test. Why is my camera not on? There we go. Okay, Chris, are you there? Can you I can see you logged in. Can you hear me? Doesn't look from here like he's muted. Yeah. Are you logged in? Is that you CS Chris?
Turn your camera on. And then also, can you We're going to do allow mic. It says you're dis Oh, hang on. We're going to allow We're going to hit allow camera and allow mic. So now he can unmute. Now unmute your microphone. Okay. And now turn on your camera.
Turn your camera. Oh, we're good. Okay. Thanks. You got me. Yeah. I'm hanging on the phone. Good. Can you hear me? Chris, can you hear me? I heard you echo so they can hear you. You just can't hear them for some.
Can you hear us? Oh, I wasn't talking into the microphone. Can you hear us? Yeah, I know. Everything's good on our end. Yeah, microphone's working.
We just can't hear them. test. Looks like he's trying to talk to us and he can't. comes through. Craig, just let me know. I'll call you in a few way. Hey,
I can see you. I just can't hear you. Yeah, we can hear you. Yeah, we can hear you, but you cannot hear us. So, it is here in the room with us trying to figure it out. Okay. What's for me? Yeah, you're coming. Yeah, you're coming.
So, is it on island or there? Your uh I don't think it's on your end. Could we could we have him like we had last week directed to the last speaker? Chris, he's going in the background. He's going in the back room. Let me hang
and see if we can figure this out. I will shoot you a text message, buddy. This would be terrible if you get him. Yeah, tell them to hire me. I'll be their tech person. I get paid big money, too. Hope they having us, too.
It's rude as Hello. Can you hear me? Can you hear us? I can hear you. Yep. So, you can hear us fine. Yep. So, his
down. Backter, if you can hear us coming through the council chamber, would you unmute and please respond to us? Don't you know Baxter? can't hear us either. Who knows if he's at
desktop? Oh my god. Why won't this thing stop? Okay, so you can't Oh, hang on. We got to mic and allow camera. Okay. So, back we just turned your
microphone privileges on from the council chamber. If you can hear us, can you please mute and respond, please? I think verified means they're an Outlook person. They're an Outlook. They're in the system. Hello.
Yeah. Can you hear me talking to you through the microphone? That's what's going on. We're trying to figure out why we can't hear you. His mic is muted right now. Okay. I'm not telling him that. We're
trying to do the best we can. Chris, hang on. We need to focus on what we're doing so that we can start the meeting in three minutes. I'm doing my best, buddy. It's probably just There's somebody else online besides
you, somebody named Baxter. We've asked him if he can hear us to please try speaking and he can't hear us either. So, well, we don't know if he's there. Well, but it's not totally on our end because we just had somebody log in from a different
computer and a different place in the building and it did work. So, internally it seems to be working. I don't know why we can't get you hooked in. Back's not in the building. I don't actually know who Backter is.
Right. But we did that, Chris. You understand? We just did that as an experiment just to see if it worked. We only We had him log in from a different computer in the building just to see if it worked. It was just experimental. He's not actually watching the movie. Okay. All right.
So, what do we do now? It appears to be working. But it's not. Vax can't hear us. We don't know. Turn his back. You try somebody else. We don't know if they're even watching. Right.
just respond. Oh, I see what you mean. Maybe if we elevated Chris to a presenter. Okay. Now, a presenter. Let me try and check it.
I just made you a presenter and I'm hoping that that means aren't just somebody that's logging to watch. You're actually getting the privileges of taking part of the meeting. So, can you go back to your laptop and unmute and try to talk to me
again, please, as a presenter? Thank you. Testing. I'm gonna hang up. Okay, Chris, can you hear us now? I can hear you wonderfully.
I just I I didn't put this on. I see. I was glad that worked. He couldn't hear us. I can hear you now. Are you good? Perfect. Okay. But I'm having But why is he sound like that? He's not talkingirectly.
You got to talk directly into your microphone, Chris, so we can hear you. Okay. Try it again. Carol, can you hear me now? Oh, that's better. That's better. Are we all good? Because I can hear you. Yeah, we're good here. Okay, hang tight. We're gonna start the
meeting in a few minutes. No worries. Thank you, Carolyn. Thank you. Thanks, Anthony. Thank you. Good to have a good tech guy around. He's muting him because he doesn't turn
his microphone on and off. We'll see. We made him a presenter instead of just a This has happened to me on other city meetings where like affordable housing. If they don't invite me as a presenter,
I can't talk. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I Okay. 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. We will now have our land
acknowledgement. We honor and acknowledge the Massachusetts, Pinnacook, and Pucket peoples whose ancestral lands we now call home and on which we gather today. We express gratitude to the indigenous peoples who have cared for this land for generations, predating European colonization and continuing to the
present. Moving forward, we are committed to ensuring that the histories, voices, and contributions of indigenous peoples are recognized and respected in the life of our city. Thank you. The clerk will now call the role. Council Cologne Hayes here. Council Condan here.
Council Crow here. Councelor McDonald here. Councelor Rali. Council Sega here. Councelor Simmonelli, I'm going to need you to unmute when you speak to us tonight. Council Simmonelli, he's online with us. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. Council Spafor.
Council Taylor here. Council Winslow here. Council President Lahan here. So, we are all in attendance and because councelor Simelli is coming in video, all votes tonight will be taken by roll call. Yes. Thank you for reminding us of that. Okay. So, under the provisions of the
open meeting law, for those of you in attendance, please be informed that UMA Urban Media Arts will be recording this evening's meeting. So, just to be aware, there will be audio and video recordings of tonight's meeting. First order of business. Oh, yep. Sorry, one second. Oh, hang on.
I think I'm missing a mouse here. One moment. Yes, Councelor Ali. I move to suspend rule 54.02 02 so that councelor Simelli can participate. That is the rule that limits um attendees online to three per
year. So I just like to move to suspend that rule. So just for clarity has are you stating that he has exceeded his third meeting. I just want out of abundance of caution. I don't think that's necessary because the state has extended the co laws saying that things like this will be
extended for another year. So that kind of supersedes our council rule book as far as attendance goes. Okay, understood. So what the clerk is saying that the state's co the extension to the co rules is actually above and beyond our council rules. I also did check I I'm not of the impression that
he's exceeded his third meeting. Um I don't want to get into councelor Simonelli's private business, but we are communicating with him if he needs to continue to participate remotely that would actually fall under an HR accommodation. So, I don't I don't really want to discuss the particulars of his situation of why he's coming in
remote at all. That's not my intention. Okay. But I don't think we need to actually vote as a council on whether he's coming in remotely or whether he's allowed to do that or not. Understood. Okay. Thank you. So, are you good? Okay.
Okay. Next door to our business. On behalf of the Zanta Club of Malden, we have Maria Louise and Kathleen Manning Hall to appear before the city council to promote Zonda's 16 days of activism to end domestic violence and to explain the silent witness display located in
our lobby. Okay. Am I on? Welcome. Yeah, you're on now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Um, most of you are familiar with our organization. I know some counselors are members. Um, Council Linhan spoke at our
fall conference a couple of weeks ago and you've all supported us through the years and we appreciate it. Tonight we're here um, as part of our 16 days of activism. I think most of you know that the Zanta Club of Malden is part of Zanta International and our mission is
to empower women and girls worldwide through service and advocacy. And this time of year, November 25th, that kicks off tonight to December 10th, we engage in 16 days of activism and we promote our Zantis says no to domestic violence
campaign. So, we're here tonight to start that. We um put out a display that's out in the lobby. They're called the Silent Witnesses. Um and we we usually kick it off kick off the 16 days
with that display. Um fortunately public facilities allows us to do it here in the lobby. Each one of the silhouettes that you see represents an individual whose life has was was ended by domestic violence and they are called silent
witnesses because they can no longer speak for themselves. So, we speak for them by telling their story. And on December 10th, we ask that you join us. We'll have a ceremony here in the lobby um to represent those that can't speak
for themselves and that have died because of domestic violence um during this past year here in Massachusetts. So that being said, um we do want to invite everyone to stand with us as
allies against this cause and bring domestic violence to the the forefront during these 16 days. We've gone through the community. We've visited the police department, the fire department. We're going to do the library soon. um and
here at city hall and we travel with our banner that says Zanta says no and we'd like to do it with the city council this evening. We have many of our Zanta members here. So um we invite you to join us in the fight.
Thank you so much. Do we have any questions or comments? Councelor Winsow. Um yes. Um what what time on the the 10th? 6:30. 6:30. Oh, great. Great. Thank you. But thank you for doing this so much. Um you
know, as as someone whose family has been affected by domestic violence, um really appreciate the attention of this um hearing from women who had to and and as well as anybody who's had to experience this. um before we had
resources and a focus on this um you know municipalities reaction to domestic violence that's just a family issue. So it's something that has really changed in at least my lifetime and it's it's it's made a tremendous difference for a lot of
families. So but we have to continue domestic violence continues. So it's important every year to remember. So I appreciate the Santa doing this. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Winsel. Any others? Counselor, hang on. Councelor Taylor,
thank you so much. I just want to thank Maria for being here tonight. Um, and for the rest of the Zanta Club members who are here to participate, I am proud to be a Zenin. Um, and and
thankful that so many people have signed on as allies. um against domestic violence. Thank you. And I also want to mention that I'm here on behalf of Sharon Rosey who's um head of our advocacy and service committee. She couldn't be here because of a family
matter, but um she's definitely the one that's been working to bring this campaign forward here in Malden. Okay. Well, did you want to take a recess now to take to do We'd love that. Okay. Fantastic. Then we will take a fivem minute recess and the council will
reconvene shortly thereafter. Get a Okay. Our next order of business is public comment. Public comment is allowed under council rules. Each speaker is limited to subject matter relevant to this evening's agenda. And um everyone must keep their comments to two minutes or less. Clerk, do we have anybody signed up for public comment
this evening? We do not have anybody in person for public comment this evening, but we do have emails. Okay, let's How many emails do we have tonight? Five, I think. Okay, so we have enough that we can read them. We have enough that we have Yeah, we've got plenty of time. Okay, great. Let's go ahead and read those.
