##VIDEO ID:3fttsy-D0Oo## the council will come to order all rise and salute the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all please remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of our V an service members and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice I will now turn it over to council McDonald for a land acknowledgement we honor and acknowledge the Massachusetts massachusett Penacook and pet 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 and I'll now hand it over to council lenan for a moment of silence thank you Mr President um it's my honor but also my great sadness to ask for a moment of silence on behalf of Mr Kevin Kilbride the assistant former assistant principal at the BB School who tragically passed away very suddenly while skiing in New Hampshire this weekend um I know this has been a hard certainly a hard phone call for me to get in a shock to all in the Mal and public schools um I wanted to just share a few thoughts about Mr Kilbride because I think his impact has been very vast and deep on the district um as anybody who was on Facebook this weekend or just you know talk to anybody who's worked for the district it's clear that he was a colleague a mentor and a friend to so many including my own child's teachers as a BB parent um I wanted to just read a little bit actually from his obituary because I think it's sort of lovingly sums up a little bit about his personality um Kevin was born in Malden went to Malden Public Schools uh graduated Malden High class of 1980 and um had three has three children one of whom is still a teacher at the BB School our hearts just simply go out to his wife and children and so if you'll indulge me for a moment I just wanted to read a little bit Kevin had more Hobbies than he had time for he loved golfing and skiing so much that he moved to Colorado for 5 years he loved to travel especially on road trips and to Ireland he loved any and all sports and never missed a game attending the Olympics not once but twice music was a big part of who he was and he could sit for hours listening to any genre but he was especially connected to John lennin he felt most at home in nature especially the mountains the woods in his backyard he loved the simple things in life too like playing a game of chess picking up a good book cooking and building a fire he was employed from the age of 10 beginning with a paper route in Maplewood Square he loved being a father and a husband and took great pride in each of his children and his wife Kevin always said that he felt closest to God in the mountains Amen to that and may He rest in peace thank you thank you the clerk will call the role Council colone Hayes councel Condon Council Crow is absent councel linahan here councel McDonald here councel sea here councel simonelli Council simonelli Council Bor councel Taylor Council Winslow here council president do Ali here and since councelor simonelli is joining us via video tonight all of our votes will be done via roll call under the provisions of the open meeting law for those in attendance please be informed that Uma Urban media arts will be recording this evening's meeting there will be audio and video recordings of this meeting first order of business representatives from Malden Reeds will appear before the city council to announce their one city one book reading selection for 20 25 the boy who harnessed The Wind by William Kim kwamba you um this is this is on can you hear me um good evening members of the city council thanks so much for the work that you do and thanks for um allowing us to make this presentation every year my name is and derso Rose I'm the associate director of urban media arts and I'm a co- facilitator for the Malden Reeds program I'm here with my other co- facilitator jod zul and members of the Malden Reeds steering committee as well as we have some youth from malen high school who will be part of this presentation as well um I guess I'll plunge right in by um talking about what malen reads is for those of you who may not know but mostly for people who may be watching this um live or or televis later malen reads is a community reading program that seeks to answer the question what if all of Malden reads the same book every year we select a book and companion books for younger readers and we encourage community members to read that book and then we offer a series of events and programs and activities centered around the themes of that Year's book um Malden and then yeah so malen re is coordinated by a dynamic MC group of community volunteers not all of whom are pictured in there um as well as in collaboration with the two Anor organizations the Malden Public Library which of course is all about books and reading and urban media arts which is all about Community Building through media and the Arts and together these entities carry out the program year after year we are so thrilled that we are in our 15th season of the program so we've been doing this for 15 years and still going strong um and we're so excited now to be presenting to you our book choice for uh 2025 which is the boy who harnessed The Wind by William K kwaba with uh Brian meller this book uh is a true story um it's told uh in three versions of the book there's an adult vers version there's a children's picture book version and then there's something called the young readers Edition and in fact when the steering committee read the book and chose it we were reading the young readers Edition so we do actually um recommend the young readers Edition for all ages we find it an engaging compelling and accessible read but of course you can read whichever addition you would like obviously the children's book for younger readers um but we have the adult book available you'll all be getting the young readers Edition um uh tonight um the story has also been told through award-winning documentary film and it is also a feature film now on Netflix um so the story's been told um many times over and I'll as I as I recap the story I'm going to use some images from the Netflix film as well as some real life images uh the story takes place in Malawi which is a small country in Southwest Africa um and it's told Through The Eyes of a when we meet a 13 year old boy when we meet him um first person and he's really telling you what his life is like in his village about his family about his friends about the people he knows his school um what he does with his days what he eats really drawn into his daily life and his culture there unfortunately in 20012 2002 Mala um experiences a terrible famine and so we are getting a first person narrative um of what it's like to uh experience a famine and that part of the book I will say is challenging to read uh here in