the council will come to order i'll rise and salute the flag 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 service members and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice uh please remain standing for an additional moment of silence uh for Jeff Taylor i'm going to hand it over to Councelor Lan
thank you Mr president um this is a moment of silence that I'm absolutely beyond heartbroken to be leading before you all tonight um as councelor Ali said our colleague Ari Taylor or Ward Five City Councelor tragically lost her husband Jeff Taylor
this weekend um Malden lost an amazing community member activist jeff was a husband a father a friend um a poet he really showed up for everybody in our community i was blessed to know him as a
friend and I think you know the the the thoughts that I'm hearing the tributes that I'm hearing from folks in the community this week have been nothing short of amazing just stories about how Jeff showed up for someone in a in their time of need um volunteered for a
community event just lent an ear um or lent some artistic support to somebody who was trying to do what he does and you know I and words honestly fail me because Jeff is somebody who along with the rest of his family just gives back to so many others and to think about him
not being with us anymore is something I really am having trouble contemplating every day when I wake up um as most of you know they have three children um Phoebe who just turned six Charlotte who is 12 and Emily who just turned 18 they
go to the Lynen School and Malden Catholic i know the school communities have showed up to support them and surround them with love um there is a website if folks want to find ways to help which is we love the tailorfamily.com um like I said folks
have been showing up for the last three days but really they're going to need all of us and I I can't stress enough how much the ongoing love and support is going to be so needed and so meaningful to them um so just in memory of my amazing friend Jeff and the entire
Taylor family would love to have a moment of silence in his memory and we have one additional moment of silence that's going to be given by councelor Sika thank you it's been a tough week in Malden that's for sure and it's only Tuesday um this morning we were all made
aware that Maria Louise the special assistant to the mayor um lost her father last evening gerorado was a lifelong W 8 resident of Eastn A he um I'm going to miss driving by his house and seeing him in the gutter sweeping
because he was 91 years old and he was still doing it just a few shorts months ago back in the fall i I would call and uh yell at Maria that her 90year-old father was outside in the middle of Eastern A in the gutter with his broom shoveling uh sweeping the the dirt out
of the gutter uh he was I I think he's been married for about 73 years to his love of his life Maria um and her family they're a staple in the Woody community um he was deeply loved and cherished by
all who knew him and he lived a vibrant life full of family memories and Italian traditions he leaves behind a legacy of kindness strength and unwavering love for his family and friends um there are no services scheduled at this moment but I'm sure we'll all be paying attention
to our email to make sure that we can let everyone know when those are thank you thank you the the clerk will call a role council Cologne Hayes here council Condan here council Crow here council Lahan here council McDonald here council
Seca here council Simonelli council Spa here he's online with us via video councelor Taylor is not with us tonight council Winslow here council President Omali here and because councelor Spataphor is with us via video we will
be doing everything by roll call vote this evening 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 this meeting first order of business is uh guests citizens achievement and announcements i believe we have representatives from the community preservation committee who will appear before the council to give a presentation on projects currently
before the board welcome hello everyone um thanks for having us here tonight my name is Rachel running and I'm the chair of the community preservation committee and I'm here with our manager Daniel Kauf um who's going
to show you a slideshow of some of our kind of purpose and work shortly but I wanted to start by thanking um our amazing all volunteer um committee so that's Ena Babiskaya Sam Waters Monnique Ching Brendan Brett Ronnie Raj Verma and
Mark Longhorn and they put in so many hours um everyone on the committee both at meetings and in preparation um in their own time and I'm really lucky to be able to serve with this like really awesome group um and I would be nowhere without Daniel's amazing um skilled and
just steadfast work so I really appreciate everyone who makes this committee um run um so the CPC is unique because we get to consider and recommend projects in Malden backed by real funding from our local CPA tax which is
an opportunity and a responsibility that um we don't take lightly we're lucky to be able to collaborate with you all with uh Mayor Christensen and his office as well as um Alex Pratt the OSPCD and all the wonderful city staff and residents
as well to um make this a successful uh venture and together we're all working towards this kind of shared vision of a equitable greener and thriving city for Malden so I just wanted to give a little intro and I'll let Daniel who's kind of
got all the brains here do our full presentation thank you Rachel thank you council president city council um we are excited to be here today and talk to you about CPC so I'll provide a brief overview
this is a preview of our information session that we give annually updated every year with updated financial information and we'll be giving it next at our April meeting as we launch the kickoff of the pre-application process
for FY26 so give you a brief intro to what CPC is even though you all are familiar um and uh to the community to the committee and to the preservation act
and um a history of our funding so as Rachel explained uh we have uh nine seats on CPC um four of which are statutory members
five of which are at large um and I will note that if that the state law mandates that a member of the parks commission must serve on CPC so I know you all are considering um
reanimating our parks commission in Malden and if we do that um I would advocate that we also look revisit the CPC ordinance to address uh that difference um I will note that come
March of next year we will have some seats coming open for the at some at large seats um some folks will be termed out at that point so um let that timeline maybe put a fire under you to
revisit the CPC ordinance by next March would be amazing it would be great timing um so there are two ways to talk about there's two acronyms involved here the CPA and the
CPC um it's a a lot of this is very confusing the community the CPA is the community preservation act so that enables cities and towns to create the CPA fund which is managed by the community preservation committee the CPC
so Malden has three uh the Malden fund CPA fund is un somewhat unique it's one of five communities in the state that has three potential funding sources a 1% searchcharge tax on property so CPA
allows communities to uh institute a search charge tax between 1 and 3% so Malden has the minimum 1% searchcharge tax um there's also the state matches uh
provides a match to uh communities that have a CPA fund communities that have a 3% search charge actually get additional state match um and then what makes Malden one of five communities that are
unique is that uh there's the potential for funds from the operating account of the city to be placed into the CPA account it's hasn't been done with us it has hardly ever been done in the state
but uh it is allowable so what we do at modern CP what our CPC does is we manage the CPA fund and its distribution we develop a we have a CPA plan and we update it annually based on
our um priorities for the city so we do an annual survey we'll provide a link to that at the end we're still accepting survey um submissions we ensure that we're following state law there's a lot of requirements for this fund um for
that is somewhat unique and CPC the members recommend projects that meet these criteria and then the mayor and you all city council approve those recommendations either at the recommended amount or below but not
above um and CPC also educates and assists the community in submission of applications so like I was saying earlier CPA funds are somewhat restricted there are kind of depending on the account three or four categories
of funding whether you want to place open space and outdoor recreation in the same category separate and then there's affordable housing and historic preservation and then there are uses for those funds so you can acquire create preserve support rehabilitate or restore
um projects using those funds and whether you can use those whether those uses those uses are allowable by category so there's some differentiation here so for example uh this you can
support an affordable housing category so you can um but you cannot support the creation of an historic property that doesn't really make sense uh they should already exist um and you can't support the creation of open space or
outdoor recreation so we can't use our funding for staff time on open space or recreation projects and that is why um if anyone has any questions about this I'm happy to talk folks through it
i just wanted to clarify um so you can you can use it to create open space but you can't use it for ongoing support of open space because you said you can't use it to support the creation of support is often used it um kind of
denotes administration funds that are yeah sta staff to to manage the project okay understood um Okay thank you and I should note there are much more stringent
requirements when CPA funds are used to acquire properties acquire open space acquiring historic preservation or affordable housing if CPA funds are used for acquisition then a restriction must be placed on that property the law is a
little more vague when funds are used to create preserve support or re or rehabilitate or restore yeah um so moving on CPA over the course of its history has raised approximately $ 8.5 million um up until this year so
as you can see here our search charge the amount that we've collected in search charge revenue has steadily crept up every year and the amount that the state has matched has fluctuated greatly we uh saw a bump during the co years
when there was some surplus and then now it's going back down again this year the estimate is at 15.9% so it's down even further so in terms of our expenditure history one thing I'll note here is that
you'll see we have taken in revenue of 8.5 million and we have expended 8.7 that is because we have taken out a loan in the form of a bond against our future revenue so that means we have
essentially expended more than we've raised because we will raise in the future that amount to cover the bond um so we have so far the the projects that have been allocated um appro almost well 69%