So, the first one says, "Hello, I am a lifetime resident of Maldon, which according to some council members makes me the enemy. I am writing to you in support of 455-25 to implement a hiring freeze. I also feel very strongly that any current position that was initially funded under
the one-time opera funding be reviewed. Regards, Maria Marashi, 16 Springdale Street. The next one says, I just wanted to quickly state that I understand the idea behind the hiring freeze. However, I'm just confused why this is sponsored by
SEA. It sounded like she was really upset that Jeff Donahghue wasn't approved to join the vocational school board, which would have been a paid position and made him qualify for his pension from the city. Samantha Leblanc, 30 Daniel Street. Dear clerk and council members, let me
first preface that I appreciate you and all of our city employees for your hard work and dedication to the city, whether we agree or disagree on issues. It's not easy being in the public sector with people coming at you from all directions and trying to keep everyone
happy. We all know that is impossible task. With that being said, I am writing to support resolution 455-25 hiring freeze sponsored by council. I urge the council to vote in favor of this resolution. I believe this would be a proactive first step in showing the
residents of Malden that the city is working towards areas to help resolve the financial dilemma currently being faced. Additionally, I urge the council to not not support a special election for a tax override until further measures and savings can be explored.
Thank you for your consideration along with your commitment and dedication to Malden. Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful Thanksgiving. Sincerely, Janice Rice, Henry Street, Ward 7. I am writing to I am writing in support of Jaden Seeker's motion 455-25.
The citizens of Malden along with the citizens of the United States are being squeezed already with tariff policies making everything more expensive. Squeezed with corporations buying up property and then charging sky-high rents. Squeezed by the horrendous bill which will cut subsidies from ACA
pricing many out of the health insurance market. Maldonians do not need a Prop 2 and a half override because the city cannot balance its budget. SECA seems to be the only one attempting to find alternatives that don't further squeeze Maldonians. This order should pass.
Marjgerie Welch, Lowel Street. Dear city council, I am writing today in support of tonight's council agenda item resolve 45525. This resolution would be a good first step in the city addressing the upcoming predicted budget shortfall that may result in a Proposition 2 and a
half override vote. I applaud Council Seika for putting this resolve on the agenda. Sincerely, James Sumner, 759 Highland Avenue, Malden. And that is all of them. Okay. Thank you to our clerk. Our next order of business is the consent agenda. This evening's consent agenda consists
of a meeting minutes to be approved, one appointment to be placed on file, four petitions to be referred to the license committee, and one communication to be placed on file. Does any counselor have a desire to remove any of these items from the consent agenda for the purpose of further discussion?
Okay, seeing none, we have a motion to approve by councelor Sea. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Um, the clerk will call the role given councelor Simonelli is joining us remotely to approve the consent agenda. Council Cologne Hayes, yes. Council Condan, yes.
Council Crow, yes. Council Ali, Council McDonald, yes. Council Seca, yes. Council Simmonali, yes. Council Spataphora, yes. Council Taylor, yes. Council Winslow, yes. Council President Lahan, yes. Yes. Okay, that is an 11 to zero vote.
Okay, fantastic. Next order of business, paper 454-25, mayoral reappoint, building commissioner Nelson L. Miller, 235 Beach Avenue, Melrose, as director of inspectional services, said term to commence upon confirmation by the city council and to
expire on December 19th, 2028. Okay. So, uh, we'd be looking to refer this to personnel. Councelor Crow, do you want to refer this paper? We could do it on the floor, but I think having a good conversation with can still invite him in. Okay, great. So, on a motion by
councelor Crow to refer this to the person. Did you want to approve it on the floor? I think we should do it on the floor. I'm sorry. Bring them in just to have that conversation. I think he answers everybody, but I think he's okay. Yeah. So, on a motion to approve on the floor, I'll second that. Okay. Seconded by councelor Sika, the
clerk will call the role. Okay. To confirm the reappoint of building commissioner Miller. Council Cologne Hayes. Yes. Councelor Condan. Yes. Councelor Crowe. Yes. Councelor McDonald. Yes. Council Ali. Council Sika. Yes. Council Simonelli.
Yes. Council Spataphora. Yes. Council Taylor. Yes. Councel Winslow. Yes. Council President Lahan. Yes. So that appointment has been confirmed by an 11 to zero vote. Okay. Thank you. Next order of business. Paper 455-25 resolve that it is the sense of the
Malden City Council that the city of Malden impose an immediate hiring freeze on all new vacant or soon to be vacant positions across all city of Malden departments, boards, and commissions. No position shall be posted or filled unless expressly approved by vote of the city council. This hiring free shall
remain in effect until further order of the city council. And may I just say um this a snapshot of this I think was getting circulated to the city as an order but the the agenda was revised and this is actually a resolve. Yes, thank you for mentioning that because I did want to point that out. I
had a couple questions about that as well and the difference being that an order obviously orders a a department to do something whereas a resolve is the sense of the city council. Um okay, thank you to our clerk councelor SEA for the paper for the resolve president. Yes, I noticed it immediately as soon as it
came out and I called to change it from the order to the resolve. So, um I apologize for that. I think it was literally within 15 minutes of it going out that it was revised, but it it somehow already had gotten out that way. So, the paper pretty much speaks for
itself. While we can't order the ma mayor to to implement a hiring freeze and come before us for every single job opening board and commission, I think that we really need to take a look and set our priorities, especially with the
discussions um about the Prop 2 and a half that we've been having. we can't um we have to show some sort of responsibility to the residents that we're doing everything possible to control the costs that we take and we can't ask Malden taxpayers to pay more
while we continue to add positions to the payroll without a full financial review. So, um I'm just hoping that everybody up here will support this. I've seen this on Facebook, you know, tons of residents. I I'm pretty sure we've kind of already ha have a little
bit of something going on. I don't think we've been told formally what that is, but I think that this will send a message up to the mayor um and everybody else that, you know, maybe it's only people that we need to have that we cannot absolutely live without at this
moment should we be filling those positions. So, I hope everybody supports this resolve. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Sika. Okay, first in the queue, I have councelor Ali. Councelor Omali, you have the floor. Uh, thank you, councelor Sika. I I appreciate you putting out um these
ideas. Um, and one of the questions I had is you had stated that um the city council cannot order the mayor, but I I didn't interpret your paper as ordering the mayor. I I I viewed it as ordering um department heads. So
why why was the mayor mentioned? It would be sorry one second. All of them. It would be all of them because they're not all in our under our control. Council Ali, all the department heads are not all under our control. So we can't order people that don't report to us to do things.
