Council will come to order. All rise and salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Please remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of our veterans, service members, and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. I'm going to councelor Winsow for another moment of silence. Yeah, I just um Tom Kofka of Columbia Street, a
longtime W 6 resident. um he loved folk dancing and he was a longtime member of the ward six democratic committee passed away uh last week. So um just wanted to send condolences to his wife Suzanne Castanza and um so just have a moment of
silence. Thank you. And we're going to go to councelor Sika for another moment of silence. Thank you council president Wood 8 also lost somebody this past week. Patricia Daly um is the mother of Dan May Hoy Mayott Mayott um he owns New
England Security on the corner of Broadway in East A. He's at um Malden business owner. Him and his mother live on Coleman Street. She um passed away unexpectedly at the age of 64. So I'd like to have a moment of silence for Patricia.
Thank you. And I would actually like to also do a moment of silence. Um I apologize. Um so uh this this individual is not a resident of Malden. They're actually a resident of Everett. Uh but my great aunt, my mom's aunt Josie Masana unfortunately passed away
yesterday. and uh you know Everett and Malden as well as Mel all used to be Malden and so I would like to do a moment of silence for a great woman who was really influential in my life and my mom's life. Thank you. Thank
you. The clerk will call the role. Councelor Clone Hayes here. Councelor Condan. Councelor Crow here. Councelor Lahan here. Councelor McDonald here. Councelor Sika here. Councelor Simelli here. Councelor Spataphora.
Councelor Taylor here. Councelor Winslow here. Council President Omali here. Under the provisions of the open meeting law, for those of you in attendance, please be informed that Urban Media Arts UMA will be recording this evening's meetings. So, just to be aware, there
will be audio and video recordings of this evening's meeting. So, under our rules, we allow public comment. Public comment is allowed on um for uh any of the subject matter relevant to today's meeting
agenda. Um, and everyone must keep their comments to two meaning two minutes or less. Um, it looks like we have no one signed up in person to speak. Uh, have we have any public comment in writing? No. And we don't have anything in writing. So, now we're going to move on to our consent agenda. This evening's
consent agenda consists of meetings to be approved, uh, one reappoint to be confirmed, and there are seven petitions to be referred to license. Um under our rules, any councelor can remove any of the me um the ma matters from the committee uh from the consent agenda.
Would anyone like to do that? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Councelor Seika, seconded by councelor Simmonelli. Uh the uh we have we're all in person. Oh, I think because we are uh doing a reappoint, we do need to do a roll call
vote on that. So the clerk will call the role. Councelor Clone Hayes, yes. Councelor Condan, yes. Councelor Crowe, yes. Councelor Lahan, yes. Councelor McDonald, yes. Councelor Sika, yes. Councelor Simelli, yes. Councelor
Spataphor, Councelor Taylor, yes. Councelor Winslow, yes. Council President Omali, yes. The consent agenda is approved uh 10 to zero. The next order of business is motions, orders, and resolutions.
Paper 248-25. Order that the council president work with the chief of with the chief financial officer and finance team to evaluate options for increased access and oversight of the city city's finances including but not limited to
the following possible proposals. Number one, readonly access to the city's financial software. Number two, the production of regular financial reporting to be shared with the finance committee and other interested officials. Oh, so I think because this is my paper,
I need to vacate the chair and hand it over to our our president prom Lahan. Okay, let me orient myself to the driver's seat here. Okay. So, I will recognize councelor Ali
from the paper. Thank you so much. I appreciate that and I apologize for not coordinating this before. I just realized when it came up on the agenda. Um, so this is a this is something I had been thinking about for a rather long time when I when I you know particularly when we have difficult financial times
coming up. um you know being fully informed as the finance committee or the council or any of the other you know elected officials or appointed officials in the city that would need access you know I think there are ways that we can either do um readonly uh access potentially that might not be as ideal
if we don't know what we're looking at um so the other dynamic is having regular reporting coming out um I did talk to both the CFO and our controller Chuck Ranigan as well as um our city
treasurer Dan Dan Grover um and um they are um aware and are going to look at it. Um it it might not end up being either of these ideas, but it's how can we as a city council stay informed and up to date, particularly as we're going into tough budget seasons. Um and with
that, um I will take any questions. Uh and if uh the city treasurer would like to speak, he's welcome to, but he's not pressured to do so e either way. Uh but he is available here for questions. Thank you, councelor Ali. Council President Omali, you
okay? Okay. Um, I have Wait a minute. C, hang on. Councelor McDonald, I'll recognize you first. Thank you. Uh, council I guess council president, I don't know. What are you acting council president? Council
president prom. Just Amanda. Thank Thank you. Um, And uh yeah, well I just want to say while I haven't had a chance to talk to the council president about this, I you know I I really support the goals here. Um I agree that readonly access to the
city's financial software is likely to run into the challenge of needing to know what things mean. Um my experience looking at accounting software is that it's it doesn't always tell you the things you need until unless you run the get the reports to run that will tell
you the things that you need. Um, so I w wanted to know um if you would be open to also adding uh the finance chair to this order that the city council president work with the chief financial officer and the finance chair. Uh, and I
would be happy to be added as a co-sponsor if that would be helpful. Yeah, that's that's a great friendly amendment. Okay. Are you all set? I'm all set. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I will take councelor Winsel. Yeah. No, I'm just I know um you
giving uh some type of access to the public more broadly always ha ch some cyber security issues. So, I wonder if we should also have the um ask the information technology officer to be involved in some way and the I don't know if the treasur would be aware or or
that'd be something we should uh we should involve that it Rodriguez just to be uh certain on that front. Yeah, I think that that's a a great idea. I think it based on the conversations that I've had so far, the
readonly access is probably not what would be ideal. It's just one of the ideas that I had. It's probably more so going to be regular reporting. Um Okay. But yeah, including the IT director is is a great idea. I don't know if we need to amend it. I think
it's just something that's going to happen. Yeah. Yeah. So that's that's I just make make a remnant. I don't know if we know necessarily have to amend it, but yeah, I'm supportive trying to be more transparent thing. Okay. Councelor Cologne Hayes. Uh yes, thank you so much. Um I am in full support of this
but uh understanding now you might have to do some more work on it. Uh love the idea of being more transparent. I did have a question though here um with says the production of regular financial reporting to be shared with the finance committee and other interested
officials. So, I'm not sure if what councelor Winslow just said about the public. Could I ask like was this to mean that inside um city hall will have access to that or the general public?
Yeah, I I wasn't envisioning the general the general public having access. Um obviously, if there are reports being uh like printed or produced, those are public records. Um this was more for internal um individuals.
Okay. And then also for the friendly amendment um it says here that it would be shared with the finance committee. So would it be could we add the finance committee or just the chair or leave it as is here
where it says with the finance committee and other interested officials? And I would like to be a sponsor as well. Thank you. I apologize. I I didn't I I I didn't quite understand. So yeah, it the the vision was that we have a finance committee and that the finance committee
should be the primary like funnel for this information and that if there are other like for instance, say you're not on finance anymore, but you're still interested in finance, you can you could still be or say let's say the the mayor would like to have the same type of access. I think that that would make sense too. Um that's why I
put other interested officials. Okay, that's it. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. All set. Council Col. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no other lights. Everybody all set. So, we have a a friendly amendment from Is that you, Councelor McDonald to
add after the words chief financial officer and finance chair? Um, do I have a second on that? Councelor Winslow. We can do a voice vote. Correct. Okay. All in favor of of amending the paper? I. I. Okay. That carries. And then we need a
motion to adopt the order. I'll make as amended. As amended. Um, let's go with by councelor Ali. Seconded by councelor not me. I heard Yeah, I heard these ter I don't know if I can make motions technically. Oh, that's a good point. Okay, so on a motion by councelor Cologne Hayes, seconded by councelor
Simmonelli. All in favor? Okay, that carries. Do you want me to stay here for your other paper? Okay, will the clerk please read the next order of business? Yes. Paper 249-25 be it ordained by the city council of the city of Malden that the
code of the city of Malden MCC is hereby amended by adding title 2 chapter 04 section 040 remote participation all boards commissions and multimember public bodies shall provide for remote
participation by the public at meetings and hearings individual boards commissions or multimember public bodies may develop their own rules from a for remote participation by their own members. Okay, Council President Ali for the
paper. So, actually this I'm just this I this year I felt like I wasn't very productive. I hadn't submitted many papers and now I'm realizing why because it's kind of like that's kind of a weird thing if you're a council president to like you know put put papers in. Um, but this is something that I had also been
thinking about for a while and you know now that with the support of the administration and Ron Hogan um and the council being such good sports um and on and we've taken a lot of opportunity to use remote participation both our members as well as the public um you
know I think that we've shown that it is possible. There are some kinks that I think we're ironing out as as the city council. Um, and I think that since we've led by example, um, I think it would make sense to try to, uh, bring the common sense, uh, lessons that we've learned to other boards and commissions.
