##VIDEO ID:i4r8FYabrCg## is here okay all right you ready for call to order all right all right uh call to order here um Council will come to order um all rise and salute the flag um 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 servicemen and women and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice okay um uh I we tonight we honor and acknowledge the Massachusetts pentaco and Paka peoples whose ancestral lands we now call home and on which We Gather today we express our gratitude to the indigenous people who have cared for this land for Generations predating European colonization and continuing to present moving forward we are committed to ensuring that the history's voices and contributions of our indigenous people are recognized and respected in the life of our city um clerk will call the role councel clone Hayes here councelor cond councel Crow councel linahan councel McDonald councel Ali here councel sea Council simonelli Council spa for councel Taylor council president Winslow here all right um so tonight we have um one special guest um I think we have the the mayor did I hear is here tonight so I don't know if May wants to put in a word or not but thank you very okay okay well was the mayor gonna introduce the yam and the lead program here tonight so I don't if you want to come up and say hi for a minute come up just say hi but uh future mayor why didn't you you stand at the podium and just say hello and say your name and where what your street is okay there you go I just got got it on it's blinking you turn okay let's I'll turn on back on here here you go you're on okay um so I am the mayor of Malden my name is Gary Christensen and uh um I go to the Fairway school and I um I would like to say thank you for you all being here today for the special meeting and I would like to thank you all and I um I appreciate all the work you you guys have done for Malden and we want to continue this amazing and generous work kind of you guys and um yeah it's all you got to say thank you thank you very unexpected guest okay okay and my real name is um so my real name is Daniel Pereira and uh this is my mom here okay thanks for bringing okay and she's an amazing woman she works at my school and um yeah we uh she's a good person too just like just just like me just like do we want to take a quick recess to take a quick picture with the mayor you want let's all take a quick picture with the mayor all right thank you oh thank you no I'll take it there so Daniel do one with the mask one without it okay so you can show your let's wait have one more are you think to take one without it yeah much better looking I have to agree thank you thank you guys thank you so much thank you okay okay okay sure okay all right um so now um 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 just be aware there will be audio and video recordings of this meeting in the first order of business um so uh just as we was great to see our youth come out tonight uh we have city engineer yen and Maria Louise here tonight to give the city council an update on our efforts to um to assess our lead lines and and remove them which is very important to our youth going forward so yam and Maria please uh step up so great okay I'm gonna let yam Take the Lead here um so he can talk about all the um initiatives that we've been working on especially since we received the Opera funding um and give an update on exactly how much we've accomplished and where we're heading I think that's even more important because there are new um D regulations and EPA so um yeah thank you for having me here councelor if you want to take a few minutes to go through the slide sure you I mean we don't you don't have a presentation for power you just have the the handout right that's that's it all right okay great so for for all right do you do you want to give a quick overview of this so that people watching on sure can understand what has happened so and 2023 we received uh a grant from Mass DP for about $ 1.4 million and U we utilize that money to hire fuss and O'Neal to help us with the inventory and to update our GIS um and in O October 2020 of this year we submit the plan I don't have the plan with me but it's it's a good siiz report and along with the uh submission we mail to all our resident who has lead lines in their uh uh connected their houses any Resident with unknowns which we have about 800 left of uh resident with unknown uh line that connected their properties uh we mail to even uh property with the galvanized pipes you know letting them know how to address the if they feel they have any concern with uh the uh the Water they call us they we provide bottles for samples we provide uh um filter if so should the result come in high we provide the resident with filter and we put them on the priority list to get replaced um so that was done as of October of this year which was required by D and U so today as of uh this week we completed um 301 lead lines today which is about 150 more than what was required by um the consent order um and we um the mayor's office uh and including Chuck ranigan and I met with MW in November um to discuss the uh replacement program with them um then they want to see us speed up a program a bit more um we're required to to come up with a 10year plan to replaced all the lead lines in the city and uh they want to see that we can complete everything by 2032 which is a little faster than what is required uh what that equate to is a it's about 370 lines per year that we need to do and uh the total you know