Yes, we can. We do that all the time. So, like if we write and I'm I'm I'm not I don't Well, I'm not in the I'm I'm not in the practice of ordering people that don't report to us. I'm not even in the practice of people that report to us ordering them what to do. I I think that
they're in their job for a reason because they're good at what they do and I'm good at what I do over here. So, I'm just I don't Go ahead. Finish yours. Yes. So, I I think that this is just my
I think in terms of the council's power, you know, we're a co-equal branch of of of government. We we often have confirmation um approval like we just we just confirmed the appointment of our building commissioner, but like whether it's um you know, accessory dwelling
units and using a particular process or writing an ordinance that has to be executed in in a certain way, the city council orders all of our department heads to to do things. Um, I see where you're coming from, but I I I do think that if we wanted to order any
department head, the question would be whether or not they decide to comply. Um, but we defin absolutely have the power. And if I remember correctly, um, it was councelor Anderson that said the only individual that we cannot order in the city is the mayor. So, I think you are correct. We do not have the power to
order the mayor the same way the mayor doesn't have the power to order us. Um, but thank you for putting your paper forward. Thank you, Councelor Ali. Councelor McDonald. Yeah, thank you. Um, and I I appreciate the, you know, the the sentiment towards
like, let's be constructive, uh, towards filling this budget gap that we know we have. Um, for folks who didn't turn tune into the finance committee meeting that was happening just before this, uh, we did hear from the mayor that there is effectively a a hiring freeze like this
in place right now, which is to say that, uh, only positions that are specially approved by the mayor are able to be posted. Um, and I think I mean I support that. I think that that's correct. Um, I I would like to be able to support this paper, but I I would
need I I I I think I would need some amendments to it in order for that to happen. One is that I don't think that we should be in the position of the council approving uh specific appointments. Like I just don't think that's viable, nor do I think it's our
role to or excuse me, specific postings. So, I have that concern. Um, two, I want to say that a number of our union contracts require timely posting of things. And so I don't know if we've done a review of whether those whether this triggers any concerns from from any
of those contracts. Um, so we could either try to make an exemption for that as required by law or by contract. um or just be clear that it is as as you know as require as necessary or um that are
critical for the functioning of the city or something like that. Um and I think that the and I also just want to ask why you've included all boards and commissions in the same thing as a staff person because I think board and commission appointments automatically
come up for reappointment. only a few of them are stipened and those that are stipened is like very small amounts of money and our boards and commissions meet very sporadically there they may or may not you know have the ability to deal with the vacancy. So why the boards and commissions at the same time as all
of the staff roles which I think have a much more you know direct impact on the budget. Councelor see would you like to respond? I I can briefly really quickly. I don't mind making amendments. This is just a resolve. So, it's really just us saying,
you know, try to do better type of a thing. This isn't they they do not have to follow this by the letter of the law. So, if you want to make amendments to it, I am fine with that. Um, there are some boards and commissions that have seats that are necessary and not necessary. I was
just I I threw those in there thinking that, you know, even if it's two $3,000. I mean, money adds up and it would eliminate, you know, a potential position that we would lose. So, I I was just trying to think of everything,
everybody, not just particularly the employees, but the boards and commissions as well. There are some boards and commissions that don't meet regularly. I know that we've had discussions or I've talked to, you know, Chuck and a few other people where they've been talking about, you know,
potentially lowering some of those stipens. So, that's just why I included the boards and commissions into that particular resolve. And again, it's just a resolve. It's it's not law-abiding biding binding, excuse me, or you know,
anything like that. So, that that's just why I included them. Um, would it be okay if we asked Maria Louise to come forward and just say do to ask if the administration has an opinion on on this res on this resolution or and and moreover did I characterize what was said in the
finance committee correctly? Like do you understand there to be a hiring freeze uh in place with exceptions from the mayor or how would you characterize the current policy? I wouldn't call it a hiring freeze, but it's more of a pause. Um each position
that becomes vacant is um you know we we have to evaluate it, assess it, talk to the department heads. There are some positions that have to be filled. Um you know if we lost one of the directors in the next few days that has to be
filled. There are other you know vacancies that um departments can't do without. So we take each No, I I I call it a pause. We take each one that comes and evaluate it um before we
um move forward on it. Whereas before um vacancies were just filled. If there was a um resignation or a retirement um they were just filled. But right now we think about it um you know whether there can be a restructuring, whether
the position can be um re you know reformatted. Um, you know, we we we just assess it in a different way. Um, but I wouldn't call it a freeze. Okay. Do you have any, if we clarified if we clarified the the mayor's
authority in this, does do you have concerns about this resolution, this resolve? Um, if it's a resolve, I don't think I do. It gives the it just gives the sense of the council. Um, you know, I think an order would have been different. um
boards and commissions are concerning um having that as part of it because that um those vacancies come up more often. So you don't want you know you want to make sure that your boards and commissions have a meeting quorum and um
you know are functioning efficiently. So that causes you know poses more of a problem. Okay. Thank you. Maria, can I ask a follow-up question to councelor McDonald's question on the specificity of the resolve? Understanding it's just the sense of the council. If we
condensed it quite a bit to just state something simpler such as it's the sense of the council that we, you know, support the administration implementing a discretionary hiring freeze or pause and just leave it as simple as that. Take out the boards and commissions,
something like that. That way it's more we're rowing in the same direction. The council and the administration are we we support what you're already doing and we support that there has to be some discretion in this. Would something would an edit or an amendment along those lines be something that would be not adversarial and and capture a little
bit of what you were saying? Yeah, that that would be fine. That would that would definitely not be looked at as adversarial at all. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Do you have further comments? just that I I do think it's meaningful for the council to say
something like this so that the the administration knows that, you know, we're on the same page about that. So, I I do appreciate that and and I uh would support an amendment along the lines that you just that you just asked about, Council President. Okay. Councelor Sea, did you have
something in response to what Maria was? I I do. Okay. Yeah. Really quickly, and then I'd have a lot of lights on. I am I am totally fine with those amendments, but I just want to go on record with stating that I did not know that we had any sort of a pause in place until after this
paper was posted to the agenda and then I was told. So, at least my paper started the conversation about that because me sitting up here as a sitting sitting city council had no idea that we had that pause already in place. So, I'm
happy to hear that it was already in place and this is again just the resolve. If you want to remove the boards and commissions, I am totally fine with it. But I I just want to make sure we're making sure the positions that need to be filled get filled and the ones that don't maybe we can hold
off for now to and you know look back at them when we figure out the whole Prop 2 and a half override discussion. So, thank you. Understood. And I do see your hand counselor Simonelli. We will get to you in the queue in just a moment. I have next councelor Winslow. Yeah. No, I know when the um override
first came up, one of the questions I raised was, is this something we're considering? So, I appreciate councelor Seika putting it forward and that the mayor I actually just have a very simple amendment to basically put a period after across all city departments and then just delete everything else. I I
don't think we have to overthink this. I think we're on the same page with the department. Yeah. would just say, you know, we are with the senses in Malden city council, the city of Malden imposed an immediate hiring freeze on all new vacant or soon to be vacant positions across all the city of all city of Malden departments,
period. So, yeah. So, just something simple. Um, and I I do agree. We don't want to take a chance of a border commission losing members to the point where we don't have a quorum. I mean, if our planning board doesn't have a quorum, things might get automatically approved. So, I think this
is simple. gets the spirit and and it is just a resolve. Um I was concerned about the last line because it talks about ordering. The other two lines um talk about you know seem to be a little bit more still in the tone of order. So I think it's just simple that way and I I just don't think we should you know
spend a lot of time word smithing on something that's a sense. So thank you. That's my Okay. Thank you councelor Winslow. Um councelor Ali I I can defer to councelor Salei because I've already spoken. Oh, you're right. I'm sorry. You did
already speak on this. Um I So I will take counselor clone Hayes and then will you can you help me get counselor Simonelli if he's prepared to speak. All we have to do is just let him know it's his turn. Okay. I'm going to take counselor clone Hayes first and then counselor Simonelli will take you next.
Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um so I agree. I think it's a good idea to have I'm not sure about the word freeze um based on what um Maria Louise was just saying here maybe a pause but we could use freeze. My only concern
with this was about possible directors like if we lost for you know knock on wood like something at the DPW director I can't imagine that we could function without a director level. So, um if you feel it's okay to just put a period
after that, um I would like to see something like um let me think essential employees or like could we make could we say something that's um aside from essential or is that would that
I had offered the word discretionary to try to capture that. Oh, okay. That's why I had tried to say something that gives that leeway to, you know, the administration to make those case by case, I guess, determinations. And that that I would be fine with that. I just wanted to make sure that even
although it is a resolve that, you know, we're understanding that there are certain positions that we can't run without, but I have no problem not hiring um yeah, putting a freeze on other things. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Colon Hayes. Um Councelor Simelli, you have the floor.
Thank you, Madam President. Can you hear me? You okay? Yes, we can hear you. Okay. All right. Well, I have a point of information first from earlier. So, I just want to say that I I appreciate everybody's concern on where my whereabouts are, but I'm not kidnapped. I'm actually in Lagouna Beach, California, having a great time on
vacation from that last campaign over in Everett that we just got through with for like 6 months straight and uh doing the city council stuff and putting people in treatment. So, I appreciate everybody's concern, but this is only my second time on Zoom. So, uh, I just want to make sure you all understand that. As
far as this paper, thank you. So, as far as this paper is concerned, um, I support the paper and look, I think that council Winslow said it the best that we don't have to overthink it. Uh, I think the mayor is in sync. His whole administration's in sync. We all know
that uh, we have a uh, serious uh, deficit problem that we're trying to overcome. And, uh, you know, look, we put a hiring freeze. I would take the boards and commissions out of there because I don't know if if that's a charter issue uh that you'd end up having with that or not. It would be
legal to decide that. But, you know, I think that just putting out a hiring freeze uh you know, and addressing Councelor Hayes's uh concern of a department head, you know, we can always th out the freeze uh and and and put that person in that position because the
funding is actually budgeted for that line item. So, I support the paper. You know, I think that we should take the boards and commissions out of it. Uh, and I think that everybody, unless you've been living under a rock lately, uh, are concerned about the, uh, the Prop Two and a half and and and where
we're going to be in the next couple of years. So, I I think everybody got a pretty good handle on it and we're all trying to do the best that we can. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Simelli. All right, I'm going to go back to Councelor Ali. Uh, thank you. Yes. So when the paper
was put on the agenda, um you the the first conversation uh or email I sent was to our HR director Odisa Medo and you know I had just kind of asked can you get me caught up on like what's currently going on and you know to the same thing that was shared by the
administration you know there is there is a pause going on and my understanding that there's really only one position that is currently still being actively you know um sought after and that's a public health role. Um, so I think they are taking it, you know, uh, with, you
know, a good balance to make sure that things that are essential are still getting going to be filled. Um, and so I and I did second councelor Winslow's uh, motion. Uh, and with that, if we are able to amend the paper, um, I would gladly be added as a sponsor. So again,
thank you councelor Sega for uh, starting this conversation at at the council level and I appreciate that the administration and our AR director has been working on this behind the scenes. Thank you, Councelor Ali. Councelor McDonald. Uh, Councelor Wzo, would you be open to
a friendly amendment to your amendment to add the word discretionary, an immediate discretionary hiring phrase? Okay. simply I mostly I just want to make sure that like while yes it is a resolve but you know your average Maldonian who spends
time to dig up legislative records can sometimes you know read more into things than we mean. So I just think it's helpful to say what we mean and I feel like that captures the spirit of where we're at. So I'm happy to support that. Thank you. Okay. So we have an a we have a motion to amend by councelor Winsow, seconded
by councelor Ali to essentially delete from the word no onward and then add the word discretionary before the word or after the word immediate and I'm sorry after the word tell me where you want it. I think it's after city of Mald
department there and delete the rest of the understood. Understood. Also put the word discretionary in between immediate. Got it. Okay. Does everybody understand what we're voting on? Okay. So, on the motion to amend, the clerk will call the
role. Council Cologne Hayes, yes. Council Condan, Council Crow, yes. Council McDonald, Council Omali, Council Sega, yes. Council Simmonelli, yes. Council Spaphora, yes. Council Taylor, yes. Council Winslow, yes.
Council President Lahan, yes. And I am also adding council's name as a co-sponsor to that paper. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, we now need a motion on the resolve. Motion. Okay. So, moved by councelor see, seconded by councelor Ali. Clerk, will you please call the role?
