the council will come to order all rise and salute the flag for the pledge of allegiance to the flag pledge of aliance to the flag United States states America to the repblic it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice
for all please remain standing for a moment of silence in aonor of our veterans service members and those have given the ultimate sacrifice thank you councelor Taylor for another moment of silence I apologize um so I would just
like to have a moment of silence for our W five resident um that's you turn um for award five resident uh Tana who is living at Forestdale Park um a
longtime Community member and uh member of quanis did a lot for the city and uh she was an amazing person for anybody who met her and um I'd like to have a moment of silence for her thank
you we're going to go to councelor Winslow for the land acknowledgement we honor and acknowledge the massachusett Penacook and poet peoples whose ancestral lands we now call home and on which We Gather today
we Express gratitude to the IND indigenous peoples who have cared for this land for Generations predating European colonization and continuing to the present moving forward we are committed to ensuring that the histories voices and contributions of our
indigenous peoples are recognized and respected in the life of our CI thank you the clerk will call the role councel cologne Hayes here councel Condon councel Crow here councel linahan
councelor mcdonal Council sea here Council simonelli Council spor Council Taylor Council Winslow here council president om Al here 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 please be aware there will be audio and video recordings of this meeting uh first order of business is public comment do we have anyone signed up for public comment doesn't appear but we do I'm just going to check the list one
second I don't see uh we have nothing uh sent in in written no sir thank you so uh next we're going to go on to the consent agenda this evening's consent agenda consists of meeting minutes to be approved eight appointments to be referred to the Personnel committee two appointments to
be placed on file and one petition to be referred to license is there uh anyone who would like to remove anything from the consent agenda seeing none on councelor Sea's motion to approve the consent agenda seconded by councelor simonelli
uh the clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes yes Council cro yes Council linahan yes Council McDonald Council sea yes Council simonelli Council spaur councel Taylor Council Winslow yes council president Ali yes 10 to zero
then approved next order of Business Council will hold a public hearing on National good petitions to install underground conduits paper 13725 petition Massachusetts electric company DBA National Grid plan number 30861
1819 National Grid to install two 4 in underground conduits including the necessary sustaining and protecting fixtures starting at poll 5441 on Charles Street Malden Mass hearing required hello it looks like we have National Grid in attendance if you could
just state your name and address for the record please hello yeah you don't have to you just you can just speak I I didn't realize how much I can pick up I know I almost ripped it right off
hello um hello and good evening everyone my name is NS Asha I'm an electrical designer with National Grid and I'm in front of you to petition for permission uh that's a tongue twister for um to go underground on uh public property it's a
a sidewalk that's right by the poll the poll number is sorry let me find that one more time poll number is uh 5441 our customer would like to install a pad right on his property um and he'd like to go underground for that and
hence uh the digging right by the pro the pole and the uh um great uh I think we have some diagrams in the agenda for anyone who has who would like to look at it
um is that the end of your presentation oh I'm sorry I I thought there was going to be some question I'm sorry this is my honest to be honest this is my first petition you're good is any does anyone have any questions for the for the petition does anyone have any questions councelor Crow this is
your award I think I think just know the mics are going live right away so I did um talk to them I talked to um National Grid ahead of time this is a very easy one actually the poll is on the sidewalk but it's less than 5
feet from the uh the property I think it was an area that last year they wanted to add a poll to child to Commercial Street and Council spor and I met with them and we talked about a few different things so I'm glad they saw the wisdom of their ways and then you know has it
on the on the on the chse so it's just replacing one pan on panel on the sidewalk absolutely yeah we thought the underground would look a lot better and um you know be a lot easier to do than installing one or two poles on the
customer's property great thank you any other questions yeah uh uh so we're gonna we're going to open up the the public hearing now um so I will declare the public hearing open anyone who would wish to speak in favor of this petition
please come forward and state your name and address for the record uh so anyone who would like to speak in favor of this petition please come forward do we have anything written in uh in favor hearing none and seeing none I'll declare that portion of the hearing
closed is there anyone who would like to speak in opposition to the petition please come forward state your name and address for the record do we have anything in writing in opposition so again I'll ask anyone who would like to speak in opposition hearing and seeing none I
declare that portion of the hearing closed is councelor make a motion to Grant this petition second so on councelor Crow's motion to Grant the petition seconded by councelor Winslow uh with the following condition that the engineer be called when Dig Safe is notified and that the streets and
sidewalks be restored to the satisfaction of the director of Public Works all those in favor uh please please say I I I any opposed that passes
unanimously I just want to make sure that because it is the sidewalk you know I don't want I mean I need it to be the the cemented sidewalk I mean every once in a while you see those little patches and I don't want that yeah and that so that would be to
the the satisfaction of DPW direct okay great so that that passes uh next order of business paper 138-kv of the hero act mgl chapter 178 section 23 acts of 2024 for the benefit of increasing local flexibility for
veterans property tax exemptions and enabling the city to double exemptions through local options in linking the annual property tax abatement to inflation this is sponsored by Council spap for and Winslow councelor spor for the paper I
think it speaks for itself uh I don't want to speak just to speak but I want to thank Nate Kramer this is something I actually saw on the State website couple towns uh in in the west of pilot state of enacted this it is what it is it's under the governor's uh uh hero bill which has other areas not just giving uh
dis 100% disabled veterans the higher tax abatement uh but there's some other things in the state that um the governor signed a law this this particular focus is only on a tax abatement uh that's it um the bulletin which was shared by uh
