rosa era where we are recovering. So, it's so great to see all the different ways we're doing that. And I think what I want to see and hopefully we we'll see in 2030 what we we saw in the 1930s of a full canopy in
Maplewood and and and across the city. So, really great to know that that we're working towards that and I know the residents in in Maplewood area um are very appreciative of what we've done already and looking forward to more and looking forward to the ordinance and working with you on that. So, thank you. Great.
Thank you. And and I just to say I don't think it's the Chris Rosa, right? I think it's just it's just the way we're doing things now. I I mean in most municipalities and it's been this way forever is the DPW director was always the tree ward. So it was just another
job and it wasn't their fault. They just didn't have the experience. And we never learned our lesson. We lost our all our elm to Dutch elm and then we planted all these Norway maples that became invasive and then we planted all these ash. So, it's more of just diversity. Something
like Commercial Street where you have 105 ash, if you get an insect or a disease, they're all gone. So, the new plan is, you know, five oak, five maple, five tulip, and just really make it diverse. So, in the future, if we do get
a disease or an insect that hits us hard, we lose five trees, not 105. So, that's one of the big differences. Yeah, it is that thoughtfulness and realizing that um trees are part of our public infrastructure and we have to respect that and do that. So, it's great
to have your expertise and that that vision that will will create that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, seeing no other lights, I want to thank you so much for coming. This was fantastic. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Okay, our next order of business is public comment. Public comment is allowed under council rules. Each speaker is limited to subject matter that's relevant to the evening's agenda and folks must keep their comments to two minutes or less. Um, clerk, do we have anybody signed up for public
comment? Okay. Perfect. Welcome, Lauren. My name is Lauren McGillicuddy. I am the clerk of the friends of Felsmer Heights and I'm here to speak about paper number
344-25. And the first thing I have to do unfortunately is to speak about the demise of a beloved tree. the tree, the evergreen tree at the corner of Hospital Road and Mari Hill
Road, which was taken down unannounced as part of preliminary work for the um road changes which are under review in this paper. um before anybody had approved them and
without notice to anybody and which was very beloved by the people of the neighborhood, we got probably six, eight to eight, 10 people calling us saying, "Why is the tree coming down?" And I know Amanda,
you heard about it as well. Um and it what's disturbing about it is it's kind of indicative of the communication process that's been happening recently not throughout but recently.
Um this paper which is about changing this the new takings and changing the width in various places of hospital road was first proposed to be heard at the emergency meeting that you guys were
going to have last week. I think I saw it on the agenda then. Um, in any case, it came up here right after um, Labor Day, and the first comment from people in in my community, Friends of Phils Heights, was, "Why are they doing this
like this? Why is it happening under the table like this? Why is it what's happening here?" Um, if there's one thing that people care about even more than trees, it's the roads they drive on. And changes to the roads need to be made in a collab, need to be
communicated in a collaborative manner. I've had questions about why is this happening when they've already repaved hospital road. I've had questions about how is this going to change the traffic pattern in hospital road. I've had questions about why is preliminary work
being done when it hasn't be been formally reviewed by the by the traffic planner. Um it's I'm not saying that this is a bad thing to do. I'm saying that the way it's been communicated to
us citizens of the city and even to the city council is not appropriate and needs to change. That's it. Thank you. Do we have any comments received via
email? Okay, seeing no other public comment, we will move on to our next order of business, which is the consent agenda. So, this evening's consent agenda consists of meeting minutes to be
approved, one appointment to be placed on file, four appointments to be confirmed, and two papers being referred to a joint session of ordinance and finance. Does any counselor have a desire to remove any of these items from the consent agenda for the purpose of
further discussion? Where where is 34425 going? Three, the one that was just discussed. No, it's not. Oh, the hospital road. That's not part of the consent agenda.
Okay. Thank you. Okay. So hearing none, we have a motion to approve the consent agenda from councelor Seika, seconded by councelor Simonelli. All in favor? I need to Oh, I'm so sorry. We need a roll call for the consent
because we're only because there's um Thank you. So, okay. So, the clerk will call the role. Approve the consent agenda. Council Clone Hazes, yes. Council Condan, yes. Council Crow, yes. Council McDonald, Council Ali, Council Sega,
Council Simmonelli, Council Spataphora, Council Taylor, Council Winslow, Council President Lahan, yes. Okay, thank you. Okay, the consent agenda is approved. So, the next order of business is motions, orders, and resolutions. Paper 342-25
order that the city submits to the Massachusetts legislature for passage an act increasing the maximum age requirement for retired police officers for appointment as spe special police officers in the city of Malden. And we do have Chief Cronin here with us
tonight to answer any questions the council might have. As a point of order, do I need to vacate the chair even though this is a paper from the mayor's office? Am I good to stay? introducing it, right? Okay. Thank you to the chief. Thank you to the chief for coming. So,
just to briefly introduce, so this is a paper that would essentially increase the age for special officers, which is really what we're calling detail officers, right? And so, you can tell us a little bit more about it, but essentially this would allow us to have a little bit more flexibility and open up the pool to have more detail officers
available, no cost to the city. Um, why don't I just turn it over to you to go over a few of the bullet points? Absolutely. Thank you very much. Um, so just a little background on this. Back in 2018, many of you here on this council now voted unanimously uh to allow retired officers uh to perform
details after they get sworn in as specials. This is something that happens across the state, so it's not anything that's local here. Um, you did that back then, for whatever reason, we capped it at 65. Uh, fast forward every year, we're doing more and more details in the
city of Malden. my pool is getting smaller and smaller of offices to fill those details. So that becomes a public safety concern for myself as well as the community. So by pushing the age from 65 to 70 for retired officers, um it just simply increases my pool uh of of office
available for details. Um there's other benefits by doing this. You have more of a police presence across the city. Um you have there is no investment by the city at all. The officers pay for their own equipment. Uh they pay for their gun, their radio, their their badge,
their uniform. Uh the training is free through the state. They have to train twice a year. They have to qualify through the post standards. They have to have a medical examination every year. Um so, uh there's a lot that they put into it, but no cost to the city on that. Um these officers are experienced.
They have a lifetime of experience for the city of Malden. These are just Malden police officers. um they understand the culture of this community which I think is critically important when they're out there doing their job. Um you know not that not that uh there's
any financial consideration in my opinion. This is strictly a public safety matter. Um but right now we do about $5 million a year in details in the city of Molvin. The city realizes 10% of that. So that's about $500,000 a year that the city receives uh without
really making any investment in that. So not that that's a consideration, but it is a a a benefit uh that we do have. Um and last and not least, uh last year this this council um passed a home petition to eliminate the upper age limit for civil service for new hires.
This is in line with that. Right now I have, for example, a 51-year-old candidate um who's a good candidate. He's in great shape. um if he passes everything, he'll get on the job and that gives him about 10 years and he'll have to retire at 65, but it will also give him an additional four years
because when he turned the month he turned 70, he would have to retire. So those are, you know, the bullet points. Great. Well, I see a bunch of lights. Again, I'm just going to remind folks just to be careful with the microphones. If we start to get feedback, I'm going to shut folks off and then turn them
back on again in turn. But I have counselor Simonelli first. Thank you, Madam President. Uh, Chief, thank you uh for uh being proactive on this and and coming forward. And I know that you and I have talked over the summertime and even before that. And uh
we've had a couple of incidences in uh my neighborhood. Nothing nothing big uh to talk about, but you guys handle it terrifically, very brilliant, and uh it's quelled the situation. So now the thing that's there, we can move it to
another place now because everything seems to work out. But so anyway, real quick, we had talked about this and you know, I used to be a mass criminal justice trainer. I struck with the mass criminal justice training council and 40 hours in service training is something that you know, these guys need to do and
continue to do. And um you know, I think that it's something that the city needs. I think all the cities in the state in the state of Mass because, you know, a lot of uh young kids today aren't actually taking the police exam. So, we're really getting short on police officers, especially police officers
that already know the job, you know, know how to deal with people. Uh that's because that's something you just don't learn over uh 21 weeks of an academy. So, I I just think, you know, I take my hat off to you for uh you know, uh going forward. Like I told you before, I go out at night, sometimes I can't sleep. I
see you guys all around at night time. So, I appreciate it and I just think this is an excellent idea and it keeps people working. 51. I'm gonna have to try that. That's one I haven't done yet. Just become a police officer. I'm going have to try that one. Let me know. Thank you, Chief. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you, council.
Thank you, Councelor Simelli. Um, councelor Spataphora. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Uh, first, I support it. I do have a couple quick questions. You said the maximum age. So, is there a cut off age they can no longer do it? Yeah, absolutely. At 70 years old, Okay. You said that 70
the month you turn 70, you're all done. So, I don't mean to throw a curveball at you and I know I know you said there's no financial uh implication for the city, but what happens if one of these detail offices gets hurt in the job? It's already covered by the state. Um we've done that with the retired officers that are working now. They they it's off our books.
There is no financial obligation on the city whatsoever. The city is protected from that. Okay. That's that was I think it's mass general chapter 32. So, the state covers it. Um no, they're they're kind of on their own if they get injured. Yes. Okay. Yes, they have health insurance and
that's what they probably have to use. Understood. Okay. Thank you, Chief. I appreciate it. It's all I have. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Spataphora. Councelor Conman. Thank you, uh, Madame President. It's a win-win for everybody. You know,
it's was good news. Uh, you know, you explained it to me briefly and, uh, I look at it's going to give us more visibility. They're going to be in uniform and uh traveling the streets, you know, maybe
slow some of these lunatics down. Yeah, you have that counselor. I can give you an example of detail officers on Pearl Street about 5 years ago. Um ended up arresting a murderer who come running down the street with blood all over them and um they just happen to be there doing a detail. So, uh they're
often in areas uh where something's going on and they just happen to be in position. So otherwise we wouldn't have them out there. That would be a detail that went unfilled. So I think we should bring them back because uh few of the neighbors like to murder some of these guys that are going
50 miles an hour down. No, I I I get that. But uh just seeing the police officers out there is going to be a big plus for us. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you, Councelor Gondan. Councelor Crowe.
Thank you, Madam President. I just had a a question like why the 70 cut off? So do we have to put an age on it? But you know you can we could have 70 is the cut off uh the state law. Um we we could have done that when we did this initially but we just
said oh let's go with 65 because all police officers have to retire at 65. Okay. Full-time police offic. I was just wondering why why that number I know y a lot of older people would be great. All right. Absolutely. A lot of cities and towns around us have done this. Most recently,
Cambridge and Summer. Okay. So, all right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Crow. Councelor McDonald. Thank you so much. Uh, good to see you as always, Chief. And, um, you know, my question was was just a narrow one. I
have no opposition to this paper, but I am aware that in Massachusetts that local cities and towns can adopt road flagger programs and I if we're having a shortage in details, I mean, I'm aware that that can be significant amount of hours when we're also struggling with other kinds of shortages and needs. Have
we looked at a road flagger kind of alternative certification for other staff or is that possible? at one point years ago council and you know I don't know if you were here yet but um that was an issue when the state was trying to push it on cities and towns and I believe there's a city ordinance uh that it's a violation and if a flag person
was hired there would also be a police officer hired to simply side the flagger so I'm sorry say that last part again if if a company said we're not going to go by city ordinance and we're going to put a flag person there the ordinance requires that a police officer goes there too so it would be a tremendous
waste of money that's Malden city ordinance This is an ordinance. I believe I believe I'd have to look in that further. I will take a look at that. Absolutely. But when you do that, um, you're losing some benefits. They don't have arrest power. Um, technically, they
don't really have the right to stop traffic. When you stop traffic, it's a fourth amendment. It's a seizure. You've got a civilian who doesn't have any arrest powers or anything like that. Can't really stop out. A person can drive right around them. There's not really much you could
do about it. A police officer can write a citation. A police officer can stop that cop. So, I don't think there's any benefit of getting flagmen hiring retired police officers. We have plenty of them. It could fill that void once we do that. So,
thank you for that. I'm sorry, forgive this question. Are our parking and um road flaggers who like, you know, help kids get to school, are they not able to stop traffic? They're crossing guards. They do stop traffic. Um but I think they have a special right to do that as
crossing guards. They're trained to do that. Um where they get their authority, I'd have to look at it. But um just relying on No, no, totally. Totally. But you know, I don't know where there are any flagmen in Massachusetts anywhere. So all right,
just a point of view. It'll be a real a problem, I think, for for the unions. Well, that I guess that was my question is whether that's a was that an ordinance issue? Is that a contract issue? Is the like I just don't understand the law around. No, it's it's just I don't really see the benefit of bringing a flagman in as
opposed to an officer that has full-blown arrest powers um that can investigate. Um you know, so I I think you lose a lot looking at a flagman. So, and in the end when you're paying you're going to have to pay a flagman health insurance. Uh there's there's a lot of
costs that are going to go with a flagman and their pay is right up there with the police officers pay. So I don't really see a benefit in looking at at flagman. So Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, councelor McDonald. Councelor Simi, I'm going to take counselor Cologne Hayes and then councelor Omali before you take me for
the second time. Councelor Cologne Hayes. Thank you. Um so just a couple of questions. Um you were calling them special police officers. Um and they're only doing they're retired coming out of retirement and they're only doing details. Could
you like give me an idea of what kind of details like the thing that comes to mind is like in typically what a road detail you'll see national grid and you'll see an officer standing you know wherever they're digging in the street. Um that that's the most typical situation. Okay. And any hours are they like
subject to different hours? Um the first thought that came to mind is I've called you a couple of times and I'm sure every counselor up here has done that about the drag racing and in parking lots and stuff. Would that be something that's not a like a So they would be primarily hired to do
details. While doing that detail, they'll have the ability to stop a car if a call come in like that. Uh and answer to your other question, they can work in at any time 24 hours a day. Okay. And then um the other question is do they get vehicles or they're using their own vehicles?