Um, and one of the reasons being is, um, you know, in the heyday, I guess it was back in 2019 before COVID, um, you know, we used to have a lot of people attend our meetings, our public meetings, um, boards and commissions. Um we had you
know citizen journalists live streaming on Facebook um you know writing all different types of things to keep people informed. Um and then COVID happened and it pushed us all onto Zoom into remote meetings and we we had even more participation which was you know a
surprise. Um but then you know since coming back into person coming back in person very few people show up. I thank the the people in the audience tonight for for coming here and holding us accountable. Um, but it's it's something that uh, you know, people have maybe
lost the the the the uh reflexive like a muscle memory of coming to public meetings and kind of keeping an eye on the on the on the the watchman. Is that how you say it? Um, and so I would like to give um people
the access uh to to say if they have children or they work uh the late shift and they want to be able to kind of follow along. Um I think it'd be great to be give people access. Even selfishly for myself, we do have some boards and commissions that meet uh in during
business hours and it's very hard to really ever participate in those meetings. And so if it was an option for people to, you know, tune in potentially during their lunch break or take a late lunch to tune in to some of those meetings that happen in the middle of the day, I can't remember the last time I've been to a sign design review
committee meeting. Um, I know it exists and you do a great job. [Laughter] Um, so that's just my thought. And the other dynamic is if say you have a board that does not want their members to be
remote then the last sentence basically says individual boards commissions and multi-member bodies may develop their own rules for remote participation by their own members. So for instance if the planning board doesn't want to allow the planning board members to attend remotely they could pass a rule that
says they are not allowed to attend remotely and they must come in person. Each board is up to itself u and has its own discretion. So, I don't want to belabor the point. Um, thank you for entertaining this paper. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Ali. I'll take councelor
Crow. And thank you, Madam President. Um, I just I really had a question. I think I might have answered myself. So it says shall so can we are we requiring them to have remote participation um for for the public um or is it they
can Jim saying like so it seems like even in your description it was they will be but can we tell them they have to because we're asking a lot for volunteer you know boards and commissions so it might be that as you
your example the planning board might say that their members cannot, but are we saying that now the traffic commission has to or the planning board has to have remote participation or they can have remote
participation? It's a great question. So, right now they can and there there's nothing preventing them from having remote participation. This would require that they they shall and they must have a remote participation for the public.
their own members. they decide if so if the so I'll give you an example the the conservation commission is also entirely you know volunteer right they do them remotely um and you know so there are some boards that do some boards that
don't um some boards have city staff that might be able to support um others do not but it's it's interesting that the ones that don't really have city sta full-time city staff members are actually the ones that are more remote or more remote participation like CPC
also So um so is this getting referred um to some or we only we really need to actually have their input on if there is some you we sometimes pass these things and we really don't have their their
input and how it actually works in reality. So yeah I think referring it to ordinance to iron these details out is ideal. Um and I it and it's and it's the one benefit is that because co forced us to do this already it would it's kind of like the hardest part is going from zoom
to teams which is the kind of experience that we had. So the one of the other reasons I'd like to do this sooner rather than later is that we've learned all these lessons. Our our support staff and our city clerk and and the clerk of committees and our IT staff are really
good at training people now. So now would be the time to try to get that training out there to develop the skill set. But I think ordinance is the right place for it to go. Okay. Thank Thank you, Councelor Crow. Um I have next councelor Cloone Hayes.
Thank you very much. Um I think this is a great idea and also want to thank you for doing all you've done um as you were president this year to get uh us providing remote access um to meetings and committee meetings. So, I think it's
been great and I hear what it what council crow means and since you're going to refer it to ordinance um you can talk it out there and hash it out but from what I've seen on the personnel committees um who we're who we are um
interviewing I can't imagine anyone having an issue with getting this up and going. Like there's so many people now this is like the way of life in business and it may actually be harder for some of our staff. Um, so training would be great, but um, the school committee's been so great at it. I think sometimes
it just takes doing it, jumping in, learning, and getting it done because it's what our public deserves, um, to be able to access these meetings. Um, and I think it's a great idea. Looking forward to seeing it hash out in ordinance. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Cologne
Hayes. Councelor Simonelli. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I just go back on uh what my colleague uh council crow was mentioning. I mean, I don't know, maybe just to kind of clean up the language of sending it in by saying uh may instead of shall just shall sound so much like
you shall do this and I mean I don't know if we want right. Yeah. I don't know if we want to do that, but maybe and then kind of leave it up to the like you were saying the individual department uh boards to decide whether or not shall means they must or not. But
coming from us, uh maybe it should be going in as shall or may instead of shall. Just my it just sounds it just sounds softer. And again, like councelor Coen Haye said, we could hammer this out uh in committee, but I would feel better
of it going in with a little change on saying instead of saying shall say may. May I respond? Of course. So, um I appreciate that and I I I appreciate the the desire to compromise there. Um right now it is a may so they they may do it.
Um, and I think that one of the reasons why I think it's okay for the city council to say shall in order uh boards and commission. I thought it was can. I thought the word no can is their members. Okay. So like for instance like like like that allows like remote
participation by the public. But we've also decided that our members can. What I'm saying is the public must be allowed to attend remotely and the members may based on a vote of the body. And the only reason why I think it's acceptable for us to order boards and commissions
to do things is often times under state law, we created them. And if we abolish them, not saying we would, but if we abolish the planning board, we become the planning board. The the p planning board's power flows from us, the city council. if we we found out we were also
the us and the mayor are also the board of health. We're changing that in the charter but so much of the power of the city flows from us. So I think it's okay for us to set the parameters, but I think hashing it out in ordinance is uh is the goal. Okay. Thank
you. Okay, councelor Winsow. Yeah. No, I mean I I would definitely recommend that we refer it. Um, you know, one kind of pause I have, um, is I mean, I think I like the spirit of it, but you know, as someone, you know, being on the, um,
east side of town, I like having meetings there for convenience of people to get there rather than we have at city hall. And the capabilities in like the school buildings and other buildings are less. And I know when we've tried to have uh, you know, we've had a lot of community meetings at Salem School in
the cafeteria, um, it's it's it can be difficult. Um they don't have very good Wi-Fi. Um and the acoustics are bad. So it gets hard for um you know so that's just something we have to think of of um it's we have the great
technology this room is perfect for it. But if you want to do something outside of city hall um that is a problem and then it's can be sometimes unfair to people who want to participate in person. So um so that's just something we have to figure out or whatever. there's there are technical limitations
that are outside this building. You know, we I've had, you know, the great community room at the police station does not have the capabilities we have here, even though it's a pretty modern building. So, there may be the type of thing that um you know, as I try to have community meetings, um there's technical
limitations to try to fulfill this. So, um so it's just something to think about. So, yeah. Thank you, Councelor Winsow. Councelor McDonald. Yes. Thank you uh council president prom and um I also think this is really interesting and have some experience um
with groups that are volunteer-led and trying to navigate the technology around this and I just want to say I think this is why we have committee processes to investigate all these questions and then limitations and talk with other folks and so I would encourage us to take up the referral to the rules and ordinance
committee and then make sure that we are reaching out to our commission and board chairs in that process to talk to them about this and proceed from there. Is that a motion? That is a motion to refer to the rules and ordinance committee.
Fantastic. So, I'll take that as a motion by council McDonald, seconded by councelor Cologne Hayes to refer to ordinance. All in favor? I. That motion is referred. Do you need me to stay for the following? Okay.