Nate is in front of you not that hard to uh self-explanatory I'm hoping to send the finance have n come down uh just like we sent uh um the the earlier paper a couple weeks ago he's working on those numbers he actually sent me a email today just to give you guys an update
there are um under about 120 people total of all those additional exemptions we've had not exemptions abatements small number he thinks there'd be a small number for this but again I want to make sure that we we have a good number before we vote so just uh would
appreciate your support sending a finance councelor uh winow yeah no I appreciate apprciate councelor spor and our um assessor putting this forward I I think it's a very you know obviously supporting our veterans who come back is a very important thing and it's
something a small sacrifice that we can make as a city um and uh and I appreciate that we'll be able to look at in finance and really see the fiscal impact but I'm am supportive of the idea and uh we do have some exensions already so to expand that ability is is great
thank you thank you um so on councelor spa for very very quickly councelor McDonald so after we vote on this paper I'm going to try to reset the microphone so this is not happening right now people I think it just turned me on yeah but the thing
is I that came out wrong but I was able to activate my own microphone that is the problem so we're going to try to reset this after this vote um because I don't know when people want to talk so Council McDonald yeah thank you council president I just want to say um grateful for this and very happy to have a
finance committee meeting scheduled about this it'll probably be two week two three weeks or so um give us some time to pull the data together and um to just uh uh yeah thank you to you both for putting this forward I'm excited to dig in Ryan
again yeah and I didn't and in all due respect I know the the finance chair is busy there's a lot of papers in there I I just didn't send it there to send it there we have some time like the other ones I sent the D to make sure that there's not 5,000 people we have to figure out you know what it cost so I I'm hoping it's a small number you know it's a it would be good it's it's only
for somebody who's 100% uh disabled so we hope there's none but we know there'll be a couple uh I think it will be a pretty quick discussion and and then the council does have to vote on it uh to make this an act of law under the state legisl so I wasn't doing this to make more work of fining I I think it's a small piece but I was going to try to
bring it to the floor but I figured it' be better to debate it inside financing rather than just taking up time on the floors and just to say I agree that it's very timely I mean there's a lot of concern about support for disabled veterans in the VA and all that so I think I appreciate the timeliness to bring this forward yeah so in councel Sp
for's motion to oh to refer this to to think we're gonna adopt the order we're gonna then we're going to order Finance to work with the assessor and when it comes out it will come out as a paper that we can then vote on okay so so we're going to adopt this order tonight so Council for's motion to adopt the
order seconded by councelor Winslow all in favor please say I I any opposed that passes unanimously and the clerk um of committees will set a date with the assessor to discuss this in
finance before we go to the next order of business I'm going to try to reset the microphones it's we're just going to take a brief recess um while while I resolve this so if you all want would like to to do anything feel free we're going to take a 5 minute
recess e e e e just e your e e e e e
sorry for it's basically an car's resolve and we're going to we're going to be coming back to order everyone if the council would please come to order sure you okay we're coming back to order now everyone sorry about that
um so the the next order of business 139 is uh paper 13925 paper 13925 resolved that it is the sense of the malen city council that it endorsed sd1 1912 an act to ensure adequate and Equitable funding for public education
sponsored by Senator Jason Lewis as a way to address the long-term funding challenges the city faces in funding its local share of Chapter 70 schools formula this bill creates a commission to examine and make recommendations on key issues with Chapter 70 and explicitly includes the extent to which
the wealth and income measures in the formula accurately determine a municipality's ability to contribute to its foundation budget cost and whether these measures should be changed the impact of section 21 C of chapter 59 of the general laws on municipalities and
their ability to make their required local contributions the soall proposition 2 and a half and the impact of the fixed 59% local share of the Statewide Foundation Budget on the calculation of combined effort yield for each municipality and whether the local share should be changed resolving these
concerns are essential for ensuring that the funding will be available to support the needs of all Malden students as defined in the student Opportunity Act this must also ensure the city of Malden is able to provide all other critical Public Services essential for student
and family well-being including Public Health libraries Parks and Recreation language access and Public Safety we encourage appointments to commission to include representation from Gateway cities and others who have similar local financing challenges to Malden the
Malden city council strongly supports passage of this bill urges all stakeholders in our community and across the state to seek to ensure our schools are adequately funded to contact their state legislators and express their support and this was sponsored by
councel McDonald so just so everyone knows when you want to speak please just raise your hand um we're going to go to councelor McDonald uh as a sponsor of the paper you can turn yourself on I sure can thanks council president so this resolution this
resolve is the latest in our ongoing engagement with the Chapter 70 school funding program which is uh the largest source of outside funding that's coming into the city as of course we know and is absolutely essential for providing for uh our excellent
schools and we've talked about this many times uh at this at this um at this table in the finance committee uh lots of different places so there's a key there's a key update in the process which is the reason for this for this resolve last year you may remember that
we supported creating some kind of a commission like this to look at these long-term issues there's a for for for folks who may or may not have been following all of this Saga let me just say in a by way of a 90 second explanation the way that the state funds
schools is it has a formula that says this is how much it costs to educate all the kids in your District that's called the foundation amount then the next step is to say all right so of that amount how much is fair to ask the local city or town to pay pay we do not take any
issue with the foundation budget amount that says yes this is how much we have to you know it will cost to educate all the kids well in Malden but we take a lot of issue with the expectations of that ability to pay it's based on local income like literally the income tax um
uh records from people who live here and it's based on property values and on paper malin's property values are look like they should be generating a lot more tax revenue than they actually do but the state also limits how much tax revenue we can get from property taxes that's our biggest source of local