No, their own vehicles. Okay. And so their own insurance all that is there's absolutely no investment. um by the city at all. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Colon. Council as opposed to paying for flag men, too.
So, councelor Ali. Hi, Chief. Sir, um so special police officers is is are they only allowed to do detail work or are they allowed do they have the full powers of other police for other No, they they're allowed to do details. That's what they're hired for. You know,
if something happens during that detail, they have the ability to make an arrest, stop cars, uh, question people. Absolutely. But at that point, they would be joined by a full-time police officer who would take over from that. Is that a policy decision that you're making like they but they legally
allowed to do more than just uh No, that's we we have our retired detail policies through our accreditation process. So, uh, everything is covered in there, but uh, primarily their job is to do details. Um, and is there a difference between a special police officer and like an
auxiliary police officer? Is that like the old term? Yeah, auxiliary. We we did have an auxiliary police force here, but um that was all volunteer. Okay. So, it's like separate and distinct. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Ali. Councelor Simelli for the second time.
Thank you, Madam President. Again, I I think uh Marie Louise will probably know more to this than me, but I think that with the flag thing, too. I I think this was back years ago, they were trying to implement in Massachusetts, uh state police, local police, uh it was
a big deal with their collective bargaining agreement, too. I think there was a lot of language in there uh that prevented uh flagmen from coming in and taking away uh overtime or uh details to uh police officers. So that would be
have to be and as you know impact bargaining you have to give up something to get something. So you know that I think that would just open a whole new can of worms. So I think this is the right approach. Thank you. Thank you councelor Simonelli.
So, I think before we look to have a vote on this, do we have a um memo from the mayor to read? Recommendation from the mayor. The attachment has disappeared. Okay. So, I'm gonna fix that. Okay.
Attach it later. Okay. No problem. I I will say that the mayor was in support of this obviously. Okay. So, we had a memo from the mayor in support of this. Um, we will be attaching that to the agenda so the public can view that after the meeting. Unfortunately, it's not able to be
pulled up at the moment for us to read into the record. Um, but do we have a motion? Motion by councelor Seika, seconded by councelor Winslow. All in favor? I motion to approve the order. Okay. So,
that motion carries. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Motion to adopt. Yes. Yep. Okay. Next order of business. Paper 343-25. Order that the city paper 343-25
order that the city council develop a home rule petition to be submitted to the Massachusetts legislature that would provide the city the right to adopt rules for the regulation of parking on private ways within the city. And this was sponsored by councel Winslow. Okay. Councelor Winslow for the paper.
Yeah. Um, this just came to my mind. I know that councelor Condan led a um you know pretty extensive review a couple years ago of trying to look at resident wide citywide resident parking um and just trying to figure out you know parking issues that um just come up in
every ward and private ways ended up being a pretty significant barrier because um the way the the laws are structured right now um enforcement really rely on private ways is beyond the you know what is allowed by the city and it's sort falls back to the
residents. I have some residents on Byron Street. There's a a new business there that's that it's been difficult to have to manage both, you know, employees of that business and and it's a b businesses that have a lot of customers.
So, it's just been a burden on a, you know, a handful of residents and I think other counselors have experienced that. So, I I did sit down with, you know, Ron Hogan um in the in the traffic department and just threw out the idea. would that be something that um you know the parking department would be open to
working on? And um so he was supportive and and just just as you know we sort of did with the um you know with the home rule petition related to charter. The thought is to get some authority and then we would work out the details through either with the you know the transportation commission or um or
through this city ordinance. But um my thought is is that um ultimately it would be something that residents would initiate if they wanted to have the city to be able to write, you know, warnings and citations, but and there would still be the ability for those residents to
hire a tow company to tow people away. It just this would add add a tool and um I think it would be helpful because um you going from nothing to towing away cars is a lot of lot of issues. My my thought tonight is this is just a
talking about, you know, developing home rule petition. I'm not asking people to vote on this tonight. I I'd like this order to be referred to um the the rules and ordinance committee. Can we we can talk about it more? But I just thought it's something that I know we would like
to have a more uh you know a another tool in the city to help deal with private ways and I just I just thought let's see if we can get a home rule petition on this. But I am looking to have that discussion with counselors and um in rules and ordinance and to see uh
what the sense of the you know counselors are moving this forward. So, so that that's just, you know, I'm not asking for a vote on this tonight other than to refer to rules and ordinance so we can have more discussion in detail. And also, I want to ask, you know, I'll be asking the legal department to come in and give their opinion on this is to
see whether um um that's something that can be done. Um you know, but so that's just what my thought is that something we can have that discussion rules and ordinance and decide whether this is something that would be helpful to the city. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Wow. Any questions
uh on this paper? Do we have a second on referring that to Okay. Yep. Okay. On a second by councelor Spataphora. All in favor? Okay. That carries.
Okay. Next order of business. Paper 344-25 order that the city council review and approve the proposed revised layout of Hospital Road and Savin Street which requires takings in discontinuence of portions of the existing public rights
of way as per the proposed widening and relocation plan and subject to review by the city engineer and final approval by the DPW commission in accordance with the special permit granted by the planning board in case number 23-10.
And I will that attached to this paper. We have the most recent draft of the plan, but to my knowledge in discussion with planner Romero, this is not the final final plan, but it gives you an idea correct of what they're looking at.
Correct. And I think to um to add confusion, it does include the portions of Hospital Road referenced during public comment which are actually not the section that we are discussing in this item. So, I want to apologize to the community who saw that and
experienced distress seeing the schematic for the Murray Hill Road section where we did distressingly lose a tree um in error and we are working very hard with our tree warden in arborist to correct that. Um that was a certainly a
low point for the project seeing that tree come down after we had worked so hard with the community to promise that that tree would not in fact come down. Um, and it is it is not what we are talking about tonight, but I want to just address that because Lauren has
taken the time to come out and address it in public comment and it is certainly something that I know friends of Felsmere Heights and myself and Chris Rosa, many others in the community have been talking about this summer. Um, very unfortunate mistake that happened, but something that we're working hard to address. What we are talking about
tonight um is the slight shift in dimensions of hospital road on the Savin on the Savin Street side. So where you approach the project on the other side of the pond, we are narrowing uh the roadway slightly and widening the
sidewalk and the developer of the new hospital is going to be managing portions of the sidewalk and where the bus is going to be pulling in. Um you can see in the schematic uh we are not typically the we typically don't have a role in reaccepting roads but in a kind
of unique and unusual situation the planning board saw fit to put in the special permit a requirement that we take this step of preapproving this road reacceptance before it goes to the DPW commission which actually will reaccept
the road. And I also want to just say that I in an even more unusual situation, this is something that I think will never happen again because moving forward, Malden is about to launch a new process for accepting roads that is more deliberate and will actually have a manual attached to it
and a set procedure. So after tonight, I think the planning board will not ever put into a special permit again that the council will have to do this because there will be a procedure that will have checkboxes and it will not go through the council to the DPW commission. So I
think essentially what we need to do tonight is to vote to approve the attachment and send it to the DPW commission which I know is something we are not used to doing but um is the step that we are being asked to take to get it on its way and where it will go from
there is to help the building to get its certificate of occupancy and they're on track to be opening um or at least getting their certificate occupy of occupancy to do a ribbon cutting in October with the goal ble to get DPH approval to be able to take patients
hopefully in December. So, building opening and opening to patients are probably a couple of months apart, but it is on schedule to be opening um this fall to early winter, which is really exciting. And if anybody hasn't driven up there to take a look at it, um it's
absolutely gorgeous. And councelor Spataphor, I hope you saw the email today that the poll is finally gone as of this morning, the utility poll that we all put a halt on all our other national grid petitions for, which I want to once again thank my colleagues for. The poll came down today. The 99
bus in fact did complete the route this afternoon for the first time in I think eight or nine months. So, we're on our way to the project and the surrounding area getting back to normal again. I'll happy to take any questions. Councelor Winsow. Yeah, I know. I talked to Ron Hogan this
morning about this and councelor Linhan a little bit. Um, you know, one of the roles I had when I was at Malden Redevelopment Authority was actually for um, you know, Commercial Street and down into um, Corporation Way in Medford is to be in charge of assessing properties and was very much involved in uh,
negotiating uh, land takings back and forth to widen that road and and councelor Conan remembers that that that process. Um and I know you know what you know our attorneys at that time folio working for the M redevelopment authority did was when we had this type
of situation we would do something called the confirmatory taking and it it does a few things. It it clears up title and it also um and those were consensual so that there was no chance of a lawsuit. There's literally firms out there that are waiting to have cities
take property and try to make money off of that. So, it's important that um that there's be a consensual agreement. I mean, I think the other thing is make sure that there's no cost to the city in this. So, so my suggestion in talking with Ron is to um really just make sure
that we in in in this order that we ask the DPW commission to make sure it's done in a way that um takings are are done in a confirmatory way and uh without any cost to the city, consensual takings or without any cost to the city.