of those funds have gone to open space and recreation projects 17% to affordable housing and 14% to historic preservation over the course of CPA's in Malden's history um quick look at the
geographic distribution of those projects something that CPC really values is to fund projects in each of the city's wards to make sure that these funds are geographically distributed and I think so far we're doing a decent job
although definitely um want to encourage more applications from wards in the southern part of the city there and more date yeah so looking ahead to FY26
um we estimate that we will receive about a million dollars in revenue and that will be distributed according to the state law minimums uh requirements so the state law requires that you spend
or set aside 10% of your total fund funding each year for each of the projects in each of the three categories you can um appropriate five up to 5% for administrative and uh operating expenses
and then the remainder goes into the budgeted reserve the budgeted reserve um more language when it rolls over to the next year becomes the fund balance so uh looking ahead what this looks like
in terms of how much we have to spend on new projects so we have to reserve for the next now nine years um it was a the bond was a 10-year period so we're one year into it so for the next nine years we're going to have to set aside money
from the budgeted reserve to pay for debt service so that leaves a little less funding available for new projects um than we would have otherwise than the total amount of revenue that we'll receive um looking at what is rolling
over in each of the so if we're looking at the total amount available for new projects in FY26 we will want to add the new revenue for FY26 and we'll want to add how much is rolling over in each of those fund um funds and so what that
looks like is this so um we will be allocating you know so This shows that we have um oop yeah I need we have a $1.1 million
1.15 um available reservesish um and the total for that we'll be able to total available for new projects is about 1.9 million in FY26 some of that uh will
be reserved for projects that are in specific categories so the application process um takes about a calendar year um starts with a pre-application where
um you just fill out a form with basic information about your project and that helps the CPC determine eligibility and at that point um we're able to provide a letter of approval for folks to submit a full application so
the pre-application period is will open at our April meeting at our next meeting and will go until June and then folks have the summer to complete their full application submitting by the second
week in September so CPC can start evaluating those full applications in September um then all applicants are um invited to answer questions and
attend a public hearing um so they can also respond to public comment and then CPC um reviews their full application and the answer to the questions and uh votes on deliberates and votes on recommendations to the mayor and city
council for funding by the end of that fiscal year and then once the project is approved by city council applicants get an award letter and a grant agreement um to officially begin the project so yeah this is what it looks
like in terms of a calendar april 16th is when the FY26 application process will begin with the pre-applications going till June you have the summer to f fill out the full application
um and then awards are typically made in the winter um so grant agreements can be signed in the spring this is a general timeline um I should note that offcycle applications may be accepted upon the
discretion of the chair so what CPC is looking for in an application um first and foremost must be an allow an allowable use has to be um has to you know be a legally
um we we have to be able to legally fund this project um the application must be complete and every question answered has to align with the goals and priorities of the city as laid out in the CPC plan other
city planning documents um we are currently in the process of aligning our CPC plan to the open space and recreation plan that's in progress so that should be easier in the future leveraging um funding from other sources this is really important um CPC really
appreciates when applications come in that show some level some other funding sources or or at least they're applying to other funding sources so CPC funds can be used as a match rather than just
funding the entire project and then CPC definitely appreciates evidence of support from other city residents departments boards commissions and of course you all you all are the shepherds of uh a lot of the projects that happen
on the ground and so it's really impactful to have your voice in the application process um in support of projects that are coming from your wards and then of course that benefits um the entire
community so um some of the priorities we're looking for on the project you know incorporating sustainable design protecting natural resources addressing an urgent need cleaning up contaminated land revitalizing or reusing existing
buildings being a catalyst for transformative change using renewable energy expanding permeable surface increasing trees and vegetation um taking time of taking advantage of a time-sensitive opportunity and cooperating with other groups and
neighboring municipalities so try to help with you know if you're doing good things CPC will generally want to support you what CPC doesn't do is CPC doesn't
initiate projects um ask residents or other city departments to submit applications um CPC doesn't hold community meetings outside of public hearings public hearings are the way that CPC can invite public comment but we look to applicants
to gather support on their own for their own submissions and then C so CPC can evaluate that and we don't act as a contractor um we can provide technical assistance to keep the projects moving
um but the the grant Yeah and adhere to the terms of the grant agreement so we can kind of debate some terms in the grant agreement process um but once that's signed we leave it up to the
applicant often um the city can go this especially when the city is applying for grants the city receives grants from CPC that uh city liaison serves as the
project manager and that work goes through the controllers's office to go out to bid and follow procurement laws so for more information encourage everyone to go to our web page on city's website
citym.orgcpc follow us on Facebook email us anytime um you can also email me Dan City of Malden uh sorry DCOF KOFF city of Malden.org um and we hold public hearings every third Wednesday of the
month people anyone's welcome to attend in person or online yeah public meetings yeah we have public hearings once a year and we have an info session about once a year um we also do applicant workshops over the summer um
so lots of opportunities to get involved and please take our survey if you haven't already all right thank you so much are there any questions questions no oh councelor Lennahan yeah I was just going to say that was
great and I get like a lot of questions from residents saying like how can I figure out how to apply if I had an idea i'm just going to send them this video of this meeting now because I think that's a great overview um and I also just want to give a quick plug we do have an open seat as you mentioned and
um we've had limited interest but just want to make one more announcement since we're on TV that if folks are interested they can reach out to I guess any of us but as chair of personnel they're technically supposed to come to me letter of interest and resume um from the wards that you mentioned which is 27
and one i got you um so just couldn't pass up the opportunity to to let folks know because it is a great board to serve on thank you and you're also looking for residents from W four correct or Okay i really I really messed it up sorry one two four and seven one two
four and seven so any W four residents please the slide misses four oh four we don't have four on there that's correct four you're right four is missing no worries we're a really fun committee so you should join us yes uh again we're happy
to have a one-on-one with anyone who's interested or wants to learn more thank you very much appreciate it thank you so we're now at public comment public comment is allowed under council rules each speaker is limited to one subject
matter relative to the evening's agenda and must keep their comments to two minutes or less uh clerk do we have anybody signed up for public comment we have one person signed up for public comment and four email written submissions great we'll take the person uh the person who's here in person laura
Miguel please hello my name is Lauren McGillicuy i live at 10 Rosemont Street in Ward 4 um I am appearing on my own behalf as a concerned citizen of Malden about
information that I have acquired in my work as the clerk of Friends of Fels Heights um you will be shortly hearing a letter which Friends of Fels Heights sent to the council and I just wanted to
comment in addition to that letter um the city is currently in the process of preparing a joint home rule petition and a set of ordinances that will together um greatly revise the governance structure of the city and my
concern as a citizen is about the process for this um in some of the meetings that I have attended of the joint charter and or rules of ordinance assist committee i have been the only person in the room
who is neither a city employee nor a member of the council that does not seem to me to meet the standard that is set in the proposed home rule petition which says that there shall be public meetings and open forums
and workshops and my concern is that these changes which are significant um although I think they are important changes and useful changes are being made without enough public involvement to make sure that they are really
acceptable to the public and that's really all I have to say on my own behalf the rest of what I have to say you will be able to read in the letter that's coming from the whole board of for friends of Helsights thank you for your attention thank you very much
so with that the first written submission is from the friends of Felsmere Heights of 267 Hawthorne Street it says friends to the Mullen City Council regarding paper 443-24 friends of the Fel Felsme Heights
urged the city council to return these documents to the joint committee for additional work and initiation of a public review process to address inadvertent omissions and to ensure that the public has participated in the process as described in the proposed
home rule petition certain capabilities of city departments found in the charter some of which are required by state law should not be subject to dissolution or a bridgement by ordinance for example sections 20 and 21 of the charter permits the public works commission to
exercise the city council's powers of imminent domain under section 14 of chapter 40 and chapter 79 of the general laws this authority is not included in the proposed ordinances there is no reference in those proposed ordinances that create commissions regarding the