Well, now I'm drunk with power and I don't want to give up my seat. Thank you so much for that. I really appreciate it. Um, yeah. So, the next order of business, please. In accordance with 940 CMR 29, open meetings. This
agenda was revised on May 19th to reflect an unexpected occurrence with the Massachusetts Land Court demanding immediate action in the in the two papers as posted below known as paper 255 and 256 series of
2025. Paper 22 255-25. Order. The council will vote on whether to sell or retain the property known as 42 Crescent Avenue and by city assessor's parcel identification number 072
824410 as in accordance with the tax title litigation and foreclosure action with the Massachusetts Land Court case number 24TL 0000383. Thank you. So, yeah, just to provide, we sent this information by email. I don't
know if y'all saw it. Um, but um I am I listed as a sponsor, but I'm not sponsoring this. I'm I'm bringing it to your to your attention because um we had um basically tax title litigation
and at some point in the in the last two or so weeks uh that we got a final judgment um that basically said that we now own these properties. So like it they are now city property and uh which I don't remember this ever happening in
my tenure. Um, we do have Dan Grover, the city treasurer, here to ask answer any questions. Um, on on one of them, and I and I can't I think I think it says it in the email, and I don't have the best reception to bring it up, but one of the properties, uh, we had 14 days to decide, are you going to retain
the property or sell the property? Um, if we retain the property, we would need to have it appraised and we would need to pay the property owner the difference between what they owe us and our attorney's fees uh, and what the value of the property is. That would require
an appropriation. We don't really have the money to buy houses right now. So, really the only option that gives us is to sell these properties. The other one we have to make that we have those 14 days is um, coming up tomorrow. Um, so this is a this is an emergency about
what you want to do. Um, I I I didn't want to make this call myself as the council president because we do have some city ordinances that have defined a process related to referring it to public properties, getting an opinion from the planning board and
getting an appraisal. Unfortunately, all of those steps cannot be done in 14 days now. And uh we are in the position of either we buy these properties by paying them what they owe or or we sell them. Councelor Simi,
thank you for the point of information. Listen, I I don't have a problem with you know uh you know taking property that's dilapitated tax titled and we could put it to some good use. We've done that already in the past. I just like to caution my colleagues that I had been down this road before. And I don't mean to be redundant because I know I've
told some of you this uh in the early 2000s. Um after 9/11, we were in a big budget crisis and I had got a map of my neighborhood and we got all these parcels of land uh that the city owned uh including a couple of bigsiz parcels
and we did multi different uses with them where there was affordable housing, affordable home ownership uh down there. Just this is my word of caution. We found out as we were going through this that we had to get a home rule petition because when because now that
it's identified as being public property for the city of Malden when you sell public unless it's changed unless our legal guy a legal team can come up here and tell us that that has been changed in the past to sell public uh to sell public properties from the city. the
money that the the the money that you receive from that sale has to go back in the public properties uh caucus, you have to do a home room petition to change it for it to go into the general fund. We've done that before. That's what we did after 9/11 to
close that budget gap, the deficit of like $3 million. Uh but again, I I don't know if the rules have changed since then or if this is something different where it's tax titled. I don't know. But I think it's something that we really need to know about before we I mean or
whether I mean unless you need the money in public properties. But and I'm going to go to the city treasur. I just want to clarify that we only did we only read the first paper or did we also read the second paper? We only read the first. We only Okay. Should we do we want to take both of the papers up at the same time? So we're going to read the sec because I want to have this
conversation with the people who own this property or maybe their neighbors and their friends knowing that we're talking about their property. So please read uh 25625. Paper 256-25. Order. The council will vote on whether to sell or retain the property
known as 4042 Wentworth Street and by city assessors parcel identification number 029145 518 as in accordance with the tax title with tax title litigation and
foreclosure action with the Massachusetts Land Court case number 22TL 0000343. Yes. And then one other thing I I I I'm gonna also read I I these are all public records and I think it's important that
people know. Um my understanding is that um the the the city uh the city staff as well as our our outside legal consultant Dan Broio um LLP have been in various levels of con contact with the
individuals. Um one of the properties is in Ward 4, the other one is in W in W two. Um I am going to just read the names and the addresses because if people do know these people please reach out and let them know that they can still you know get their property back
but they must reach out to us very soon. Um, so 42 Crescent A, Malden, MA2148, uh, Wong Wong Z, uh, Quac Kong, uh, 42 Crescent A. Um, you know, if please, if you know these
people, um, have them reach out to the city. The the other property, um, is owned by, um, it's in, again, Ward 2, 40 to 42 Wentworth Street. Uh, and that property,
sorry, a very bad cell sell service is owned by uh Kimchi, Juan Senma, Juan Hongma, Yan Canging, 40 Wentworth Street, Malden, Massachusetts. Uh, and with that, um,
I'm going to go to the city treasurer to give us an update, um, and and kind of clarify the question that councelor Simonelli had, um, and kind of maybe explain how we got here. And then I have Colon Hayes and Condan, but I'm going to go to Condan first because it's in W 2, too.
Okay. Oh, actually, Councelor Clone wants to recuse herself from this conversation. Yeah. So, thank you. Um, when I read this paper tonight, I I realized I'm on the um, Metro North Housing Corp. And what we do is purchase properties um, and convert them into
affordable housing. And my concern is the appearance of any kind of conflict if they do bid on this property. I don't want to jeopardize any kind of sale if that were to happen. Um, so that's why I'm asking to recuse myself. Okay. Councelor Clone Hayes motion to recuse
herself. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Uh, councelor Clone is recused. Please leave the meeting. It is 7:37 p.m. Uh, city treasurer Grover. Okay. Thank you. Uh, I have a whole bunch of papers here, but I didn't write
a speech, so hopefully I can address your questions as they come up and, you know, just give you an update. Um, so yes, you have in front of you two papers on to make a decision on to retain or sell two properties that the city now currently owns. Um, but how did
we get here? So, last year the legislature, as you may know, because we had had some conversations related to unclaimed property recently. I think it was in September, uh, the legislature changed the tax title laws in order to
um better protect the constituents and the homeowners. Uh, the idea was to remove the ability for cities and towns to basically steal people's property. It's called equity theft. So there were a whole slew of changes in the law. So one of those changes was that if you are
to take a property through tax cit um you have to make a decision whether to retain as in the city keeps it or sell the property. You have to make that decision within 14 days of a judgment from land court. Uh that is completely that is a huge difference than what was
done previously. Um if you do choose to retain as council or president had previously indicated uh retention is you would have to get three appraisals for the property and then you have to provide the homeowners the opportunity to claim the excess equity above and
beyond any real estate taxes fees and interest or penalties that have already been applied to the property. Um, if you choose to sell, you would then sell the property through, you have 180 days to list a property. Should we choose to
sell 180 days from the judgment, uh, it has to be listed through a realtor. The auction process is not is no longer an option initially. uh after the property is listed for one full year, if there are no sales, like you don't have any
reasonable bids and no one to buy it, then you can then opt to do an auction. Um so th those things conflict with the ordinance related for procedure for selling tax property as it's currently written. So that's something that we're
going to have to address. So that's, you know, one of the reasons why we're here and as far as the timing. Um, to councelor Simonelli's question and concerns as far as taking property, is that public properties? What is the the rules related to that? Uh, the legislature clearly outlines that you
have two options, retain or sell. There's no additional home rule petition or other requirements specifically for tax title. I am not familiar with other pieces of uh city property how that would be facilitated. I could look into it, but that's not
really what we're discussing. Um, so we're here because, uh, we have a number of properties that are in land court. Um, this was a little bit of a surprise to our tax settle attorneys because we've been working on these cases for
some time and the land court made a decision and there was a delay for some reason logistics operational and notification from the court to our uh, tax attorneys Damrosio. So, we were
informed late Thursday uh and I reached out to council Ali and I also included councelor Condan on an email outlining you know what we need to do and the concerns. The reason why those two parties were included is because those parcels are in their award specific and I didn't want to violate
any sort of meaning laws or communications to whole entire council. So, communicating through the president seemed most appropriate. Um so in my email I stated that we did we were awarded judgments on these two properties 42 Crescent A and 4042
Wentworth. Uh I outlined that you know we had we as in me had previously notified the council presidents when these properties were going into land court. Uh the city council has an I think it's an ordinance or an ordinance
that if any uh legal action is going to be taken in against any constituents then the city council needs to be notified. Uh there have been notifications related to all of our land court our intent to file land court. These properties were on one of those notifications. One was in March of 2022
and the other one was in April 29th of 2024. Um, so notification was provided. The reason why I say that is just to make sure that everyone is aware that it's not like we're doing this and not communicating. Very rarely does this
actually happen where the land court where we get to the point where the land court provides a judgment to the city where we have to make this decision, retain or sell. The tax settle process is long and it's long for a m multiple reasons. one because we're the
government and we work very slow and it goes through the courts and they work very slow but there's there's reason behind that we try to be diligent right the diligence is where the delays come in and the lag um in order to go into tax settle you have to be delinquent in
your taxes for at least one year you are and I've spoken about this before when we originally put people's names in the newspaper and there was a bunch of questions and a little bit of uproar before because we hadn't done it in quite some time. But in order to get your property into tax sale, you have to