this country of course we have food insecurity and we have food deserts but we don't have famines and so um it it's really eye openening to hear the account of this experience Through The Eyes of a 13-year-old boy luckily um the boy and his family do survive the famine uh we are also told a bit about the school he he is um he had just applied to be in secondary school which is kind of like a high school um but in Malawi you actually have to pay to go to to to secondary school and his family already being poor and then experiencing the famine unfortunately could not afford to send him to school and so though he's very bright and very motivated to go to school he's not able to go to school um and he starts to see that his life is is going to be you know he'll be a farmer like his dad and and he feels like he won't have any opportunities but fortunately he's very curious and um uh he ends up finding out that the place where he went to elementary school had just gotten a small Library which was set up by the American government and it's about the size of what you see in the background there and he begins to lose himself in the world of books he describes traveling without going anywhere um and his world is opened he had learned some English but he learns more by reading the books and and just opening up his world to so many different things but two books in particular end up changing his life and those are pictured those are the actual books right there um their textbooks one is called using energy and the other is called explaining physics um he's always someone who was interested in how things worked he liked to take apart transistor radios and put them back together and so he learns so much from reading these books and one of the things he learned is that you can make electricity from a windmill um his village as most of Malawi does not have electricity um and he decides that he's going to create a windmill um to bring electricity to his home and so he leads you through the process and there he's very low resourced he has none of the materials that you would think you would need to make a windmill uh first he makes a very small version of it um and everything is just found materials he goes to the scrapyard anything he can find at home he has no tools so he has to make the tools to shape whatever materials he has and you're really LED through this entire process of the challenges he meets and how he overcomes them and eventually he creates a windmill um he also Al I should say very importantly he has two friends one of whom is his cousin close friends who help him they really do work together he's kind of the lead but they're really working together a lot of the villagers call him misala which means crazy they don't understand what this thing is um but when he finally shows that it can run a radio it lights up a light bulb you know they they see things differently and um he goes on to wire his his home and for the first time his um um family can read by light after it gets dark um he still is not able to go to school it's not until a few years later that his story is picked up and he's sort of discovered and they do you know a radio program a newspaper article it gets picked up by the blogosphere and suddenly there's this intense interest in this story um and through the donations of others he's able to go and further his schooling eventually when he's 18 he goes to Tanzania and he does a TED talk about how he built a windmill he eventually ends up attending Dartmouth College here in the United States that's him get graduating from Dartmouth College um he ends up um meeting a a a woman who marries who's from America and they end up going back to Malawi where he still lives he he spends his time he does travel a lot and do speaking engagements um but they started an organization called moving windmills um fueling African Innovation where he works with young people and innovators and change makers um to really innovate and find sustainable uh solutions to problems uh so it's a very inspiring story I've given you the bare outlines of it please uh read the book and you'll learn so much more um in this book that we've chosen we picked out a bunch of themes such as uh we we'll be exploring themes of food insecurity income inequality environment and sustainability because the famine was very much caused by uh environmental factors um Innovation resourcefulness resilience finding Solutions and Global awareness we will be having our kickoff celebration on Monday February 10th from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the new bread of life facility um bread of life as you know has been uh finding um addressing the challenges of food insecurity for over 30 years and they are thrilled to be partnering with us and we're thrilled to be partnering with them um on in this program and on this event there'll be Community info tables live music food and drink poetry stories and more so we hope you'll attend and we hope that you'll join the conversation we hope you read the book let us know what you think talk about it with your family and friends um join any of our events or create your own event maybe it ties in with something that you're already doing and can tie in with the themes of the book we encourage that that's how the the program builds um okay I'm G to turn over the um presentation um for to Karen Buck who will segue into our youth part thank you good evening everyone thank you popular saying is it takes a village but what if that Village does not believe we aren't truly suffering the global effects of climate change similar to others William K was Kwa sorry Village was starving due to deforestation and the resulting droughts and flooding the need was desire was Dire the fuel for survival was gone and still he had to face skepticism in from his village William's story proves how persistent strength wit and Ingenuity can overcome challenges for all of us we chose this book because we are facing so many escalating challenges on so many levels yet we need to focus on how to be positive be resilient find in innovative solutions and work together to meet those challenges this book embodies these goals and ideals our excitement for this book stems also from the excitement that we've heard from the high school students and in fact the engineering for future class is here to demonstrate their their models that they are have worked on after watching the story of the boy who harnessed the wind and the Eco Club is here too to support um our work towards the uh climate resiliency thank you hi I'm Ashley Freeman I'm a w one resident and also the MHS engineering teacher and I teach a class called engineering for the future and all those themes that we just saw there from the book