rotation of commission members or their replacement if a commissioner does not fulfill their term the proposed new ordinances do not reference several important activities planning and implementing new parks coordination between the parks and
recreation commission and the public works commission placing a member of the parks and recreation commission on the community preservation committ committee as required making management plans or usage regulations for parks and other public land available to the public this
superficial review of the ordinances causes us to believe that a more detailed review is warranted we also believe that Malden will be stronger if its citizens are well aware of the proposed changes to these critical city defining documents and have an adequate opportunity to participate in their
review as described in the home room petition with respect friends of Felsmere Heights board the next three papers are regarding the resolve that is numbered as paper 154-25 hello i would like to submit the
following public comment to be read into the record at tonight's city council meeting regarding declaring a transgender day of visibility on March 31st in Malden thank you for the opportunity to provide public comment and to the city council members for their thoughtful consideration of the resolution introduced by councelor at
large Carrie McDonald as a trans non-binary resident of Malden I would like to share my enthusiastic support for officially recognizing a transgender day of visibility i came to terms with my gender identity in my 30s and I wish that I had witnessed this kind of
representation in my hometown growing up celebrating and uplifting the diversity of identities that make up the trans community is one small but significant step we can take as a community to publicly acknowledge that there are that
all are welcome and actively supported in Malden given the current climate of threats to the safety of our community it is incredibly important at this moment that we make it clear Malden is a safe haven for trans identifying folks of all ages thank you Megan Ani of 198
Mount Vernon Street around three years ago a right-wing social media influencer made a post about a specific hospital spreading outright lies about their gender affirming care program not too soon after harassment and threats followed suit on August 30th 2022 this
hospital received a bomb threat over the phone as a result they went under lockdown had to refuse new patients for their safety doctors performing surgery under even worse stress bedside patients scared out of their minds you know what hospital this was it was Bos Boston
Children's Hospital yes a children's hospital and if you want me to be local about it I work there and some kids from Malden families probably go there what caused all of these incidents to come about transphobia so yes International Transgender Day of Visibility on March
31st should be celebrated they should be recognized they should know that despite all of the harassment all the threats the hurtful comments we see you we care about you we love you that is submitted by Samantha Leblanc 30 Daniel Street and the last one says I wanted to
voice support for making the Trans Day of Visibility a recognized day here in Malden when we recognize and uphold our trans siblings we uphold the best in each other and allow everyone to show their true selves this is a good thing as a cisgender queer person living in
Malden I want all members of our community to feel safe living their lives out loud there's a lot for queer people to fear right now and sometimes a spotlight can feel unsafe but we should have a spotlight for people that want to step into it and create a safe space for
them to do so transque queer people deserve to feel loved and adored i hope this resolution passes quickly and easily let's uplift each other katie Dylan 198 Mount Vernon Street that's it consent agenda
our next order of business is the consent agenda this evening's consent agenda consists of meeting minutes to be approved one appointment to be referred to personnel the personnel committee and one order to be referred to finance does any counselor have a desire to remove any of these items from the consent
agenda for the purpose of further discussion seeing none on councelor Sega's motion to approve seconded by councelor Simmonelli uh the clerk will call the role council clone Hayes yes council Condan yes council Crow council Lahan yes
council McDonald council Sega yes council Simonelli council Spat yes council Winslow yes council President Doali yes okay consent agenda is approved the consent agenda has been approved um the next order of business
is motions orders and resolutions paper 153-25 be ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of Malden title 12 chapter 12 section 090 subsection B offsite off- streetet parking lots in title 12 chapter 12 section 02O subsection I general off
streetet parking requirements is hereby amended as follows so um this might uh feel like groundhog day to some of y'all and to some degree it is um technically we we tried to vote on this um the last
time we met um but we had so many zoning ordinances that had went to to um our planning board for recommendation that this one kind of got caught up in it and we had thought it went for a hearing but actually hadn't and so we caught that after we voted on it so we'd like to
refer this to a joint ordinance and planning board hearing um it will then come back out where we can then take uh final action on that um so I can't make any motions but on councelor Simonelli's motion to refer this to a joint ordinance and planning board hearing um
seconded by councelor Sika is there any discussion on the motion a hearing and seeing none the clerk will call the role council Colon Hayes yes council Condan Council Crow yes council Lahan yes council McDonald Council Sega Council
Simmonelli Council Spataphora yes council Winslow yes council President Ali yes that paper has been referred unanimously next order of business paper 154-25 resolved that is the sense of the
Malden City Council that Malden celebrates International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st malden is home to many transgender non-binary interex and gender non-conforming people of all ages as members of the LGBTQIA plus community transgender
Maldonians contribute to the life and vitality of our community as residents business owners students teachers volunteers religious leaders public servants and more we affirm our city as a welcoming community that embraces people across the spectrum of gender
identity and expression at a time when transgender Americans are under direct threat and when some seek to entirely erase their existence visibility is more important than ever it reminds us all that transgender people have been and will continue to be valued members of
our Malden community we take this opportunity to honor that visibility and to condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms our city will uphold the civil rights which protect transgender people from discrimination under Massachusetts general law and
title 7 of the federal 1964 civil rights act transgender day of visibility recognizes the presence and contributions of transgender Maldonians even those who do not feel safe enough to be publicly visible in recognition we reaffirm our commitment to do everything
we can to ensure transgender members of our community are safe and able to live freely as their authentic selves this was sponsored by Councelor McDonald councelor McDonald for the paper thank you Council President uh I have to say it was a great privilege to submit this
resolution i thank you to my colleagues for your co-sponsorship um it was a great privilege to submit it not only as a city council but myself as a non-binary and transgender person who uses they and them pronouns as you may have seen in my email signature when I came out last year I was very grateful
for the support that I received in this community that's not an experience that everyone gets to have transgender Day of Visibility is a way to celebrate the presence the contributions of the many trans people and there are many trans
people in Malden it's it was created as a counterpoint to the many negative narratives about trans folks in our culture and in our society um folks may be familiar with what's called Transgender Day of Remembrance in the fall so this is in the spring as a
positive counterpoint we live in what is truly a welcoming community and that is so important for us to affirm as public leaders in a very scary time uh in which the threats seem to come daily from the
federal government from uh hostile governments at state and the state level and other parts of the country as well and so it's especially um a a tough time I think to be a a trans or queer young person a youth and so um uh for th for
those youth you you're in my heart and my prayers every day and uh want to make sure that we're doing all we can to show our solidarity and support for you i understand that people are very different levels of understanding in our community about the the spectrum of gender identity you might say and what
these things mean and and that's okay really what we're trying to do here today is I hope just say we see you to our fellow residents if you are interested in learning more or understanding more about transgender people I really recommend the group P Flag that's parents and families of lesbians and gays they have some great
kind of like beginner level resources that that you can check out so this is a way to show our support i want to say a special thanks to Malden Pride who did like a petition that folks could sign 130 people have signed that petition so far um and there's and you can still do
so and I hope that this is an opportunity for all of us to have a moment of lightness and celebration in what is an incredibly difficult time thank you for your support thank you Councelor McDonald i think we have some lights uh Councelor Cologne
Hayes uh thank you Council President and um thank you Councelor McDonald for bringing this forward um you know I'm up um I support you i support everyone here in Malden um this is very important um to come out and it was very brave um of you to do that in our community to do
that everyone who signed the petition because like you said it's um more important now more than ever um I have a nephew who I think about every day um he's young he's scared and so every time they see an adult or older people um
standing up it just means so much uh so I am so happy to support this and I just want to thank you again and thank you to the community our community is special malden Pride is amazing that group I love um collaborating with them and we are so lucky um to live here where we
are and hopefully everybody is um in support of this thank you so much again thank you very much Councelor Lahan thank you Mr president um happy to be a co-sponsor on this and just want to echo what so many have said i also wanted to