Revenue by far so the State caps how much we can take in property taxes but then has this expectation that we're able to pay towards our schools at a level that is just far far higher to give you an example you uh or to give to give you a sense of scale you know right
now this year the state says if we were if we were meeting all of our oblig you know if we were if we were fully phased in we would be paying over over $70 million locally um to support our schools and that is by the way uh a huge
percentage of our 218 uh $200 million in um in local property tax so it's a large percentage there this year we are paying the minimum that the state requires us because the state requires us to pay certain levels and that's uh just over
$54 million so we're a long way um from what the state thinks there we should be able to pay so this is an OP this is a way to to Hash all of this out the you know we when the student Opportunity Act that had all that formulas was passed it
was clear by knew this wasn't you know the be all end all and that local share part but they were going to work on it well it's time to take a look at this there are other issues too with local shares in the funding formula so this bill would create a commission that tackles all of those pieces um and we
think there's a lot to uh get excited about to take a fresh look at for lots of communities but in particular this offers a route to really honing in on the problems that we've identified in Malden and try to get something at the uh that the general assem the um General Court excuse me can
pass in Massachusetts and it's been just very difficult to crack it open at all because there are lots of communities with lots of different interests so Senator Lewis has sponsored this and in talking with him it's it's clear that the more we can do to build Statewide support for this the better chance it's
going to have to pass and actually have some teeth uh to make recommendations to update and change this formula so in meeting with him we think this is our best route uh and we would like to go first as the malen city council formally endorsing this we've talked with the school committee I think they're planning to consider basically a similar
resolve based on this and then we want to reach out to other cities and towns so if any of you my colleagues no other you know local electeds through MMA or you know just from our neighboring municipalities we want to be reaching
out to everybody um that we can to encourage them to pay attention to this and to get this process underway because it's likely to take a couple of years um so that's the that's the reason that we're doing this and and it's it's a lot more specific now that this is an actual bill um I actually have one small
Amendment which is to update the bill number um I've come to understand that in Massachusetts bills have two numbers uh and now there's a second number so we need to update that but the the the basic um the all the
text is the same this is just uh it's just a technical edit um so I would I would be happy to um have any questions that I can you know I'll answer if I can councelor alali as council president has been in some of these meetings as well but we wanted to um you know put a marker out first saying yes we think
this is a route uh to addressing the long-term concerns that we very much share in terms of our budget I councilor spora uh was just in the local newspaper uh making this exact point this past week so I know that that is a sentiment that we all share we voted on this in the past this is the next step to help
move this forward thank you council president is there anyone else who would like to speak on this paper um councelor Winslow you can turn yourself yeah I'm on so good um yeah no I I thank councelor McDonald and um others for advancing this again I know
that Senator Lewis did try to get an amendment last year in the the budget and that wasn't adopted so I think we um just need to keep pressing and I mean it seemed encouraging last year but it just didn't get through so I think starting early trying to get more folks and and
having the whole Council chime in on this is great so um definitely supportive it's it's something that uh you know we need to figure out a way forward and uh I mean this is a step to um doing that so thank you great Council Lan thank you Mr President
um and Council McDonald I was going to make that one suggestion just that we either change the bill number or keep it more broad cuz I know it's so frustrating as it changes and then you have members of the public that want to help Advocate and then the bill is outdated and just want to make sure that we do that in a way that folks can join in advocating for this because I really
do think that's going to make a difference um fully in support of this just wanted to thank you for putting it Forward um and for anybody listening I think that was a really really helpful explanation I find that even you know folks or friends that I have that pay a lot of attention to what goes on in the
city or in the state it's just still a struggle to understand like how can we get in this boat where it seems like we have a lot of people earning a lot of money we have a lot of jobs here we have a great economy and yet we're in this struggle where the state is unable to adequately fund some schools and there
isn't one Magic Bullet but I think that putting our effort behind something like this obviously there's other things that are going to have to change the property tax formula that you know Cuts us off at the knees to begin with I think is long term should be part of the solution and you know the sad thing is I don't think any of these things are going to be
really fixed before many of our kids that are in m and public schools are still in school I think it's really going to take that long but if we don't start it won't get fixed um in a way that can be sustainable for future generations and I think that it's one of the most important things that we can be
doing I think our population is growing younger our school population is growing and um we're in some ways very lucky in Malden that we have new buildings we're not faced with trying to do a lot of you know rebuild building Capital Improvements at the same time I know that the schools need some work but
we're certainly not in the position of other communities where we're struggling to meet that expectation of funding and also facing an override to fund the schools and then maybe not being able to meet that so I think there's a lot of ways that we can be positive about the
local picture but at the same time if we don't fix this it's like a snowball that's just going to keep getting worse and we don't want to be paying fees on not being able to meet that obligation so thank you for putting it forward and I hope that we can do some good advocacy around
it thank you uh councelor spora yeah I I don't I don't want to be repetitive I I I do want to support this paper great work uh thank you for mentioning the article it's something we've been we've been talking about for for at least I think three years now Ron Hogan should get credit for really kind of
discovering this I would say uh miscalculation if they were I would just say I think everybody said it here I think public input here is really needed um and while this is a school funding issue that's got to be fixed uh to council McDonald's Point there's a foundation number and a minimum we have