are actually themes that I have based my course around and so we've studied William's story and the the the kids here have some projects that they were inspired by and they just wanted to tell you about them first of all thank you for having us it's it's great to be seeing you on this cold and frigid night but here we have some uh some of the things we made or found in our maker space that relate to the story so this is a Dynamo it's it's essential part to uh Williams windmill found a story which like helped pump water to his village saving his village luckily uh we were able to find like a some pieces of it and we were able to solder it together to create this this amazing component and hopefully we're going to be building in the future we're going to be building a larger scale windmill I see this a smaller scale I'll introduce that later but we're going to be introducing a larger scale windmill that's going to be showcase at the February February 10th yeah February 10th Event Event so hopefully we'll showcase that you guys maybe might maybe impressed maybe not let's see let's see do do you mind if do you do you mind if I ask what a Dynamo does oh a Dynamo uh generates uh electricity using a magnet when it when like a motion like perhaps like a bike chain perhaps like uh moves it together the magnet moves and generates electricity to power like a light source or something related to that I don't think it's like a huge amount but like perhaps it can power like you know like a small bicycle light you know which he used in the which someone used in the story perfect thank you and here we have our model windmill that was inspired by the book by the by the story and how you know he created a a model windmill to pump up water to save his village it's actually working a quick showcase here a lot of components of this design were were inspired directly from the story such as um the house we wanted to like represent the some parts of the village the water perhaps like the groundwater being pumped up uh unlike his windmill representing this store it's not actually wind powered it's battery powered as seen here but but it's still it's it still represents the idea that wind can generate like electricity you know and one major part of the story that like basically was like a a motivating motivating for us was teamwork it was like a major part of the story and this these builds wouldn't be possible without teamwork just took multiple people to find and once created it it created like an amazing component that we can showcase to all of you this was created by a multitude of people I had my teammates some people helped give ideas some people worked on it that weren't in the class they just joined and worked on it and this really shows that teamwork can really build something amazing even if you perhaps you don't have the time we didn't have we may not have had the time to build something like significant but like working together we were able to build something that was like presentable of you know something like that and just really shows the influence of the story and how important it is and that's all thank you very much for sharing that I think we have one more presentation they also uh built a this one is just a a phone charging solar station that they made and then Benson has a much larger Solar Ray basically just like how William was finding things from the junkyard Benson and his group went and found solar panels from all over the maker space and they have a very large solar aray that they made thank you everyone very good thank [Applause] you and uh I just want to acknowledge on the two members of the Eco club that are here Nora and Amber again again um showing youth that see a problem and work to try to solve it um together with their clubmates so we're so happy that they've joined us here so we're GNA hand out the books and hopefully we can take a picture thank you so much for thank you so thank you so much for your presentation I do also want to announce to the community that if you have the Libby app which you can connect to your library card you can also download a eBook or a audio book I already checked and borrowed and also if there are any questions before we do that oh yeah and do if the council has any questions before the photo oh thank you so much thank you we will take a short recess to take a photo with the books I don't have all right can we get everybody to stand a little closer I we need everybody to stand a little closer please can you get them all in no oh now I can can you step in a little closer there we go thank you all right everybody looking up here trying to get it without the podium in one more time there we go good did you get it to Noe okay okay here we thank you thank you again I want to thank Malden Reeds for their great presentation and in the presentation of the books we're going to take up the next order of business council president Ali will open discussion with the body by asking each of the councilors to share one personal professional or committee related goal for 2025 thank you very much um I do want to uh first hand this over to our president protm Amanda linan um I do want to apologize to her last week I completely forgot in my excitement for announcing committees forgot to announce that Council lahan will be our council president protm this year so in that role she will be U my backup when I'm not available and I really appreciate sitting next to you and working with you this year so I'll hand it over to you to share uh one of your goals for the year thank you council president om ali um so as I was starting to think about this I realized I was being very literal in thinking through sort of the goals for the Committees that I'm on which I remember um for former councelor Murphy had us do one year and I thought was really helpful but then I I started thinking about maybe it's better to share something kind of bigger picture that I'm thinking about like I think there's great things that we could do on personnel and with the charter review and um the other committees that I'm honored to serve on but I think my overarching theme for the year is just finding a way to help people get involved in local government again I think there's a lot of things that the city is going to be facing like economic development is a huge thing I love that there's the new arts and culture committee I think that puts me in the mindset of thinking about the courthouse and the future you know um Revenue potential there but when I really think about what constituents are telling me and what I want to focus on it comes down to folks feeling like the world is changing the landscape of news media and social media is just not what it once was and folks don't really know