just share that I think one of the things that is valuable about a resolution like this is that it provides kind of a safe opportunity for folks in the community who may be looking for a lever through which to ask questions or to learn more i've had outreach from folks genuinely
seeking to understand kind of why is this important and you know does this really affect people in our community and and genuinely coming from a place of wanting to know and understand and that's that's really important too i've had some super encouraging conversations over the last week as a result of this
being docketed on our agenda so I really do want to thank um Councelor McDonald for working on this and for Malden Pride which just adds so much to our community um I did also just want to very briefly read something from Councelor Taylor who couldn't be here tonight but um really
didn't want to let the opportunity pass without letting a comment be included so on behalf of um Councelor Taylor she states "I'm extremely proud to be co-sponsoring this resolve tonight i believe that by recognizing and affirming our transgender and non-binary
community members existence we are taking a muchneeded step to show that we're a welcoming city who values the contributions of all who live here i look forward to reinforcing this resolve with actions in the coming months thank you thank you Councelor Lennahan councelor
Winslow yeah I really want to thank Councelor McDonald for bringing this forward um you know I grew up at a time where many people uh gay trans were um not comfortable speaking up or or being
authenticelves um so many in the closet at that time and really because I think in part of the AIDS crisis people um really had to um you know they the recognize um that but I I think you know
I just saw um as I learned um from friends and colleagues um that finding their gender identity was something that they explored and thought about and were very sincere and I just always think about you know our declaration of independence of people pursuing life
liberty and happiness and that's what I I know of my friends and colleagues and uh as well as my own relatives um that that's what they've done and I think that's what's really this stating is that we are supporting people um who've
um searched their own souls and say this is who I am and we need to support people to be who they are and uh that's why I appreciate this so thank you councelor McDonald thank for colleagues who are supporting this thank you thank you councelor Winszo councelor
Crow i mean sorry it's loud we're at the wrong time so I just wanted to say thank you Council McDonald for putting this forward and um really for the um the impactful um comments of my colleagues and I just wanted to be added as a sponsor in full support
councelor Simone thank you Mr president yeah I'd like to uh be added on as a sponsor myself and you know I agree with every everything that everybody was saying up here you know people are who they are and they should be accepted and should be recognized i mean you know there's a
unfortunately there's a there's a stigma uh thrown at it just like there's a stigma which I suffer from substance abuse uh the allergies of substance abuse and you know it's you know it's it's tough you know I mean when you're too funny you're high when you're not funny enough you're high or you got to go hide from people and then not talk to
people so you know uh or just more what people think about you and you know there's no um there's no place for that uh in our society uh as as we grow as uh Americans so uh I I think it's a good paper you know I think everybody should
be treated equally fair um so yeah I I support the paper thank you thank you Council Sinnelli just from the chair thank you to all the sponsors in the co in the in the main sponsor um I just want to uh give an example uh to some people out there who might be having um
a trouble uh learning how to say they them as a singular pronoun um you know relearning words can sometimes be hard and this is just an example of something that's kind of helped me not to say that I'm perfect by by any means um definitely not as someone who's still still learning um but a common example
of using they them in the singular is when someone who is unknown may have left an object behind um so it's common for you to say someone left their water bottle someone being a singular noun their being a singular pronoun um so
it's a great example it just doesn't also apply for when it's someone who's unknown it can also be when you don't know what their gender is um so when you're ever having trouble of how to say a they them singular think of somebody left their water
bottle that's just a trick that I learned so on councelor McDonald's motion to uh pass this second resolve seconded by councelor Simelli all those infl the clerk will call the role
council clone Hayes yes council Condan yes council Crowe yes council Lahan yes council McDonald yes council yes council Simmonelli yes council Spaaphora yes council Winslow yes council President Ali yes
the resolve passes unanimously enrolled ordinances paper 122-25 be it ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of Malden 9.04.010 nuisances affecting public health is hereby amended to provide for
the use of rain barrels exempting them from the nuisance category on C councelor Lahan's motion to ordain the ordinance is there a second seconded by Councelor Crowe uh the clerk
will call the role council Cologne Hayes yes council Condan council Crowe yes council Lahan yes council McDonald yes council Sea yes council Simonella has left the room council Spaphora yes
council Winsow yes council President Dali yes that passes unanimously or is ordained unanimously our next up is communications paper 155-25 communication during the meeting
of March 11th 2025 the council unanimously voted to enter into executive session with legal counsel for the city in accordance with exemption 7 Massachusetts general law chapter 30A section 21A7 to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special
law or federal grant and aid requirements in order to act on the periodic review of those executive session minutes listed herein to determine if release of records is appropriate at this time march 4th 2025 paper 117-25 february 25th 2025 paper
116-25 february 11th 2025 paper 83-25 february 4th 2025 paper 61-25 september 26 2023 paper 335-23 september 12th 2023 paper
316-23 october 25th 2022 paper 425-22 a motion was made by councelor Taylor seconded by councelor Crow to retain said meeting minutes in continued non-disclosure due to the determination that publication would defeat the lawful
purpose of the executive session MGL chapter 3A section 22F as litigation is still pending in the case the minutes refer to and attorney client privilege remains the motion was approved by the following roll call vote yay colon Hayes
Crow Lahan McDonald Zika Simonelli Spedaphor Taylor Winslow Ali nay zero absent Condan so um I'm going to take up a motion to receive this and place it on file um but it it does bring up something that I am
and the clerk are also um very um on top of um we are required to do periodic reviews of our sess executive session um meeting records for public disclosure um there are a lot of them we have done them periodically um but we do know that
we need to do do these regularly so we're working on that um and this is part of that and um you know the reason why these are coming up now is that they were requested um under the open meeting law um so that kind of brought these to the top of of the bunch but we are working on other
ones too um and so I just wanted to kind of put that out there that we are working on it and we appreciate everyone's patience when it comes to that is there a motion to receive this and place it on file on councelor Winslow seconded by
councelor McDonald the clerk will call the role council Colon Hayes yes council Condan yes council Crowe yes council Lahan yes council McDonald council Sea yes yes council Simonelli is still out of the
room council Speedaphora yes council Winslow yes council President Doali yes that has been received and placed on file next order of business is committee reports because there's a lot going on there
paper 156-25 committee report the standing committees on charter review and rules and ordinance serving in a joint session to whom was referred papers 418 and 443 series of 2024 and 85 series of 2025 having considered the
same make the following report one under the authority of paper 418-24 to develop necessary ordinances as needed to modify the city charter committee presents the newly written paper 157-25 as the product of that task to
add MCC 2.12.200 Veteran Service Commissioner Committee recommends this paper out favorably to the full council two committee recommends paper 443 series of 2024 out favorably as amended to the full council three with the order
of paper 85-25 having been completed the committee recommends placing that paper on file and presents the newly written paper8-25 as the product of that order to complete a reorganization of the Health and Human Services and Inspectional Services Departments
committee recommends paper 158 series of 2025 as was drafted in committee out favorably to the full council and I will correct myself on item number one the veteran service commissioner paper is being reported out favorably as amended
in committee on councelor Winslow's motion to receive the committee report seconded by councelor Cologne Hayes the clerk will call the role council Cologne Hayes yes council Condan Council Crow Council Lahan yes council McDonald Council Sega
yes council Simmonelli Council Spaphora yes council Winslow yes council President Ali yes the first paper is 157-25B ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of Malden is hereby amended by adding
2.12.200 veterans service coordinator coordinator to include the following sorry um on councelor Winslow for the committee would you Yeah oh turn you off so I'm just going to
step back a little bit because there's a lot going on here so um as you recall um we actually started off um talking about paper 4324 um the mayor's office had approached us back in the fall when I was council
president about some um sort of antiquated parts of our city charter that were proving to be you know somewhat uh a need to update uh we had things related to the police commissioner the fire commissioner um
public works commission i mean and to update and and do some reorganization um since those things existed in the city charter and the mayor only thought that we should tackle those and as you recall just about this time last year we were actually trying to come up with a
whole new city charter um that sort of effort had sputtered two or three times so this was trying to be a more targeted approach to really look at the charter um and the portions that were the most antiquated so that's sort of what got the ball rolling um and then as it so
happened um you know in the context of having our um you know um health commissioner um uh retiring the thought was that was an opportunity to do some more reorganization um and tackle um
reorganiz reorganizing our inspectional services department and and our health department so um so these things have sort of morged together um and so um so that's really that's really these two