So that's that would be my recommendation that you as in referring this to DPW commission we ask that they not put the city at risk for any funding or whatever and that and that can be something now and in the future um you know because it could be something that
could come up 20 years from now with a future owner and there some disputes or whatever. So I think it's just clear a confirmity taking just makes it clear that whatever land we are taking is now and forever the city's property. So that's just the type of thing we need that document that gets filed at the the
registry of deeds. Um and so that may it cuts off any legal dispute about who owns that property once that plan is filed. So, so that's um just it's important detail that is um you know it it's not clear to me that you know normally when we were
doing this process back in the in in the 90s and 2000s that we'd have that plan but we would also have that specific agreement that the Mystic Valley Development Commission would approve when doing this stuff. So, thank you. Okay. So, are you suggesting that we amend the wording here or that we relay
that to the DPW Commission? I mean, I think we should put it in our order that we we we relay it that they that any taking be done in uh you know, that takings be done consensually through a confirmatory taking um with no cost to the city. I think that we should you
direct that that's part of our our order or whatever that uh that that's our understanding that this isn't at any cost to the city that we're doing this. So, my only hesitation is that I I'm not able to answer whether there has been a cost already to the city or not. Do we
I'm I'm Maria I'm looking at you. Do you know or not? So, so I mean the city's not asked being asked to buy this property or there's not a number attached here. So that's what we're on representative. So but I don't think we're gaining I think we're actually losing some inches from
the road and essentially the sidewalk is gaining square footage that they will then be taking on the care and feeding of is my understanding. But then there's that little bit the second bit that they're kind of it is going to be some change from the from the you know
hospital to the city on that corner down by Murray Hill Road. So I I I am again baffled as to why we are including that in here when we're not actually voting on Murray Hill Road tonight. This is my this is my key question. Yeah. So I I don't want to hold it up but I think it's just we I mean I this is going to hold up
their their CFO but we this the Murray Hill thing is is problematic. It's not pertinent to what we're voting on tonight, but it is attached to the agenda and that is land that we are ultimately I think all of it going to own. It's on the side of the
property that we're right that's not part of the hospital property at all in the end. What that's that's what we're acquiring. Yeah. So I mean I say if you know we did quite a few of the takings associated with commercial street at no cost to the city often just saying to the business
it was going to be a benefit to them to have a wider road with better sidewalks. So so I think it's just making it clear that that you know how however you want to phrase it. I mean I don't want to hold up the the opening of the hospital or whatever but I think it we just need to make clear that the documentation
that finalizes this I mean you have to file doesn't come become final final until some you know doc document plus a plan is filed with the middle sex registry of deeds. So that document really should be in the form of some sort of a you know
consensual document at no cost. So that's that, you know, I guess that maybe we would just add that as a recommendation or whatever with that, but I would just make you know I think I just I'm afraid with, you know, with, you know, so many changes, you know, this this process might have been driven by the MRA back in the day and all the
expertise they had from the 1970s in terms of taking properties and stuff like that. We don't necessarily have an entity in the city that really did all the work that the MRA uh staff would do. So I just think it's important that we don't, you know, don't gloss over um
something. We really want to make sure that it's clear who owns the land, you know, into the future and that we don't have to pay anybody to use it in the future. So, I'm just it is a detail that we we should make sure that um is taken care of. So, yeah. Um to our clerk, do we have a regular
meeting next week? If we table it, could we take it up next week? We might we might need to do that then because I don't I'm afraid if we add that in, I mean, we are literally paying for the rest of the land. So, if we add that in, I don't want that to be in conflict. I completely understand what you're saying though. I feel we can sort
this out. I I wish some I wish Ron was here. We probably could if he was here, we probably could have asked. Yeah. But yeah, I I say I don't know the other he he wasn't. But some of it is just to be clear of you know that there is some land we're acquiring through this plan. So it's just to be clear um
it's mentioned as some sort of taking. So we just need need to make clear that I mean and really it should be clear that any land that we are in fact acquiring should be through a confirmatory taking. So there's no question that that nobody no other
ownership uh no one who might have some claim or or whatever can affect the city's title. So, it's very important that this is one of the things that actually came out on the bike trail where a Butters were trying to claim we couldn't do the bike trail, but because the MBTA did a confirmatory taking when
they bought the land in the 70s, all those lawsuits were were forclosed. So, it's just important when the city is buying, you know, acquiring land for whatever process, even if we're paying for it, we need to do it and have that done through a confirmatory taking so
that um it cuts off any future title claims or any it just and there's no cloud to the title. It's just a it's a process that if we're going through acquiring land for the city. It's just it's it's very helpful and it forstalls
any question in the future um about who owns what land. So just understood. I think I'm going to go I now see some other lights popping up. So before we undertake a motion to table, I'm going to take councelor Ali. Thank you. Councelor Winsow. Um, do we know
who will be presenting this to the um DPW commission? Uh, I have not checked on their agenda. I don't know when their meeting is, but I mean I know the folks that I've been meeting with at TUS and it's the same crew that we've been working with kind
of the whole time. They're V they have a VP of strategy and a government affairs team that has been kind of working through all these various steps. And the reason why I ask is I I'm usually when we get something like this, someone presents the project plan to us. And so I think that some of the questions that
councelor Winsel has and maybe some of the questions that we all have could be answered by the team. So, I think tableabling it would be helpful for them to explain what's going on only because I I did look at not not just the plans, but also the agenda item says Savage
Street, which is the side that you were referring to, but it also says Hospital Road where Murray Hill Road is. So, it it is all of everything that's presented. Um, and I just don't the I looked at the plans. It's a little confusing in terms of what lines mean
what. Um, so yeah, I'd be in favor of tableabling it. to get more clarity in terms of what's going on. Are we gaining property? Are we lo losing property? It's is it a public road now? Like it's a little or is it a private way? I don't
have any of that detail. Thank you, Council Mali. Um Councelor Condan. Yeah, for years they've been complaining about uh the traffic going up goes all the way to uh Medford, the hill.
and they use it as a cut off. But if I remember it right, the the one house with where with the tree got taken down, that should be number 31 if I'm not mistaken. And uh I don't think there was any other
numbers on that side of the street. Okay. because you had the hospital over there, but you had Murray Hill and then you had had me Murray Hill Park and that was that was a dead end. Come out. Mr.
Schwartz lived there and I had No, Mr. Schwartz. I had him in class. Is that the driving guy? Yeah, I remember that. But uh then you come out of uh the park and you take a left and there was three houses there that ended Malden.
Y are they touching any of those properties? No. No properties are being affected and that end um where folks will be pulling out will be we will soon be putting in signage that directs you know there
won't be traffic in coming to the site on that end. all the deliveries and everything else is going to be going up the other side just as they have been during the construction. Um, so hopefully, you know, in it, god forbid, in case of an emergency, obviously we
want to make it a passable turn radius there, but otherwise the traffic is going to be going up the other way. Okay, Councelor McDonald. Thank you, Council President. Um, you know, I would defer to you as the word
counselor what you would prefer to do on this paper. I do I am just very conscious of how much timelines are carefully baked into this project. And so from my perspective, it seems like we could clarify that this order does not apply to uh the intersection of Hospital
Road and Murray Hill Road and that we could simply add a requirement that the legal department also review this which could answer these questions that councelor Winsow is raising. And I feel like we could make those changes pretty directly on the floor here and I would be comfortable voting for it. But if you would prefer to wait and engage in
additional review, then I would be happy to defer to that. But I just wanted to create another option that would allow us to more appropriately dispose of this paper tonight if that seems amendable to my colleagues. Thank you. I appreciate it. Um, Councelor Simmonelli,
I'm just going to echo what Council McDonald said. Same thing. Oh, you did you like you need to I apologize. I did not see that you did that. Councelor Cologne Hayes, you can have the floor. Sure. Thank you. Uh I
was going to ask the uh a question um to councelor Winslow. I wasn't sure if he was asking to table this. Right. What what there's no motion on the floor right now because it sounds like there's questions that need to be answered. Um, and so I would be fine with waiting
until next week unless you think what councelor um McDonald just said like we can get answers right now tonight. I'd be happy to vote on it also. So if we do have those answers I did not hear a tableabling motion yet. I I will say well from the chair I think awaiting one
week is not going to destroy the project timeline. I am feeling badly that TUSA did offer to come tonight and I told them that I didn't think it was necessary because I thought this was understandable from what we had before
us. Um, and so I'll take responsibility for that. I told them that I didn't think their presence was needed. Um, I also didn't didn't really realize until friends of thous came out over the weekend that the Mari Hill portion was even included and that there was confusion in the community about what we
were voting on tonight. So, I think there are some parts to this that could have been prevented if I noticed that dur, you know, at during business hours on a weekday. I didn't. So, it wasn't we weren't able to fix the agenda in time. I think we could have prevented a lot of this if we'd been able to remove that
schematic because it simply isn't what it simply isn't the intersection we're voting on. I also don't want to disregard folks concerns and what councelor Winsow is bringing up I think is a good point. Um, I I mean I would prefer to vote on it and keep it moving because we are not the final deciding
body and I think we could address these things at the DPW commission. That is their job to take up all of these concerns. They do accept roads. Um, I I don't know when their meeting is, so I don't want to even say I'll commit to going because I don't know if it's
something that I can commit to being at. They probably they probably do. If they're meeting next week, then they probably already have it on their agenda. The DPW Commission. I I don't have a computer where I can look up things um in the seat. So, I don't know what that meeting time would be.
So, if it can't be on next if it can't be on next week's DPW agenda, it will it will truly mess up the opening timeline. I can't wait a month. I will say that. So what do you want? My preference would be to vote on this now. Yes. Hang on. Councelor Councelor Condan,
I would advise you to if we pass this to get on the phone tomorrow and they'll be able to put it on the agenda. I think it's the third Tuesday. My assumption is that it's probably already on their agenda. That's what I'm worried about. It could be, but they certainly could
add this. meeting scheduled for they have not posted they could add it. I don't see you. No, it's not posted. My my understanding was that TUS was working simultaneously with both boards to make sure that it kept on a parallel
track because they're hoping to get their certificate of occupancy next month. Um all right, I have some lights. I don't want to just keep um my apologies council Hayes. You can have I was waiting for some feedback and so it sounds like um
you had asked councelor Winsow. Okay, councelor Winsow feel free to answer councelor's. What was the question again? Yeah, I wasn't sure if you had a motion on the table or if it sounds like some of the answers that next week sounds like it might be okay but waiting a month is going to slow things down and
nobody wants to do that. I you know I just I I think when I see the word taking in order it just rings a lot of bell. I we had this issue over on Crescent Lane where we're trying to designate something as conservation land where there's we we just did a survey
and we realized some of the land is probably a road that was discontinued. So sometimes you really got to make sure you get this stuff right or it can cause havoc 100 years out. So So it is making sure we do that. But I I think I you know I think councelor McDonald's language about making sure this gets
legal review. I'm confident. It's just something I just wanted to make sure we have attention to. There's there's detail here that, you know, it's so easy to rush towards certificate of occupancy, but making sure we get the detail right in terms of, you know, what's taken and we're not going to pay
for that. Um, I think we just got to make sure that that happens. and um knowing that you know our legal staff has not handled this type of matter um as far as I know and that um you know we we don't have the experience of the Malden redevelopment authority as we've
had. So I just it's something that you know making sure that that happens before the DPW commission is all I'm really asking for. So I I think I would if if Council McDonald I would second your motion to to make sure we have legal review. Well I hang on I still have the floor. I
was just going to wrap it up. So, what I was just going to say I think um hearing that I'd also be okay hearing that we making sure that we're going to ask legal so like we're protecting ourselves as well and I'm fine with that. Thank you. Understood. Uh C councelor Condrin, are you for a second time or is your light still just
still on? Oh, you're okay. All right. Councelor Spataphora. So, so if I if I'm hearing you correctly, council, your ask is to pass this with conditions that the legal and DPW look at all the uh
issues that council Winsel brought up in terms of making sure that it's just done right and that it's, you know, it's deed right, that the ownership's put in there in in uh in details. But you want to pass it tonight simply because with the timeline continue, but again, legal is going to review it and so does DPW commission. hopefully they can address
these issues at that that hearing. So I'll make that motion I'm just I think the DPW commission is the body that actually has the deciding power. We this is act we if we actually didn't do this I don't think would matter. They could meet without us to be honest. I don't think this if this didn't take
place it wouldn't actually matter. But I think this is a step that was in the special permit that we're trying to do our due diligence. I think you're right to take. So I I have a motion to move it forward. Okay. Maria, are you okay? Were you trying to raise your hand to speak or are you okay? Okay,
there you go. Oh, it's a condition of the planning board. So, they have to do it. I'll repeat what she said. Understood. Okay. So, what Maria was saying is that the order of operations does not matter. The planning the the special permit
states that the council has to review this, but that it doesn't have to get referred directly or or in order from us to them, just that we have to approve it. So, if we did want to table it, they can still take it up and we can review it at another time.
Okay. So, so why not just move it all favorably and let them Okay. So, we have a we have a motion from councelor Spataphora, seconded by councelor Simelli to move it favorably. With your conditions with your with any
of your conditions, councelor McDonald, did you have a motion to amend? Yeah. Uh, council president, I I would still prefer to amend given the concerns that we heard and from multiple parties. if that is amendable. So I would recommend the amendment to say um order
city council review and approval of law as propo as per the proposed widing and location relocation plan comma not including any changes to the intersection of hospital road and Murray Hill Road comma. It says in subject to the review by city engineer then add and the city solicitor and then final review
etc etc. So I will send this to help you and the that would be wonderful if you could send that. Okay. Okay. On a motion by councelor McDonald, seconded by councelor Winslow to amend the paper as read. All in favor? I.
And on councelor Spataphora's motion to approve the paper as amended, seconded by councelor Simelli. All in favor? I. Okay. Good job. Voted no. I'm sorry. You voted no. Got it.