present value total cost to replace all our that lines is about $25 million so we can see what that cost per year um so for this past couple years uh um and the subcommittee with uh Council Winslow and Isaac uh on the the oper water sewer committees and you know we utilized quite a bit of money to replace our lines to and we replaced about 300 per year for the past two years and uh in addition to the Opera money we also uh received the U Grant from EPA for $4 million to be expended by 2026 you know we've been using that money to offset you the replacement cost and you know going forward we're looking to utilize mwa let uh Le line money which they have they can provide to us for for 25% Grant and 75% 0% interest uh loan and also we're looking to obtain grant for through EPA the win Grant uh between anywhere between two millions and $10 million for fouryear you know program and if you have any question I guess I can take questions or comments okay let's see councelor Al have that light on so great so um y thank you for for this I I do want to say that the the city and the mayor's office and and the engineering department has really done uh Yan's work uh to to get this prioritized so I I do want to applaud the work that the city has done we've really come a a very long way and we've removed a a tremendous amount of lead service lines um one of the the questions I had was um it's great that the MW is encouraging us to do go above and beyond um are they providing any Financial Resources to enable us to do that uh and if so um what does that look like and then the other question you said $25 million to do all of the rest of our lead service lines is that both public and private or is that just the cost for the public side so if you look uh and Sheet um well if you look at the Matrix she to we have on uh on the public side you look under the lead items we have 1,400 of lead lines on the public side and on the private side which is on the column on on the columns we have another 1,200 um and we are required to remove both public and private private meaning from the sidewalk to the meter and the public side would be from the sidewalk to the uh water main ju just to clarify our community is required to do that but the the cost to do that might be on the homeowner for the private side we have some resources for people who are Income eligible right I'm seeing yes so so we're targeting the public side to replace all the public side and the private side we do have thein in place where um if anybody you know you're selling a house you have to replace the private side and then we would go in and replace the public side thank thank you for all your hard work I really appreciate it thank you thank you councelor McDonald yeah thank you so much Yim um always appreciate the updates here this is definitely one of the things that I know I get asked about by residents I do think there's some awareness you know at this point because we've been successful in building that awareness that there are lead service lines all over the city um so that so just to recap from counselor's question that $25 million is like the total liability to replace all the lines some of that will likely be paid by homeowners some of that will be paid for the on the city of the public side and some of it will be the city paying for the private side where we can and where it's appropriate correct that's that is correct okay so I think um it would be it would be helpful at least for me maybe not not not at this moment but to to just be able to see the progress that we've made over time because I I think it's important for the community to see that you know we're we're chipping away at this every year you know it's another 250 300 um lines and how much we've spent on that if we can know that because I know we've gotten ear marks and we spent arpa funds so I think it's just helpful to know you know for the record like if we do this next year how much um how much we've spent so that we can share that with folks who ask about it can you just clarify this last point about the Mystic excuse me I always I always mix up the Mystic River Watershed Authority which is the mrwa and the M Massachusetts Water Resources Authority which is the NW but nonetheless that's my problem um can you so they have they have programs to help fund this that are 75% 0% loan 25% Grant do we have the do we have such a an award right now or is that a future program we could tap into uh we currently we have $500,000 that we borrowed for this year and next year um to so the water remain uh water main replacement project when we replace our water main replace the service line and MW kicked in the the lead line portion to help us replace all the Le lines in addition to the uh you know the the 0% loan for the waterm provide that we replace full relay if it's a public side and replace the public side if it's public and private we replaced both so we do have that program now and we're looking to you know increase that so we could get more resources from the MW to accelerate this so correct what are the barriers to accelerating the program like is it just a straight money question and we could hire more people and do more stuff if we had more money um it it's money and it's yes it required staff required uh additional help again you know how much do you want to disrupt the uh the city you can we try to minimize the disruption by if we go in there to pave the road we repl service line we replace the main and maybe National grd do the things and then we pave the road so some roads have