major efforts of doing some charter um updating plus reorganization related to the health and inspection services departments um merged into this effort and one of the things that came out of that was um we in in in in reorganizing
particularly what's going to be the health and human services department the decision was to look at um various coordinators we have in the city in terms of our senior center teen center and have um those coordinators rather than reporting directly to the mayor's
office to to first report through a new health and human services director and and one of the things we realized is that we have what's now called the veteran service commissioner Kevin Jarvis and it made sense that um to add that role as someone under the wing of
the health and human services department so um so in the process of the rules and ordinance committee and the charter review committee you know doing this whole look at reorganization and and uh and and kind of cleaning out the the charter a little bit um we realized it
would be good to add a provision specifically related to the veteran services right now there's just one line in our ordinance that says veteran service commissioner and um and that the responsibility is to implement um the law that that it actually dates back to
the Civil War that each city and town in the Commonwealth has to have a veteran service agent so um so that was really the impetus so what you see before you tonight on at least the veteran services um portion is we've taken language that
was sort of drafted for the senior um center um coordinator and the teen center coordinator and then just wrote that up for the veteran service coordinator so we um you know and we know um everybody's familiar with the work of Kevin Jarvis i mean he the prime
role is to help um veterans and their families adapt to civilian life here in Malden and that is supporting them to pursue you know federal state and local resources to help with that and so there's a lot of programs that veterans
can take advantage of so that is one key role um um you know another role we see is often there's events that the uh you know between Memorial Day Veterans Day and that type of thing that Kevin gets involved in so um so we really you know that this section is really written up
to recognize um the work of the veteran services um department what what we decided right now it's described as a veteran service commissioner under the law um it's actually they call it a veterans agent so we decided because we have a senior center coordinator a teen
center coordinator that to be consistent this position would be a veteran service coordinator so so that the basic thing is just to really have a description so that was sort of the first thing because that wasn't in either paper we decided to draft that tonight we reviewed that
made some changes related to some language related to the designating this as a coordinator position um the committee then um voted on that amendment and voted out the paper rec uh favorably so I I would make a motion
that we uh first uh I guess here we would just trying to think what we got to do here um we uh Okay all right so then I guess I would t make a motion that we uh the committee would be uh moved to
enroll in consistent with the committee report that we would be creating a veteran service coordinator position consistent with the uh report from the um from the committee so that would be my motion on council on councelor W's motion is
there a second second by councelor Simelli is there any conversation or debate on the motion um so from the chair um I know it's not directly related to veteran services um but we did have some public comment about um the charter review and
amendment okay i'm going to come back to that as we go through the whole paper so no but you're talking but this is the first charter change right um this doesn't involve a charter change because it's not part of the charter this is just a uh this is just an
ordinance change oh okay understood all right yeah but I I will address that so I think we'll let's take a moment let's just So this one is not impacted by the this is just a the veteran service uh commissioner is not part of the charter right now so this is just what
we're doing is since we are writing a ordinance related to um the the health and human services department and assigning the veteran service coordinator we just felt it was important that we have a whole new
ordinance that so that it's really it's part of the reorganization some of the reorganization is driven we need to update the charter to do the reorganization but this isn't that understood so on councelor Winsow's motion to enroll correct seconded by
councelor Simmonelli the clerk will call the role uh councelor Cologne Hayes yes council Condan yes council Crowe yes council Lahan yes council McDonald yes council Sega council Simonelli council Spaaphora
oh he seemed to get booted for a second okay councilor would you like to vote to enroll thank you yes very good thank you Council Winslow yes council President Dali yes okay that paper has been enrolled
all right the next paper is 443-24 be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the code of the city of Malden is hereby amended as noted in the body of said paper effective upon successful passage of a home rule petition approving corresponding amendments to the city charter
all right councelor Winsow so this is the paper related to the charter uh changes so this is um so this is the paper um we have there were various sections um related to parks and recreation
um and this was um parks and recreation public works department public works commission engineering um and the the police department the fire department and the the traffic
commission so um so this that was these were the ones that were really driven these are departments or roles and responsibility that are described right now in the charter so the the the general gist of related to charter is actually to basically strike
those commissions and and roles and responsibility from the charter and then um substitute ordinance provisions so that's really what this the whole thing
is there so this is the um the committee um I think we did at least three or four meetings where we went section by section um had a lot of input from um both the rules and ordinance committee um members of the charter review
committee which included um Ron Hogan from um strategic their strategic planning officer and Carolyn as the clerk so we went you know section by se section um and amended those uh the proposed ordinance um that Ron Hogan had
drafted up to um create some clarity there um we did things like we realized that you know now in the city um you know traditionally there was sort of a public work department that under it had a water department now the thought is we we have a department of of water
utilities so we we teased out the roles and responsibility between those departments um we um streamlined some of the things in terms of our public works commission that um you know under the lang initial language like lighting and and some very specific uh kind of
maintenance tasks were listed um under the public works commission we separated those things out and made sure that was clear was the public works department responsibility so so we just went through in detail try to make the roles as clear as possible uh and basically
following some of the same format um through each department of just saying that kind of what their mission is and then maybe you know various bullet points of what their major tasks are so we you know we went through that very thoroughly and it's in your package or whatever so we went you know you know
deliberately um had very good conversations and made um a lot of different amendments i like I say we um you know we we tried to make that as with as much clarity i know the um friends of the FEL's letter we we actually discussed that a little bit
tonight um you know there is some things uh you know we are we're sorting out the responsibilities of the public work commission um and the and what now would be a parks commission which I think everybody a lot of the people on the council are favorable to but there are other sort of impacts in terms of the
community preservation commission committee and and and that we discussed that and we thought that um the maybe the best way to follow up with the the friends thing is like we if this all goes forward and we enroll and then send
um get the charter the home rule petition passed um we'll first have to establish a parks commission and then as as those things are going forward then we'll know um under state law if you have a parks commission someone from the parks commission has to be on the
community preservation committee so it it seems like it makes a lot of sense to um first make sure we get the home petition passed before we start teasing out the that from the the community preservation committee and that you know we don't know whether the the
legislature would take this up and pass it by June or December so I think it with a thought was that you know one of the great things about what we're doing is we are you know deleting a lot of these provisions that are in the charter
and putting it into the ordinances which gives the city much more expeditious ways to update and organize things so the thought is that we will we will you know take up those more specific things related to the parks commission and the
community preservation commission once we have le you know legally reauthorized parks commission and then uh have appointees and then can work out the role um with the the CPC so that was a
little bit of the discussion um in committee tonight so we we did take that comment into consideration so um so I say we did a very deliberate thing i mean I I'd say that um you know we have
not had a specific community outreach uh on all this i mean I think it's you know I think this is sort of almost the third effort we've made over the years i know there was a the charter review committee that I think councelor Ali helped lead up i did it as council
president and this was um this is sort of a third effort to just do a more limited thing there's been a lot of discussion it kind of got off track when we had COVID i think we've put a lot of effort into this um and you know I think the challenges when you get into this
minutia I I just don't know how much interest you know that that that broadening this out and it's been very difficult as we see to get to this point so um I think that the fact that we have a good synchronous between the mayor and
the um and the council and these things are I say really mostly in clearing out some antiquated hundred-year-old or 70-year-old provisions and really focusing on um being able to have a modernized focus organization that both the mayor and the council can have
flexibility going forward i think that those are all advantageous to um the the city at large and we can better serve that the whole point here is to better serve the community so that would be really um you know I don't know if anybody wants further discuss but I