Okay. Yes. Got to turn all these lights off. Next order of business. Next order of business is paper 345-25. dissolved that it is the sense of the city council that they wish to support
bill S41, an act to modernize funding for community media programming in H91 to sustain local media infrastructure and civic engagement. Whereas a robust and independent local media infrastructure is essential to asssuring community media centers serve a crucial
role in maintaining civic transparency, supporting local education, offering workforce training and strengthening community engagement. Whereas Malden's urban media art mission is to inform, engage, and connect the community directly supports local government transparency, civic engagement, small
business visibility, and youth and adult media literacy. Whereas local news organizations face significant financial challenges that threaten their ability to provide comprehensive coverage of community issues, local government, schools, public safety, and other matters of public interest. Whereas
Urban Media Arts was recently forced to reduce staffing levels due to a significant decline in cable franchise fee revenue funds that have historically supported our core operations and community services. Whereas bills S41 and H91 have been
introduced in the Massachusetts legislature to provide critical funding and resources to preserve and strengthen local news outlets and civic information platforms. Whereas sustaining local media infrastructure aligns with the city of Maltton's commitment to open government community participation in
ensuring residents have access to timely and accurate information. And whereas supporting these bills will help maintain a vibrant local press that holds public officials accountable and encourages citizen involvement in democratic processes. Now therefore, be it resolved that the
Malden City Council hereby expresses its strong support for bills S41 and H91 and urges the Massachusetts legislature to pass these measures promptly and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be sent to the governor of Massachusetts, the Speaker
of the House, the Senate President, the local legislative delegation, and the Massachusetts Municipal Association to advocate for the importance of sustaining local media infrastructure and civic engagement across across the Commonwealth. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Cologne Hayes
for the paper. Thank you very much. Thank you for reading that. It was it was a little lengthy and wordy, but um very important. So, I'm sure everyone here is aware that UMA had had a reduction in staff um due to a lack loss of funds um
from the cable franchise fees and those staff were very near and dear um to UMA helped you know build it up um from the beginning and that was a shock to many of us um and at the time I had reached out to the director of UMA to ask what
you know could we do anything how could we help in any way and that's when she told me about these bills on the table and she asked if um you know that would be helpful to maybe write a resolve for that. But during the summer they also almost sent an email to everybody. So
I'm sure people here uh might have went to the state house and testified themselves on this bill. Um but uh it was they were asking for our help um in writing and testifying to the joint committee on advanced information technology and the internet um cyber
security. Um, so if enacted, these bills could replenish essential operating funds, helping stabilize our budgets, uh reduce our in uh their independence on cable fees and uh offer some hope for long-term more equitable funding mechanisms that are consistent within's
mission. So um I would love it if everybody supported me in this and um thank you for those who joined in on sponsorship. Great. Thank you, Councelor Cologne Hayes. Any of the other sponsors want to speak to the paper? Councelor Ali, I just want to thank councelor Cologne
Hayes for moving this forward. You know, she was one of the first counselors up here to really kind of advocate for UMA and MATV. Also, you know, councelor Taylor, who is a former board member, is also an advocate. Um, you know, I think where we are going uh in our in our in our nation with the defunding of arts
and defunding of media, uh local media is going to be essential. Um, and the fact that we lost, you know, two or more devoted longtime staff members who have carried the organization for decades is really, you know, uh, traumatizing, I think, not only to the institution, but
also to to our community. U, so, anything we can do to help bring more funding there, I think it's more essential than any time. Um, so I just want to thank Councelor Clone Hayes for her leadership here. Uh, and I do hope that we can refund and expand funding for local media. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Councelor Ali.
Councelor Winsow. Yeah. No, I definitely uh you know uh chime in the same way with councelor about the importance of local media. Um you know MATV has been really present in the community as long as I have been and it's been a great institution. Uh you celebrating both our
you know cultural uh youth and seniors um a broad range as well as providing important transparency by allowing citizens to see um us in action. And you know um it takes resources to allow that
to happen and we are we are called on as a government to be more and more transparent and to um have a partner that we can work on to help be that and that's also independent of us. Um I think that's important and um you know we we know just a few years back we
voted on a bunch of um you know small cell towers that now allow people to you know disconnect. You read about the whole media industry um that the old model of overtheair television gave way to cable and now cable is giving way to
um you know things that are run um through your cell phones or or your social media devices. Um so having a source of funding to make sure that um local media can survive in that um new environment is important. Um and that's
really why I'm supporting this. and uh we just need to make sure that um you know our local media can to thrive in the in the future. It's important to us um as a democracy and as a community. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Winsel. Councelor Taylor.
Thank you. Um, I don't think it's uh a secret how how valuable I believe Uma is as I um was one of their first youth program participants uh way too many years ago. Um as well as their board president for
just over six years. And I'm really happy to see this being being presented. Um, I was able to testify uh at the sent in my testimony to the state house over the summer. Um, and I'd also just
like to add in addition to this as something that we can do, which I am grateful for. Um, as we cut our cable bills, and I know many of us have, you can donate to UMA. That's where the loss of funding comes from. You can participate in programs. um you can show
up for their events and make sure that we're we're being active supporters as well. And I I urge everybody to get involved. It's been an important part of my life for a lot of years and um
I think you know it would be great to see everybody getting out there and and building them back up. Thank you, Council Taylor. Councelor McDonald. Thank you so much to my colleague Councelor Colon Hayes for putting this forward. Um I really agree that local
media is so essential for our democracy. I just wanted to be asked I wanted to ask to be added as a co-sponsor. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Well, from the chair, I would echo what others have said. I think this is a tremendous paper. Um and I would just highlight some of the new
work that that has been going on in the community. I know as someone who is a parent of a middle school age child, some of the media programming that um was newly launched this summer was pretty fantastic and well worth checking out. I would um applaud some of the ways
that they're trying to iterate and just reach, you know, new ages and and be responsive to what the community need is. So definitely look into that if you haven't. Um do we have a motion to pass the resolve? So moved by councelor Simonelli, seconded by councelor Taylor.
All in favor? I. Okay, that passes. Next order of business. Paper 215-25 be it ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of Malden 6.20.010 [Music]
permit required for canvases and solicitors is hereby amends as followed. And that was sponsored by councel Wel. Okay. Councelor Winsel for the paper. Yeah, I know we were working on this paper just in in June as we were going through bud budget process and you know
there was a lot of fine details that were were approved in committee and then came up to the council and um you what we decided was rather than kind of rushing it through we wanted to make sure that we worked to make sure we had the the clear version. So councelor
McDonald and and clerkio we worked on that over the summer. So that is reflected in the no knock proposal version three just to make sure that everybody was clear as to what we actually um enrolled last time. So then we ordained it. We are we have a clear
paper. So I thank you for that work over the summer and so I just ask that we take the final action to enroll what we uh uh created back in June. Thank you. So so you need a motion motion to ordain? Yes. Great.
Okay. No. Well, I'm sorry. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, sir. Okay. And a motion to ordain by councelor Winsow, seconded by councelor Sika. All in favor? I. Okay. That carries. Next order of business. Paper 346-25. The standing committee on
rules and ordinance to whom was referred paper 29 series of 2025. Having considered the same, make the following report. Committee recommends this paper be reported out favorably to the full council. Okay. Okay. On a motion by councelor McDonald to receive the committee report
seconded by councelor Winslow. All in favor? I I Okay. Paper 29-25 order that section 5.0 non-members right to the floor subsection 5.04 of the 2023 city council
rule book be amended by inserting the following. In the last sentence after name, add street and city or. In the last sentence, strike the word public and replaced with legislative. Be it further amended that subsection 5.05 of the 2023 city council rule book be
amended by inserting the following. After name, street, and city or after the first sentence, upon request, the city clerk may privately verify speaker's address in lie of it being part of the legislative record. Okay. Councelor McDonald for the paper.
Good. Thank you, Council President. Yes, this came um from folks who had appeared before us and uh were surprised to learn that they have to deliver their full address on TV. And in this time when
doxing and targeting online based on political speech is pretty high, we wanted to figure out if there were a way that it could be safer for those who consider the risk um or considered their testimony here or the public comment
here risky on a on a personal level for themselves or their family um or the ones they live with. And so this uh we had some good discussion in committee about this. This was my my suggestion evolved somewhat from my the original paper that I um had submitted. And so I
think we have some I think we had I think we had a good discussion and support in the committee um to create this opportunity for uh having your address privately verified by the clerk if you don't want that to be in in the record um when you're submitting public
comment. Um, I do think that folks who are uh mailing in emailing in their public comment would have to be in a separate conversation with the clerk about how to manage that if you didn't want your email address public. Um, but I think the idea here is to just make it as as safe as we can for folks who have
extremely valid questions um about the about the about the safety of being potentially targeted based on what they say while still giving us as elected officials um the opportunity to verify that the people before us have a stake in the issue that is important for them.
So that allows us the clerks to verify that and asks specifically that you provide your street but not necessarily the full address. Meaning I could say I live on Pier Street but I don't have to give the house number. So that that was our proposal. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for your support.
Councelor McDonald. I missed that discussion. So I'm very interested to hear what folks think. Do we have any questions? Councelor Ali. Yeah. I just like to speak in favor of this. Um, I think that it is a common sense way that um, we can encourage more
people to participate in public comment without feeling like they could be harassed. Um, I think it's completely reasonable. Um, you know, giving, you know, meets and bounds descriptions of where you live, even like ward or neighborhood, I think is completely fine. Also, um, and I'll give it the
reason why. Um, you are allowed to vote even if you are homeless. So, you don't have to have an address to vote. You shouldn't have to have an address to go to public comment. Um, and so I think it's completely reasonable and entirely
within um the bounds of what we allow. Um, and as you can see here, if for some reason uh we suspect that we have what are they called? astrourfers that come from out of town uh and they're trying
to, you know, um swamp our public comment. Um the city clerk can privately uh confirm whether or not someone is a resident. Um so fully in support. Thanks to councelor McDonald for moving this forward. Thank you, Councelor Ali. Any further
questions? If I could just ask one from the chair and again with apologies for having missed the committee meeting. I knowa very occasionally we have really hot button issues where we do get a lot of emails or comments that come in and we
have found ourselves having to weed out or give priority to folks who do have a malin address before we take comments from folks who live out of town or we've chosen to do that. in in situations like that, how would we handle that? Or did we discuss that at all? Or would we just
kind of deal with that ad hoc if it comes up like a Roosevelt Park or the the Gaza debate, things like that where we get like hundreds or thousands and we have a have to find a way to weed through and give priority. Um, well, I I will defer to the city clerk on the details of this. I mean, we
this doesn't change anything about what the clerk's authority is to help the council president prioritize those. And just to say that this this is this says upon request the city clerk will verify this. So that would meaning if I if I didn't want to state my address at all I
would have to reach out to the clerk's office you know presumably not in the middle of the meeting um and and ask about this. So I just I think it I think it's a little bit higher bar to do that but it is an option for people who you
know may be on say I can think of so many situations when you don't want to disclose your address what if you are you know um in a witness protection program what if you are a victim of domestic violence and you need to live someplace I mean there's so many scenarios and so just being if like if
you really don't want to do that then you can just say then then to post this as part of our guidelines of public comment that this is an option for Yeah. No, I I I'm supportive of this. I think it's increasingly a question that I'm getting, as I'm sure other counselors are as well. We, you know, certainly in this day and age, don't
want to have a deterrent to public participation in our democracy. Um, any further lights or comments? Do we have a motion to adopt the order? Oh, councelor Spataphor, you have the floor. I would just second the motion.
Got it. So, if somebody comes before the council right now on a hot pitch issue, we don't we don't have to ask if they live in the city of Maldin. We don't have to verify they live here. That's not No, no. I'm just saying what happens if somebody comes to the podium and wants
to speak. We're going to change it and we're going to say um you're just going to give us your your name and address or your name and street, right? How do how do we know today right now if they say PS Street Moment is the question how do how are we going
to be newly instructing people when they come to the podium? Well I how do you verify that because there's been many times where I've sat here and people have said the same address five times and I know for a fact that the people didn't live at that address because you can Google the address and many times they've given
like 104 Main Street and it's not a multif family. So my question is for the residents who do live in the city and I'm I I not I'm not trying to speak against I'm just trying to figure out a way where people don't take advantage of the situation just because the same thing could be said we have to give our
addresses. So if people want to do things to us that are ill will they have every right to do that and we cannot right protect no but I'm saying we can't not put our addresses in the record book right my question if somebody comes here and they get up and we ask and they say
P Street and Maldman we don't have to ask what the addresses or verify later on don't do that we don't do that well they say their name and address and in some topics I write them down I don't know about anybody up here I write them down to see if those people are actually
those people. And many times it's not. So my question is how do you do that? So council McDonald, do you want to Yeah, I'm again I wasn't at this discussion and I'm not against it. I just feel like council me is very good at this. There's always an angle with every with things like this and and it's not going to be
the stuff with the gas lines and putting a tree up, right? It's going to be a hot button topic. There'll be a hundred people in the room. There'll be 50 from another community here and they're going to load up and we're going to say, "Well, you don't have to provide the address and the and to be quite honest with you, if it's a more than issue, it
should be it should be more than people come first in preference in preference." That's that's the only thing I I want to be able to say if if the clerk can verify during the meeting privately, I have no problem with it. If you don't want to publicly say the address, I think you should have to I think we should have to verify it at one point.