two some roads have more than two and you we could we tried to restore the road as best as possible but if we have a short road with 10 lines now the road need to be replaced uh need to be paved so there's that part of the uh cost so do you feel confident that we can meet the 2030 a 2032 expectation like if we could find the resources could we do it logistically um I think we can um we you know we we've done in the past three years about 300 per year and we're looking to they're looking for us to increase to 370 per year you know that's that's another contract that we need to hire okay well I will speak for myself and saying I would love to know anyway that this Council can support that acceleration um and my final question was so are is the work here primarily I mean it's contracted there's a third party contractor that does the work or do we do how how much of it gets done by City staff so inous like this year inhouse we replaced about 25 27 lines um the ordinance result in about 45 replacement that's private side contractors and that's going to slow down um we have four contractors the total to about 200 and change of uh lead lines so the the bulk of the work is done by by contract got it and would it would it be help would it be helpful or quicker or more cost efficient to bring on more staff and use less contractors to accelerate this I think it's it has to be shoed out that you know I think we're we we're doing as efficient as and as productive as possible between what we can do inhouse and what we can do you know with contract was um at this point we don't do any private job with in-house staff it's only within the roadway got it all right thank you really appreciate the update all right councelor colon Hayes and it'll be councelor Conan oh thank you um so thank you for the update and I can attest uh to the fact that you did send out letters because unfortunately we received one um so I do have some questions um I just want to repeat back what I thought I heard um that where the city is requiring to remove the lead from the street to the house but as a homeowner we have some options on how to do that so who would we contact is that in the letter I can't I can't remember if that was in the letter do they contact your office is to see if there's like grants available who's you know yeah how do we go about that um yeah they can contact my office your office and we do have um approved contractor if they want to expedite the uh you know the work okay and if they can wait then obviously at some point we will get to get there okay and when you when you just said um that it's required are there any like penalties if someone comes and let's just say like um all right we're we're going to try and get this done in our house is there somebody checking up to say like you um have this amount of time to replace lines or is that on the homeowner um well the city as the water provider will require to repl in 10 years in 10 years all the lead lines all the Le okay um we have to come up with a way to to remove them okay um and then you mentioned the MW had some grants was that for the City Grants to help replace not for like residents um the grant is for the city to use and I mean there could be options of um you know uh other cities have used uh way to incentify that's a little harder to manage yeah the there's different options okay because I think when you were saying that the well MW wants us to move faster and um to councelor um Al's Point are they offering us stuff um to help move that faster that would be like grants would be one way we're hoping well that that's exactly what they're saying they they provide they're giving us 205% Grant and 75% loan 0% interest loan to be paid back in 10 years okay all right and so if anyone's listening out there now and you received one of these letters um hopefully on the bottom there's somewhere you can contact or they can contact your office for more info okay thank you so much so I have councelor cond up next did you just want to make a comment or did you home owner with the lead pipe coming from uh the main to their house right we have programs in place for that I think that was one of the questions the councilor was looking to try and get simel that's that's that's not the point of information is some procedural thing so that I think well I think to answer her question though just maybe you can answer that question then that's all I looking for it was councelor Conan was that next up so so yeah you'll get your chance so answer you feel free to answer this question then well I didn't know if she wanted a question answered that's all I was asking you do Mr President yeah all right okay oops we utilized the past two years the EPA Grant to address um areas with high numbers of uh young kids and low incomes as a priority so yes uh cross street for example Newland Street those streets got done both privates and public all right all right councelor cond yeah yeah thank you uh Mr President uh yam you've done a fine job the last few years you've been a busy guy for sure but uh I'd be remiss if I didn't uh bring up Maria Louise who was uh been a driving force with meeting our numbers as far as uh working with the MW and these contractors she's been great and uh I think we're pretty much on tiger if we don't lose uh steam in the program you know we I think we can do it by 32 we're pretty close so congratulations to you and Maria for your efforts thank you very much councelor Crow thank you Mr President I know um the um on the private side I know there's loans