Council Colon Hayes, yes. Council Condan, Council Crow, yes. Council McDonald, yes. Council Ali, Council Sega, yes. Council Simonelli, yes. Council Spaphora, yes. Council Taylor, Council Winsow, yes. Council President Wahan,
yes. Okay, that resolve has been passed. Okay, as amended. That is passed as amended. Thank you to the clerk. Next order of business. Um, the next four papers are enrolled ordinances that just need to be ordained. The first is 275-25 be ordained by the Malden city council
that the code of the city of Malden 1.04.070 procedure for selling tax title property is hereby amended by striking it in its entirety and inserting the following as is attached in the body of the paper. Okay. Councelor Winsow for the paper. Yeah, just to remind everybody um this
uh is something that our treasur's office put forward. Um because of some legal cases as well as some statutory changes. Um we when we take tax title property now we actually if if the we property is sold for more than the taxes
due, we have to create reserve funds. And this also clarifies that um in some situations we might want to purchase the property and keep it ourselves. other ones we want. So it's just to create that procedure on how we uh do tax title consistent with the law. Um you know
both statute and as well as Supreme Court ruling. So um so we've we've voted to um enroll it. This is just a vote to ordain. So I make a motion to ordain the um ordinance. Okay. Do I have a second on ordaining the ordinance? Okay. Seconded by councelor Crow. The
clerk will call the role. Council Cologne Hayes. Council Condan. Yes. Council Crow. Yes. Council McDonald. Yes. Council Roman Ali. Council Sea. Yes. Council Simmonelli. Yes. Council Spapora. Yes. Council Taylor. Yes. Council Winslow. Yes.
Council President Lahan. Yes. Okay. That paper has been ordained by an 11 to0 vote. Okay. Thank you. Next. Next. Uh ordinance. Paper 276-25 be it ordained by the Molden City Council that the code of the city of Malden 9.16 rental units inspection
required is hereby amended as is outlined in the body of the attached paper. Okay. Councelor Winsow. Are you okay? There we go. Yeah. I mean we did vote to enroll this uh last time. U you know this is a paper that
councelor McDonald was the lead sponsor on. We had talked about this in rules and ordinance made various uh changes and um that uh has been reflected in the record now. So now it's just a matter of voting the to ordain the um the paper as as vote as we voted to amend it. So
thank you. Okay. Councelor McDonald, would you like to move to ordain? I would. Okay. On a motion by councelor McDonald, seconded by councelor Winsow. Okay. Sounds great. Clerk, will you please call the role? Council Cologne Hayes. Council Condan.
Council Crow, yes. Council McDonald, yes. Council Ali, Council Sega, yes. Council Simmonelli, yes. Council Sphapora, yes. Council Taylor, yes. Council Winsow, yes. Council President Lahan, yes. Okay, that paper has been ordained by an 11 to0 vote.
Okay, great. Next paper. Paper 277-25. Be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the code of the city of Malden 9.24.010, 010 regulation of lead pipes in residential housing is hereby amended as
outlined in the body of the paper. Councelor Winsow again. Yeah, we we did enroll this last time. This was really to do something in parallel with the rental registry and um just clarify that we're asking that um as um as the rental registry was going
to help do more inspections of rental units. So this was to look to make sure that um the lead any there's testing for lead in the water as part of that inspection. So this just updated a bit of our regulation of lead pipes to
clarify how the process will work in terms of inspecting uh the water um and and asking that the the owners get the water tested in conjunction with the inspection. So uh so that's really the purpose of this to was sort of done in
parallel. So, councelor McDonald has more to say, but yeah. Do you have anything you want to add? Okay. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just a quick clarification that we have changed it slightly so that if you are certified by the Department of Engineering that you don't have lead service lines coming into your property,
then you don't have to do the testing. Like that's that it's actually just about trying to make sure that we can confirm that you don't have the lines. Um, and so just for folks just because that is different from it's been in the past. So all this is really doing is updating the enforcement of our existing
ordinance to the rental registry regular inspections. But the the ordinance itself that rental units should not have lead lines has been in place for years. And I think councelor spaphora might have was this part of the did you sponsor this at the same time as the
yeah this is the same ordinance that also um requires that you replace little lines at the point that you sell the property. So this is just we are updating the enforcement mechanism for that existing ordinance. Understood. Thanks for that clarification. Okay. So I make a motion to ordain this.
Okay. On a motion by councelor Winsow, seconded by councelor McDonald to ordain this. Will the clerk please call the role? Council Cologne Hayes. Yes. Council Condan. Council Crowe. Yes. Council McDonald. Yes. Council Mali. Yes. Council Sea. Yes. Council Simmonelli.
Yes. Council Spaphora. Yes. Council Taylor. Yes. Council Winslow. Yes. Council President Lennan. Yes. Okay. That paper has been ordained by an 11 to0 vote. Okay. And the final paper, paper 361-25, be it ordained by the Malden City
Council that the code of the city of Malden 2.24.015. Department head salary schedule is hereby amended by adding the updated salary schedule chart effective July 1st, 2025. Okay. Councelor Winsow. Yes. So, we did vote to amend the paper.
Um there was a schedule submitted to the council for three years of um changes to the um salary schedule for these positions. Um the committee recommended that we we approve the first year and sort of put the other two years aside.
We didn't vote those you recommend one way or another. And so we did vote um at the council meeting where this came up and was enrolled. We did vote to change the schedule for this fiscal year. and then just um we can wait till you know
later to decide about approving the other changes to the schedule. So um so we just throwing it step by step. So that's what we're voting on is to change the schedule for this fiscal year, you know, starting July 1st, 2025. So um our department heads would get the um this
year's salary raises, right? Thank you. Great. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Wel. Any questions, further discussion? Okay. on a motion by councelor Winsow, seconded by council Oh, sorry. I didn't see your hand. Okay, councelor Simmonelli, you have the
floor. Thank you, Madam President. So, I don't know. I'm just a little confused. Um, so we're we're going to give a raise to the department heads. Look at I got nothing against department heads. I work with them all the time. But again, you know,
we're going to be scheduling raises, uh, giving raises, and we're looking for the taxpayers to pay more on their property taxes on a two and a half, potentially two and a half override, whatever. Get it all chopped up and make it look nice.
I I just, you know, Can someone explain that to me? No. Okay. Councelor Winsel or Councelor McDonald, I can take either or both of you. No, I I mean, I think we're just trying to make a fair balance. I mean, this uh
schedule was negotiated way before the override was considered. Um we have done a lot of three-year um contracts for a lot of our our unions. The department heads was sort of the last. So, we're just trying to create a fair balance. Normal the normal procedure would have
been just to approve the MOA for three years. given the override, the thought was let's create a balance here that we'll um we have the money budgeted this fiscal year in hand. Um and you know we are are you know we're already spending kind of a a deficit. So if the thought
is um and and you know this is what the paper is we can doing this or not but um we we tried to strike a balance between respecting you know something that's fairly bargained and versus our financial situation. So, I think that's, you know, that was why we voted to do it
sort of a a piece at a time so that we um we'll we'll know in in June when we know what whether a override is been put on the ballot, voted on, we'll know what our financial situation there and we, you know, we we'll take it up there. But
um we we were trying to just create a fair balance between um a fairly negotiated agreement and you know the budget you know uh situation that came up after that was agreement was signed. Thank you. Okay. Thank you councelor Winsow. Councelor McDonald.
Yeah. Thank you. I I'll just hone in on the fact that there is no finance paper that is attached to this paper because we already budgeted for this. This doesn't change any of the future fiscal years because the we didn't adopt any of we didn't recommend any of those
changes and the prop 2 and a half override conversation is about next fiscal year. So um so we're just dealing with the year that we've already budgeted and we already had the money to spend is is how I think about it. And to councelor Winslow's point, if we don't
do this, what it does is force the it would force the mayor to reopen the bargaining negotiations with the department heads, which, you know, to be honest, I'd rather have them looking for ways to make their departments more efficient than arguing with the mayor's team at the moment. So, I actually think
we need the leadership of our department heads right now. And so, to pay them the money that we already budgeted to pay them in the current fiscal year feels reasonable to me. Thank you, Council McDonald. May I respond? Uh, yep. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam President. Look, I'm
I'm not looking to make anybody be in insufficient or uh argue with uh department heads, and I understand collective bargaining and impact bargaining. I've done it with the Department of Corrections and 10 different bargaining units. That's what I did. So, I'm not questioning that. But
let me ask you, what's the number? What would be the overall number? And if we didn't, let's say we didn't, which I'm probably going to, but I'm saying if we didn't, could that money could potentially, even though it was funded, and we don't know what's coming in the future, couldn't that money would be
left over at the end of this year and go back into the general fund, uh, to help offset some other costs potentially? Um, but what's the overall number? I haven't heard one. pretty much it. I mean, these are the things that we should be talking about
and concerned like what's the overall number for this for the department head raises and can we if we wanted to if we say we didn't give it to them which it looks like we're gonna but I'm saying if we didn't this is for the public if we didn't how much what is that number and
could that go back into the general fund my questions so uh councelor uh similar let me just say I don't think we got a a specific estimate of this because it had already been budgeted I mean this This is a pretty standard cost of living adjustment and I believe if we did not
approve this they would be the only classification of employees to not get a cost of living adjustment this year. Is that right Maria? Okay. The the only existing agreement. Uh the others are in negotiations right now. So I think that would set them apart from the other staff. So we did
not ask for the cost because it had already been budgeted and we'd already approved it. Are you are you good with that, Councelor Sell? Because we do have a couple other lights. I'd like to move on and we can come back since we're since we aren't talking about financial paper. I'm fine.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Cologne Hayes. Thank you. Uh so this is the last time this came up. Um I did vote no uh because at that time I heard that rank and file um folks still didn't have a
contract signed. And so I'm sure this is going to pass tonight, but I'm going to vote no on this again um just uh to keep steady based on what we heard and also um hearing from our rank and file that they don't have a signed contract either. So um thank you. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Cologne
Hayes. Councelor Ali, I have the answers. Um so okay, so I have to say councelor Simonelli, I appreciate your your contribution to this discussion. Um, as councelor Colon Hayes did just remind
us, uh, yourself, myself, councelor Colon Hayes, and councelor Condan voted against enrolling this ordinance the last time for the exact reasons that you were mentioning. Um, I did actually ask um what the financial impact would be of
this. And for fiscal year 2026, it's over $115,000. Um, for 2020, well, and for 2027, it would be 64,000. Um and then an additional 57,000 or 66,000 the following years. Um
but I think you are correct. If the money is not spent, it does get rolled into next year into our general fund. It would be a turnback. So there would be a a a impact a financial benefit impact to next fiscal year. So I continue to be opposed. I think it sends the wrong
message at the moment. Um but I understand where everyone else is coming from also. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Ali. Do I have any further discussion, questions on this? Okay, so Okay, so motion by councelor Winsow to
ordain. Do I have a second? Second by councelor Taylor. Okay, the clerk will now call the role. Council Cologne Hayes. No. Council Condan. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I didn't realize he stepped out. I'm sorry. I wouldn't have started the role.