be in default. You have not paid your real estate taxes. You would have received your four real estate tax bills. You would have received a demand bill. You would have received notification of intent to advertise. You would have received notification. Well, you would have seen your name in the
newspaper if anybody looked at it. The newspaper is published in the advocate. These properties were in fact published. they were all communicated in the same way. That posting is posted at city hall and the library. It's also on the city website. Um from there, if you do not
pay and you're still owe money, you and the reason I'm going through this is just to make sure it's everyone understands like the diligence in the process. It's not like we decided unilaterally to say, "Hey, we're going to take this property and you know, we didn't have any communication." So, we
advertise. Um there's a period of time in which you can pay while that period is you know while you're advertised. If you don't pay then what we do is we file a registered lean at the registry of deeds. If you pay if you are logged into the registry of deeds you can get
notification on your any changes to your deed. Most people don't do that but that's just point of information and something that everyone should look into doing anyways. Uh so you have a registered lean applied to your property. At that point, the collections are turned over to our tax title attorneys, Damrosio,
uh, and they start what is the tax title collections process outside of this outside of my office per se. Um, I don't have the list of all the requirements in which they are required to make, but the
list is long. Um, and it is all outlined in Mass General law in land court. There are notifications that need to be mailed. There's uh validation that you have made numerous attempts to contact the people that you are aware as
owner. There are requirements to reach out to next of the kin or any possible relations in order to find and contact the people that do owe money. As a point of information, we have actually had I have had a complaint that I dealt with the mayor where we had um a constituent
come in to complain that their son was contacted because the woman's mother was in taxle. She was not happy that her son was contacted because her mother was in taxle. And I said, "I can understand
your frustration, but this is why we do that because now you are aware that your mother doesn't tax and you can take care of it." And the court and the legislature has made those things, you know, they've made those laws and rules
so people are contacted. So it's not just like we send a letter at once. Um, so there's numerous contacts before you can even file a land court. I think it's at least one year that you have to be in tax settle prior to filing a land
court. In order to file in land court, you have to prove to the court that you have gone through all these processes. They will not accept your case if you do not prove that. I do not have the evidence here, but the evidence is in the fact that the land court took these cases in the first place that we did do
our due diligence. Once you're in land court, there are a whole number of other requirements as far as communicating with the people, the homeowners, doing additional due diligence and trying to contact anybody that could possibly know them. Uh sending notifications,
uh going to the house trying to serve them. The court does not want to take people's properties in the city and I certainly do not want to take people's properties. The goal is to get people to pay. The majority of these, like I said,
the majorities that go into land court do not end up with the city because people once they're in court realize, you know, I can't ignore this bill anymore because something's going to happen. And the land court makes very clear that if you do not pay, you will eventually lose your property. Uh so all
that process was followed followed thoroughly. The land court finally made a judgment for us for all these two properties. Um and then that put us on the 14 day timeline. I'd like to give you a little bit of information or background on each individual property
to inform your decision a little bit. But um before we get to that piece, retain or sell, like the council president said, retain, we have to come up with the money to actually pay the people whatever the equity they have. We do not
have the funds to facilitate the purchase, the retention of either of these properties. The city is not all is also not in the business of being landlords and property owners. So, it is my suggestion that in these instances
that we, you know, you would choose or elect to sell and then we would go through a process there. I'll get into a little bit more about that, but as far as the background on the properties, uh 42 Crescent A, you know, one of the questions I did receive
is, you know, what languages were these notifications communicated in? because there's a presumption um that based on the names that they are of um you know a certain nationality. Whether or not they can speak English or not, I do not know.
I I did not know firsthand. I but I have been told uh that they can. Um so the communications as currently required are only in English. The new law has the communications that we had up until this
point were only in English. The new law requires that during demands we send out a notice saying what is the state issued top seven languages saying this is important notice you have to have it interpretated interpreted and I'm I'm a little bit
longwinded but also with our real estate bill on the backer as well as our real estate personal property uh motor vehicle and water there is something on the back in the top 10 languages spoken in the city that states this is important information that you should I
haven't interpreted. Um, I just wanted to address that in case there were any questions. The people that own 42 Crescent A are fluent in English. They were non-communic non participants in this
process pretty much absent the whole entire time until Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m. when they called our lawyers our tax title attorneys and said, "Oh, what can we do now?" Because they realized that they don't own their
property anymore. We do. So conveniently, they're ready to make something happen. In addition to them being able to communicate and now being fully aware of the ramifications, uh 42 Crescent is not
their home. This is a rental property. They live on Highland a in which they pay their taxes every quarter. So why they don't pay it on their rental property, I don't know. But they're very well aware that taxes are due and they're paying on one property and not the other. I cannot
speculate as to why that is, but I can tell you that they're paying over here, but not over here. That is a choice. So, that's 42 Crescent 4042 Wentworth. Um, you know, the same the process is all the same.
Uh, they have not paid their taxes since fiscal year 2017. That's a problem. Uh my understanding through uh tax attorneys is that this property is owned by the people that uh council president had indicated. It's actually two
different families that own the property together. Um apparently there was some disagreements on paying the taxes because one group was paying half and the other group was not. And then the group that was paying said, "Well, we're not paying the taxes if you're not going
to kick in your share." So they chose to stop paying. and now they owe us in excess of $100,000. Um, but they have been communicated with and they do speak in can easily comprehend the ramifications
in which you know they're facing. Uh, so communication is has not been an issue. Um, there haven't been any language barriers related to this. I just wanted to bring that up in case there were questions. um because I know there is some you know we have a very diverse population and communication can
sometimes be difficult uh so that's a little background on the properties the process um you know with my suggestion to the council advising to sell we have to make an election within
14 days we're here today to make this you know expeditiously I made my point about retention not having the funds to purchase either one of these And we're not in the business of owning properties. Uh these properties are occupied also. Uh 40 42 Worth by the
owners, 42 Crescent A by tenants. And we know that there's tenants here because they called yesterday to ask because they got a notification in the mail and asking if it was real. And we said you need to contact our tax attorneys as well as your landlord to make sure that they know that you're aware of what's
going on. Um, but excuse me. Well, I'm back in junior high and my voice cracking. Uh, yeah. Well, so and I and I know that you all you had also said that, you know, if we did vote to sell tonight,
you would you would recommend that we we reach back out to them, give them a chance to redeem uh for I think you said 90 days uh or something like that. Uh, yep. That's exactly what I was going to say next. Um, so yes, I would suggest that we opt
to sell, defer the listing for 30 days while our tax attorneys can continue to work with the parties that own the property. And if we can get them to pay, we can basically do a post judgment um post
judgment some of that effect. Oh, thank you. Much appreciated. Uh, what was the word specifically? Yeah, that in essence would affectuate a postjudgment redemption. That is the goal. The goal is to get the people to pay what they owe the city
because by them not paying, they're not paying anybody or paying for any of the services. And the goal is to get them to pay and keep their property, not sell it. It's a hassle. We don't want to do that. So that is my suggestion. Um well
the guidance that I can provide related to that uh in you know a related but somewhat separate um the ordinance as written in many ways is in violation with the updated law. So I would suggest
that the council look to uh revisit that and ordinance ideally sooner than later. Um because the way the ordinance is written to the council president's point um you know we would have to get an appraisal and a recommendation from the planning board and the public property
committee that is not in violation. The applications for the purchase of tax settle property for $600 that is not we're not allowed to do that anymore. Um you know if we were to sell you could
require a vote. Uh but as far as um bullet point D under the procedure for selling tax settle property where it says the sales here on shall be publicly bid under the direction of the city solicitor. Um the properties cannot be publicly
bid. They have to go through the listing pro process for at least one year and then they can be bid. So this ordinance needs to be rewritten a bit. Um, and related to that, the council may want to take under consideration uh
requesting that the mayor appoint a taxital custodian to facilitate these things. Um, under Mass General Law chapter 60 section 77B, it states that the mayor of a city or the town board if there's a
selectman or the selectman of a town uh can appoint a taxel custodian to facilitate all these things. Um, I think that would be probably prudent and then you can work something in the ordinance to say the tax custodian will work with these entities in advance and ideally
decisions on retain or sell at the time of filing and then updates. So, I think I'm long-winded enough there. So, I'd be happy to answer any questions. That That's perfect. And, you know, we have uh councelor uh Condan uh I'll go to you
because you're award two resident. I had an opportunity to uh talk to Dan for about 15 20 minutes today and u unfortunately over the years um some treasurers were very lax on it
other treasurers weren't and usually come up with an agreement and the people ended up with their property back but I remember coming before for us several times.