where to find um information about how to get involved what the council's doing and just don't really understand how to meet their neighbors and how to plug in and so my my bigger theme that I have as a goal is to find groups that I haven't connected with before and help to bring them in and be welcoming and be part of the city government um I think that's a powerful thing that all of us can do um I want to shout out some of the new communities that I've met with this year there's a group on Discord there's some folks on Reddit there's people that are you know doing activism in different ways that there are folks that I've gone to meetings with I had never seen them around town before and I think it's amazing and want to just keep building those kind of connections and then um if I can shift gears slightly I did also just want to give a shout out to our local yoga studio Soul City this is a personal goal but I find that being on Council it's easy to just work work work and not make time for our health and wellness and as of this week I've spent one year as a member there and it has done a lot for my mental health and helped me to reenter myself be ready for these meetings and I ask for all of you to keep me accountable to keep doing that because I think it keeps me a better counselor and I wish health and wellness for all of you thank you very much for sharing that great goal uh so and one and just to explain one of the reasons why I'm asking that we all share our goals for the year is so that it's not so much me telling everyone what like what what the goals for us are but really we can all kind of hold like you said help each other hold each other accountable and make sure that we're all feeling successful uh and um effective in in our roles so just full disclosure I'm going to go by order of of the of the wards um so the the next place I'll be going is to councelor condu and ward two uh because councelor Crow is absent this today and she sends her regards so councelor Condon please share one of your goals just one you can share multiple goals okay um I just like to see the way the council's going right now uh people are learning to respect one another and uh don't make it personal you're up here to do a job and uh I'd like to see DEA Park completed uh that's personal that's personal personal is a lot personal is low said that works to every everything's personal no I'd like to see W two completed with a soccer field and a a girls softball diamond and uh the memorial over there I'd like to see that improved uh and I just like to see everybody up in this board respect one another that's all I'm asking for Christmas great wisdom councelor Condon uh so I'm gonna I'm gonna go to myself last the w three has already um gave their update uh councelor t for w five thank you um I wasn't quite sure uh what I wanted to focus on as far as goals personal or professional but one thing that um I think has been really important to me that I've learned has been important to me from coming on the council uh is economic development in the city so that's something that I would really like to kind of um have at the Forefront of any project that I do how do we make this so that it it's it it works for the city so it helps our residents so it kind of ties it all in together um I look forward to the arts and culture committee I was extremely excited to see that committee start and honored to be chair of that so I think there's a way we tie all of these things in together but I would definitely like to see some economic growth for the city of Malden thank you very much councelor uh Winslow for w six yeah so you know terms of uh particularly I really want to promote great Community Spirit inward six um you know particularly through events um we're going to have a vinyl night on February 15th to play some old records or new records and create some fund so that's coming up um you we're going to reopen traon Park uh hope come April to have the field and have that reopen and have a you know a great Fourth of July and then continue our we we just I learned today um our newly formed Maplewood Association just got a $4,000 Grant from the m and culture counsil to have uh continue to our third annual neighborhood Fest so really keeping that Community Spirit going and then with councelor Hayes having Hispanic Festival so just really keeping good Community spirit and focus in Maplewood Square um as we go forward and that will just help build things and then uh and then I think just some of it is wrapping up some things related to being president we had a great event last week to if you haven't been up on the fourth floor and seen the new uh pictures up there that was a great thing and uh the other thing is to really work uh and and wrap up the charter changes so we can send up that home rule petition and uh take care of some of that Tiding up um because I really think that it's giving ourselves um the more ability I mean government is changing so fast that we need a charter that can uh you meet the speed of the expectations of our our neighbors and our residents so I think that that's one of the things is to make um you know take that first step to um you know get some reform in our Charter just to um allow that to um or allow us to operate more efficiently and would be responsive to our community thank you thank you councelor Winslow I'm going to go to Ward seven counselor um simonelli uh can you oh hold on one second that we're going to try to figure this out bear with us one second it says he's not it doesn't hold on sorry counselor simali we're having trouble hearing you just give me one second this is not muted I click on mute participant maybe to unmute it so Chris all right now I can't unmute him okay councel Sim bear with me one second I apologize I thank you councelor simonelli we we have you here on the phone all right can you hear me now yes we can all right so just one go is all you want is one uh you can give one or two two goals are many yeah yeah well we got many going on we got many going on in war S as you know but the main goal that I'm looking for is you know trying to help uh particularly single single minority mothers be able to have home ownership that we're working on now on both cross street and on uh uh briyan Street with the temple site so I think that's something that we've kind of lost and uh something we need to startop work on bring back so I'm kind of happy about that we've got uh K deadp coming online on May 6 we've got uh work coming online uh for Maplewood Park as you know uh which we're going to be changing the name to that and uh also we just got $120,000 from uh State Rep Tado for uh Renovations for lincol Comm uh uh Monument area so uh so there's a lot of happened in