would make the motion that we first um uh adopt the amendments recommended by the um rules and ordinance committee for this paper and so I mean that'd be my first recommendation we have some lights councelor Colon
thank you very much Council President um I just wanted to say yeah this has been a long process and I only joined it um a few years ago and definitely feel it moving um this year there was a lot of movement so I want to thank everybody who's involved on that i'm not on the committee but I
went to all the meetings but I also want to recognize that in hindsight too like yeah um I put on my um Facebook page when we're talking about the charter but it would have been of course it's always better when you get public input so I just want to um acknowledge that um it
would have been great if we did that i understand how it did take us a long time here but um thinking back it would have been great if we had some community involvement but again it's not um I just wanted to acknowledge that and always thank our residents when you know they
come forward with public comment so thank you thank you Councelor Cond thank you uh I had an opportunity to go to a few of the meetings and uh a lot of work went into this document
um the charter commission committee did a terrific job along with support from the ordinance committee and uh particularly Ron Hogan and uh Nelson Miller uh both deserve a lot of uh
credit for putting the effort in that they did so thank everybody on the job you did i said councelor W So before we take any votes um I'm I'm in in favor of the proposal from
councelor Winsow in terms of how to to move forward tonight and so the the the proposal is to to make the changes based on the recommendations from committee enroll it but then not ordain it and wait for the charter um petition to be
uh amended and drafted by our legal department and then sent to the legislature for action you know hearing the public comments from our constituents tonight I'm I'm wondering if in the middle of all that we could do
some more public engagement um and that could be maybe a public hearing or maybe just having another presentation where we highlight some of the changes in less of the the legalies in more of just like the layman's um language um and then if
something like really notable comes out of those public engagement sessions uh we always have the option to um uh you know change the the ordinance unenroll it and and reenroll it or just change the ordinance after because the big thing here is getting it out of the
charter we can always make tweaks to the to the ordinance after but it's really just getting it out of the charter so that we can make some more of these changes that would just be something that I would maybe propose isn't in the intermediary try to do some more public engagement maybe have a public hearing
another presentation um I don't think it's going to hurt um and it probably could only um add um you know more more um support um and I don't and I hope it doesn't and I don't think it would would delay the process councelor McDonald and
Councelor Winslow yeah thank you Council President i was actually thinking along very similar lines um I also think that it would be very helpful once so once we have this um enrolled to really like put this in a digestible format for the general public i just think there's been so many pieces flying around it's hard to know where
we're landing but having a public forum on this and on the need for charter changes I think demonstrates good faith to the legislature that we are working on this um in full public view and and asking for public support i will say on you know in case this is not clear my
experience of all of the meetings has been that we are very much trying to not uh ask major structural questions about things that should change we are instead trying to um take things as they currently operate um and bring them back
into uh a place where we can manage them in an ordinance basis i think the parks commission is probably the one exception to that um of having a separate parks commission and it's certainly something that I I know has received a lot of public comment so um I I recognize there will have to be more process on that
just to get it up and and going but I think that the that it's important for the public to hear that the goal here um for these charter changes is not to um uh to approach this with a bunch of different new ideas it's instead to just
kind of capture where we're at and put that in a manageable format and in fact many great ideas showed up at that table that we said you know what this is not the place to do it because we're trying to stay focused on the charter changes but that's a good idea and we should talk about that and we should do that another time so maybe also just flagging
some areas for future conversation i suspect those are likely to come up as well that we can perhaps engaged in in the years ahead um and get and get that in the media you know get that in our local media and and all the ways that we get the the word out so that folks know that those conversations are happening
so I this also has my full support i really appreciate the diligence and care um that has brought us to this point and uh I'm excited for um that level of public engagement thank you thank you councelor Councelor Winsow and then I see you Councelor Spaphor you had your hand up earlier i'll go to you right
after councelor Winsow yeah um so my my thought is like you know let's I mean the great thing is I think one of the struggles we had before doing more public input is that we didn't really have enough consensus on the council to even put something to the public to put
out there so I think that you know if we enroll it that gives us something to you know put out there to say this is our plan to go forward get input on that so um you know my suggestion is that we would uh I mean that could wait uh I
mean it could come out after we enroll um it could wait until we get the home rule to draft home rule petition because ultimately we as a council have to vote on the home rule petition and sign off on it so so maybe the the public hearing
could be done um either by the charter review committee in approving the the final home rule petition or when we come back to council um but I think some of it to have the enrollment happen tonight is just to give something that we know
is generally supportive because my understanding one of the things with the home rule petition is that the the legislature really looks for uh you know a a strong maybe not a consensus but a strong backing it's not uh you know a split vote they really want to see a
very strong backing so so my you know I I think we can have that opportunity to have some um hearing and we can put that presentation together um so yeah and just to clarify I'm in support of enrolling i was saying between enrollment and and the final vote and
the and the the requests to the legislature let's do some more public engagement and then I think that kind of is the best of both worlds yeah i mean I I think like I I would I my thought is to have one you know let's get this together put one presentation i'm not I
don't want to create the impression we're going to have another five meetings on each section or whatever so I completely see you know if there's that taste we can go from there but I I I I'd say let's do one and see where the public goes on agreed thank you Councelor Winsow councelor Spaphora did
you have uh did you want to speak you're muted i Yeah thank you i I do I was I was not to be uh repetitive but I was thinking the same thing council Maui Council Winso I think we we copy it exactly like we do the budget we have a requirement before the budget is finally voted on to
have a public hearing we do it before scheduled council meeting uh I think you keep that very refined to the areas that been talked about maybe what what is what is the actual writing what is being proposed have public comment allow the the the the residents to to make any
changes on those uh specific areas uh so if there is anything that we think is um prudent or or maybe a better idea of looking at it from a different angle we can at least change that before the final uh sending it off to the to the to the state so I I look at it just like cop just just copy the way we do our our
budget right it's a $225 million document uh that we we vote on every year and we have a public hearing and I think we should do it the same way thank you Council Spaphora so with that do I have any other lights no i think Coun Council Winslow you made a motion
to accept the committee report to amend the paper based on the committee yes to to amend the paper based on the recommendations of the committee seconded by councelor uh Simelli oh Crow she got mad at me last
time for not calling councelor Crow the clerk will call the role so um on the motion to amend paper 443 Council Cologne Hayes yes council Condan yes council Crow yes council Lahan yes council McDonald Council Sega yes
council Simonelli Council Spa yes council Winsow yes council President Ali yes it is amended and then I make a motion to enroll as amended papers amended so councelor Winsow's motion to enroll as amended second by
council Simonelli the clerk will call the role council Cologne Hayes yes council Condan yes council Crow yes council Lahan yes council McDonald yes council Sea yes council Simmonelli council Spataphora yes council Winsel yes council President
Ali yes okay and that that p that is renrolled unanimously and just to clarify to to the public about what that actually actually means i think that we we spoke about what we were doing and how that was going to so uh in order to to change an ordinance it's a two-step
process kind of like first reading second reading so the our first reading is um to enroll the ordinance um we then have to we usually wait a week or more to then ordain it which would be the final action what we're doing now is
we're enrolling it but we're not going to ordain it for as long as it takes for the legislature to for one for us to have this hearing to have our petition drafted we will vote on the petition and then have that referred up to the legislature for approval but we're
actually going to ordain it at the same time we send it to the legisle we just ordained it we what yeah we enrolled it i'm sorry yes yes so we enrolled it but the plan is to actually ordain it at the same time as it gets so it the the the
ordinance will be ordained pending approval of the home rule petition so it won't become effective but we have to Okay on Sarah's recommendation we we need to ordain it at the same time so we just enrolled it we'll do some more public engagement until we have the
final vote for the home rule petition that will go to the state legislature and at that same meeting we're going to ordain pending approval of the home rule petition that gets sent up yes so I think that is kind of getting the
benefit of everything it it it it the process is not going to be uh slowed down any any more than it already has been uh and I think I'll also state that as councelor Winsow did say you we have been working on some form of charter revision since 2019 the pandemic changed