Uh I was convinced of one thing. Dan gave him every opportunity to avoid the situation and some people just don't get it. So, uh that's why we're where we are. He
made it clear to me we don't want to get in the real estate business and I agree with them. So, uh, where we go from here, it's up to the people. Thank you, Councelor Condan and, uh,
Councelor McDonald. Thank you so much, Council President, and thank you, Treasure Grover, for that um, really indepth summary of the process. I do think it's actually really important for our constituents or anybody watching to hear the diligence that you and and our attorneys have gone
through. Um, and I look forward to having more conversations about the potential ordinance changes. I do think, for example, that there's more that we could do to help um, make sure that at least those kinds of demand letters are translated in the right languages. Um,
we actually have a paper coming up about engaging with landlords overall. um not property owners generally but um that might also help us identify common languages you know languages that folks really um would best facilitate their
participation if we could use that but I I really agree that it's it's time to move forward I support the sale um and wanted to know what hap so if we do actually sell this property we settle up our own you know the tax bill our attorney's costs etc what happens to the
money so the money would go to the property the previous property owners. I'll refer them as the previous property owners because the city currently owns those properties. Uh they are eligible for any excess equity above and beyond the fees and uh taxes and interest. Um
so they have uh roughly a year and a half to claim those funds. We would put those funds in a separate account in the general ledger and I would put them in a separate bank account um and wait for them to be claimed. In this instance where we know who the
people are, if they're not going to pay, then you can bet that they'll be standing at the door waiting for their check and we would write that immediately as soon as the check cleared. Uh if there were no known property owners, the pro the the funds
would sit with the city waiting for any property owner or heir that's eligible to make a claim. And if they did not make that claim, then it would go into unclaimed property and the city would retain those funds. But there is a specific process that's outlined in the updated law. We don't just get the
money. We have to sit on it for quite some time. And the reason why, you know, the genesis of law was to prevent the theft of uh home equity. And uh the only way that the city would end up with that is if no one was no no known owner, no
known heir came forward and the appropriate time frame. Understood. Thank you. That's very helpful. I agree with you that the odds of nobody coming forward to say yes, I would like $300,000, please. Um since you took my property is low. Um so I appreciate
that. And just a a thing to consider if when we do go through this tax legislation, I just even wonder if it would be um useful to somehow indicate that if we ended up we did end up with unclaimed funds, I would love to see that go to the affordable housing trust fund. I feel like that's the right use of that kind of money. Um I realize
that's an extremely unlikely situation to begin with, but nonetheless, um just wanted to state that on the record. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Councelor McDonald. Councelor Winslow. Yeah. So, um, Dan, so we make the decision to sell, but we're still
custodians of the property until the sale is closed then, right? So, um, so that's this tax title custodian. Do we, um, are we entitled to to deduct the cost of the tax title custodian during the time between we own the property and
the time we sell it? Uh, that we would not what? That we would not be able to do. Taxile custodian would be someone that presumably is appointed, you know, would be appointed by the mayor, presumably someone that works for the city. You would not be able to deduct any cost related any costs that they
incurred in facilitating would be recouped. If there was any payment to the tax custodian for services that would not that is not recoupable. like because so I'm sorry, but the taxile custodian you would appoint
presumably for three years or however long their tenure is um to facilitate these things on an ongoing basis because you have tax processes constantly. You don't always have a property in hand, but you
wouldn't want to revisit this exercise every time that you come into, you know, the situation. you would want to have someone appointed that acts as a tax custodian all the time. So I mean I if we have we we decide to sell like in
terms of cost to keep a building heated to keep the yard up that those are things we can't deduct against the sale ultimately is that I mean we can only deduct we can only take the taxes and then then the homeowner gets we can
apply any expenses related to maintaining the property keeping the heat on is not the function of the landlord that is a function of whoever the residents are. And now if there was no one living there, then yes, we would want to maintain the heat. Um, but if we
list this property for sale, I would venture a guess that it would be sold and we would have an offer. If we listed it on Thursday, we would have an offer signed on Tuesday just like every other property in the city. Um, you
know, one is a two family. It's appraised through the assessors at 600695, call it 700,000. Um, we could sell that property tomorrow for more money than that. 42 Crescent A
is a single family. It's assessed at over $900,000. That would sell immediately. So, as far as like the long-term maintenance or heating it or anything to that effect, um, you know, that I think is less of an issue. Yeah, because these are So there just
may be some some situation where the taxes could potentially exceed the value of the property. Then we would have to wait a year and then get what we could kind of. So um that's not going to happen in this case.
When people don't pay their taxes, they go into tax settle relatively quickly. Generally it's not much of a lag. uh where you're taxed on, you know,
what's our current tax rate 100%. So, it would take you a lot of years to have your taxes, your outstanding taxes exceed your property value. Um, if anybody gets to that point, then I guess I'm not doing my job very well. Uh, but
so 402 Wentworth, they owe, you know, in excess of $100,000. Their property is still worth $700,000. There's more than enough equity for us to recoup. Um, but the goal is to not allow any properties to go that long where they owe such an amount of money that it's less likely
that we would collect. You know, the goal is for people to pay. My job is to get people to pay in a timely manner because my job is to collect the money so we can use it to facilitate the operations of the city. That's really all we're trying to do here is get people to pay as soon as
possible, not anything else. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Wenszo. And actually, that's a great point that um the sooner we do this, the more money they get. The the longer we don't do tax title, the less money they're going to get. Um which, you know, is not fair to
them. It's and it's it's a administrative burden for the city. Um I do want to explain that the reason why this is before us tonight because I was being asked prior to this happening, I was being asked to make a decision. Are we going to retain these properties or sell them as the council president? And I had just kind of put my shoes in. If I
wasn't the council president and I found out the council president sold pro property without telling the city council, I'd be pissed. And so I thought it was the right thing to do to come here and make the decision as the entire body. Um, you know, we as a city council own all public property. It's our
decision to sell public property. I have never taken a vote to sell public property. I think the last time the city did was when we sold city hall as part of the redevelopment in 2015. Uh but that was before my tenure and since then we have not at least not that I can recall. Um so I appreciate the work of
the of the city uh treasurer. Thank you for that. Um the other little wrinkle that we have is we don't know what vote to total we need because we haven't really done this in a long time. So we're going to assume we need a supermajority of eight votes. Um but we might need need less. We're not quite
sure. We're aiming for eight because this got on the the agenda not within the open meeting law allotted time. Um you know it is an emergency that is allowed by law to amend it. Uh but for for good for you know transparency's
sake because we are talking about selling people's properties. I would like us to ratify the vote that we take tonight next week. Um so basically we're taking the vote tonight to sell. We will just have on the agenda next week a vote to
ratify. I think it's just if someone says, "Hey, that that how did you do this without us knowing um we don't have to do it?" Uh I mean, but I think it would be helpful from a transparency's perspective. Um I see a a light from
councelor Crow and thank you, Mr. President. I just had a question about that and and I'm fine with that because you definitely want to give everybody as much information as possible. Well, it sounds like we have if there was a vote that needs to be taken and the deadline is tomorrow. So, if we're taking the
vote tonight and if we're ratifying the vote, do you know what I'm saying? Like if if our deadline is tomorrow, then the votes tonight. Yeah. No, the vote is happening tonight. the formal action is taken tonight. The ratification is more for the open meeting law because like if
you violate the open meeting law, usually what you just need to do is have another meeting where you disclose what you did, okay, at the meeting where you didn't vi you know what I mean? And so it's it's not a for this thing. It's for an open meeting law thing of the public should know that we did this and we
ratified it last we took the vote last week. We're ratifying the decision we made during the meeting that didn't have 48 hours notice. I'm just trying to like dot my eyes, cross my tees. It's not often that we sell people's houses. With that, are there any motions? uh
which I guess I I guess that the motion would be um to opt to sell the properties related to um litigation number
2400383 which was paper 25525 uh 42 Crescent A partial identification number 072 824 4 410. Is there a
motion? And we have councelor McDonald. Just a a quick um point. Can we include that that is in the manner described by the treasur which included this 30-day period for um you know negotiating with the property with the property owners.
Yeah. So you're going to vote to be clear you're voting to sell. Yes. to authorize me to inform and move forward with that with the caveat that we will do a 30-day stay from listing the property in order to try to get these people to pay up resolve the case. Yeah.