to spend so if it doesn't get fixed it becomes a Citywide budget issue meaning we we are going to rob Peter to pay Paul because the state says you have to spend this much money which takes it away from all the other programs Public Safety DPW everything uh kind of becomes that black
hole as we move it over there so I think even if you don't have kids in school or children in school whether they're already out or you don't have any children this could still affect you one way or the other in the next you know five to 10 years so I think it's important to say oh it's a school problem it is not a school problem it's a it's a school problem right now it's
isolated but that would it's going to soon join the rest of the balance sheet so I would encourage every citizen uh in this in this uh Community to get involved in this one thank you can I just make one other counc M yeah that that's a great Point councelor Spa for
that um you know the the the the robbing Peter to pay paal nature of this um means it will impact every everything in the city budget um and just one other thing I wanted to to note about this is that this doesn't this is so essential to address
for our City's future and the future of our schools and there's only greater uncertainty not knowing what's going to happen with federal education funding and in it and we get um we were just talking about this in finance today almost $6 million in federal grants to
our schools as far as we know those are slated to continue to come but but real it seems to change every day uh around these kinds of federal funding so we don't know this does not even scratch that surface because that's all federal money this is just about the state but
the more that we can get our state on solid footing and making sure that we're taking care of our own piece of this um the better we're going to be able to respond the more we're in conversation about what the real need is even as things change at the federal level the better we're going to be able to protect our kids and our teachers and our
schools going forward so I just think it only ramps up the UR mercy of getting into this conversation on a really comprehensive Statewide level thank you and then from the chair you know I appreciate that there that we are trying to you know take a positive approach here um and be proactive but I
I really think that when it comes to the city council we've really been probably the most proactive in the state when it comes to this really educating our our legislators about the problem um you know this has been going as councelor you know spap for said you know Ron Hogan has done the Yan's work to
actually you know educate everyone including Senator Lewis about this issue um you know and the last time I believe we brought counselor or or Senator Lewis before this body he told us that we need to increase our property taxes because our property taxes are too low um you
know when when the mayor and school leadership uh councelor McDonald as chair of finance and myself met with Senator Lewis uh more recently um you know and he said he was introducing this this paper to study the problem um he again told us and reiterated that we are
property tax ta are too low and we need to increase our property taxes um you know I think that that is just not a realistic thing to do a gateway community like Malden has never passed a prop two and a half override like this uh for just general fund expenses um so
it really is not fair to to put it on communities like Malden and I'll give you a perfect example it's not just communities like Malden that this is impacting if you look at what is happening in Melrose uh the same policies that our legislature um has been pushing is tearing tearing Melos
apart they have not been successful in P passing prop two and a half overrides um if you watch their school committee meetings um they are very eventful F bombs are being dropped um it is it is actually tearing Melrose apart uh and so that type of De debate should not be
happening in Malden our state legislators need to step up they need to get the political will to fix the problem that they created they created it with prop two and a half with which completely restrains our ability to increase any taxes they then pass the student opportunities act which is great
because it increases funding but it is sucking all of our new growth revenue and more to the point where in the last 10 years we are spending an additional $10 million every year to to fund these unfunded liabilities um so I do support
this but it's Way Beyond studying we should have been studying this 10 years ago when it was brought to their attention it should have been implemented 5 years ago so they would no longer be a problem U but you know if we study this for two more years um who knows what's going to happen at on the
local level um and not to mention at the the same time um there have been other questionable financial decisions happening on the state level you know when it comes to the voke I'm all in support of of vocational education but I would have rather see us build a voke in Malden and partner with communities like
Medford and Everett to build a voke that would actually serve our community versus building the voke in Wakefield which is pretty far away for our kids to get to and and the voke project which was heavily pushed by our state legislators lers is also adding over a
million dollars in in in funds that we cannot afford where is that coming from that's coming from our teachers that's coming from our police our fire our DPW our ability to keep the lights on um and also if you don't remember they sent back 10 two billion dollars in income
tax we we somehow over collected income tax a couple years ago and rather than reinvesting that in education rather than reinvesting that in in transportation they sent it back to everyone fast forward a couple years they find out that we owe the federal
government $2 billion so that's $4 billion and lost money that the state is dealing with and they're saying that we need to increase our property taxes I think it's ridiculous you know how I feel I support this but it's this is not the end it's we're well beyond studying
the problem so if know people in Melrose and if you know people in the other communities that are facing prop two and a half overrides reach out to them because we really need to get this as a priority for our state legislators thank you you have a motion to amend paper yes
um so the motion would be to replace where it says SD 912 1912 um which is in the title as well as the body um with the number S400 is there a second to amend councelor
linan so on councelor uh McDonald's motion to amend the paper seconded by councelor Lan all those in favor please I'm sorry just real quick I there's a typo I put in a typo uh in the second in the last sentence of the second to last paragraph it says we encourage appointments to commission and should
would say we encourage appointments to the commission is that a friendly amend you you accept that is it an amendment sure to add the word the in addition I yes vote would amend it by inserting a new bill number what's that bill number
again S400 S400 and adding the word the before before what committee any questions a no vote would not make that Amendment all those in favor please say I to amending any opposed it is amended