our view of things um and and and changed the priority uh we decided to focus on some of the areas of of our ordinance that are the most um in need of some reform primarily boards and commissions in general structure so I
appreciate the work of the charter committee and um ordinance and I'll hand it back off to councelor Winslow next yes was it is it going to be next of business or clerk will read the next paper paper 85-25 the rules and ordinance committee will meet to discuss a proposal for the potential
reorganization of the health and human services and inspectional services department um having completed that task the recommendation for this paper is to place on file all right so yeah um so yeah we um in
the process of talking about health and human services and that type of thing we the initial paper was was conceptual so now we've come up with the actual ordinances so I think that's why we just placing this on file so just make a motion to place that initial conceptual
paper on file on councelor Winsow's motion to place on file seconded by councelor Simonelli the clerk will call the role council colon hayes council condan council crow Yes council Lahan yes council McDonald yes council Seeker is not in the room council Simmonelli
yes council Spataphora yes council Winslow yes council President Ali yes all right next order of business 158-25 be ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of
Malden title 2 chapter 12 and 16 and title 9 chapter 16 are hereby amended as noted in the body of said paper effective upon the successful passage of a home rule petition approving corresponding amendments to the city charter council all right so this is the
set of ordinances that focus on doing some re restructuring related to um the inspectional services department and what would be now the health and human services department um so that's the main th thrust um just the overall um
perception right now we have inspections under building and inspectional services we have some health inspectors that go out and inspect things we actually have our compli compliance officers um so we basically have three sets of different
inspectors that often are enforcing codes and that type of thing um a lot of other cities what they've done is put all their inspectional personnel under the department of a department of inspectional services so that is one key aspect of that this is that we will have
our health inspectors that go out and go to restaurants or or do tobacco control enforcement those will actually all operate under the inspection services department the um you know the compliance officers that sort of sort of actually report to us in a way they will
actually be reporting through the um you know the inspectional services department so that's a key thing in term in terms of spectral services you know it gives a bigger role but then there's some consistency there that you know um you know that way you know there
there'll be you know we have like the um the various licensing things or various things related to businesses that way that's all done under one department um and then the health department um the role of inspections will be we be um
changed but um they will still sort ort of be um a key role in terms of the board of health will be under their wing so in terms of permitting and creating regulations related to businesses that are related to uh under the responsibility of board of health they
will be um responsible for that but then I'll be also responsible for human services activities like you know the senior center the teen center and the veteran service coordinator so so that's really um an emphasis um and then even
like multilingual um so it's it's really just um creating emphasis of having um the role of health and human services will be creating the rules and and running services like vaccinations and stuff
like that it'll be a little bit less going into restaurants and that type of thing so that that's just in general what the plan is and the other and and so finally so by doing by doing this
this whole review we realized that under the charter we have some inspectional things like the compliance officers and the wiring inspector are in the charter so what the charter review committee recommended during our meetings was to actually expand expand the scope of the
home rule petition to to also um eliminate provisions related to them that would be um would be helpful to this reorganization as well so it just made sense that if we're going to go home do a home rule petition that's that's dealing with the first set of
kind of antiquated provisions we might as well add the three provisions that that are impacted by um this like the technically you know under state law um boards of health there's a there's a couple state law provisions that you can have a health commissioner in the city
or you can have a board of health we technically our charter gives us the mayor and the city council um to the the authority to set up a border of health so our board of health is sort of this entity that doesn't technically exist under state law uh although they they
they use all those powers so the thought is we will eliminate that provision or our ch charter and just that our board of health will be simply a uh state you know follow the state law and we'll establish that way so so that's that's
just some of the context of um you know we're we're just again it's a little bit of reorganization but then it's also by eliminating some antiquated provisions in the charter just helps so I don't know if people have questions or comments so that's what that's going on
so yeah oh yeah yeah just simal thank you Mr president i just I don't know i was just thinking out loud so if you're So So for instance the uh border health director so you would be taking some of those responsibilities that he has now he or she has now and then putting them
on the inspectional services uh director so I just would like you know just to if someone can clarify for me under the classification usually like the amount of money that people are getting paid uh are because of the responsibilities that
they undertake uh in the course of their duties if you're taking that away aren't you like putting more responsibility on somebody else and less on on less on someone uh you know would that would that change almost like an impact bargaining thing with the because they're all union members local 25 the
directors right so I think for the actual inspectors there's still still going to be you know people that are building inspectors there going to be health inspectors there still going to be compliance officers their duties aren't really changing it's just who
they report to is changing so that's that's it's not expanding their duties you know the the duties of the you the um you Nelson Miller as head of the inspection service department his he's getting more reports so and and then the
health and so he's taking on more responsibility is sense so that so that's something you know that that that is subject to some negotiations Nelson said in the meetings he supported it right so um I'm just saying I don't know if that I don't know if that's a if that's something that could come up down
the road when it comes to impact bargaining uh with with the C CBAs with the unions under management and director saying "Well look you know you're giving this our guy more responsibilities our union member more responsibilities therefore you know other cities and
towns increase their their payroll their which I don't have a problem with it when the time comes i'm just saying I don't know if this would spark that is all I'm saying yeah you know we did talk at least in terms of the individual staff that the you know the the the
staff like the health agents and the you know inspectional service people and the the compliance officers their their roles don't change this who they report to so um that it's there is you know I
think for you know Nelson Miller Special Services so you know he's aware of it he was in the meetings no I I understand all that i think one of the key things is that what we're doing right now at the moment one one of the key things driving this reorganization is that you know Chris Webb's stepping down as a
health director and what we want to do is that what you know this is already out for for um you know the the positions being announced but we want to make sure because the role of this new person we're trying to hire is changing
that that the new job description had this new role in there so to be you know yes they're overseeing you know vaccinations and and um overseeing you know nursing and other type of things but then they're also seeing the overseeing these other things just make
clear that you know they're not overseeing the health inspector so that we just now's the time to do it because the positions open and that that was really what was driving this that um it was to make sure so I don't I think it's you Nelson's there right now so the the
new whoever gets hired as this new health and human service person they are coming in knowing what their new job responsibilities is and what the salary is so I don't think there's an issue there and Nelson's been you know willing to take on this new role so I I I think it's No and that's fine and you know
Nelson being okay with it is okay i mean you know Nelson does a great job i'm saying down the road when it comes to collective bargaining agreements with the union that could be an argument for them to make and say look you know you've put more responsibilities on this person so therefore you know we see that
person should be getting paid comparable to other communities that that same role applies to they get paid x amount of dollars i mean I'm okay with it when when the time comes i'm just saying it could trigger a CBA type of um impact
bargaining language back and forth on on that issue but I mean I'm okay with it if everybody else i I think the way this is structured is that that may be you know the director of inspectional services might have that that claim and I don't know you know that they might have that but I think the thing is the
individual inspectors it's not they're not really being any No but the responsibility to the director is more responsible because they're going to hear so that so if I'm I'm usually going out and I'm inspecting restaurants and I'm I'm reporting to um Chris Webb now I'm reporting to Nelson Miller that's
more responsibility for Nelson and I know they're adding more to human services too so I I I think that we've I think that we both are we're all in agreement um I think I think that the conversation I think I think we all are aware of this it actually is one of the reasons why
when we were talking about this I actually said you know when we were talking about our transportation commi commission or our transportation committee they were talking about putting the director of inspectional services on that i had actually said I don't think it's the best use of your time to also put on this particular