Absolutely. Yep. Y All right. So, Sean, whose motion is that? Okay. Councelor Simelli's motion, seconded by councelor McDonald, to uh opt to sell uh 42 Crescent U pursuant to
a 30-day hold. With that, the clerk will call the role. A yes vote will will opt to sell this property. A no vote will not. Councelor Condom, yes. Councelor Crowe, yes. Councelor Lahan, yes. Councelor
McDonald, yes. Councelor Sika, yes. Councelor Simonelli, yes. Councelor Spataphora, Councelor Taylor, yes. Councelor Winslow, yes. Council Council President Omali, yes. That vote was
249 to zero. It gets us to the super majority that we we don't know if we need, but I think we're we're good there. Um the next one would be two paper 25625 related to 40 to 42 Wentworth
Street parcel ID 029145418 uh related to land court case 22 TL 0000343 is there councelor cond's motion I mean Yeah, we can take them. We'll take the motion up and then I'll and I'll go grab
them. So, on Councelor Conan's motion to sell this property subject to the 30-day uh waiting period described, is there a second? Seconded by Councelor Taylor. I'll be right back. Uh just a uh so councelor Condan made a
motion to uh opt to sell 40 to 42 Wentworth Street and that was seconded by councelor Taylor and the clerk a yes vote on this will vote to sell a no vote will not. The clerk will call the role. Councelor Condan, yes. Councelor Crowe,
yes. Councelor Lahan, yes. Councelor McDonald, yes. Councelor Sika, yes. Councelor Simonelli, yes. Councelor Taylor, Councelor Winslow, yes. Council President Omali, yes. So, that that has
also passed 9 to zero unanimously. Um, thank you, city treasurer Grover. We appreciate it. Thank you. Very few new things happen in a city council like term, so this is an unusual one. Thank you all for for taking the
time to ask really uh good questions and make sure that we're doing the right thing. Uh the next thing is communications. Paper 250-25, communication from planning board regarding city council paper
171-25, MBTA community zoning overlays ordinance amendments. Councelor Winslow for the paper. Motion to accept the report from the um planning board on councelor Winsel's motion to accept the comm communication.
Is there a second? Second. Seconded by councelor Simmonelli. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? The committee report is received. Councelor Winsler. Yes. So, um we had a um the planning board and rules and ordinance committee
had a joint uh meetings last week to talk about various papers including this paper. Um this paper relates to some uh technical zoning amendments to the MBTA Communities Act um ordinance we passed back in December 2023. Um, as you know,
one of the things in passing that ordinance, um, the ordinance then had to be rep approved by the, um, executive office of housing and livable communities. Um, you know, we the city staff was communicating with that office um, as we were doing it. So, we thought
we were pretty much there, but ultimately they had a couple extra conditions um, that they wanted us to um, that that are requiring us to amend the ordinance to conform with their approval of that. So, they've conditionally approved our ordinance, you know, subject to a couple changes.
Those changes, um um we had um one created one zoning district that had a cap and they did not want us to have that cap. So, what that is basically doing, we're going to relieve that cap and then we've removed some some other land to um make up for that loss. So,
it's basically um just making a technical amendment to um to you know adjust that. So, and the the you know, we had um in the mayor's communications, there was pretty you all the technical details about why that was being done and what that is. So, um we have uh city
planner Michelle Romero if anybody has any questions, but um you know, my my recommendation would be to uh the follow the planning board's um uh recommendation to adopt these ordinance changes as uh recommended and and and
drafted. So, yeah, thank you for that. And I'm going to the our our our clerk is going to read the paper, which I always forget to have done. Paper 171-25. Be it ordained by the Malden city council that title 12 of the code of the city of Malden MCC is hereby
amended to eliminate the development cap in the MBTA communities multif family overlay subdist MCM OD-MD1 and eliminate the effective date of final approval by the state of our district compliance application per the
determination issued by the executive office of housing and livable communities. Thank you. And before we go on, I just want to thank Miss Morgan Hunt for all your great work. You've been helping us the last couple weeks and you know, I just want to really acknowledge that you've been doing a great job and it's been great serving up
here with you. Good job. [Applause] Um so with that, any any questions? Um any questions? Councelor Lenny, my only question is I
just want to clarify we are going to be out of conditional compliance once we do this and then we'll be all set with MBTA communities. Is that correct? Yeah. So yeah, these were if we pass this ordinance then we will will be in full
compliance and we will be out of conditional approval. We will be in final approval. So yeah. Okay. Great. Councelor Cond. Yes. Uh I'd like to Steve, can you uh give me
an example of how much they've uh loosened up on the parking parking restrictions. Say they go from a two to a three and they got five
bedrooms. What's the required parking? Um I mean this doesn't these ordinances that we're passing have nothing to do this these amendments have nothing to do with parking. It just really um you know it's changing um some uh over you know
there was an overlay district related overlook ridge and and that had a cap. Um so we're we're having to leave that cap and we're having to change. I don't know if city planner uh Romero could explain a little bit more, but this this is just a very technical thing in terms
of and there was when we passed it, we we set a date for effective effectiveness and the the office said we we we should have just passed it clear. So, it just these amendments will make the um ordinance effective, you know,
upon or ordainment, not upon their approval. And then um it will also just make a slight change in the planning map to be consistent and uh and reduce relieve this cap. So I don't know if our planner would like to kind of explain
that, but there's no no relation to parking in this what what's being talked about. Yeah. So yeah, I I just hate being told by the MBTA people that this is what we have to do. Yeah, I think
we're going to end up very densely populated and we're going to loosen things up and people going to take any kind of advantage they can and we're going to end up like a
summable and I'm not looking forward to that. Thank you, councelor Condan. I do want to you with that I was having a sidebar with councelor Lahan. Uh, I just want to thank councelor Winsow for your your efforts this year. There have been a lot of complicated things that you've had to shuffle and shepherd through
ordinance. Hard things that are hard to remember even for people who care about this stuff and we appreciate you uh staying on top of it. Um, are there any motions um for this or any more questions? Councelor McDonald. Yeah, I just wanted
to ask the um or rather confirm that the planning board's recommendation No, you know what? This is for the next it's the next planning board recommendation, not this one. I'm sorry. I'm happy to make the motion. Cool. Is in I'm assuming the motion is
to What is the motion? The motion is to um you know adopt the paper as uh proposed. Yeah. I mean there's no ad top the planning board's recommendation to approve. I would make a motion to ordain the paper and include the recommended
amendments from the We have to enroll first. Yeah. Yeah. So enroll the paper. Sorry. Sorry. Enroll the paper. Enroll the paper and include the planning board's recommendations. Understood. As as a do we have to amend it first? Just
to be clarified, there were no planning board um amendments. No amendments. Okay. So So just a roll the paper. date, but that that's well that that is true. There there is a little bit of maybe the city planner would you like can you tell us what our motion should be? Sorry.
Thank you. Um so you you the planning one recommendation that the planning board made was to I'm sorry let me get the right one. Is the question just whether the
description of the date constitutes an amendment to the paper? Yeah. Yeah. So the recommendation is approval of the proposed amendments as submitted and then to use the date of ordainment for
the new map revision date. It was just proposed as a revised to be determined date. So, you do need to put something in that TBD and the recommendation of the board is that it be the date they're
ordained. Okay. So, is there a motion to amend the uh the paper reflective of the recommendation from the planning board to amend the date so that it would be effective the date of the ordainment? So, I mean it
looks like the date ofment would tendly be June 3rd, 2025. So that would be I guess it would be that would be the date we would recommend now. So So I guess we could you know Yeah. I mean so yeah because we're enrolling tonight. So we enroll
with you know the proposed amendments and then use uh with a and amend the uh zoning overlay districts to a revised date of June uh June 3rd 2025. This is
actually a really important point because if we enroll tonight, we need um six votes. Six votes. If we want to suspend the rules, we would need eight votes. And if we wanted to ordain all in
the same night, we would be nine votes, I believe. Maybe it's a little confusing because it's like one of these like lower threshold votes. Um I think it just makes sense to do it the normal way, so we don't have to worry about that. Um so June 3rd June yeah that
would June 3rd would be the day we'd be ordaining. Can just in case that doesn't happen on June 3rd can the amendment be to reflect such that this date shall reflect the date of ordainment? Yeah that that I mean I'm fine with that too. Okay. So tenatively June 3rd. Yes. Yeah.