and uh you know one of the other things as soon as I get back to Massachusetts I'm going to come back and uh talk to councel Winslow to explain to him how he has to keep his nose out of other people's voice because uh I've had enough of it maybe this ain't the time of the place it's gonna be appare be aware of it Mr wins coming to see it thank Mr thank you thank you councelor simonelli uh we're going to head to councelor Sika in w 8 thank you council president uh so I guess I got a little carried away this morning over coffee this when I was trying to figure out what my personal and committee goals might have been for the year so I prepared a little speech while I was um getting my calendar of events to today with Council of spatap for and the M rec department so really quickly I'll try to make it brief but as an elected official expressing enthusiasm and commitment towards serving on the city council is essential for inspiring confidence in our constituents as I continue my role on the city council I am eager to embrace the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead 2025 holds great promise from Malden with the potential significant growth and development across various sectors my commitment to fostering a productive yes stems from a dedication to addressing the pressing issues facing our community while also capitalizing on the unique strengths and assets that Malden possesses a personal goal of mine as well as Council of spora for 2025 is to continue focusing on community building by organizing a diverse range of events throughout the year by creating a calendar of engaging activities that cated to the interests and needs of different segments of the community we aim to foster a sense of inclusivity unity and belonging among me community members through these events we hope to facilitate meaningful connections Inspire collaboration and promote a culture of support and mutual respect within the community ultimately our goal is to contribute to the growth well-being and vitality of the community by creating opportunities for individuals to come together celebrate diversity and build lasting relationships that will endure Beyond 2025 as the chair of the license committee one of our primary goals is to finalize and implement the proposed changes relating to class 2 delas license in the city of Malden this process was long and complex but I am confident of its completion this year the committee's objectives will include streamlining the license process for Class 2 disas ensuring compliance with relevant regulations enhancing transparency and efficiency and promoting the economic development of Malden by successfully implementing these changes the license committee aims to prove improve the overall licensing system Foster a business-friendly environment and contribute to the growth and prosperity of the city significant effort and dedication have been invested in this endeavor signaling a promising outcome for both our committee and the community of Malden additionally as the chair of the newly formed Community Traditions committee I am excited to research past and present traditions in the city of Malden to ensure the preservation and celebration of our cultural heritage this proactive approach to understanding our community's Traditions will will strengthen our sense of identity and promote Unity among our residents by digging into the rich history of malin's traditions we aim to create meaningful connections between the past and present fostering a sense of Pride and belonging for all community members ultimately these efforts will contribute to a more cohesive and Vibrant Community enriching the lives of residents and showcasing the unique cultural tapestry of Malden as we move forward into 2025 I am excited to explore new opportunities for Community engagement and collaboration I am confident that together we can work towards a brighter future for Malden by fostering strong Partnerships and with local organizations residents and stakeholders we can ensure that the decisions made on the city council are inclusive and reflective of the needs and desires of our community Community as a whole making meaningful progress on key issues enhancing the quality of life for all residents and create a city that we can all be proud of I look forward to challenges and successes that lie ahead and I am honored to be a part of the shaping of the future of Malden thank you thank you very much councelor that was that was great I uh not by me uh and I will uh now hand it off to our our at large counselors starting with counselor cologne Hayes thank you so much um now I have to go after an over overachiever so I did um try and look through a couple of things but in the way I like to work also is getting um input from the community so I put out this survey and it actually told me some things that I wouldn't have thought I would be focusing on but the community spoke and I have um over there's like 150 responses from this and they keep coming so that's great the number one issue that in over 60% of the um the folks that filled this out was traffic and transportation I was expecting like affordable housing but it was traffic and and transportation so I'm going to definitely be working on that um Business Development was number two and transparency was number three both at like 43 40% so um based on what I heard from the community um I am going going to be FOC those are going to be my goals um for the coming year and I'm really excited to hear what uh councelor SAA just said about the community Traditions group because I'm I was excited to be on that as well um so those are my focuses thanks oh and I what personal one I'd like us to have some fun up here that's that on um going with uh councelor condens I'm going to add we should let's have a little more fun um on the council thanks thank you very much and now I'll hand it over to counselor McDonald thank you so much well I just really enjoy hearing from you all and I as you know as a Myers Briggs entj I have a deep love of plans and planning and as a counselor at large I feel really grateful that I can focus on the big picture uh and that that's built into my role and so I'm thinking a lot about plans and intention going into this year and that starts with following through on the plans that we've been working on so we've got a great climate action plan so many people have participated in so we're implementing we've got so many excellent applications for our new climate action steering committee and I look forward to working with all of you on that and just continuing to build the community excitement I felt that even with this molden reads today this kind of long-term work makes sense when everyone participates our racial Equity