boarding commission so councelor Simelli I I agree with you um it was vetted in committee though the conversations were had and as as councelor Winsow stated you know um Ron Hogan as well as Nelson Miller were actively participating and suggested this uh this structure
good all right i'll leave it I'll leave it there thank you very much thank you uh Councelor McDonald hold on thank you all right thank you i just wanted to express my gratitude and support for this approach um that the mayor is bringing forward i
think it does a lot of really good things all at the same time um I think just for starters reducing the number of direct reports to the mayor and bringing more coordination among these different you know smaller um departments and and and agencies and so on is is a is a
great thing and an opportunity i think that the additional attention and focus that the public health nurses that addiction recovery and support um and other public health outreach will receive uh by framing the I know we already have technically a department of
health and human services but I think the increased emphasis here is is really meaningful and um and bringing in language access support too as a part of that um really provides uh an opportunity for us to have a holistic way of engaging our diverse community
about their human services and and and diverse there's so many different types of needs um that we can have some better coordination around and I think that's so true in the way that the city works and can even work can can always even continue to work better with our many
community organizations doing parallel work of which Malden is blessed to have so many from the warming center and bread of life to Elliot um and ABCD and so just having all of that really like centralized and focus uh I'm excited for the opportunity to bring in a a director
who we're really selecting for that you know we thank Director Webb for his service and and wish him well in retirement and I I think this is a I think this is a great opportunity so I'm very supportive of this i also think that it makes a lot of sense to bring together the various inspectional pieces so that we can better utilize our staff
time and be more consistent in the way we're approaching our residents and be consistent more consistent in the way we as counselors reach out to raise inspectional and compliance issues so for all of those reasons I just think this is a really smart way to move um and I'm grateful for the opportunity to
support it and the staff involved thank you Council Lantan thank you Mr president um at the risk of being a little bit redundant to what Council McDonald just said i did just want to you know share that perspective that I think in in terms of streamlining
things and bringing very similar duties under one umbrella I think it makes a lot of sense and you know when I first had read this proposal I had some questions i was like not 100% sold but the more that I really read through it and thought through you know particularly as a ward counselor when you get let's say you have um a
problematic property with a you know absentee landlord it's becoming an issue for the neighborhood you know you have to talk to inspectional services compliance team board of health sometimes police sometimes fire um it's just you add all of these folks onto one
email chain and then we sort of pick and choose which is the most urgent or or lowhanging fruit issue to go after first and then sort of build a case this feels like it'll pull everybody onto one team not that we don't all act as a team already but it it brings everybody into kind of one place so that when you have
these myriad issues that present and then often you know you might encounter folks who need services whether that's language very often language access is the next thing that I find myself needing to pull in when there's a board of health related complaint um or addiction support services having those
folks all on one team it just it made a complete sense to me and I think the behind the-scenes part that's efficient for residents and taxpayers to hear too is that it brings all the systems into one so currently these departments use different technology different equipment
they'll all be on the same you know I don't know what you call those things but they they'll be able to basically go out with sort of like those keypads that connect right into the database back at city hall enter information in real time so everybody's working with the same info um there's much less subjectivity to how things were handled there's more
documentation so I think it'll actually improve residents experience it'll certainly improve counselor's experience of trying to connect folks to services and solve issues but I think that those who call city hall are going to get a faster answer and those teams are going to be consistently you know managed same
expectations same tools same tech um so I'm definitely supportive of this and I think it'll be something that folks will will see the value of as we get into it thank you um seeing no other lights is
there a motion councelor Winslow all right so um yeah so a motion to amend the paper um uh based on the uh rules and orders committee recommendations it wasn't amended it was
drafted in committee oh uh so I think uh this was just what the city clerk is saying that it doesn't need to be amended it just needs to be enrolled all right so then All right so to enroll maybe just to because we've already accepted the committee report all right okay all right okay okay okay all right good
so all right so on councelor on councelor motions to enroll the paper as recommended by the committee second by councelor all those in favor uh the clerk will call the role council clone hazes yes council Condan
yes council Crow yes council Lahan council McDonald council Seika yes council Simmonelli yes council Sphapora yes council Winslow yes council President Ali yes okay that is enrolled
a couple more things to do here stay with me so um All right yes so we have to um the charter review committee uh based on that paper made some recommendations on three charter
deletions um to delete section 23F related to plumbing inspector from the charter to um delete section 23G related rated co code enforcement inspector and to delete section 32 um specifying the
board of health so I my my motion would be to uh direct that the legal department and the charter review committee draft a home roll petition with those additional um deletions and
then addend the papers as enrolled um so I have I I understand the referral to legal for drafting where where is this other language about the other deletions that was at the end of the um the health
and human services reorganization paper okay so it it is included in something that's on this agenda yeah it's like page 11 of the um of the health and and health and inspections ordinance updates edits as of March 18 so it's the final
page okay i just I'm just from an open meeting law perspective i want to make sure that we're referring back to it okay so based on the recommendations of the health and and inspections ordinance updates edits as of March 18th you're uh could you repeat again what what
sections you're recommending be removed so yeah the charter review committee recommended the these additional deletions be added to the home rule to petition um section 23F concerning the plumbing inspector section 23
JG concerning code enforcement inspector and section 32 related to the board of health okay so on councelor Winslow's motion to refer this to legal for drafting of the home rule petition as proposed um by the
charter review committee uh commission or committee with the addition additional three uh sections to be removed 23F 23G and what was the last one section 32 section 32
seconded by councelor clone Hayes any conversation on that motion seeing none the clerk will call the role council Cologne Hayes yes council Condan yes council Crow yes council Lahan yes council McDonald yes council Sega yes
council Simmonelli yes council Spaphora yes council Winslow yes council President Dali yes thank you for your uh patience and but great work of everybody who participated and uh yeah thank you for uh Ron Hogan
and Nelson and Carolyn and uh everybody on the committees for their thoughtful input that uh this is a great step forward and we'll look forward to um seeing the home rule draft home rule petition and having that public hearing uh before we go proceed so thank you very Yes I want to I want to echo your
your thanks to to Ron and the administration and and the entire council as well as you Council Winself for helping shepherd this you were absolutely pushing this along uh to to the city to the city clerk who also serves as a member of our of our charter committee you know it wouldn't have been
possible without you and our clerk of committees um with that uh the docket is clear any personal privilege councelor Simonelli uh and then and we already have motions to adjourn on
Kind of jumped the gun there didn't you i'll be quick about it i just I want to just thank uh Barbara Kim the mayor's office uh DPW director Bobby Knox and all the people that came out and helped clean up Lincoln Commons uh this past Saturday with a little uh little clean
up starting like Operation Beautifification in Ward 7 and uh it was great to see everybody come out and the park looked good before we started now it even looks better so I just want to say thank you to everybody and uh see you next time thanks thank you Councelor
Winsow yeah um so following up on that um we will be um at the Salem Wood School at 9:00 on Saturday to do a clean up along the trail it will include some of Ward 7 five and six there so um so happy to come out for that um that's
rain or shine so we'll uh you know it may be a little dreary on Saturday and cold but dress warm and and uh we will be out there as always um to get there and then on uh Sunday the 30th um the me the teen center is having their friends
group is having a fundraiser so uh please uh please come out to that that supports um you they do amazing work um you talking to you the youth who have opportunities to like go on hiking and and other things it's it's a great thing that they do and um you know I know when
I t talk talked to Kathy McMullen about you know she says you know they she took a group of kids up to New Hampshire from Malden and uh you know someone come up comment came up to her and commented her how well the kids were you know were
behaved and and they had um just you know really outstanding things to say and and they really thanked her and she said don't thank me this This is this is just great um thank you thank the kids for that and uh she just enjoys being
there for the kids and uh and this uh fundraiser helps you support those kids to uh get outdoors and uh and enjoy so um definitely get out there thank you great and just from the chair um I I
also have a cleanup on a Saturday April 5th um looking at the weather as you said councelor Winszo it's not quite clear what's going to happen um so um you know stay tuned so far the the cleanup would be at Weights Mount at 10 a.m on Saturday if it's going to be a
snowstorm maybe it'll be a snowball fight my councelor Sega's motion to adjourn and