Okay. So the motion is to enroll the paper. No to amend. We have to amend the paper. No, no, it's enroll the paper because the the paper has the amendments. So, and they the planning board did that. See, I'm of the belief of this too. I
think that we can enroll as per the recommendation. But I I I have been pressured and and and I think it's clear so that we don't have to dispute this just to amend it and then enroll. that I make a motion to amend the paper to clarify as recommended by the planning
board that the ordinance will be effective the date it is ordained. Is there a second? I'll second by councelor Winslow. With that, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed?
Councelor Condan opposed. That is that passed 8 to one. Am I counting right? N 10 to one. Enroll. I don't 911. 91 901. Now, okay. Now we enroll. Enroll as amended. So
moved. Councelor McDonald's. Motion to enroll as amended. Second by councelor Winslow. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Councelor Conan's opposed. Nine to one. That is enrolled.
I don't think we should suspend the rules. Next order of business. Paper one uh excuse me paper 251-25 communication from planning board regarding city council paper 172-25 flood flood plains districts
zoning ordinance amendments. So I just make a motion to accept the in uh communication from the planning board. Second by council. I saw a mo councelor Winsel's motion to accept the communication second by councelor Simonelli. All those in favor please say I. Any opposed? The communication is
received. Paper 172-25 be it ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of Malden MCC 12.08.0440 flood planes 12.1210 flood planes districts 12.32.60
60 definitions zoning are hereby amended to include new regulations as required by FEMA so that referenced areas will remain eligible for FEMA sponsored flood issu insurance programs.
Councelor Winsler. Okay. Um so the Department of Conservation and Recreation who works with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help establish flood plane districts um uh recommended that we um update our flood
plane maps and our zoning. So um they'll be take effect um there our new FEMA maps going into effect July 8th. So um their recommended nation is we do that because if we don't um you residents and property owners um would not be eligible
for FEMA and flood insurance. So it's important that we do this by that time frame. Um they um had some recommended format for updating our ordinance. Um so I prepared that and then um had had the
Department of Conservation Recreation um review that. And so they um they said that you know the the um amendments um look good. Then we had uh last week we had the planning boards uh and rules and ordinance met to um have a hearing and
review. Um the planning board staff um had uh several suggestions um that the planning board did um vote to recommend. Um, one of the things they they would like us to do is um send the amendments to the city solicitor and to
the building commissioner. And um there was also um one of the things that needed to be clarified in the ordinance and we should probably vote to um make this amendment tonight and then send it the the amended paper to the um the um planning uh uh to the city solicitor and
building commissioner was that we're adding some definitions. you if you're familiar with the zoning law um you know our chap chapter 12 of our ordinances there's a standard set of definitions in there and you know we're adding
definitions that really relate to the flood plane section of the ordinances in there and um you know uh planner Romero really pointed out that we should when we have those definitions we should really have a sentence at the end of those special definitions to say they're
really only intended to apply the flood plane district because that can cause confusion because there might be some reference in some other part of the ordinances and we just want to be clear that that that that definition is is limited and shouldn't be used extensively. So that was a good
recommendation. So, we should probably, you know, I would make a recommendation that we vote to amend the paper per the um and add that um the language about this definition is only applicable to the property in the flood plane
district. um at every definition that was added and then um have uh the paper reviewed by the legal office and the building inspector would come back in in a couple weeks after you know tableabling it to get their comments and then we would we would look at enrolling
in a couple weeks. So perfect. So, councelor Winslow's motion and I will I will get I will go to people but councelor Winslow's motion is to accept the planning board's recommendation um to amend the paper by adding this definition. This definition is only applicable to property and flood plane
district in the flood plane district and as he stated to get review and approval of the amendments to the city solicitor and the building commissioner. Second. Seconded by councelor Crow. Any questions on the motion? With that, the clerk call the role on the
amendment. Sorry, my apologies. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? That is amended. Okay. Okay. And so then I recommend that we table the paper um so that we can have legal and
building uh inspector building commissioner review um to before we vote to enroll it. So sounds like a plan on councelor Winsow's motion to table. It's a it takes precedence. Second by councelor Cologne Hayes. All those in favor please say I. Any opposed? The
paper is tabled. Next order of business. Paper 252-25 communication from plan planning board regarding city council paper 185-25 site plan review for educational religious and child care facilities
zoning ordinance amendments. Councelor Winslow for the paper. So I just make a motion that we accept the communication from the planning board. Is there a second? Second by councelor Simelli. All those in favor, please say I. Any opposed? The committee report is received.
185-25. Be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the code of the city of Malden MCC 12.1230 use regulations is hereby amended as follows to update existing table of use regulations to correspond
with recent site plan review regulations for daycare centers, nonprofit educational facilities, and religious facilities as ordained in paper 356 series of 2024.
Councelor Winsler. So, as you recall, um earlier this year, we did pass an ordinance change to our zoning to um to require site plan review for daycare centers, nonprofit educational
facilities, and religious facilities. Um so, we passed that paper. Um, but in doing that, I mean, as you know, you in the zone zoning, we have standards that might apply to a use, but then we also have what's called the table of uses. We did not make sure that the table of uses
indicated that those uses now need site plan review. So, it's uh an oversight that planner Romero pointed out and and she uh proposed this technical amendment. So, that we have right now there some of these now seem to be allowed by right, some of them by special permit. This just makes it
consistent for these uses. Now, they all have to go through special uh um site plan review. And so, the table of uses is just going to reflect that. And that's just a a technical change to conform really with the intent of that ordinance. So, it just makes sure that we um the table of uses conforms to what
we passed recently. So, thank you, Councelor Winsel. Any discussion on this motion? Councelor Winsow's motion to so my Yeah, my my motion would be enroll um uh per the uh there's no there's no
recommendation. It's just to just to enroll. Yeah. Y just to enroll the paper as written. Is there a second? Second by councelor Simmonelli. Uh with that the clerk, all those in favor, please say I.
I. Any opposed? The paper is enrolled. Next order of business. Paper 253-25, I'm sorry, committee reports. Paper 253-2025, committee report. The standing
committees on finance and rules and ordinance to whomever's referred papers 216 and 217 series of 2025 having considered the same make the following report. Committees recommend these papers out favorably to the full council.
Councelor Winslow. Yes. So just A motion to accept the committee report. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? The committee report is received. Paper 216-25 be it ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of
Malden MCC 2.2450 police superior officer salary schedule is hereby amended by adding the updated salary schedule chart effective July 1st, 2023. Councelor Winsler. So, um this is the
the standard um rules or the ordinance changes to reflect the negotiated uh salary schedule. So, this is just updating the current superior officer salary schedule for the police department to um reflect
the one that has been negotiated um to uh in the latest contract. So that's uh what it would that's what it is doing. So very standard. So I I would um make a motion to enroll this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a second?
Second. Seconded by councelor Simonelli. Just for the edification of the council and the public um when it comes to you know collective bargaining agreements and this is something that we're going to need to like you know be aware of particularly when we get into tough um you know financial straits. um you know
non-financial terms of a collective bargaining agreement can be agreed upon you know without city council approval. It's any of the financial uh components of a collective bargaining agreement that do not become effective unless approved by the city council. Um so
that's just something to to be aware of. Um and I'm not saying that that's what we would do here. Uh but that's the reason why you know we have to vote on this both as the financial transfer as well as changing the ordinance to reflect that. So with that um I believe
the clerk will call the role on this one. So a motion to enroll. So yeah. So so right now it's just the an ordinance. So with that the clerk I mean all those in favor please say I. I. Any opposed? Uh that has passed
unanimously. Then I would make a motion to suspend the rules so we can uh ordain as well. On councelor Winsow's motion to suspend council rules for the purposes of ordaining this paper. Uh seconded by councelor Cologne Hayes. With that, the
clerk will call the role. Uh councelor Cologne Hayes. Yes. Councelor Condan. Councelor Crowe, yes. Councelor Lahan, yes. Councelor McDonald, yes. Councelor Sika, yes. Councelor Simonelli, yes. Councilor uh
Taylor, Councelor Winslow, yes. Council President Omali, yes. The pay the rules have been suspended. So, I make a motion to ordain the ordinance. Thank you. On Councelor Winsow's motion to ordain, seconded by Councelor Crow. with that.
All those in favor all those in favor [Music] I have to call because it takes more. Oh, okay. So, we will call the roll. Okay, cool. Good enough. I was right. First time.