is there a motion to adopt or pass the resolve motion councelor simonelli is motion to pass the resolve secreted by councel McDonald all those in favor please say I I any oppos that resolve passes unanimously next order of
business paper is there a motion to ordain to on councelor winow seconded by councelor Crow all those uh all those the clerk will call the role councel clone Hayes councel Condon I'm sorry councel Crow yes Council
linahan yes Council McDonald Council sea Council simonelli Council spaur Council Taylor Council Winslow yes council president Al yes that has been ordained committee reports sorry we have one more
sorry my ap-24 be it ordained by the Malden city council that the code of the city of Malden 6.2.1 hours of operation in general is hereby amended by adding under paragraph a retail Car Wash 8:00 a.m. to 6:
p.m. on councelor is there a motion to enroll I mean to ordain on councelor wiso second by councelor simonelli to ordain this ordinance the clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes Council Crow councel linahan
councel McDonald Council sea Council simonelli Council spora Council Taylor Council Winslow council president do Ali yes that has been ordained paper 14- 25 committee report the standing committee on rules and
ordinance to whom was referred papers 179 and 287 series of 2024 having considered the same make the following Report with the order of paper 179 having been completed the committee recommends placing that paper on file
and presents the newly written paper 122-2 as the product of that order committee recommends paper 122 series of 202 2025 as was drafted in committee out favorably to the full Council committee further recommends paper 287 series of
2024 out favorably to the full Council as amended motion to accept report on councelor McDonald's motion I mean on councelor wiso's motion to accept the committee report seconded by councelor simonelli
all those in favor please say I I any opposed the committee report has been received paper 179 -24 order that the council's rules and ordinance Committee in collaboration with the Board of Health and health director up update mcc's 9.04 point10 a
related to standing water so as to protect and allow for the use of rain barrels exempting them from the nuisance category of our Municipal health code under the final discretion of the City Health director councelor Winslow for the
paper oh oh this so uh this yeah so this paper has already been worked through the committee process so there's a uh it sounds like we're going to actually be placing this one on file yeah so just you just to explain we have another paper that this paper was really just to
work on something in committee um there's the next paper is really the result of that so this is just to file the you know the initial order so I make a motion to file the initial order so councel W's motion to place this on file seconded by Council lenan all those in
favor please say I I any oppose that paper has been placed on file paper 122-2 be it ordained by the malen city council that the code of the city of Malden 9.4.1 nuisances affecting public health is hereby amended to provide for the use
of rain barrels exempting them from the nuisance category by the following is the body of the paper as was discussed in committee okay um do yeah do you want me to or what are we
going do did you want me to read the Amendments that we made into the record do we want I don't know if we do we need to re read the full paper yeah so yeah um councilor WIS for the committee so I'll I'll take so this paper relates to having um right now in
our um nuisance regulations it talks about not allowing you know runoff to collect and there was some question about whether a uh rain barrel um would be in violation of that so I appreciate councel Lan came up with the idea that
we needed to um update this nuisance regulation to make Clarity she met with uh the health director and they came up with some language and then we in rules and ordinance we sorted out the details so um I i' leave it to I guess councelor lahan to explain the the details a little bit more but um you know we we
hashed it out and you know I think we have a good um set of updates that allow the rain barrels thanks Council Lan is a sponsor of the paper thank you Mr Mr President thank you councelor Winslow um so just in brief um building off of what councelor Winslow said this idea really
came forward after um councilor McDonald and members of the administration had brought the green Malden fair to the city and as part of that launched a rain barrel program um which is something that I think a lot of us had wanted to see happen certainly a lot of constituents had asked for for many many
years um but credit to that group for getting it across the finish line and immediately afterwards we sort of realized you know this does put a little bit in conflict with our own ordinances that stipulate that you can't have stagnant water or standing water and so
um really in the interest of empowering residents to do this and make it clear in our ordinances that you are allowed to have one or more rain barrels um we added this into that section of the health code um added some language around who's really in charge of
enforcing it um especially considering some forthcoming retirements and reorganizations that are going to rename some departments and empowered more people to oversee this confirmed you know the fines for folks that aren't sort of following the rules and then just really made um a set of six simple
regulations that describe what a rain barrel is how it has to attach to one's house um you know that it can't be used for portable drinking water that it needs to have drainage and can't make water flow into someone else's property um and then we did set a maximum size
and we did also um make it clear that you can use the city Barrel or another Barrel or barrels that you buy or that you can make your own as long as it meets these regulations so it's pretty simple again in the interest of making it easy for folks to follow we want people to be able to have rain barrels
um and we don't really want this to be an area of our code that folks weaponize or complain about their neighbors against when folks are following the rules and this is a very um environmentally friendly thing to do so we have some language that is attached to the agenda um that everybody should
be able to see and if there's any questions I'm happy to answer them but it's a pretty straightforward um set of ordinances I think uh councelor clone ha okay thank you so much um for putting this forward um both you and Council McDonald I'm wondering if you're
accepting other additional sponsors okay I would love to be put on that it's a great great idea and I can't wait to do it in my own backyard can I just I wanted to add or maybe this is a question for councelor McDonald I've had a few folks ask if they can get a barrel at this year's
Fair do you know if that's possible I believe that it is um the green malen fair is SK is already on the calendar um and it's for yeah it's that Sunday right so that's April yep April
27th at the same location uh so I'll just take that moment to plug it and say I will double check that with our city staff but I do believe that that those rain barrels um will be available or at least to get information I don't know if that we're going to have enough you can take one home but you