Wait or should I? I think we should wait. Can someone go get him? Someone go get him. How How about you? I can't. Not from where I'm at. 2500 miles away, fellas.
Next week, I'll go get them. Okay. Council Crowe. Yes. Yes. Council McDonald. Yes. Yes. Council Ali. No. Council Sega. Yes. Yes. Council Simmonelli. No. No. Council Spataphora.
Yes. Yes. Council Taylor. Yes. Yes. Council Winsow. Yes. Yes. Council President Lahan. Yes. Okay. That is a seven to three. Do you want me to call it or wait another minute for
council? I'm okay if we call it. We're okay if we call it. You think so? Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't realize that he had stepped out. I would have waited. I didn't even see him. Yeah. stand up. That's
Just curious what his vote would be. Anyway, sorry. We're just voting on the salary schedule. Council, I think I heard you say you wanted to vote yes to ordain the salary schedule
for the Okay, so Council Conan indicated his vote is a yes. That means that passes by an 823 vote. Okay, so that is papers ordained. Okay.
Okay. Next order of business. Paper 456-25 committee report the standing committee on personnel and appointments to whom was referred paper 408 series of 2025. Having considered the same make the following report. Okay. On a motion by councelor Crow,
seconded by councelor Cologne Hayes to accept the committee report. Clerk will call the role. Councelor Cologne Hayes. Yes. Council Condan. Yes. Council Crowe. Yes. Council McDonald. Yes. Council Ali. Council Sega. Yes. Council Simonelli. Yes. Council Spataphora.
Yes. Council Taylor. Yes. Council Winsow. Yes. Council President Lahan. Yes. So, the report has been received. Okay. Will you please read the paper? Paper 408-25. Mayoral appointment Olivia Hemmonds 769 Main Street Apartment 1 Malden as a
member of the conservation commission said term to commence upon confirmation by the city council and to expire September 15, 2027. Okay. Councelor Crow for the paper. Thank you, Madam President. So, earlier this evening, we met with um Miss Hemond
and she just recently, only a couple months ago, moved to Malden and wanted to jump right in, looked at the city website, and really wanted to find um where she could fit in um her professional and personal um things, you know, that she could bring to the city.
And so, she did look at the climate action plan, Council McDonald, the um and then she saw on the on conservation commission that there was there was an opening. So she um she jumped right in. We had a wonderful conversation with her and um she is an ecologist and
environmental scientist and um and she is wellversed in environmental regulations. She talked about some experience um with municipal storm water management um and green storm water infrastructure. So um council has had some great questions and really some
great conversations about what she could bring to the table and what the table can bring to her too. And so she was really excited to to dive in and uh and make her mark in Malden. So um on by unanimous vote, we um made a motion to
approve this appointment. Okay, great. So on a motion by councelor Crowe to approve the appointment. I agree. She was lovely. We had a great conversation. Really enjoyed meeting her. Councelor Ali, yes, you have the floor. May I make the motion to approve? It is your constituent. Thank you.
Okay. On a motion by councelor Ali, seconded by councelor Crow. Will the clerk please call the role? Council Cologne Hayes, yes. Council Condan, yes. Council Crow, yes. Council McDonald, yes. Council Ali, yes. Council Sega, yes. Council Simonelli,
yes. Council Spataphora, yes. Council Taylor, yes. Council Winsow, yes. Council President Lan, yes. So that confirmation passes by an 11 to zero vote. Okay. Next paper. Next report. Paper 457-25.
Committee report the standing committee on license to whom was referred papers 370 and 409 through 431 series of 2025 having considered the same make the following report. Okay. On a motion by councelor seea
seconded by councelor Taylor. Oh councelor Taylor's not here. Who was in? Okay. Thank you councelor McDonald to accept the committee report. Clerk will please call the role. Council Cologne Hayes. Yes. Council Condan. Yes. Council Crow. Yes. Council McDonald. Yes.
Council Ali. Council Sega. Yes. Council Simmonelli. Yes. Council Spaphora. Yes. Council Winslow. Yes. Council President Lennan. Yes. 10 to zero vote. These are a lot of petitions. Do we want
to read all of these? Yep. Okay. Do you know which ones to read all together? Right. Do we? I don't. So, do you want me to You can So, read them all except for that one that we've decided to table. Well, we've got two that are table down
here. That one? Yeah, those. So, we're going to keep them aside and read all the read them. Just read them conditionally. I will counsel she needs to. I don't know which one.
Chris Bergen. Understood. Why are we recusing? Oh, okay. Paper 370-25, class 2 license, AGM Auto Sales
Incorporated, 160 Eastern Avenue, 21 Cars Renewal. This was recommended as a conditional approval for three months. Petition 409-25, Amusement Machines, Loyal Order of the Moose Lodge, 1910,
562 Broadway, two machines renewal. Paper 410-25, Amusement Machines, Italian American War Veterans Post 16, 40 Oakland Street, four machines renewal. 411-25, Amusement Machines, Pearl Street Station, 53 Summer Street,
two machines renewal. Paper 412-25, petition, class 2, Broadway Auto Sales, 628 Broadway, zero cars renewal. Paper 413-25 petition class 2 GP motorcycle supplies 420 Broadway Malden for
motorcycles renewal paper 414-25 petition class 2 license proced motors of Malden Incorporated 600 Broadway 37 cars renewal that was a conditional um recommendation petition 415-25
class 2 Prestigious Motors of Malden Incorporated 590 Broadway 30 cars renewal. Also, that was a conditional recommendation. Paper 416-25, class 2, Reliance Motor Auto Group, LLC, 28, Broadway, 38 cars renewal. Paper 417-25,
Class 2, Richard Motorc Cars Incorporated, 672, Broadway, 77, Cars Renewal. Paper 418-25, Class 2, River Auto Sales Incorporated. 77 Eastern Avenue, 21 Cars Renewal. Paper 419-25, Class 2, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, DBA,
Wentworth Auto Sales, 7:30 Eastern Avenue, 15 spaces renewal. Paper 420-25 class 2 Top Cars Motor Group Incorporated 259 Main Street 30 Cars Renewal Paper 421-25 Class 3 Malden Broadway Auto Body
Incorporated 590 Broadway Renewal Paper 422-25 extended hours William Services LLC DBA Laundry Plus 705 Eastern Avenue hours 7 days open to the public 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Open 24 hours a day for commercial purposes. Renewal paper
423-25 extended hours. Eat the opening restaurant 1B Highland Avenue. Hours Tuesday and Wednesday 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Thursday through Sunday 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. new. Paper 4-24 424-25, excuse me, extended hours, Main Street,
780 Main Street hours, 7 days, 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Renewal. Paper 425-25 extended hours G&V Convenience Incorporated DBA Supreme Food Mark 1018 Eastern Avenue hours 7 days a week 24 hours a day renewal paper 426-25
petition extended hours the Brewster Company DBA McDonald's 114 Broadway hours 7 days a week 24 hours a day conditional upon the dining room closing at 9:00 p.m. Drive-thru is open 24/7. Paper 427-25 extended hours. Speedway
LLC for store 44222 Broadway 7 days a week 24 hours a day renewal. Paper 428-25 extended hours. UD Foods Incorporated DBA 7169 Salem Street 7 days a week 24 hours a day renewal.