Okay. Thank you, Councelor B. I have something. Okay. One one second. I want to let Councelor McDonald answer the Yeah, sure. Direct question. So, just just to be clear, that is a that is apparently a problem based on how we do things right now. Like, right, like we don't sit there and look people
up. I mean, you can there are other records that the city can cross check, but they don't apply to everyone, right? Not everyone is a registered voter. Not everyone even is a citizen and able to vote. And so, there there are lots of different ways. I I am not trying to solve the problem here of like how do we
keep people from lying uh on public comment. I people can say whatever they want. It's constit I mean I think it's protected speech to a certain degree. What people say to us, we don't have to take it that in that dimension. So I I don't know how to solve that problem. This paper I will I will just say again
came directly from a constituent who said to me I was shocked and surprised that I had to say my full address when I came to speak in front of the council. didn't realize that. It threw me off and I didn't think that was fair. And I said, I agree. I'm concerned. I'm concerned for all of us as city
officials um about the potential targeting, but that is outside the scope of this particular bill. So uh uh or this particular paper. So anyways, I I don't know how to solve that problem, but I do think we can make it we can create a slightly less um dangerous situation for folks who are concerned
about that and want to participate in our democracy. Thank you, Councelor McDonald. Councelor Ali. Yeah, I just wanted to respond because councelor Spaphor said my name. Um, so I know it's not always convenient or easy protecting people's constitutional rights, but it's something that you're
required to do as a as a elected official. And so we can control people's time, place, and manner. But if people from W three want to testify about something in W 2, they're allowed to do that. The same way if someone who lives
up on an upper part of the Spot Pond Brook in Melrose wants to testify about something that's happening to the Spot Pond Brook in Malden, they're able to do that. Um, so yeah, the your constitutional rights do not end at the borders of Malden.
Thank Thank you, Councelor Ali. Councelor Simmonelli. Thank you, Ma. Thank you, Madam President. So, I I guess I'm confused. So they don't have to if they're going to request public comment, they don't have to check with the clerk beforehand and
and give the clerk their information. No, that happens. It doesn't have that don't happen. It'll my understanding is that it'll function the same way it does now. They simply won't have to put a street number down. They can put a street name and this and and Malden. So, it's it's to
give people an extra level of anonymity to enable them to feel more comfortable participating in public comment. Yeah, I I mean, I guess I could take it both ways. I mean, even at my Fourth of July, I really don't ask people for evidence to show that they're awarded person if they won the bike. But I mean,
but but the thing is this though, I understand though, like if there is a hot topic and you know, if I'm really in a heated discussion about my neighborhood, you know how like some of us w counselors can become very territorial and one of them, but I'm
just saying like if you really have a hot topic and then the person who you're trying to explain it to don't even live in the city. I mean, I guess as a person and a human being, do they have the right to know what's going on? Is it their community?
I don't know. That's kind of a gray area for me. I I mean, you know, I don't I don't know. That's kind of a tough one, you know, cuz there's only there's only so much time in the day and we're very busy people uh throughout the day with the things that we're trying to get done and our agendas and everything and
moving the city forward. So sometimes it's hard all of a sudden, you know, you sit there and you're talking for 45 minutes and it's not hard for me to talk for 45 minutes, but anyway. Um, but if if it's somebody that's not even from the city of Malden and they're from like a whole another city, I would I don't
know. That's confusing. I mean, that's I I don't know. I don't know. Thank you, Councelor Simonelli. Council McDonald, did you want to respond to clarify? I just I just want to clarify. Understood. The way this will read is that you shall give your name and your
street and city or address. I honestly think most people are going to stand up here and give their street number like they've always done. That's what I think is likely. It's just not a council rule that they must do it in order to be able to speak to us. And then it creates this other option that is on request only. So
I I don't think we'll even notice that much of a difference. It's just not it doesn't change how people sign up. It doesn't change how we think about prioritization because they'll still need to tell us the city they live in, right? And so that's how I would imagine when we're prioritizing, that's what we do is we sort by the city. We don't like
try to verify every individual person's address. So I I just I think this is a this is perhaps a smaller change for our process and is just a gesture of goodwill to our residents um particularly who are who may want to participate. That's all. I just want to
piggyback on that and say that we deal we we still do have in our council rules the the president and the clerk have discretion to adjust when there are unusual circumstances and when those circumstances arise you know we're not god forbid out there verifying people's IDs or anything I don't want anybody to
listen to this and get the impression that we're going to start like checking on where people live you just have to take the circumstances when things are busy we have to make a judgment call based on and sometimes there are issues where maybe there are people who own a business here or work here or commute
through where they really do have a vested interest in an issue. They might not have a residential address here, but we wouldn't want to turn them away. So, I think as council McDonald stated, functionally, I think it will not be a big difference. It just gives people an additional option to open things up. I
want to go to councelor Conman who's been waiting patiently. Uh there's been many times that uh people from other cities have uh testified, not only here, but I I can't remember when they were going to do something
with the Lawrence Memorial when the Malden Hospital closed. We went over there with about 10 or 12 people and they let every one of us speak because we were affected as much as anybody in
Medford, you know. So there's been a lot of times where people from other cities would come over here. I can remember testifying in Medford. I mean I wasn't here when they built that conglomerate on
across from Dunkin Donuts, but I certainly was on the council. I would have been over in over that uh thing they built down there because that threw the uh between BJ's and everything
else threw everything out of the whack. And that doesn't include the rats moving in when they built that uh 380 something units, you know. So, uh, a lot of times you have to testify in other
cities, especially, you know, counselors on the line. You know, they do something to affect your people, you're going to go and talk. That's all. Thank you, Councelor Condan. Councelor Zika,
thank you. Really quickly, I think we're reading into this a little bit too much. I actually have a poll book in front of me and as of right now I don't think that this paper's going to change anything that we do other than we're not going to hear that JDA lives at 12 Cleveland Street. We're going to hear
that JDine Sea lives on Cleveland Street. And if you really want to, you just go home and you open up this book and you go to Cleveland Street and your ward and I can see where Mary Smith lives because it's going to tell me if Mary Smith really lives on
Beach Street. You know, if they as long as they're a registered voter, I'll know. But no, right. No, they're Yeah, it's the census. Yes, it is. Exactly. The census. It's not the voters. Exactly. the little asterisk is the
the key. So, yes. So, if if you if you're worried about where somebody lives, then we can just look them up in the book, write the name, jot the name down, and you know, I'm fine with them not saying that the the particular number of the street that they live on
because the world is crazy these days. I see how mean people can be to each other on social media and I would hate for somebody to, you know, be retaliated against on uh the way that they're speaking at our podium right now. I've often wondered several times on hot uh
topic issues if the people actually lived in Malden because it's not like they sit up there and say, "Hi, I'm JD Seeker. I live at 12 Cleveland Street in Malden." They say just the address. So, we don't know if they're actually from Malden or not from Malden. There's a beach street in Riviera. There's a beach
street in Malden. There could be a beach street in Medford and any other city around. So, um I have no issues with this. I I say we move this paper. It's it it's not going to change. So, thank you. Who made the motion?
Okay, we have a motion on the floor by councelor Cologne Hayes, seconded by councelor Ali. I want to move the question. All in favor? I that carries. Next order of business, paper 347-25.
Order. The city council vote. Do rules have to be do we have to take a roll call for a rule or no? I don't think so. No, we can if you'd feel more comfortable with that, but I don't think that's No, no, no, no. Okay, it's a valid question.
I'm sorry. Paper 347-25 order. The city council will vote whether to go into executive session with legal counsel in accordance with exemption 3 Massachusetts general law chapter 30A subsection 21 A3 to discuss
strategy with respect to the opioid litigation where such discussion in open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the litigation position of the city if so declared by the chair. Also if allowed by the body to admit special assistant to the mayor Maria Louise and
controller Charles Ranigan into the meeting. Thank you. And I have a point of information. If if we if we vote not to go into executive session, does that do can we do it on the floor? Is that the vote to do it? So, should we just take the vote? The vote is whether or not to enter into
executive session. Understood. Do we need to consult with our assistant solicitor before doing that or can I simply make a suggestion as to how we proceed? I think that you can introduce the paper. Yeah. If there's any further debate, I would invite legal to come up
and speak with us. Okay. My my preference is to is to actually do this on the floor after consulting and reading a little bit more about the paper. This is the opioid litigation. This is not litigation particular to the city of Malden. This is statewide legislation that all
municipalities are undergoing right now. And after looking at it, I I don't actually think there's any detrimental effect to the city's litigation position. Zahir, would you mind coming to the podium? I I don't see any reason why we couldn't
personally discuss this in open session. I think that this has been in the news. It seems to me that we could pos could probably do this on the floor, but I would love to hear your opinion on that. Yeah. So, here's to me, assistant city solicitor. So, you're right. This is not
litigation um to which Malden is a direct party in any way. So, uh it's really up to you. I was prepared to do this in executive session, but if you're all comfortable and want to do it openly, that's fine, too. Um I'm okay
either way. Are you making a motion to recuse? Okay. So, is it here? I'm going to ask you to pause there. Sorry. We have a motion on the floor for councelor Simelli to recuse. Seconded by councelor Ali. All in favor? I. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Zir. So, is it your recommendation that I vacate to discuss? If you want to debate it back and forth with the rest of the counselors, you may want to vacate the chair. Um, I mean, you've introduced the paper. I think any more than that would be
okay. Grounds for letting council take. Okay, I'm fine with that. Do you want to I don't have a lot to say about it, but we can do that if it's procedurally preferable. Sure. Would you mind? I don't think we have to vote
Got it. Uh, so we need a motion on we need a motion to decide whether to go into executive session or not. Do I have a motion? Well, I just have a question. I have a question, too. All right. Council Winsow, then councelor. Yeah, I have a question here. Um, is
there um any information that will be prejuditial to the city um that necess that really ne would ne necessitate going to an executive session? Um, in your opinion, no, in my opinion, there isn't. Yeah.
Most of the information that is uh that would be discussed is public record uh since this is really a a massive uh litigation that's been in the news in
the courts for many many years. Um literally like almost going back maybe 10 years. Um, so there's a lot here that is already in the public record and we're not going to go through all of it
anyway. So it's just really the the bottom line is what you know you're going to discuss. Thank you. Council councelor Ali uh you had said that we are not a direct party. Is this a class action?
No, it's not exactly uh it's either it's really a mass tor case which there might be class actions uh among the many thousands of lawsuits that have been filed against Purdue Pharma and its affiliates and its uh
shareholders and officers and directors. So some of those might be class actions. Um but it's more of a master case because for some reason I feel like it was in like 2017 we met with attorneys to vote whether or not to like participate. Is this the same lawsuit?
Do do you remember that we met at the sen at the senior center? We met with like attorneys about whether or not it was like a law firm. That was a long time ago. Sandman. That was the It was Sandman and Sandman,
right? Something like that. I think Council M, if I may, I would love to just take the vote on whether to go in executive session and then we can actually talk about the thing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm just trying to figure out is this a lawsuit that we're a party to or not? We are not. Did you say we are not
currently a party to this lawsuit? No. The state of Massachusetts filed a lawsuit like many other states against Purdue Pharma and its officers and shareholders. Uh, as far as I'm aware, the city of Malden has never um been an actual party like filing a lawsuit
against any of those. Thank you. Does that answer your question, Councelor Millie? All right. Uh, I think we need a motion on this paper and if we would prefer to do this um in executive session then you would vote yes and if you would prefer to do it in public session then you would vote no.