commission is going to be circling back finishing up its process with a PL with its plan and recommendations um as chair I'm very grateful to come back as chair of the finance committee I I have a very concrete goal that this year for our budget process we will have um a longer term financial model for our City's Financial well-being that looks at the past and Scopes up possibilities for the future and says this is what we think we need to be able to pay our bills and and uh support our staff and achieve the things that we want this is what it takes in terms of development in terms of State resources um so I'm I'm very committed to that and I think that just you know personally socially think I hear from so many about the just concern every day you turn on the news I don't know how you couldn't be worried um everything from what's happening in DC on January 20th until to the Raging fires in LA and what's next and I think that we do have something special here in molden and it's a priority for me that this feels like a community where where everyone can belong we do not all agree on things we are not the same but we can show what's possible um and that starts with just the care and respect that we show to one another and so that's a that's a high value for me um in seeing what we can do here in Malden to help people feel like they have a place in this world and that we take care of one another and I'm grateful to be a part of a community that prioritizes that thank you thank you councel McDonald uh councelor spora I gotta go after all these people now I'm last no I I originally I had please make sure you speak in your microphone I apologize I originally had Economic Development I think Council McDonald I have been chatting on that it certainly we're try to you know we've seen the the tax rules and what we need to do and Foster uh a more business friendly uh Community here and I I and not just the big business and hotel chains and franchises but really try to work on uh I I would say a segment approach looking anywhere from you know small entrepreneurs local businesses we have a light manufacturing going across the street so jobs that uh have some local uh flare but also the ability to create uh new jobs in the city that help our residents stay employed here I mean that that you want to cut down on traffic if they could work here uh like like like most communities did probably 40 50 years ago right they had that ability to work pretty local and they got to know their neighbors um I would say this though is one thing personally on on my list is uh I I haven't done it in a while and it's a it reminds me when Council seeker and others mentioned um the the new committee on Traditions uh there's no greater feeling when I when I would go to a lot of our senior buildings and talk to our residents uh those buildings are filled with uh peoples from all uh parts of the country a lot from all them but they they come from everywhere they have stories that you will not believe lots of veterans and they share uh their their their turmo their turmoils their triumphs um and they tell you about you know sometimes a better day when they grow up but also sometimes when it wasn't so great to grow up in that and I think the idea to have that committee now I I would encourage all the councils to go to these these residents all your neighbors that are up there in a little bit of age and document especially it was a Malden uh resident that can remember that to to document inside these traditions because they are they are the living history books and I always say that because I saw Council Anderson a couple days ago when every time you talk to him he immediately goes back 50 years ago tells you about his neighbor where that neighbor is now and those stories is unfortunately uh a dying daily uh and I will make it a um an effort on myself to go to some of these buildings and get some stories that we could or at least find out some of these uh these Traditions that we had that we want to make sure are documented for all of uh mankind thank you thank you very much counselor um and and I'll end with with myself um and so my primary goal as I kind of shared last week is to really streamline the way we do business and first and foremost that is the roll out of our team's application uh the goal uh for this year is to finish 100% um meetings that would be um live streamed on teams uh with uh eventually allowing remote participation where people could actually participate as needed um so far we are hitting 100 um you know we had uh our meetings remote participation last week uh this week they are all remote participation um and they also are streamed to to YouTube or our main city city council meeting is streamed to YouTube um I do want to thank the the the team in the mayor's office Ron Elena the city clerk our assistant City Clerk and our Clerk of committees for all being really team players and making a very difficult roll out as smooth as it possibly could be um one of the the highlights of the team's application is it will allow for live transcription uh so those who are hard of hearing uh one of the added benefits even though it's not ideal uh and and always a a live translator would be better uh but for when that is not possible um if you have the transcription um enabled um people can pick what language they want that transcription to happen uh in um so again while it's not ideal it is going to get better with AI uh because we are entering really Uncharted Territory where um things are just possible that never were possible before uh and to kind of highlight the the sentiment that some of my colleagues have shared um I really want to help strengthen the fabric of our community um you know that's one of the reasons why I helped create this Community Traditions um committee and it's one of the reasons why I selected councila to chair that and I look forward to to co-chairing it with her this year um and the real thing there is that you know rather than us fighting over red versus blue I really want us to celebrate blue and gold I think that's how you really make our community stronger it's so how we can you know make sure that no one's falling through the cracks uh and I think it's something that truly brings everyone together um I am now a trustee of the of the library for for my first time uh and so by attending that um I've been learning a lot of great things um and one of the things I did learn recently and and there is a tie back to the library U I was also talking to councilor Anderson and he he was mentioning this Traditions thing and he said that there used to be an ex Alderman's club and the ex Alderman's Club was founded by mayor Converse and the goal of the ex Alderman Club was to help with