know would anyone else like to speak on the paper seeing none I would also like to be added as a as a sponsor um and with that um is there a motion to uh enroll
or en enroll this ordinance on councelor lyan's motion to enroll seconded by councelor WS low look all those in favor please say I I any opposed this has been
enrolled paper 28724 be it ordained by the malen city council that the code of the city of Malden title 12 chapter 12 section 090 subsection B offsite off street parking lots and title 12 chapter 20 section 020 subsection I General off street parking
requirements is hereby amended as follows to add landscaping materials and exempt from overly compact services such as but not limited to crush stone or stone dust into the ordinance including parking shall be
prohibited in the landscaped area um to strike covered with crushed stone and add as so to prevent erosion and encourage on-site water infiltration Landscaping shall not include ovally compact materials such as but limited to crushed stone or stone dust parking
shall be prohibited in the landscaped area and then in subsection I2 strike the subsection in its entirety and insert in place the following open space coverage including front yards side yards rear yards a minimum of 50% of the
front yards as determined by the main entrance to the property shall be landscaped according to the requirements of subsection 1.5 above additionally a minimum of 50% of the total required open space on site for all residential uses such as but not limited to front side
and RAR yards shall be landscaped according to the requirements of subsection I5 above councelor Winslow for the committee um yes so we had a discussion as a lot of people aware we we have had
uh requirements related to having open space and and and limits on you Paving your your front yard and that type of thing so this is just providing some further clarification because what we we've seen a few things is that um you know people have put um surfaces that
may not be a asphalt driveway but very compacted and and people um also are parking in what is considered a landscape area which is really kind of against the spirit of what we already have in the book so this is really creating some clarifications to really
um put a little bit more backing and I think councilor Ali I you were very instrumental in in uh helping to update this so I certainly you make sense for you to to speak to it as well um very good thank you um and so
any questions on this if I could if I could from the chair uh this this has really been inspired by some of the it's mostly in councelor Lan's Ward unfortunately um where basically uh people rip up um their their yards and
then they they they pave it over in violation of our existing ordinance they spend all that money and then because it violates our ordinance they come back out they have to rip up the asphalt that they've already put down and then they put Crush Stone so we are looking to
tweak this to one make it clear so people aren't wasting their money having yards paved over uh and then wasting their money there uh and then and then after just doing the cheapest route which is just Crush Stone um I do want to clarify that this does not apply to
to anyone that already um has an existing um driveway that might not comply with the new ordinance it would only apply to you know anyone who's looking to to do this in the future is there a motion to
enroll AC oh is there a motion to to amend based on the recommendation of the ordinance committee on Council L Lan's motion seconded by councelor uh Crow the clerk will call the rooll or
all the V on the amend call on the all those in favor please say I I any opposed the paper is amended on councelor lenihan's motion to enroll the ordinance uh seconded by councelor Winslow the clerk will call the role
Council clone hay Council Crow Council linahan Council McDonald Council sea yes Council simonelli Council spora Council Taylor Council Winslow yes council president do Ali
yes that has been enrolled as amended paper 41-25 committee councelor McDonald right uh just wanted to say councelor Taylor pointed out to me we got the date wrong in the Green mall in Fair it's actually the 26th it's that
Saturday April 26th from 12: to 3 pm at the Fieldhouse at Pine Banks Park see you there thank you thanks for clarifying paper 14125 committee report the standing committee on license to whom was referred papers 99 through 110
series of 2025 and the task of assessing additional class two licenses for two abing Parcels under one business entity have considered having considered the same make the following reports committee recommends granting Prestige
Motors of Malden Incorporated a Class 2 license for 30 cars at 590 Broadway in addition to their class two license for 37 cars at 600 Broadway as granted by paper 925 and this would be referring to
9-2a the committee further offers the following report for papers 99 through 110 series of 2025 motion I receive the committee report you have to let us know what happened in from Pap 9 oh these ones are
separate sorry I apologize motion to receive the committee report than all those in favor please say I I any opposed the committee reports are received the license committee met a couple of weeks ago I think it was at this point discussing these two
um oh it's only one it's not the other one did you write this differently than you usually do why does it you don't have to you have two report but this committee report is okay that's fine I apologize okay so the license committee met two weeks ago to
disc discuss the situation that we had at Prestige motives on Broadway um after several discussions over a few um different meetings we came to the conclusion that we would issue two separate licenses since some of the parking was on an additional lot that
was right next door so um the committee voted unanimously to approve this petition so I make a motion to Grant this petition I just yeah counc I just have a question sure then so yeah unfortunately because of conflict with rules and ordinance I I couldn't sit in
on those conversation so so in terms of I I mean I know this was just kind of I did get to some of the early licens meetings as we were looking at the plot plans and stuff like that and this was a confusing one because because it was one business operating on two lots so in the
end is it the same basically amount of cars that was permitted before so so yes great question so it is going to be the same amount of C but this year um we did a a bunch of new things in the license committee and everyone had to put an updated plot plan on file with the city
of Malden as of 2024 and that's when we realized that Prestige although it operates out of 600 it also leases space from 590 Broadway which has about 30 car on that lot so
the gentleman that owns 590 also owns 600 so it's the same business owner but uh Building Commissioner was concerned that if the building the um property owner was to sell 590 and we issued a license for 67 C at 600 that they would
be able to continue to have C at 590 or have 67 cars even though they only had enough space for 37 so we have now tied the 30 spots to the 590 location and we um tied 37 spots to 600 just in case you
know the property owner has no intentions on selling but just in case this covers ourselves um from allowing Prestige to possibly end up with 67 cars on a lot that only holds 37 and and then they had the pl plot plans once they be