Paper 429-25 Fortuneella Chris Bergen Fullart Tarot Readings and more. 73 Lynon Avenue, apartment number one, renewal. And then there were two papers on the agenda, but we are not taking them up tonight because they were tabled in committee. The final two,
the final two, paper 430 and 431 were both tabled in committee. So, we're not referring those out tonight. Okay. Council Winsow, did you have a question before councelor Seeker introduces the paper? Well, I the question on paper 414 and 415. So if council seeker can
Okay, let me have councelor seeker introduce the committee report. Oh, sorry. Did your light not go on? No, it's on. Okay, go ahead. I'm confused. We get him ready to vote on these. So if he has a question, it needs to be said before I have a conversation. Okay, that's fine. Councelor Winsley,
you have the floor. No, I give the committee report and in your committee report, you'll be explaining why that's conditional. Oh, okay. You haven't. I just want to understand what the conditions are. That's that's okay. So, um, the license committee met this evening. We discussed all of these petitions, the majority of them, uh,
renewals with our compliance guys. The compliance guys, when these class 2 dealers and such come in for renewal, they go out, they check, make sure everybody's doing what they're supposed to. Um, when they went to Prestige, they were over uh quite a bit of number of
cars. So, we decided that we were going to conditionally approve that license where it's the end of the year and compliance is going to do uh weekly bi-weekly checks of the property to make sure that you know they were notified um
yesterday that they were over and they will be uh fined for being over. So, they are now going we're going to conditionally approve it and have compliance just do weekly or bi-weekly checks. We didn't specify when they were going to go, but they were just going to
keep a little extra eye on that particular uh license. So, we just put the word in conditionally for now to make sure that he's doing what he needs to do over there at 600 Broadway. Right. Okay. And was was this was the location where they kind of overlap in in the licensing
procedure. So, it's a little bit Yeah. He there's actually two different parcels of land. Yes. So, one is at 600, one is at 590. So he has two separate licenses for the same business because they're side by side and it's looks like one big lot. But yes, right. So and then and then in LA in the
last round we they had to submit the updated PL plans and so great. Well, thank thanks for the committee for doing that. I support support that great. Thank you very much. Perfect. Thank you. So the license committee um voted to renew these petitions unanimously favorably. So I
make a motion to grant all of these petitions with the exception of the last two that were tabled. She didn't call them yet. Understood. Okay. Sorry. No, no problem. So on the motion by councelor see seconded by councelor Taylor. Clerk will please call the role. Oh sorry councelor. Let me
if I want to vote no on those two. How do I do that? On what two? The two that you just talked about. Prestige 590 and 600 Broadway. Can we just take those up separately then? Just those two. Yeah, we can vote separately for those. So everything else will be the same except
council. Just really quickly before you vote no on those, every single class 2 dealer in the city do not comply with the amount of numbers that they're supposed to have. Everyone is always over. So if you're going to vote no to renew this one, you should probably vote
no to renew all of them because none of them comply with the ordinance that we have in place. I can't I can't speak to that. I but it it's fine. Thank you. But yeah, we can do it separate. Okay.
So, we're going to vote on 414-25 and 415-25. Yep. Okay. Okay. Taking um just papers 414 and 415. Council Condan, this is a motion to grant according to
conditions as expressed by the license committee. Yes. On those two papers alone, council. Yes. Yes. Council Crow. Yes. Council McDonald. Yes. Council Roman Ali. No. Council Sea. Yes.
Yes. Council Simonelli. Yes. Council Spataphora. Yes. Council Taylor. Yes. Council Winslow. Yes. Council President Lahan. Yes. Okay. So that is a 9 to one vote that those two have been granted. And now
it's okay with everybody. We take up one roll call vote for all the remaining licensed petitions. That's fine with me. Okay. Council Condan, yes. Council Crowe, yes. Council McDonald, yes. Council Ali, yes. Council Sega, yes. Council Simonelli,
yes. Council Spataphora, yes. Council Taylor, Council Winslow, yes. Council President Lahan, yes. Okay, so those are all granted by 10 to zero vote. Okay, next order of business. Paper four. Oh, should we call council?
Oh, we should. Yes. Can somebody Thank you, Lisa. The next Yep. The next order of business is paper 458-25. Order. The city council will vote whether to go into executive What did I miss? Did we do the delivery?
I didn't talk about them. We tabled them in committee so that we didn't present them tonight because they're still in your I apologize. In my mind, I was thinking we still have to talk about it tonight agenda. We didn't take it up a table them. Well, no, they were tabled in committee. So, I just announced that even though
they're on the agenda, you weren't presenting on them tonight because license hasn't released them. You did that earlier. Never made it to the floor. It never made it to the floor. Okay. I didn't hear they remain on the floor. Okay. Perfect. Never made it to the floor. That never made it to the floor. Thank
you, councel. That's right. So, we get to move on. Okay. Okay. Paper 458-25, order. The city council will vote whether to go into executive session with legal counsel in accordance with exemption one, Massachusetts General Laws chapter 30A
section 21A1 and exemption 7 Massachusetts general laws chapter 38 section 21A7 to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law specific specifically to comply with the provisions of Massachusetts general laws
chapter 3A section 23b to act on the pending open meeting law complaint filed by Jaden Sega of 12 Cleveland Street on November 19th, 2025 against the city council related to alleged serial deliberation regarding
paper 432-25 the appointment of Jeffrey Donahghue to the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational Technical School Committee on November 18th, 2025 where such discussion and open meeting may have detrimental effect on the litigation
position of the city. Okay. So now we can just Okay. Okay. So unlike our usual process, this is a slightly different exemption under the laws the clerk just read. So at this time I would be accepting a motion to
either enter or not enter executive committee motion to not enter. Okay. Do I have a second to stay? I prefer positive motion. So a motion to entertain this on the floor. The motion would be whether or not you're going into executive session. So the motion would
be to adopt the order. Okay. And if you don't want to go into executive session, you would vote no. The motion is to adopt. It has to be a positive. Okay. Can you state that one more time? The motion is to adopt the order and a yes vote or a no vote is what? A yes vote is to go into executive session and a no vote is to not go into
executive. Everybody clear? If the vote is no, then the paper will be discussed on the floor. Okay. So, yes, councelor Ali, one second. Let me put your light on. So, I think that the way you would want to word it so everyone understands is
you would move to adopt the order hoping the same shall fail because you want it to fail. It's the same. It's a positive motion. You're moving to adopt the order, but you're hoping it fails, right? Because that's what you want to do. Yes. Because the order is to go. It's the same motion. It just clarifies
that you're not in support of the motion. Yep. I think that's that's fine. Thank you. So, a no vote keeps it on the floor in a nutshell. A yes vote takes us out back. A no vote keeps us here on the floor. Okay. Councelor Cologne Hayes.
No. Council Condan, no. Council Crowe, no. No. Council McDonald, no. No. Council Roi, no. Council Sega, no. No. Council Simonelli, no. No. Council Spataphora, no.
No. Council Taylor, no. Council Winslow, no. No. Council President Lahan, no. No. Okay. So, that motion fails um by a vote of 0 to 11. So we will open up discussion on the floor.
Okay. And I'm going to go to councelor Sika. I want to remind folks to please keep a level of decorum as much as we can. I really don't want to have to cut lights off. I know this is a sensitive topic. I know that everybody wants to have a fair chance to speak on the
paper. Um and I'm going to turn it over to councelor SEA, but just please keep that in mind. Do you not read the I do have it open. Did you want me to read it into the record? I thought we have in the past. So I do have it in front of me
if you don't mind. The open meeting law strictly prohibits serial deliberation. That is a series of private non-public communications among members of a public body that taken together involve a quorum and constitute deliberation outside of a posted public
meeting based on information available to me. These are the words of council see. Um council has engaged in private communications with at least five other members of the Malden City Council representing a quorum for the purpose of influencing or shaping the council's
deliberations on paper 432-25 regarding the appointment of Jeffrey Donahghue presently before us. These communications reportedly occurred via text message, email, andor phone calls and were explicitly related to strategy, positions, and intended outcomes
regarding the agenda item from last night. Such serial private communications violate MGL chapter 3A subsection 18 which requires deliberations to occur in an open and publicly accessible meeting and the attorney general's guidance prohibits
quote daisy chain or quote hub and spoke communications that collectively involve a quorum while publicly advocating transparency. These private discussions directly undermine the public's right to observe the deliberative process. The integrity of tonight's proceedings is
compromised when members participate in offrecord deliberation intended to influence the outcome of a public vote. And then it goes further to say actions um wish to be seen is to preserve the integrity of this process to ensure compliance with the open meeting law. I
respectfully request the following. That councelor Hazer recuse herself from all participation, deliberation, and voting on this matter due to the serial deliberation described above. That the council corrective actions, including public acknowledgement of the violation and implementation of safeguards to
prevent further serial deliberation or private lobbying among members. That this complaint be forwarded to the attorney general's division of open government for review as required by law. And that is Jenine Sega, November 19th, 2025. Can I before before you
speak councelor seea can I ask the clerk to explain procedurally what it is that we need to have as an outcome from this because the obviously the public is not usually in executive session with us. So what happens when an open meeting law is brought before the body is they have to
um acknowledge it as you're doing tonight at the next posted meeting of the full body. And then what happens now is the body will vote whether or not they want to answer this on their own accord if they want to assign it to the
legal department and have the legal department do an investigation and represent them when submitting the response to the attorney general's office or how you shall proceed at this point. So if you do vote to give it to the city solicitor's office, they'll do an investigation. They'll come back.
They'll let us know what their findings are and then they'll represent this body to the attorney general's office. Okay. And we do have a member of the legal department here tonight just to lay that groundwork. So, councelor Seika, you have the floor. Thank you, council president.