camaraderie and so after after the November municipal election the ex alderan club would host a crows dinner uh where all of the candidates and the ones that won and the ones that lost would get together and break bread and leave the animosity of the campaign behind them um we have to live next to each other we have to you know go to the shop and Shop together uh and it's really how do we make sure that we are uh maintaining that camaraderie uh no matter what happens during elections and pass these traditions on uh so that's something I'll definitely be bringing to this committee um and uh Dora St Martin the director of the library said that she actually has some of the pamphlets from these 1800s um ex Alderman clubs so it would be really cool to bring this out uh and show the community um how we can really uh work together and and maintain our fabric so without getting too long in the tooth thank you all for sharing your goals um I am here to help however to make yall successful um and I hope you'll do the same with me um next sorder of business the next order of business is our consent agenda the consent agenda consists of one appointment to be placed on file eight actually we have no public comment just for the record um so we're going to go to the consent agenda uh so we have um one appointment to be placed on file eight petitions to be referred to license and three orders to be uh referred to rules and ordinance um I have been notified that councelor McDonald would like to remove the uh paper related to um the 2025 related to the land acknowledgement and he would like to so that has been removed 202 202 2825 my apologies are there is there any other papers that would like to be removed I need we're going to go to councelor linahan for a recusal um yes I am mve to recuse myself from 19-25 it's a mayoral appointment which confirmation is not required but it is appointing our oscd director as the city's representative to my place of employment so I it does have budgetary responsibility over the agency I'd feel more comfortable I understand it's probably not for that reason but there is a financial aspect to it um so councelor lenan is recusing herself okay thank you uh please make sure that the meeting records reflect we have to vote on that is there a motion on Council lenan motion to recuse herself is there a second seconded by councelor wins I saw uh all those in favor uh the clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes yes Council Condon yes Council lahan yes Council McDonald Council sea yes Council simonelli thumbs up yes thank you Council spaur councel Taylor Council Winslow council president Ali yes council lenan is recused please make sure the meeting minutes reflect that at 8:05 uh Council lenan left the meeting okay um on the on who would like to move to to approve the consent agenda on councilor Taylor's motion to uh approved seconded by councelor AA uh the clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes Council Condon Council McDonald Council sea yes Council simonelli yes councilor simell votes yes Council spora councel Taylor councel Winslow council president Ali yes those have been referred next order of business next order of business we will jump to paper 28-25 removed from the consent agenda order that se should thank you order that section 3.00 order of business subsection 3.01 of the 2023 city council rule book be amended by inserting land acknowledgement as item three and renumbering the subsequent items councelor McDonald is the sponsor councelor McDonald for the paper thank you council president uh this is just very brief but in order to make brief comments I got to pull something from the agenda um but for folks who are watching I want to note that we have been trying out a land acknowledgement at the city council since I think indigenous people's History Month um last fall thank you former council president Winslow for for giving that a try and so um I would like to see us formalize this practice but I want it to mean something because there is a lot of history and a lot of uh current reality that I think is important for us to understand and land acknowledgement is is a first step in that and so I do want this referred to the ordinance committee with the other rule changes I'm I'm putting forward but I also hope that we can have a meeting um as I just spoke to councelor clone Hayes about with of the um Community engagement um committee to talk about uh what it would mean for our city council to be more engaged with the indigenous peoples who have are the original um uh folks to live on this land and and still exist and so that we can do we can move forward with land acknowledgement with Integrity so that's just my hope with this paper and I welcome uh you know our ability to have Community conversation and feedback on the exact text on other things that this could imply connection to like the Massachusetts indigenous legislative agenda and so on so I just wanted to acknowledge acknowledge that publicly uh before we refer it to committee and very much welcome Community uh response and input on this thank you on councelor McDonald's motion to refer this rules and ordinance is there a second second second by councelor Winslow the clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes councel Condon Council linan yes councel McDonald councel sea yes councel simonelli is he still with us okay councilor spaur yes Council tayor Council Winslow yes council president om Ali yes okay that's been referred to ordinance next order of business councelor did you want to refer that to both the cic and ordinance or just ordinance uh my intent was to refer the rule to the ordinance Committee just because all the rule says is land acknowledgement and then to have a separate broader conversation about the nature of that with the with the c i see and I believe you can take that up um we we could vote to do that or or you could just take that up on your own Val I think you could just so so so this right is it okay if we just scheduled that I would love to do that wonderful thank you so let the to reflect that the uh Community engagement and inclusion committee will also take up some activity related to this thank you next order of business I think we're at enrolled ordinances paper 37624 be it ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of Malden title 12 is hereby amended as follows and there's a body to the paper with all the Amendments that you guys already enrolled this is just to ordain so I'm going to hand this over to counselor lenan just to remind us what this paper is uh yes which I wish I brought all my notes because it's a lot of little changes but we do have Michelle here just in case there's questions so my recol ction