under different permits you're satisfied with that we are satisfied as long as as long as the number of cause is tied to the address right we're okay with it because if somebody comes in and purchases 590 then the license at 590
will go away and then Prestige will only be able to operate with 37 Vehicles appreciate the work on this I know I mean and you know as being this is used to be W8 here so um you know I know residents of be Street often you know there's issues you know related to this
operation but it's good that we're clarifying this no yes believe it or not with with all this all the new things that we've required we gave them a year to you know submit a new plot plan we actually only had two that had some issues okay so it um I thought it was
going to be a lot more than that but um there was only two that we really needed to figure out a different game plan and for this one this is what we came up with I appreciate you take taking the effort and yeah I mean I'm supportive and then it's you know it's good to have that Clarity for the the neighborhood and stuff like that going forward no
thank you so much did somebody second that second okay for a second um oh thank you coun and this is just for the first one just for the first one yeah okay if you if you want the committee
report on what happened between 9 and 110 okay okay so I'm also going to do a committee report for papers 99 through 110 so 99 through 110 are actually um petitions that we heard this evening we met with compliance there were no issues
on any of the properties um and there was a unanimous vote to Grant these these petitions tonight so I make a motion that we Grant the petitions 99 through 110 as well as 98 25 and if I could through the chair is is um I know
that there was a discussion about um whether or not the dealer's license was like the primary use of the property remember so so from now on moving forward you will not be able to get a Class 2 delas license in the city of Malden unless it is the primary use of
your proper and that's actually not a city of Malden then that's actually a Mass state law so they changed that years ago and uh we are now no carolan's office will now no longer accept any applications that it
is not the primary use of the property moving forward you know were these the ones that we where that was an issue or we didn't have that issue because anybody that's already currently been in business we've allowed them to continue in business but moving forward as of
I don't even know what the date was but moving forward any new applications that come in front to U the city clerk's office they will not be accepted if it's not the primary use of the property okay thank you we councilor M really quickly too just so you know we did um with the
with accepting all these new plot plans there was a ton of Calas that actually went down in numbers so we we actually have um a substantial that did not mean meet our 15 car license um and we gave
them eight or if they've been in business for 10 plus years or more we're not looking to get them out of business but we can only grant them a license based on what they have the spots for and we had nobody nobody that was upset believe it or not it I expected this
process to go a lot crazier at again there was this one and one other one that had um you a similar situation and it it it really I'm hoping that moving forward it it'll it'll make this process a lot easier great great and the and the
only reason why I'm mentioning it is that um you know I've been talking to councelor seea and some others I I'm I'm going to think we're thinking about or we're still figuring it out I've asked for some some data from our our gas department U but you know some of these these these uses that are you know
really um heavy on the neighborhood and and and the the area they're like mostly like you know one-story buildings oftentimes they're just parking lots we're trying to figure out as people retire or or decide to move on how can we help some of people who oftentimes
have contaminated property because maybe it used to be a gas station or it used to have some under underground storage tank is there a way we can allow them to you know build bigger and better things that are going to like enrich the neighborhood whether that's ground floor retail and some residential on top we're just trying to figure out how do we kind
of um get these properties to turn over into something that's a little bit more in tune with the neighborhood um and uh I just wanted to kind of put that out there because it's a challenge that the license committee is facing and I appreciate the good work that you've been doing thank you so on counselor um
Sea's motion to Grant the petitions uh is there a second Crow counselor Crow all all in favor please say I I and then I have to the other so actually that vote was just for
uh the 590 Broadway one that one was for 9 a-25 Class 2 Prestige Motors of malen Incorporated 590 Broadway 30 cars understood so again that let's take the vote over so for 9 a25 on councelor
Sea's motion to approve the petition seconded by councelor Crow all those in favor please say I I any oppose that paper has that petition has been granted on councelor seas oh you know the clerk will read the rest of the papers 9925
Class 2 smart by USA DBA smart by Auto Group Incorporated 1995 Broadway 22 cars this was for a change of address renewal Paper 100-25 liery Company MGR Transportation LLC 228 Pearl Street Renewal paper 101-2 Livery driver arag
jit Zing 228 Pearl Street Renewal paper 10225 secondhand deal clay Jewelers LLC 94 Main Street New paper 103 25 Taxi Driver Lewis Cola 235 Rivier Street Department 503 Rivier renewal paper
10425 petition Taxi Driver John Daner 36 Highland Court malen renewal paper 105-25 taxi driver Albert Frost 679 Broadway Apartment 2 L Chelsea renewal paper 10625 Taxi Driver Steven lobber 3 Meredith Way Rockland renewal paper
10725 taxi driver Frank penis valy 328a Bryant Street m renewal paper 108-25 taxi driver Donald Porter 17 silver leafway apartment 1731 P renewal paper 10925 taxi drive Valentine to J J30
Washington Street apartment 508 Brighton renewal paper 11025 taxi driver caros Vargas 290 mimom Road Apartment 2039 wber renewal on Council Seekers motion to Grant the petition seconded by councelor Crow all those in favor please say I I
any opposed the petitions are granted next order of buiness paper 14225 order the city council will vote whether to go into executive session with legal councel in accordance with exemption one Massachusetts General Law
chapter 3A section 21 A1 and exemption 7 Massachusetts General Law chapter 3A section 21 A7 to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law specifically to comply with the provisions of Mass general en laws chapter 30A section 23b to act on the
pending open meeting law complaint filed by Jen sea of 12 Cleveland Street on February 27th 2025 against the city council related to the February 25th 2025 duly posted executive session on the matter of benevolent Botanicals in
926 Eastern Avenue V the city of malen with such discussion in open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigation position additionally the city council will meet an ex Ive session to conduct and this is under exemption
21 A7 to conduct a review of the following executive session minutes to determine if release of Records is appropriate at this time March 4th 2025 paper 17-25 February 25th 2025 paper 116-25 February 11th 2025 paper