Is that correct? So the motion would be to enter into executive session. But just to clarify the chair already said that it it's not detrimental. So I don't think my motion is to do this on the floor. I don't think we can go in because you said it's not detrimental.
So council is correct. It it the the the council president has to declare that this would have a detrimental effect on the city's litigating litigation position. But she declared that it does not. She declared that it does not. So I'm not sure it necessarily makes the paper
move necessarily without taking a vote at all, but her recommendation clearly is to not enter in. Correct. I think I agree. If if councelor Spataphora, myself, and Lynhan agree, we're probably right. You need one of the 10 reasons to go
into So, understood. I think we need a motion to then get ourselves into this discussion. Could we simply have a motion to proceed with the discussion of the paper on the in open session. So moved. So moved by councelor uh Lahan, seconded
by councelor Winslow. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Great. We will proceed. enter into the conversation in open session. Uh, councelor Lahan for the paper. Thank you. So, I'm going to again defer
to here a little bit to explain this, but this is related to the Purdue Pharma and the Sackler bankruptcy um cases. The recommendation from the attorney general is that municipalities opt in. Um, opting in would be forfeiting the right to sue the Sacklers. And again, Zahir,
please jump in if I'm mischaracterizing this at all, but um because the Sackler's individual fortune is um they are giving up the their right to be sued as individuals, you essentially opt in at this point to get um a guaranteed amount of money. Um and if you move
forward and take your risk to sue them later, you may get nothing. And so the attorney general's recommendation is that municipalities take what is virtually guaranteed to be some money now to get a little bit more than the settlement that we've already gotten from Purdue Pharma. Um and so they're
asking local legislative bodies to take that vote to officially opt in. I know um Mr. shanigans here to talk about specifics of the money if we want to get into that, what we are already entitled to, what we I I think we don't know what we likely would be in the future yet,
but again, it's a it's looking at what we would be certain to get versus taking a very huge risk and possibly getting nothing additional. And so that's why the AG's office is making that recommendation that local bodies take the um guaranteed something over the
probable nothing. And I don't know, is it here if you have anything more to add to that? That's that's a pretty good pretty good summary. I mean, basically, you've had thousands of lawsuits, like I said, against the the Sacklers uh who are the uh the family that owns Purdue
Pharma uh as well as against Purdue Pharma. The Sacklers didn't file bankruptcy. However, Purdue Pharma did file bankruptcy in 2018. And the idea is uh of this settlement proposal is that
uh the state of Massachusetts will be will be getting a certain sum of money from uh the Sacklers and the bankruptcy estate. uh the cities and towns in Massachusetts that accept the bankruptcy
plan um and accept the release or sign a release of the Sackler family will be getting a cut of whatever Massachusetts gets. So the more cities and towns accept uh the bankruptcy plan and then release the Sacklers, the more money
Massachusetts gets. And if a city or town does not accept the bankruptcy plan and does not release the Sacklers, you don't get anything pretty much. So that that's basically if you were to vote on whether to uh if you were going
to vote on accepting this, you'd basically take two votes which are almost uh very closely connected. You vote to accept the bankruptcy plan um that has been um put out by the uh bankruptcy court or filed with the
bankruptcy court and you'd vote to release the Sacklers. Um, that's that's basically basically it. If you have any questions on, you know, um other other questions about the case or the procedure, I'll do my best to answer it. But this is probably, by the way, the
most complicated bankruptcy case in United States history. It's gone up to the US Supreme Court. It's, you know, uh, it's very, very complicated. Can we bring up controller again? Yeah. I mean, you're in charge. I keep going like I'm talk like I'm leading. All right. I could I ask controller
Randigan to come up and and talk to us a little bit more about what this potential settlement could look like? I know we're all dying to learn. Um yeah, so as um as attorney Zahir had mentioned um you know the the action
that we need by the council and I do just want to add the documentation that I see it show it says that your sub uh subdivision's vote our city's vote must be submitted um to the national consortium that's like the administrating entity on behalf of um
all of the um the participants by email. no later than September 14th, 2025 um to to ensure inclusion in the master ballot. Um so, as um attorneys here mentioned, he had said there's two um two different votes needed by the
council. One to vote on the Purdue bankruptcy plan and then a second one to release the the Sacklers. I would just request or suggest that that be two separate votes because the the vote that we have to forward um no later than September
14th is just on the Purdue bankruptcy plan. Um so I think it should just be two different votes in terms of what the settlement would mean for Malden. We definitely don't know. It's a big amount
here is the amount. So I have I I have this. It says it says Yeah. So basically come over. So basically the the total amount that the Sacklers
are going to contribute to this bankruptcy plan um their contribution is going to be something in the order of six and a half billion. Six and a half plus 1.5. Yeah. Six and a half billion. And then there's the bank there's the per that's that six and a half comes from the Sacklers. Then there's the the business
itself that's going to contribute another you know one and a half billion or so forth. Now, that's probably the the maximum that will be paid out to all the governmental entities and the states and whatnot. Massachusetts portion is
just a portion of that, you know. Um, and then of course mass most of the money that comes to Massachusetts, 60% of it actually goes to the state directly. 40% of what Massachusetts gets will be distributed to all the cities and towns. But if if the city and town
wants to get anything, they have to vote to approve for the bankruptcy plan and they have to vote to release the sac. So it's sort of like it goes to the states first and then it trickles down. A portion of what goes to the states trickles down to the cities and towns.
So okay, I think we have some questions uh from my colleagues. I see councelor Ali, did you have your hand? And then councelor. So just from a basic open needle perspective did not expect to release the Sacklers tonight from
liability that was you know not anticipated. So like just for me um you know reading this I would not have known that I was planning to release the Sacklers from liability. Um so my my qu my question my question is and it's I'm
not saying that I'm going to file an open email complaint. just saying that who would have read this in and thought that we would be releasing the Sacklers. Um, can you clarify, wasn't this bankruptcy plan thrown out by the Supreme? Can you
guys stop talking? Excuse me. Counselors Taylor and Spora. Yeah, council. It's hard. It's hard to hear. Thank you. Thank you. Councelor, I'm going to turn off I'm so I'm sorry. I didn't So the is this the same bankruptcy plan that was thrown out by the Supreme Court
or is this a different bankruptcy plan? It's a different plan. So the the plan that was uh rejected by the US Supreme Court basically was what you would call a cradown plan. Basically the court
could approve the plan and it would it would release the Sacklers without the consent of the cities and towns or anyone else who wanted to release the Sacklers. This is a different plan. This is you don't have to release the sackers if you don't
want. If you want, you can go sue them and spend the next 30 years in litigation with them. Um because they're, you know, billionaires and have, you know, money and tax havens all over the world. So you can do that if you want, but if you do release the Sacklers, you're guar you're pretty much
guaranteed a chunk of this massive eight half billion dollar uh settlement that's going to come to your state and then flow down from the state level to the local government level. So this is a different plan from the plan the US
Supreme Court rejected uh under the bankruptcy law one or two years ago. And is it both the Sackler family filing bankruptcy and the company? The Sackler. The reason the US Supreme Court rejected the release of the Sacklers in that old plan was because
the Sacklers themselves had not filed bankruptcy. Because when you file bankruptcy, what you have to do is you have to basically tell the court, okay, I'm putting all my assets on the table and I'm going to make them available to my creditors. The Sacklers never did
that. They didn't want to do that. They wanted to keep their money and hide it. Um, and the bank, the US Supreme Court said, "Sorry, Sacklers. If you're not going to put all your assets on the table and make it make them available to creditors, we're not going to release you. We're not going to let the court
release you." That was the old plan. Is the new plan, are they filing bankruptcy in the new plan? So, in the new plan, they're not filing bankruptcy, and they probably never will file bankruptcy because they have more money than, you know, uh, enough money to litigate with you till
the end of time. What they're doing is they're contributing $6.5 billion to the plan of their own money. So, what happened is this, you know, from the 90s to, you know, two
2010s, the 201s, you know, you all know they they marketed and it became as a as a less addictive drug. They made billions and billions 34 billion dollars in revenue uh over that time period uh gross revenue not net
profit. What happened is in 2007 one of Purdue Pharma's affiliates plead guilty to a federal felony for that uh marketing which was basically you know lying basically about the addictive the addictive nature of Oxycontton. Once in
2007 they plead uh they pled some of their executives plead guilty to that felony. The lawsuit started. Once the lawsuit started, the Sacklers realized, oh, let's let's basically milk our company of all the money we could take
out of it because we know the lawsuits are going to drain the company. So, they transferred 11 billion over about 10 years to themselves from the company. But the lawsuits kept coming against them and against Purdue Pharma. So, forget where I was going with this,
but they haven't filed bankruptcy. The last the last question is, did is this more money under the new bankruptcy plan than the last one? Yeah, it is. They contributed they're contributing more money. I think on the last plan, they were contributing like four and a half, five billion uh maybe
four something. Uh in this one, they're contributing more like 6.5. And do you have copies of what he's holding in his hand? Uh I do. Yes. Can I look at a copy? Um, we can give it to you at I'll give it back. I'll give it back to you. I'm not gonna I just want to look
at it before I just make any decisions and I'm welcome to pass it down or not, but it's hard for me to vote to release the Sacklers from liability without looking at a piece of paper. So, so I don't know if I'm allowed to share
this right now simply because it says attorney client privilege and it's come from um the council. Yeah. The the executive committee of lawyers for the uh for the So don't you think talking about this document in public would have already
made that a public document subject to public? I'm not talking about this document. I'm talking about the facts in in in that are that are that are a matter of public record in the bankruptcy court which is the bankruptcy plan. If you want to go read the 200page bankruptcy plan, you can you can knock yourself out.
No, I'm just saying that that that document that you've referred to that's just a summary that that that Chuck has for himself uh that he's he's referring to. Um that's not the bankruptcy plan. Um it's a but it's a public record now. We just talked about it's not a public record.
We're talking about it in a open session. I'm not talking about it. Um I'm just telling you what I have learned from from the facts of the case and the bankruptcy plan. Um I'm not sharing I'm not showing that document to anybody and I haven't showed it to Is it too late for us to go into
executive session? because I mean we can't councelor is it I I don't know the answer to that let me consult with the clerk is it okay if I go to councelor spataphora so he can ask this question all right councelor spataphor
councelor till try to figure out how much money we got to stand so I I I do I mean if anybody's seen the move the net Netflix special painkiller on this family I mean it was diabolical this was all done with intent the amount of money they made so I I get uh dishotness for
the the family and I understand releasing them. Uh my question is maybe you don't know it. So if we were to vote on both the state gets a sum of money if theoretically one city out of the 351 town got that money they would get the
full 40% that's remaining. So 60 60% right? No. Is it is the stake at 40? Steak at 60. Okay. The state keeps 60%. But the total amount of money that the state gets, yeah,
it goes up the more cities and towns accept this plan and release the And is is do you know is does every city get the same amount or they don't there's a there's a schedule that the Massachusetts has has de uh written up for you know what what
percentage and I don't know how they came up with it but there's a percentage you know a tiny percentage that's divided up amongst all the cities and not all the same. Okay. Also, I should also mention the the money that the that's going to be paid out by the Sacklers. Uh it's not all at
once to the states. It's actually over a period of 10 years. 10 years. Yeah. I mean I mean council Taylor just did some quick math. I mean she figured out I think it was like 180 again round numbers. Everything was even. Yeah. If everything was even it's like $182,000 per per city in Massachusetts.
You take the 7 and a half billion divided by 50 states divide that up there was something like 182,000 right based on mass. Yeah. The six by the 40. So over 10 years that's 7 and a half billion. That's not all for Massachusetts. No I know I know we divided by you know
it's 50 states. I'm saying round numbers but $182,000 you're releasing them from any future payments too. I I will just add from the chair, I also did math, but I did it proportionally to population and my estimate is $650,000 per town.
Yeah. Uh if you just divide the 330 million people of America by the 67,000 in Malden and then you multiply that by our 40% share, that's 650,000. Yeah, but that's why I asked it was all the same to every state. That's the difference, right? these numbers um
they're they're really speculative because I'm just saying that's an upper bound. Yeah. Yeah, it's a better number. No, I'm just saying over 10 years that number is not I mean we need the money for the budget, but it's not a windfall. The money the money that's going to be paid out there's strings attached. It has to be used for uh
opioid opio opioid abatement and remediation services. So it's not like free money you can do with any anything you want with it. So that will be so I'm sorry to clarify those will be restricted fund legally restricted funds. So yeah there's some there's some strings attached. Okay. It's over 10 years.