So, I believe rules should apply to everybody and that is why I decided to put in this open meeting law violation because last week, I think it was Monday evening, it was brought to my attention
that Council Cologne Hayes was making phone calls regarding an agenda item that was on the docket for the following evening. Um, and I I wasn't really sure how many people she
had gotten to until I started having a conversation with a few. So, I just want to let everybody at home know. Going to go over a couple things that Carolyn might have already said, but under the Massachusetts open meeting law, serial
deliberation is strictly prohibited. Members of a public body may not hold a series of private communications that taken together involve a quorum discussing or influence public business outside of a posted meeting. In this
matter, councelor Cologne Hayes contacted multiple counselors privately. She made calls, text messages, and left voicemails specifically to influence deliberations. She stated in her own
messages that she called when she called council Crowe and texted councel Taylor. She also texted councelor Simelli that she called council Lahan already and she spoke with councelor Ali. So if I do the
math that's six that's a quorum of our 11. Each of these communications may have been conducted one by one, but collectively they reached and involved a quorum of this full city council, which
is the very definition of a serial deliberation under Mass General law. The content and purpose of these outreach efforts were clearly intended to shape opinions, coordinate positions, and
influence last Tuesday night's deliberations on an agenda item before us. All of which must legally occur only during an open and public meeting. The
law is clear. When a counselor connects multiple members through a chain of private calls, texts and conversations and the topic matter the topic is the matter before this body, it becomes an unlawful private deliberation by a
quorum. These private contacts undermine transparency, violate the public's trust, and compromise the integrity of our decision-making process. Because of these communications and the fact they
were initiated for the purpose of impacting deliberations, this constitutes a clear violation of the open meeting laws prohibition on serial deliberation. To protect protect what remains of the
integrity of this process, Council Cologne Hayes should be recusing herself from all further discussion and actions on this particular agenda item. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Sika. Um, thank you
also for keeping your remarks relatively brief. I'm going to go to Councelor Cologne Hayes next and then I'm going to take the lights that are in the queue from there. Councelor Colon Hayes, you have the floor. Thank you very much. Um, so I'm not going to get into the details, but I I
definitely would like this referred to our um city solicitor's office. Um, the law is the law. Um, like was just read. I do not believe at all that I had I that I went over a quorum. And you'll find that when we actually go through um
an investigation. So, I'm really looking forward to doing that and referring it out um to the city solicitor's office so we can um get a resolution to this. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Colog. Councelor McDonald, you're next. I just wanted to make the motion to
refer this to the legal department for an investigation and review, which is what we do with every single one of the open meeting law complaint violation, you know, complaints that we receive, which we receive our fair share, maybe more. Um, and I and I and I say that,
you know, basically recognizing that I I don't really think more discussion at this table is fruitful at this stage from my perspective. We have to let them do that anyways. So, that's my motion. Okay. Thank you. We do have a motion and a second on the floor. I have uh two more lights
and I'm going to go to councelor Winslow and then I'll take counselor Taylor. Yeah, I I do support the motion to refer this for um re you investigation by legal. I know the circumstance I' I was in um it came up related to when I was
uh you know elected by you all to be council president. There was a similar dynamic in a political situation. So the legal office did a very thorough and investigation and um the result of that was accepted by the attorney general. So I I think that's the way to go. Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Winszo. Councelor Taylor, um I just I'm I'm curious. I know we've talked a lot up here. I've asked several times that we have some sort of standards that allow us to know when
we're breaking open meeting law. And you know, I would almost I was curious if um councelor Sega was requesting that this go to our legal office or straight to the attorney general and if there's a difference there um and what that
difference might be. Can you state that again? I'm so sorry. Sorry. whether or not this should go to our legal office or straight to the attorney general's because what I thought I heard was that she wanted it sent to the state and just kind of taken out of the city level altogether.
So, thank you for that, Councelor Taylor, because it's it I'm actually sitting up here and I'm kind of a little bit baffled because normally when we go into executive session, we have a lot more discussion than we just did on this floor instead of just handing it over to
the legal department. I feel like that's usually the last resort is handing handing it over to the legal department. So, I'm I'm not quite sure why everyone's looking to stifle debate up here this evening on this topic. Normally, we have a little bit of more
of a robust conversation on what the open meeting law violation is. And tonight, I'm just hearing, okay, I just want to refer it, which seems crazy to me because it's going to be weeks before we hear about this again. And I I would
like to have a conversation about it on the floor this evening. I have the proof that she did. I'm I'm not just up here accusing somebody with baseless accusations. I actually have voicemails,
text messages, hardcore black and white proof that councelor Cologne Hayes violated. I don't even know if we need to refer it to the legal department to be quite honest with what I have. Um, so does that answer your question? I
Sorry, Councelor Taylor. There you go. I guess then the question was if we were discussing it on the floor, should we continue to discuss it on the floor and if we have this evidence like should it be brought forth? Is that So my and we can have a representative from our solicitor's office come up and
speak to that if folks want to hear from him. But my understanding is that when we refer to legal, there's essentially research done into the specifics of what did occur, which would utilize the documents that councelor Seika is referring to, and that that report typically comes back to us. We could
then take that discussion and go and have another docketed executive session that we could then vote to take in behind closed doors or on the floor. I think when we've done that always behind the scenes, it's probably just we're not remembering that we come back and forth a few times because we're not, in my
opinion, we are not accustomed to doing these on the floor. We haven't done this for a while. So, I don't know if you want to come up and speak to that. That's my sense of how would you mind coming up and speaking at the podium? I think that that's how that would proceed is essentially we would be asking the legal team I have too many mics on and
we're reverberating. Um that that's how that would proceed. Is that accurate? Uh yeah, our recommendation is to refer to our office and and we can come back and discuss again whether it be an executive session or otherwise. But can I ask councelor C you you can absolutely respond.
Thank you. Uh, really quick, can you remind me again? It's been a while since we've had an open meeting law. Um, how long it it's going to take for you to conduct this investigation? How long do you have? Um, do you know? Yeah. I don't know if there's a uh I don't know if there's like a market rate timeline on it. We'll be slowed down by
the holiday this week, but um, you know, I mean, you're all very accessible to us. 14. Is it 30? It's I don't think it's more than 30 days that we're supposed to respond to this. But I again I I I'm fine with referring it over to the legal
team, but I'm just I I we usually deliberate on it a little bit more than we're deliberating on it this evening, which is I'm a little I'm a little I don't I don't know. I I feel like I would like a little more deliberation on
this topic before we hand it over to the legal department for further research. Are we are we not allowed to deliberate it this evening? I would I wouldn't say that you're not allowed, but we're not going to come to a conclusion on it tonight. No. And I don't expect to come to a
conclusion, but I'm just wondering, am I the only one that knows that there was a serial deliberation going on in this at this council see I don't think we're stifling debate. I have one light on. Councelor Omali that would like to get to I think
every counselor that would like to speak to this has had a chance and actually I'm now seeing councelor Simmonelli would also like to speak to it. But I I'm what I'm hearing and we do have a motion on the floor that I want to take the vote on um as soon as we can out of respect for those that made the motion
and the second is that we want to refer to legal have some professional research done and then come back. I think we have ample opportunity to continue to debate. There's nobody's ability to speak to this as being limited. I'm sorry. Did you have anything else
that you wanted to add? I wasn't trying to shut you down at all. I I think it's just, you know, the position of our department is to, you know, just not rush a decision tonight, just to have it referred to us, make sure that we're being fair to everyone involved. Um, but, you know, again, if if you're going to discuss more, you're going to discuss, but,
you know, we're we're just not going to get to a conclusion tonight either way. So, our understood our recommendation is to refer really quickly. Okay. And then I really do need to move on to councelor. He's been waiting and that is fine. I'm not looking for a decision this evening. I'm just looking for a little bit more deliberation. We
are never tongue tied up here and tonight we happen to be tongue tied with this particular topic and I'm a little blown away by it. But um I I would like to have a little bit more discussion about this. I'm not looking for a decision. If we have a little discussion
and then we hand it over to the legal team to do their research and I can hand them over whatever I have and if anybody else up here was contacted or has anything that they can add to their research that would be great. But I I do think there should be a little bit more
of a discussion on this because if not, we have 14 business days. So, we're going to wait 14 business days to come back and have this discussion again when this is something that just happened a week ago. I I would rather get it all out tonight. So, thank you.
Understood. And I just councelor Mali before we take your I I just want like from the chair I think what I would hope to have as an outcome too is for everybody to have an understanding of not just what the serial communication description is that was in the complaint but I'm almost wondering if some one of the reasons that folks aren't asking
more is that we're not under we we want to make sure that we understand exactly what it is that we need to not do in the future. I think that when we've had similar situations like this in the past, having that be a clear outcome that whether that's a training or just really clearly stating in the response
from the legal department that what we need to not what we all need to know not to do. I think that's probably, you know, I'll speak for myself and say, you know, like councelor Winsow spoke to the the complaint that we had in the past when he was elected council president. That was a moment I think where a lot of
us had to digest kind of like what you do and where that line is. Yeah. Um so I think that that's probably some of what's going on here. Speaking again just for my own personal self. Yeah. And I mean we can absolutely, you know, revisit this whether it's an open complaint or not. We can talk about the open meeting law. Talk about you know
what can and cannot be discussed when and where. Um, but you know, as far as where we're at tonight, if you wanted to deliberate a bit, you know, I believe that you could, but if you would rather refer to our department, that is ultimately our
recommendation and we can always come back. We can come back, we can talk more. Um, you know, we'll have a better idea of what we got going on here. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for your patience. Councelor Mali, you have the floor. Uh to councelor Taylor's u point um I
believe that the process is it automatically goes to the state. So I believe it already is with the attorney general. Um and uh regardless of what we do, they're going to do their review. Um it does a lot have to do with what councelor Seika would like to see after
this. Uh but the council responds however the council responds. um if the legal department is doing it, they have to come back to us with their what they want to say and we have to approve of that. So, we will talk about this again. Um I think that that's probably why.