8325 February 4th 2025 paper 61-25 September 26 2023 paper 3352 3 September 12th 2023 paper 36-23 October 25 2022 paper 425
d22 I'd like to speak to so before we before we go to anyone um I there has been a request that we take up uh these votes in as two separate votes um so one to go into executive session for the
open meeting law and the second vote to go into executive session for the review of the minutes um our Council rules do allow for these to be divided um yes so but they're both in yeah so we
we would take so the the first vote would be on whether or not to go in for the open meeting law complaint um I'm seeing councelor cologne Hayes thank you Council SEC did I see you quick okay you going I
coun thank you thank you very much so um I do support going into executive session to review the the notes uh but I'd like to go on record that I would like um to have a discussion of the open meeting law in public um my social media
post two weeks ago on these issues of Ben um benevolent Botanical is something that has been discussed publicly for years it was a communication with the citizens I represent and keep them informed it's not the open meeting law all right let's vote on it all right
let's do it up no I do want to clarify everyone that I literally cannot do anything on this computer right now okay and it's why I was trying to Res restart this computer and was why we took a recess um so everyone i' like to yeah okay so I'd
support the first one is then I would um support but hold on a second every everyone I'm trying to understand yeah so counselor colon Hayes you're saying that you do not want to go into executive session for the open meeting law
compli that is what's currently on here is there any other discussion on this motion okay okay so come back that's true yeah I'm so I for so just not just for just for a point of order
from the chair I'm not aware of any and and I would I would I would ask the the city solicitor to opine I'm not aware of any rule against debating going into executive session I I I don't know the subject matter is discussed correct so there there are
there are rules that people cannot reveal what has happened in executive session not I can I cannot Council who who decided that this needs to go into executive session was it our legal department so then we should go into ex
actually just so you know so I I the determination is is based on the chair so my understanding is and I'm trying to see if the language is here that language you're looking for is in exemption three it's not in exemption
one and seven okay understood so so so the way we previously had this written in the in the draft agenda I have no problem discussing this on the floor cuz I know what I can and cannot say I'm just afraid of what others may try to
say in an open meeting that could be detrimental to the cities I I understand what you're talking I just I'm not aware of anything that Pro that allows me to prohibit people to have debate on whether or not to go into executive session Mr President may I just councelor Sim I just think that
it would be easier for all of us if we just take the vote on whether to go into executive session or not going executive session just because the ability for whatever we talked about in executive session could be coming out tonight on the open public
floor and it just it it it totally eliminates the reason for us going into executive session in the first place so it's a waste of our time it's a waste of the taxpayers time the people that are watching right now so we either just take a vote on either we go on Executive session or we don't and you
either vote Yes or you vote no that's that's all understood okay so is there a motion to go into executive session motion on councelor simi's motion is there a second second seconded by councelor Crow the clerk
will call the role can can you just verify what a yes and no vote means for this one I thought somebody else was making a motion a yes vote would be to go into executive session actually I don't have any of that language
um yeah simple yes we go to Executive session no would be no we're not going into executive session extion right I have no problem no we don't want that for all of us yes so just to clarify the confusion
everyone usually we go into executive session under a different provision of the open meeting Law related to litigation that usually requires me to read a giant paragraph of things we're going under and that I guess is
exemption three we are going under we are going into executive session under exemptions one and seven so just it's unusual and and again this vote is to go into executive session for the open meeting law
complaint the clerk will call the role Council Crow yes Council linahan yes councel McDonald yes Council sea yes Council simonelli yes councel spora yes councelor Taylor yes councel Winslow yes
council president om Al no okay so that is um 8-2 that we will enter into executive session for the first half of this paper uh so now we have the second portion is there any discussion on going
into executive session for the minutes I'll make a motion to go into executive session councelor Sea's motion to go into executive session for the purpose of conducting a review of executive session meeting minutes a yes vote will go into executive session to review these meeting minutes and no votee will
not councel clone Hayes yes councel Crow yes councel linahan yes councel McDonald councel sea yes Council simonelli councel spor yes councelor Taylor councelor Winslow yes council president
Ali yes so that is 10 to Z to enter into executive session for the purpose of reviewing minutes for release to the public would you um please let us know if we're going be coming back into Open session so the council will be entering to
Executive session both for uh the review of the open meeting law complaint and to review executive session meeting records uh we will now go into executive session the body will not reconvene for any further business and we'll adjourn directly from executive session Personal Privilege uh but before we'll take some
personal privilege councelor Winslow yeah I just want to um let people know that on Saturday uh March 29th um 9 o'clock at the salemwood school um I'm organizing a cleanup of the bike trail um you know along that stretch with the
bike to see organization and then um on the following weekend um on uh Saturday March 5th at 2m with the live like Becca um uh supporters will be
doing one near the community garden at 2 o'clock so just a couple community cleanups you know at this time of year on the trail there's a lot of trash that's just gathered under the snow we need to get it cleaned up so so we'll extend as far as other places too so the Bike Kitchen is opening on I think April
1 so so things are happening right thank you uh council president may I proceed just wanted to let folks know if you haven't already seen that Malden porchfest 2025 is now signing now has o
signups open to become a host or a performer you can go to molden porchfest chorg it is this uh May 31st Saturday May 31st 12:00 to 6: p.m there's going to be lots of stages and block parties and so on so uh Now's the Time if you're
interested in in hosting or performing to get in the um get in the mix so thanks a lot hope to and I'm sure I'll see many of you all there when the time comes