Yeah. And that will end all the payments that we've been getting throughout the last I believe so. Yeah. Right. That will end because Chucky that's an addition to all of these. How long have we been receiving settlements before on opioids?
So this is just one that Purdue Pharma that that that'll be one settlement. Yeah. We also have the distributor settlements. We have Jansen, Teva, Allergan, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and Mckenzian. Those are different companies. Those are different cases. Those are different. But these these will continue.
Those are going to continue. Okay. Okay. Are you good, Councilman? Okay. I'm going to go to councelor Lahan. My question is related to whether we should be still in open session or not. Yes or no. When we are in executive session, you reserve the right to not
show us confidential documents. Is that true? Would we be in executive session and you would still not show us that paper just to put this issue to bed. I could show you that in executive session, but frankly not going to add much to what we've already discussed.
I mean, I I agree. I think you you could watch the who series dopick and read the news and be equipped to understand what's going on here tonight. I feel fine with our vote, but if others feel differently, I'm fine to have us take a different vote than what my recommendation was.
I'm I'm fine. I'm set. Thank you, Council. I'm g to go to councelor Winslow. Councelor Winsow. Yeah. I I I think you know I did sort of the math proportion to population. I think I came up with a number similar to council McDonald. So I think that if I mean I mean but it is it's it's who
knows what that rate would be you know maybe they the rates depend upon how many deaths or opioid situ who knows so so I think that is a a sense of what maybe we're talking about over and that would be 65,000 a year over 10 years if
we is that check is that kind of consistent what what we're getting from some of the other settlements is that kind of I don't know these this is a pretty big one yeah the other ones are smaller So, the distributor payment. So, this is just one each one of these um settlements that I'm going to mention. It's just one
of one settlement. Distributors um uh $44,000 a year approximately. Uh Walgreens, $11,000 a year. These are over that's over 12 years. Jansen is over six years. It's about $7,000 a year. Tea
it's over 11 years. It's 12 almost $13,000 a year. Allergan um over five years $13,000 a year. So these are obviously much smaller than than the Purdue one would be. CVS $23,000 a year. Walgreens $11,000 a
year. And as and as far as we know all those are going and have the sort of the same tag that they have to be used to opioid prevention or that type of thing. Yeah. So, all of these um opioid settlement uh funds that I that we you
know we that were just discussed, it's all general fund money um that um if it were to be I mean it'll once general fund money hits the the general fund, it it it it
has to be appropriated through the through the budget process. Um, so when I file reports saying what we've spent this money on, it's technically zero. Um, but then with a caveat that we've also, you know, paid
for two full-time recovery coaches. We pay for Malden Cares uh for for all of the um the recovery coaches and things like that. So on paper it shows zero, but in theory we're spending more on on opioid addiction services than the
$130,000 a year or so that's coming in. Right. So okay, but yeah, no, we can't use it to hire additional firefighters or police officers. It's definitely restricted. So So but we we're fulfilling our obligations in those settlements by showing we are spending more than that
money. So all right. And then this would just be another 65,000. We would have to maybe go through the same process over. Yeah. The amount we won't know for for a bit. Yeah. Or some something. All right. Now, just a question about those other settlements. I don't remember us going into the executive session to settle
those. So, I'm just is there do do we know is this just different because it's federal bankruptcy or what what do we what do you know the process? I don't know where the idea came up came from for possibly entering into
executive session. um if it wasn't for those others. I mean, this is the first time I've been um involved in any way in one of these uh opioid lawsuit settlements with the city. Uh so, I don't know.
So, if I can just clarify, all of the other settlements that we've just discussed, none of those required a vote of the city council. Um myself and Alli McNeel were talking about this one and we're not even sure that this one requires it. What it says is they highly
encourage the legislative body um to take a vote on it. Um I think it's for optics. Um one of the comments that was made from one of the the law firms was to summarize simply the Sacklers will
pay the most amount of money when they have the highest level of participation from the governmental entities. Um so I think what they're trying to do is just have all of the governmental entities document it just to help support uh to make the optics just that much stronger.
Okay. to get the maximum amount of money the upwards of the six and a half billion dollars out of the sacks. All right. Thank you. Are you good, Council Wins? All right. I'm gonna go to councelor Ali and then back to councelor Lahan. Uh what year were you elected? Well, first of 2018.
So if I remember correctly, it was 2017 when we were still at the um senior center. I remember being in the library uh in the back and I remember attorneys coming from some law firm saying, "Do you want to join onto this class action
or mass tor case?" Um and we Oh, yeah. So, I I sorry. So, that that's what I remember. Um but when it comes to this, um I am not prepared to vote
tonight. It feels very much like we're shooting from the hip. I haven't reviewed anything. Um, and we're voting to release the Sacklers from liability for what sounds like a pittance amount of money. Um, you know, $600,000 is not
worth a human life, not even one. Um, so I think we should at least be doing our due diligence in reading the documents that we obvious to read this and you work and represent us and we have the the right to read
that maybe not in open session. Um, but it sounds like we have one more week to discuss this potentially. Um, I'm not prepared and I will will be voting no to to release the Sacklers from liability tonight. Thanks.
And can I just control cont control ran again or I don't remember which of you said this but to clarify the deadline you said is September 14th to confirm or to confirm our participation if we want to participate. I think on that one correct September 14th. All right. Thank you. Councelor
Lahan. Um I was just going to follow up on what councelor Winslow had said about the previous settlements that we got in. I did just want to reiterate that the mayor's office has communicated to us about this. We've been receiving this information by email in addition to it
being in the news. This has been something that's just been very important to me and Maria Louise has been fantastic about answering questions that I've had about it, how we've been going to spend it, where it goes into the general fund, how it how all this works. So, if we've been willing to do our due diligence up to now, this
information has been made available to us. And I think from here, whatever whatever we decide tonight, when the money comes in, whatever amount that ends up being, this is something that is going to be, my understanding is that it's at the mayor's discretion how it's going to be spent. So, I just wanted to for the community's clarification, I
just wanted that to be also stated. I think this is an unusual step that we have a decision point here around which path we go down, but this is something that the city has been very transparent on. It is a significant amount of money that has been coming in for us and other
municipalities. There's been a tremendous amount of impact in the community obviously from the devastation from Oxycontton and the decisions that Purdue and the Sacklers have made. So this is something that I think is going to have the ability to sustain some of our recovery programs and that we can do
a lot with. So just not to lose the overall picture of what we're talking about here. Obviously, the Sackler family, as attorneys here said, they have more money than they can they can shield themselves no matter what we do tonight. So, we need to really focus on
how do we want to move forward and make sure that we are capitalizing on the resources that we know we can get to be able to sustain the programs that we have to be able to serve folks who are going to be affected forever. the the addiction treatment services. If you're
left in treatment from substance use disorder, these are not these these are drugs that you cannot wean yourself off of. Folks are in treatment for the rest of their life because of the addictive nature of the science of these medications. So these are things that we need to be able to have sustainable
programs for in order to keep people alive. So, I just I have strong feelings about this because I think the impact to our community has been so great and we have a program that we would otherwise maybe not be able to continue to fund and I want to make sure that we can continue to fund the work that's been
that we are doing that we're doing well now. And I'll just say our office's recommendation is that you should you should approve the plan and uh ratify the release of the Sacklers. It's just
You know, it's uh there's no perfect for for anyone uh given the situation, but this is a reasonable uh a very reasonable um outcome um to this, you know,
whatever you want to call it, catastrophe. Thank you, Councelor Cologne Hayes, and then councelor Spaporo. Oh, thank you. Um, so I know I've been in conversations um with you, Chuck, a couple of times over the opioid grants um and how they move forward because
yes, it's obviously it's a huge issue. We're all very concerned um and waiting a week won't, you know, um we'll still be able to get that money. That's not a choice. I'm fine with it tonight. But um what the question I had was the general fund
the last time when you said it goes into the general fund. The last time we spoke uh there was the state made a change um and we could opt into appropriate do you remember that conversation? I might Yeah. Okay. Is that are we making that
change? So so not as of today. So the the the change um that you're referring to is whe when when these settlement funds first started coming in, it was mandatory that they were accounted for as general fund money and could not be
spent uh without further appropriation. Um recently, I'm not sure when, a year ago or so, um they amended the legislation um to allow cities and towns to create a special revenue a fund, special revenue
of fund um to account for these funds without further appropriation. So, as these funds came in, they would go into an account not within the general fund, outside of the general fund where the city could spend them without being appropriated as part of the the yearly
budget. We have not done that yet. Um, you know, we've had the luxury of, you know, having ARPA funds to fund a lot of the Malding Cares program. Um, you know, as I stated earlier, we have two full-time um um addiction uh recovery people uh within the board of health,
health and human services, and we also fund an additional $40,000 a year from Olden Cares. It's something that we're entertaining in the future. Uh but as of today um the the beginning of FY 2026, these funds are still being deposited
directly into the general fund and can't be spent spent without being appropriated first. Okay. So then that is that why you're saying that you'll see like a zero on there um if we're looking in because there's been times where I'm like, where's this money, you know, um going?
Where's it appropriated to? What are we spending? And I've gotten answers, but um you're right. I couldn't find them. Yeah. No, so that's 100% accurate and and a lot of cities and towns are dealing with just that. We actually had to amend our reports because originally I'm like, "No, you know, we you know,
the city of Malden spent, you know, over $100,000 on this." So, when I first filled out the report, I wrote what we actually spent on um opioid um services. They got back to me saying that that doesn't tie out to the to the reports
that you submitted to the Department of Revenue. Yes. So then we we we amended those to reports to clarify it as have many cities and towns because a lot of cities and towns are handling it the identical way that Malden is uh by depositing it into the general fund. Only communities that have created that special revenue
account would be reporting actual expenses out of these settlement funds. Okay. I'd love to see that in the future. Just putting that in there. Thank you, Councelor Sphaphora. Yeah, I I think I think Councelor Linan said it well. I mean, at the end of the day, there's no winners. There's a
there's a need both for to continue to keep the support and the services in the city of Marvin there. That need also translated to funding. Listen, we're not going to beat the Sackles, unfortunately. I mean, you don't have to be an attorney to realize that, but if you've seen all the news
reports, yes, morally, should we be doing it? Probably not. But at the end of the day, reality is we need to continue what we've been doing from a community and fund this. And I think uh a week it's not going to change I think most of our minds, but I I would be willing to put a motion forward to accept the recommendations by the city
solicitor to to uh vote in favor of both these these uh these papers. M I have one question. If if this were to if this is to settle when is they expect the first payment next year 27 or 26? That sounds about right.
Is it could be longer? I don't sure it is the next couple years. I mean it doesn't matter. It is what it is, but I was just wondering when when it would be resolved. So, it's all I have. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Council Sphora. Uh, Council Winslow. Yeah, I guess I mean this is obviously a
negotiated settlement and going back to law school. What is our alternative if we would not accept this negotiated settlement? I mean, I think the thought that we would be on our own to litigate this, I mean, this was very unprecedented in the sense of what the federal court did in rejecting the
initial settlement and really forcing the Sacklers to put in more more money to make it more painful. I mean it it's it's sad that uh there there morally is is not more that we can do as a city but um I I don't think that we really have
any true alternative to to pursue our own litigation or or be sort of fighti in some class. I mean I think it is um this is you know we've been getting the money it's been helping uh relieve needs and creating great successful programs
here and that we could sustain those is uh that's a great success and you know what our opioid deaths are way down I don't the mayor announces those we've had a great success in controlling our own destiny rather than having that weight to a court so um we could
probably do a lot more with this amount of money than um you know waiting waiting So, I think I would support councelor Spataphor's motion to to accept this. Thank you. Uh let me let me just let me just come back to
this in a second. Um I'm going to go to council and then we're going to clarify the motion on the table. Yeah. So, um thank you. I just want to say that um I just think that we all should be having a chance to do our homework and our due diligence on this
and I don't believe that watching Hulu is doing our homework or due diligence. I'm sorry. Um reading the documents would be doing our due diligence. Um so I think waiting a week would be reasonable. Um
I'm not prepared to release the Sacklers. I I would like a chance to read what what is the bankruptcy court saying. Um and and just in case other people want to do their homework that does not include Hulu, the attorney
general is having a webinar on the opioid settlements this Thursday, September 4th at 12 p.m. And this is an email that we received from the Mass Municipal Association. And it says, "We invite you and your colleagues to attend a special webinar hosted by Attorney
General Andrea Joy Campbell on Thursday, September 4th, 2025 at 12 PM created specifically for municipalities across Massachusetts. This webinar will focus on the opportunity for municipalities to participate in the Commonwealth's recent settlement with a opioid manufacturer
Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, and two opioid manufacturers and it lists them. Uh you can RSVP. I will forward this to Lisa and the clerk and our legal team. Um, someone should be on this. Um, ideally
it should be all of us. Um, but someone from the city should definitely be on this. Thank you. Thank you, Council Melli. Can I just ask Maria Louise is here from the mayor's office. Maria, is there anything you want to add to this discussion from the mayor's perspective? It's not required. I just wanted to give you the opportunity. I don't think I have anything to add,
but what Zahe and um Mr. Ranigan said um the o the only thing is that we wouldn't be able to represent ourselves in this and um lawyers from several firms have looked at this and have participated in
this suit. Um and Alli's been involved since, you know, she's been here um sort of keeping an eye on it. Um, so I I think I'm very comfortable with um the attorneys involved in that. Their
recommendation is that we move forward and approve it. Can I ask you or Zahir or whoever is the right person to ask, are you aware of any cities or towns that are declining to participate or is there any discussion that you've been a part of of anyone declining to
participate? I'm not aware of any governmental entity that has so far declined. You are not aware. I'm sorry. states attorney generals of all 50 states have signed up and agreed to it.