Yeah, thank you for that. Councelor Romelli. Okay, Councelor Crow, I think Council Simmonelli was ahead of me and Okay, Councelor Simmonelli, you can go ahead and unmute. Well, I'm already unmuted. You should
know me by an hour, Madam President. But um can you hear me? Yes. Yes. You can. You don't sound so excited. Listen, I'm going to just say this that these are serious accusations and I think it behooves us not to say anything
at this moment because it's going to be referred to the attorney general's office and the city solicitor's office so that they can do their investigation. And obviously uh you know if the evidence is is there they'll find it and
then we'll have uh ample enough time to debate on uh what to do about it if we have any say over it at all once it hits the attorney general's office. I I'm not too clear on, you know, what happens at that point, but you know, there's a due process for everything. And um, you
know, this is a very difficult thing for me and for the neighborhood that I come from because, you know, I don't like to um I I just don't like to see people in trouble and get people in trouble and and uh capitalize on it. That's just not
my style. Uh, however, I mean, the facts are the facts. I mean, I, you know, I I can't dispute them. Um, they are what they are. But again, I think it behooves all of us to really move with caution at this point in time and let the city
solicitor's office do their job, come out with their findings for us, whether it hits the attorney general's office or not. I don't know if it's one or the other or it could be both. I'm not too clear on that. Maybe uh the city solicitor can uh educate us a little bit more on that. Uh, but I think that, you
know, my 14 years on the city council, um, I have never seen anything like this before. So, uh, you guys are something. Uh, so I was just going to say that, uh, I think we should really walk with caution at this point. And I think that,
you know, when when accusations are being made, whether they're whether they're firm or not, you know, there there is a due process and we all are city councilors. And I think that we should act accordingly. And I, you know, I said this before and I've said this in executive session. I'm going to say it
again. We're one of 11. We should be helping each other out here. We should be working with one another. We should be moving the city forward in the direction that it should be going that the mayor's office would like to see it going because we elected him in. So, we
should be working alongside him. We've got we've got Proposition two and a half overrides. Some councils want to add another hundred million dollars of deficit on top of it. We've got some serious issues that need some serious answers and we're going to sit up here
and, you know, go back and forth with one another. I I just I just don't I just I I'm bewildered. So anyway, I just look at again, you know, and and council see look at she's she's got the evidence
and you know, and she's doing the right thing as far as taking action on it. I'm not going to say she's not. She is. But again, I would just advise this council, not being an attorney, just being a street smart kid, to walk with
caution on this, especially when you're accusing somebody of accusations. I think it would be best for all of us if we do not deliberate tonight and we give this to the city solicitor's office so that they can come back to us and say
here's what it is. Yes, it was a clear violation of the open meeting law. No, it wasn't a clear violation of the open law or it's on shaky grounds and advise us. That's what they get paid for. Um that's what we put them in office for. I'm not an attorney. So, I would like to
have the advice of the attorney before I stick my big foot in my big mouth and uh get myself in trouble for saying the wrong thing. And I think that's why you have awkward silence up there right now because people are feeling the same way I'm feeling. They're just not saying it
yet. So, I think it would be best once again, and I'll say it for the last time, give it to the city solicitor's office and let them report back to us. I don't I don't mind waiting 14 days. back. I wait until after the holidays differ. Thank you.
Thank you, Councelor Simmonelli. Councelor Crow, I'll just be really brief. I do agree with sending it to the city solicitor's office and I think the lack of deliberation is because it pulls in a death different person that's not part of this body that is a Malden resident that we don't want to be debating that
or the nature of the texts or calls. So I think, you know, that's a little concerning to me to start bringing in um someone else that is beyond this body. So I think that's why I wouldn't deliberate that because I wouldn't want anything to to to
be said to be implied to be, you know, about somebody else that is not part of the body. Thank you, Council Councelor Crow. And I I want to actually e echo that point because I think coming in tonight that was one of my probably the thing I was most worried about just because it does involve an appointment that was you know
it really is actually not appropriate for us to be deliberating the appointment and I think that was the thing I was most worried about trying to keep on track and I actually really want to thank everybody for kind of not going there because it would have been out of bounds and um you know I'm glad that we didn't we didn't do that. Councelor Sika
one more time. Can you be brief? That's correct. I really want to call the vote. Oh, well, now we have council McDonald. All right, we're never getting out of here. I'm I'm sorry. I I'll I'll try to be brief, but this really has nothing to do with the appointment of councelor with um
former counselor Jeff Donahghue for the school committee position. This has to do with a violation of the open meeting law. It doesn't matter if this was another agenda item that we were discussing. I actually reached out to
Jeff um I don't even know the end of last week when I filed this to ask him if he would mind if I read some of the text messages that I received or the voicemail um that I had because it does
call him some not so nice choice words and he had no problem with me playing the recording or reading the text messages out loud. So I um again if the if we were in the back room in executive
session we would not have just handed it right over to the legal department. We would have had a conversation and and had a and talked about you know what had transpired. Like why are we here? If if if I have all the evidence here tonight,
I don't understand why we can't discuss the evidence that I have and not have to waste the city solicitor's time to do an investigation because I'm pretty confident what I have constitutes a quorum of this full full city council.
So, I don't want to wait two weeks. I mean, if council spa if council Cologne Hayes ends up needing to recuse herself from this particular agenda item, the um the vote needs a representative. The city of Malden right now currently has
no representative. Um and the longer we delay this, the longer we delay that and the whole process that comes along with it. So, I would really like to have the a little bit more of a conversation here on this topic tonight. Thank you. Thank
you, Council McDonald. So, I made my motion. Yes, because I do not think it is appropriate for us to have that conversation before our own legal department can evaluate that evidence. If you got the receipts, councelor SEA, it'll be quick and we'll be back here real soon. And I certainly
haven't had a chance to review any evidence, nor do I think that would have been appropriate because I think it should be sent to the legal department, which is what we do in all cases because they have to prepare the written response that we submit. So I am just personally like I we spend a lot of time
on our own open meeting law violations gang and it's a little bit bananas and I would just like us to take the roll call vote so that we can do the thing we have to do and then we will come back here and reconvene to be able to discuss this I'm sure to our hearts content. So could
we please take the role? So I have a motion by councelor McDonald. Who seconded? Council Clone Haz. Councelor Colon Hayes. Thank you. All right. Clerk, will you please call the role? This is a motion to refer this matter to the legal department for further investigation. Council Cologne Hayes.
Yes. Yes. Council Condan. Yes. Council Crowe, yes. Council McDonald, yes. Council Ali, Council Seika, no. Council Simonelli, yes. Council Spataphora, no. Council Taylor,
yes. Council Winslow, yes. Council President Lahan, yes. Okay. So, that motion has passed by a 9 to2 vote. Thank you. Okay. Next order of business. That clears the docket. Okay. Does anybody have personal
privilege? C. Yeah, I do. Chris does. Oh, okay. Councelor Simoli, let's take you first. All right. Thank you very much. But I can get off this foolish thing. Listen, I just want to let everybody know that uh the holiday lights are being put up at Lincoln Commons as we speak. And I
will be back next week to welcome you all down to Lincoln Commons for some hot chocolate. And uh maybe, just maybe, I can convince Santa Claus to come down and say hello to everybody. So, we're just going to we're waiting on him now. You know, he's very busy at the North Pole doing those letters. So, I
appreciate everybody tonight and thank you very much for your cooperation, folks. Thank you so much, Councelor Ali. Uh thank you. So this past Sunday, uh Malden Arts held their first uh public art trolley tour. Uh I want to thank uh
Oldtown Trolley of Malden for sponsoring the event. Um they were very lucky to sell out all of the seats on the trolley. Um and they made a point to go to every ward. So every ward in Malden was has public art and the trolley went and saw all of that great uh growing uh
public art ecosystem of our community. Um and I just want to congratulate Malden Arts for their success there. Thank you. Thank you councelor Ali Councelor Crow. Thank you madam president. First of all happy Thanksgiving everybody on Thursday and the bread of life again will be hosting their um don't be alone for
Thanksgiving um at the Malden High School on Thursday. What time? at 12:00. But they're also looking for council spat and Maria Luis has been working on organizing deliveries and they pack up over a thousand meals but not just small hands but people in
surrounding communities. So, always need more people to um to deliver those meals. Lots of hands. 1300 meals. I said over a thousand the um and so if you want to if you have not um signed up already, you can reach out to Maria Lu.
Sorry. No, more people. It's easier. the um or you can come to um Malden High School between 9:30 and 10 in the cafeteria to um to uh to really help out because it is really heartwarming and it's it it is important to our community and surrounding communities. So, thank
you Council Spat and Maria for putting that together. Thank you, Councelor Crow, Councelor Winslow. Yeah, we don't want to forget on Thursday at 10 o'clock um Medford and Malden are playing over at um the the
stadium for um in Medford there. So um so come out, go Malden. Um I do want to thank um the Department of Public Works and the Maplewood Association for working together to get up the um the tree in Maplewood Square, which is up
now. a nice tree that was donated by uh Fina Raldi of Emerald Street and uh donation by um Big Sea Welding to get the lights up. So um we will be having um kind of some carolling and a lighting
ceremony um on Friday, December 5th at 5:00 and you know hot chocolate and candy canes and stuff like that. So uh encourage everybody to come out for that. Thanks. Bye-bye. Great. Thank you, Councelor Cologne Hayes. Uh yes, I just wanted to um give a shout out to the Malden Warming
Center. Um it's been a while since I was able to attend one of their trainings for volunteer and they did a phenomenal job. The room was packed. I'm really looking forward to being able to give my time and volunteer um circumstance had it uh for the past couple years that I
wasn't able to do that. But that was the last um training. So if you do um the website is maldenwarmingcenter.org. org. There are other ways that you can donate and I think I might have heard it was the last training until they open so
there might be another one. So check the website but I just wanted to say thank you for that. It is a wonderful community to be a part of. Thank you. Thank you councelor Cologne Hayes. Councelor Condan. Thank you uh Madame President. I'd just like to take this opportunity to uh wish
all the people of W 2 a happy Thanksgiving along with the rest of the city of Maldon and uh be thankful for what you have. Yep. Yep. Thank you. Amen to that. Well, um from the chair, I
just want to remind folks that on Saturday after Thanksgiving, we'll be lighting up the tree at Felsmere Pond. So, come on down at dusk around 400 p.m. Um, counselor Spataphor and I will be happy to host you there with some hot chocolate. Bring your furry friends and your whole family. We'll have music and
treats and um, a visit from Santa himself. So, you don't want to miss it. Hope to see you there. And with that, does anybody have a motion to adjurnn? Okay. Motion by councelor McDonald, seconded by councelor Condan. Actually, we lost councelor Simonelli.
So, all in favor? Hi, good night everyone.