is that this is Administrative tidying up of the ordinances and making clear when certain non-conformities apply or expire and essentially makes it simpler for folks renovating their homes to not have to come in and get a special permit if they're Michelle I'm going to ask if I'm if can you acknowledge whether is that an accurate assessment of what we're doing here every time this one is up I struggle to get it in just a few Snappy words yes you can't in in in fairness you can't really get it in a few Snappy words those are some of the main points it's also streamlining some of the permitting so it's not it's not just about the residential piece that you just mentioned there's a couple other issues we're also codifying some areas that need to be updated so that our ordinance reflects state law um in terms of the special permit thresholds and some of the other protected uses so there's a whole series of amendments but those were some of the main ones that you highlighted thank you very much I appreciate it no problem is there a motion to ordain the ordinance councelor L on councelor Lan's motion to ordain ordance seconded by councelor seika the clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes yes councel Condon yes Council Lenahan yes councel McDonald Council sea yes Council spora councel Taylor councel Winslow yes council president do Ali yes just to to let everyone know that past it required a two-thirds vote and it received that next order of business this is related I can announce this if if you don't mind so this this is uh 14-25 this is the uh changes to the Committees in terms of the the the um numbers and combining um public properties Public Works and cemeteries is there a motion to um on Council uh seek as motion to cify the committee structure as presented seconded by councelor Winslow um all those in favor I the clerk will call the RO Council clone Hayes Council Condon Council linahan Council McDonald Council sea yes Council spor councel Taylor Council Winslow council president do Ali Yes again that required two-thirds votes uh and it received the two3 votes and it was amended we will now head head over to committee reports paper 31-25 the standing committee un license to whom was referred papers 490 through 493 series of 2024 and papers 5 through 12 series of 2025 having considered the same make the following reports on councelor Sea's motion to receive the committee report seconded by councelor cologne Hayes the clerk will call the role Council colog Hayes councel Condon yes councelor linahan yes councel McDonald councel sea yes councilor spaur yes councel Taylor yes councilor Winslow yes council president do Al yes the committee report is received councelor sea for the committee thank you council president the license committee met this evening to discuss all of these um renewals there were no issues we had the compliance gu in the meeting and there was a unanimous vote to pass all of these petitions out favorably from the committee motion to approve these petitions on councelor seeka motion to to read oh the clerk will read the committee sorry paper 49-24 Class 2 AGM Auto Sales Inc 160 Eastern Avenue 21 cars paper 49124 Class 2 uni Auto Sales Inc 369 Salem Street eight cars paper 49224 Class 2 Maxima auto sales 2 77 Broadway 66 cars paper 35 cars paper 5-25 Class 2 Auto Bazar Corp 17 charl Street 12 cars paper 6-25 Class 2 Broadway Auto Sal 628 Broadway zero cars paper 7-25 Class 2 Next Level Motors Inc 189 Eastern Avenue 35 cars paper 8-25 Class 2 Nix forn Car Center LLC 121 Beach Street four cars paper 9-25 Class 2 Prestige Motors of M Inc 600 Broadway 37 cars paper 10-25 extended hours William Services LLC DBA laundry plus 705 Eastern Avenue 7 days a week 24 hours a day this is a change of hours petition paper 11-25 petition Livery company Zing Z Service LLC 15 Burge Place one vehicle paper 12-25 liery driver shiang Lang 15 Burge Place renewal on councelor Seekers motion to Grant the petitions seconded by councelor colone Hayes the clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes Council Condon Council linahan councel McDonald Council sea yes Council spora councel Taylor Council Winslow yes council president om Ali yes that those pass with the unanimous vote the docket is clear would anyone like personal privilege we're going to go to councelor Cologne Hayes first okay sorry I hit that so fast I just wanted to give a um another reminder that this coming Saturday um there's going to be the Martin Luther King uh Day event at the Emanuel Baptist Church so that's this Saturday January 18th uh last year we had an issue where people were talking about um they couldn't attend because there were so many on the actual holiday because there were so many events going on so that's why we're having an on Saturday uh it's from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. it is at the Emanuel Baptist Church uh we're going to have some youth speakers and great um events and then also the community dinner if you choose to stay it's $20 and you'll get um chicken I think it's fried chicken and beans and potatoes no mac and cheese so we'd love to sit and we talk about a lot about Community um you know engagement and so that's a great place to do it when you break bread together so I hope to see you all there uh thank thank you very much councelor Winslow yeah um I wanted to remind folks uh particularly of Maplewood Highlands is that on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Balon police station we're having a a community discussion about um traffic uh improvements uh on beach view and um Olive Avenue so uh just let people know about that um that's sort of a followup to the September meeting we had at the Moose this is just um sort of a more detailed thing to really get more neighborhood input um February 15th at 6:00 at Patrick's um I'll be hosting the very vinyl um Valentine's event where you can bring uh any old vinyl LPS and we'll play them and have fun and raise some money for flowers in Maplewood Square so that'll be fun and then um this coming Saturday um before the MLK um event um from 11: to 4: the Chinese culture connection at malen high school is having um a the Lunar New Year kickoff so um just let people people know that so uh well yeah so the the kickoff for Chinese New Year will be there so hope everybody can make it out for that thank you thank you very much are there any other personal privilege seeing none is there a motion to adjourn on councelor con is motion to adjourn seconded by councelor sea the clerk will call the role Council CL ha yes Council Condon yes Council linahan Council McDonald Council SE yes Council spora councel Taylor Council Winslow council president do Al yes we are adjourned at 8:19 thank you