Councelor Cologne Hayes. Councelor Condan. Councelor Crow, yes. Councelor Lahan, yes. Councelor McDonald, yes. Councelor Sika, yes. Councelor Simelli, Councelor Taylor, Councelor Winslow,
yes. Council President Omali, that is ordained. Um, now there's the financial paper. Paper 217-25. order that the sum of $200,000 be and the same is hereby
transferred from salary reserve 0 account [Music] 00109965110 to police salaries account number 0010 21105120
councelor McDonald for the paper hold Thank you, Council President. So, yes, this is the appropriation that goes along with the changes to the police superior salary schedule that we just approved. Um and to just to members of the public who are following along, it
is pretty normal for us to suspend the rules to go ahead and approve um changes to salaries that come through a collective bargaining agreement so that that can go ahead and get processed. Um folks may or may not remember that we had actually done an update to the police superior salary schedule um
within the last year or so and that had to do with maintaining the ratio between the police superior salary schedules um and making sure those ratios between the levels are correct with the patrol uh police salary schedule which is a separate bargaining unit. Um and the
police just the police superior salary schedules includes sergeants, lieutenants, captains, and senior captains. Um and so there we discussed that there's a little bit of a of uh the each year of this three-year contract um
which begins effective um July 1, 2023. So this this catches us up in the back pay um is in fact a 3% standard increase. But but those steps are um start at a higher level because we went
back and kept the ratio between the the sergeant uh pay and the top patrol pay which has the effect of then raising the entire um senior salary schedule. Um so that is that is what uh was approved through the collective bargaining and
sent to us for our review and that's what the appropriation will cover that um catching us up through this fiscal year on the new salary schedule. Any questions? Any motions?
Uh, so move to adopt the order. Second. Seconded by councelor Condan. With that, the clerk will call the role. Councelor Clone Hayes, yes. Councelor Cond, yes. Councelor Crow, yes. Councelor Lahan, yes. Councelor
McDonald, yes. Councelor SEA, yes. Councelor Simelli, Councelor Taylor, yes. Councelor Winslow, yes. Council President Omali, yes. That paper has been adopted unanimously.
Paper 254-25, committee report. The standing committee on personnel and appointments to whomever's referred papers 226 and 227 series of 2025 having considered This having considered the same make the
following report. Committee recommends these appointments out favorably to the full council. Councelor Lahand for the committee. Motion to receive the committee report. Is there a second? Seconded by councelor Zika.
All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? The committee reports received. Council Oh, should we read both? Yeah. Why don't we read we'll read both papers. Paper 226-25 mayoral appointment Michelle
Ferguson 43 Boston Street Malden as an associate member of the planning board said term to expire March 1st 2027 and to commence upon confirmation by the city council and paper 227-25 mayoral
appointment Maria Schroeder 113 Savin Street Malden as an associate member of the planning board said term to expire March 1st, 2030 and to commence upon the confirmation by the city council. Councelor Lingham. Thank you, Mr.
President. Um, so we met with Michelle and Maria um who are both taking the place of associate members that are moving up to full uh member status, which is great. We have associates that are taking on um you know, they're retaining their roles on the board. They've learned and are moving into full
status, which it's great that we're keeping folks on the planning board. Um, so when we met with Michelle, she told us a little bit about herself. She works in financial services. Um, has also served with the Malden public schools in various roles. Actually just got to know her a little bit when we did um, walk
and bike to school day last week, which was pretty cool. Um, Maria on the other hand is an architect. She has a lot of experience working in urban design. Um, has worked in cities like Malden and just has pretty amazing professional expertise. Um we really liked talking to both of them and felt like we were very
lucky to get folks with this kind of experience and enthusiasm for giving back to the city. Um we felt that we um unanimously wanted to approve both of them to the planning board. So I would make a motion I guess we have two different papers. So I'll make a motion that we um confirm Michelle Ferguson
first since we have that paper first. Seconded by councelor Simelli with the clerk will call the role. was council crow. It's her constituent. Oh, sorry. Oh, sorry. Councelor Crow. Sorry. Councelor Crow.
Councelor Cologne Hayes. Yes. Councelor Condan. Yes. Councelor Crowe. Yes. Councelor Lahan. Yes. Councelor McDonald. Yes. Councelor Sika. Yes. Councelor Simelli. Councelor Taylor. Councelor Winslow. Yes. Council
President Omali. Yes. That appointment is confirmed. And I make a motion that we approve Maria Schroeder. And that can be councelor Simmonelli. Savage Street W three. Right. Yeah. The clerk will call the role.
Councelor Cologne Hayes. Yes. Councelor Condan. Councelor Crowe. Yes. Councelor Lahan. Yes. Councelor McDonald. Yes. Councelor Sika. Yes. Councelor Simelli. Councelor Taylor. Yes. Councelor Winslow. Yes. Council President Omali. Yes. The docket is clear. Any personal
privilege? Off to the races. We got councelor Crow coming in first. Oh, I won. Really? Thank just kidding. Um, I just wanted to invite everybody as we know this is Memorial Day weekend and we're changing it up a little bit and um, so
on Monday, May 26, Memorial Day, we'll be hosting it at Brock Memorial Park um, on Main Street. At 10:00 a.m. we'll be unveiling a bronze statue at the World War II Memorial. So, I hope everyone gets a chance to come on over and um
support our veterans and um Memorial Day. Thank you, Councelor Simelli. Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to congratulate everybody in in the city for all the hard work that been done for the opening of uh Kad Park and for
everybody that has come down this past week uh to both Kstead Park and the ball field. And uh I just want to let all my colleagues know that I have a party this week uh Wednesday uh Thursday 6:00 to 8 Kong restaurant in the neighborhood. You're all invited. Come on over, rub
some elbows, say hello. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Simonelli. Councelor McDonald. I wanted to remind folks that Malden's favorite community uh all community arts festival and is coming up with Malden
Porchfest on Saturday, May 31st. It is uh 12 to 6:00 pm and we've got bands and hosts all over the city. Some of not just um people's houses or their porches or lawns, but also um local businesses
and organizations are hosting stages. So, it's free, open to everyone. Come check it out. Go to maldenorchfest.org to uh see the map of performers and venues. And it is not too late to sign up. you can still sign up to be a host or be a performer. Uh so
just wanted to thank everyone who has been a part of volunteering or sharing their music or their space and um hope the rain holds off this year and I think it'll be a great I think it'll be a great event. We'll see you out there. Thanks. Thank you councelor Winslow.
Yeah, I just want to thank everybody who came out to Maplewood Fest on Saturday and all the volunteers and uh businesses who participated. our fourth annual happened and we're looking forward to the fifth. It was just a fun time and great way to celebrate Maplewood Square and really promote that. Um, and I
really thank all the volunteers from the Maplewood Association as well as the the Malden Cultural Council who provided the funding. So, thank you very much. And then just a few things. Um, on Wednesday, May 28th, um, at Malden Public Library, there's a Haitian cultural celebration going on. So, um,
that's from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. So, encourage people to come out for that. Um, sounds very interesting. And then on Sunday, um, June 1st, um, Bike to the Sea is having its 33rd annual Bike to the Sea Day starting at the bike kitchen. So that's, uh, you know, get
there, um, you know, 8:30, 9:00. Uh, it's actually free this year. Um, and then, um, a ride to the, uh, beach and back. And then they'll be celebrating down at night shift brewing at the end. So um, should be fun as always. So,
please come on out and uh go by the bike kitchen if your bike needs a tuneup. Thank you. Great councelor SEA. Thank you, Council President. Just wanted to remind everybody that tomorrow is the prom. Malden High's promise tomorrow night. I
think it's like my fourth or fifth year driving kids to the red carpet. It is one of my favorite things to do all year. This year, I have the pleasure of drive driving Kevin and Kimberly to the prom. We're wearing red, so I'm so excited. If anybody's around, I think it
starts at 4. 4, right? I'm picking up early, but so I wasn't sure of the exact time. So hopefully it'll be a beautiful day for pictures in the um at Malden High. So I hope to see everybody there. Thank you. And from the chair, um you
know, I just want to thank everyone that has been coming out to the Spot Palm Brook Greenway meetings. Uh we had one last Thursday, May 15th. Uh we had one with the traffic commission today, May 20th, and councelor Crow and councelor Spedaphor will be sponsoring a um
another meeting for for the businesses in the area on Canal Street on May 28th at 10 a.m. at Charles and Canal. So, I appreciate that. From a from another side of my interests, um it's now time to prune your lilacs. So, as soon as
your lilac buds die, uh you should be planting your lilacs. Not many plants that you prune in the spring. Uh but if you don't prune your lilacs now, it will put out new buds and suck up energy that could be used at at actually making this plant stronger. So prune your lilacs.
Thank you. We is there a motion to adjurnn? All those in favor, please say I. We are adjourned. Thank you.