Okay. All right. Thank you. So I council, did you have your light on again? Well, I you know just I know typically in these type of cases that you know attorneys will take a you know contingency. It sounds like the attorney general and the state by taking a 60%
any there won't be lawyer fees taking out of the 40% that goes to municipalities as far as we know. is that essentially the this there's provisions for lawyers fees in the bankruptcy plan. I I don't know the details of them. Um you know but um so
yeah I mean some of that 8 and a half billion is going to go to you know lawyers fees and administrative expenses and whatnot administering the plan and the funds and trusts that uh that are going to be set up to you know distribute all the money. Um I don't have the details of you know how much
that's going to be but uh yeah there's there's administrative expenses including attorney fees. Yes. So it's it's very speculative as exactly how much we may get ultimately. Yeah. And part of it depends part of it depends on how many people actually sign on and approve because the more governmental entities that sign on and
approve um you know the more money there's going to be distributed. Right. Right. Thank you. Okay. All right. So I think we have a motion on the floor. So let me just clarify this. Council Spartford, did you make a motion or was it your intent to make a motion um for one of these two
things that we need to approve? Both. Okay. So, we're going to do this. We're going to do them separately as recommended. So, let me take the participation one first. Uh I councelor Lahan seconded. Is that our Did you
Okay. Um so, council is deferred to council lan to second this. Um, I do want to just ask before we proceed on discussion, council me, I know you have additional questions that may not be appropriate for public session. Would a fivem minute recess to be able to ask
any questions you want to ask of the of our council? No, I I appreciate that. I I I don't think five minutes. I would like to attend the attorney general's webinar and I'd like to read the documents that they have, but I can do that after you guys vote. That's fine.
Okay. Um, so we have a we have a motion on the floor from council spatora to approve Malden's participation in the opioid settlement as we described here as invited by the Massachusetts attorney general.
Is that properly phrased? Purdue bankruptcy. Can you give us the exact Can you give us better language on this motion, please? That would be very helpful. Vote number one would to be to vote to approve the Purdue bankruptcy plan.
Approve the We approve the plan or we approve our participation in the plan. Approve your participation in the plan. Yeah. Okay. So, the motion from councelor Spataphora is to is for the city of Malden. It's for us to approve the city of Maldin's participation in the Purdue bankruptcy plan as presented by the Massachusetts
attorney general. Good. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Um, is there any discussion any further discussion on that motion before we take the vote? I will just say from the chair since I've not contributed to this discussion up to this point that um I I understand
the the need to practice due diligence on this and I and I defer to our professional staff and trust you all that you have done your due diligence. my loyalty is really to our um incredible addiction recovery community
in Malden. Um and that we were just this uh Sunday recognizing um international uh uh losses a day on losses and addiction. There was a vigil and everything as as Malden overcoming addiction does every year. So that's
very heavy on my mind. Um and believe that this is yes the the best option to be faithful to those commitments um in what is an awful situation. Any other comments? Clerk, would you please call the role? Council Clone Hayes, yes. Council Condan,
yes. Council Crowe, yes. Council McDonald, yes. Council Ali, yes. Council Sega, yes. Council Spataphora, yes. Council Taylor, yes. Council Winslow, yes. Council President Lahan. Yes. Okay, that has passed 10 to
that passes unanimously. The second motion that you are making, councelor Spataphora, is to Yeah, it's um to release the Sackler family under the terms of the
governmental Let me just get the wording right. Sorry. Governmental entity settlement agreement, GESA for short, to release the Sacra family under the terms of the governmental settle settlement agreement.
The government, sorry, entity settlement agreement. Governmental entity settle settlement agreement as recommended by the Massachusetts Attorney General. Good. Yeah. Yeah. Because if I'm going to vote on it, I would rather say that the Massachusetts Attorney General advised
me to release the Sacka family than to have that be, you know, our own personal initiative here. Okay. Discussion on this motion. I will be voting no. And you will absolutely have the opportunity. Can I encourage you all to vote no, too?
Uh, council, do you want to speak to the motion? Yeah, I don't think we should be voting to wave our right or or to release the Sackler family from liability here. So, yeah, I think this is particularly
without doing any due diligence. Thanks. Okay. Any other commentary on this? Clerk, would you please call the role? Council Clone Hayes, yes. Council Condan, yes. Council Crow, yes. Council McDonald, yes. Council Ali,
no. Council Sega, yes. Council Spataphora, Council Taylor, Council Winslow, Council President Linhan, yes. So, that passes 9 to one. Yes. All right. Uh, I think that concludes this paper
and I will return the chair to the council president. Thank you so much. This has been fun everybody. [Music] Yes. Okay. Next order of business is personal privilege. Councelor Winslow.
Yes. Um just want to remind our residents in wards six and ward 4 that on September 16th there is a preliminary election and you can actually come down to city hall during business hours right now uh to vote until September 11th. And
um I think if you've taken out a mail-in ballot, you have a it's what day do we have to get that in Carolyn? Or mail and ballots have to be received back to the office by the election night, September 16th, 8:00 p.m.
All right. So just reminding people um in wards four and six to get out and vote um for those uh things. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Councelor Winsow. Councelor Taylor, thank you. Um, I just want to remind everybody that this Friday, um,
Councelor Simelli and I along with the Malden Public Library and the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development will be hosting a back to school night. Um, there'll be some back to school giveaways, a movie, um, food,
and you can get your library card there. There'll be free books from the library. Um, from the friends of the library and you can also it's at Rosevelt Park. Uh, 5:30 7:15 starts the movie. Movie will
be determined by tomorrow. Um, and the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development will be talking about the housing rehab program. So, um, we hope that, you know, there's a little something for everybody. Come on down. Friday night, Roosevelt Park 5:30.
Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Taylor. Counselor Ali, I just wanted to let everyone know that tomorrow, Wednesday, September 3rd, at 6 PM, uh the Malden Public Library will
have an exhibit on Malden dresses, brides, wedding wedding dresses. Um so that check that out. You can check out the old Converse Memorial Building. Um, additionally on Friday, the Malden
Friday, September 5th, the Malden Sketch Group will be having their gallery opening at 6 PM and that's at 350 Main Street. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Mali. Councelor McDonald. Thank you. I wanted to let uh let folks
know that our police community advisory council which has been meeting dutifully month monthly since uh we uh made appointments last year. Thank you all for reappointing our two council appointees who have been doing great work. Um they're having their first
community forum on Wednesday, September 17th at 7 p.m. It will be, I believe, um there's an online link. It'll be at the at the community room at the police station. And so that hasn't been fully noticed yet. So some of the details could change, but I just wanted to make sure that folks were looking out for
that and I'll I'll confirm the details next week as well. Um they'll be presenting some of the data that the Molden Police Department has been providing uh and some of what they've heard from the community over the past year and there'll be opportunity for community input there as well. Um is going to talk about the fairy house that
is okay. Uh this Saturday is the it's this Saturday. Yeah, this Saturday is our annual Fairy House Festival. It had been originally at one point in August and now it's been moved. Um it's this Saturday, September 6, 12 to 4 at Pine
Banks Park. Um and uh it's a great time. So come on down. My um the the our church camp created a fairy house to enter this year. So I can't wait to see I can't wait to see it. And um I wanted to just say to folks, most of my
colleagues I think know this, but last Thursday we did have a finance committee meeting that was well over an hour and a half long to talk about the trash strike and what the city has been doing to respond all of the ways in which we're trying to manage the limited hours we do have in terms of drivers and and folks
to pick up the trash from Republic. The pressure we've been trying to put on Republic to end this strike. So the video of that meeting is now available. It's posted. It was live streamed by Urban Media Arts. Um, we've also we're also posting the the slide deck that was used. There's a lot of great information
there and been trying to get that information out. So, I know folks had a lot of questions. I know this is an unresolved and unsatisfactory situation. I want to assure folks watching that the city is doing everything that we can to pressure Republic um to review the terms of the contract uh and review the terms
of the invoices we're now getting from Republic and and give the best service we can at the curbside for our residents um and uh and make allowances where we can and just ask for everyone's continued help in trying to keep the streets clear, trying to keep your your
bags in bins to prevent uh a worsening rodent problem. um that is still just a part of everything that folks are doing. And last week we started the uh we we started an opportunity for folks to drop off their recycling since curbside recycling is now paused again because we
don't have the hours for it um to have trucks just in different parts of the city on different weeks. So I know last week was in London. This week I don't know that they've announced the location yet. Oh, they did. Okay. 245 Bryant Street, the old synagogue.
The Oh, okay. Right. right, the old the old temple property. Um, so check that out. Keep track of the city the all the updates get posted on the city social media. You can also go to city of malden.org/connect and sign up for those trash updates. We encourage everyone to do that. Those are available in multiple
languages even though I am talking in English right now. I think that covers it for me. Thanks everybody. Okay, great. Thank you councelor McDonald. Um, just very quickly from the chair, I want to congratulate um, Council McDonald mentioned this briefly, but I want to congratulate Malden Overcoming Addiction and the Bridge Recovery Center for their overdose
awareness vigil on Sunday night. Um, I wasn't able to attend due to a prior family commitment, but I saw that the turnout was great and I want to thank them for all the great work they do in the community and hosting an amazing event every year. I also want to thank all my colleagues who I saw um, at the Labor Day parade in Boston, Boston's
first ever Labor Day parade yesterday. was very proud to march with my husband's union actors equity association. Um, and they marched alongside SAG after and IATSI. It was honestly an incredible turnout. Um, very worthwhile and really cool to see so many spectators along the route too,
which was kind of a huge surprise. Um, so those were two weekend events that I just wanted to kind of recap and highlight. And then coming up next week, I did want to share that on Monday the 8th at Felsmere Pond. Um going to be co-hosting Good Dog Day, the third
annual Good Dog Day with our animal control and Malden Police. That's going to be from 5 to 7:00 p.m. down at Felsmere Pond. Free pup cups and treats provided by the Barkery and um alongside the police, that's going to be sponsored by the Downtown Paw and the Ocean View
kennel. So come on down whether you have a a dog friend or not. I do not have a dog, but I always enjoy coming down and enjoying the fun. So, hope to see you there. I forgot to put my Oh, that's fine. Councelor Cologne Hayes, um personal privilege for you. You have the floor. Thank you very much.
I just uh wanted to briefly announce I'll have more information on this next week, but the Northshore Hispanic Association is holding um their festival right here. Actually, it was changed. It was um last I think I want to say two years maybe. It was down in Maplewood
Square. Uh but this year they moved it to the Ed Lucy Plaza. So that will be from 12 to 4 um on Saturday, September 20th. And I'll give you more information when I have it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And the docket is clear. Have a motion to adjourn by
councelor Sika, seconded by councelor McDonald. All in favor? Okay. We are adjourned. Yay.