for low Inc come and some of those other ones and I know the council spap for was the one that really sort of spearheaded when someone s a sold a house it had to be the lines I just you might not have an answer now but is there any other things that we could be doing to sort of any of requirements like the sale and you know not that I'm but jumping off of what we had the conversation in um an ordinance today just about auds and some other things anything else that we can do again might not be answer now that would trigger if you're going to do an a I keep getting the letters wrong so um that if we did that it would trigger that there has to be like the the lead service lines replaced on the private side so you mean I'm not sure if there's anything out outside of that but like you said you know the the sale of the houses are going to be slowing down and it was booming for a while and was really making an impact so just kind of thinking about some of the other things that are going on and something else that would trigger um doing that you know I think certainly that we can we look at the ordinance and tweak it you know slightly right always that's just start thinking that's what I mean thank you yeah no yam thank you and your office and Maria Louise for the great work and the whole all of Staff it's it's been a amazing thing I remember remember uh you know back in 2017 running for office and and going to the meetings then and I think about in 2017 we were doing a little over a hundred so to get up to 300 that was always like what can we do and it's been a team effort you know it took the councelor spap for's ordinance that he Advanced to to have it happen when people sell you know it's taken our DPW and water department to do that when during routine maintenance and other type of things and then it's taken this other effort as we're um you know a couple specialized things when we're redoing roads to make sure we get all all the things so it's really been a team effort and you know it's great we've you know we almost almost tripled what we're doing but you know we have a little bit more to go so it's it's fantastic and you know I know you know we we've been working at seven years it it it was looked like it was going to be 20 years so to almost half the time um that we have left is is a really big thing so I mean I think it's a great for thing for the city I I did have one question just I didn't want to find out about I know like in in on Maplewood Street and other places there was a lot of effort to dig up unknown so do you have do we did we dig up everywhere where we had an unknown wasn't that part of the D Grant so what's what happened with that combinations um we've done door knockings um we uh as a matter of fact starting Thursday there's going to be a group would be door knockings um we've done it maybe three or four times and for some properties um they you know they're just not as responsive as we want but uh majority of the unknowns have been verified through just door knockings and do an uh we complete an inspection in the basement um and for the uh public side the only way to do it is by performing test pit which is a little more invasive so the work we've seen in the street or a sidewalk that's really focusing on the public side unknowns so do we feel like the public side unknowns with this year we really pretty much know that now I think if you look at the Matrix um so did we what we do 32 this year is that um we surpassed Medford okay yeah if you look at on sheet um Mar on sheet three and again and the mayor's office has been very supportive and everything and I you I can't take the my my feet my foot off the the gas pedal without saying St so um but we do have about uh 32 unknown in the public side left all right and uh you know that would be you know Pleasant Street an area where it's just it's left over because it's just too disruptive at this point so so then on the Matrix this says private side I'm looking down it says unknown so is that those were unknowns before and then we determined what 429 are copper and 252 are lead is that the result is that what this so the private side is 429 unknown and the public side is copper if you saw follow to oh okay so so that unknown is okay all right so there are only 20 that are unknown on both sides okay and then there's two that means there 252 private side that are unknown LED at this point is that and yeah that would be lead public side and unknown private side 252 so okay so but then let's see there's lead so we have well no well there's lead so on private side there's is there 985 un Le lines that are I'm just trying to see unknown so it's lead 979 lead on the public on the public side and then copper on the private side so then there's some there's so there's on the copper on the public side there's 429 of those that are unknown in terms of lead right now so that's what you're saying correct all right so that's and so those are ones we have to do the door knocking and then the then the unknown lead on the public side we we're that was the digging that was happening this year okay that just clarifies it for me because I thought there was a little bit of both both but yeah that's it's helpful all right anybody else then well thank you so much and this is great work and I guess we'll just keep it up and and I do I do want to um as you mentioned the team effort I do want to recognize um congresswoman Clark and her office for their support as well as you councelor Winslow um for all the assistance that you've given the engineering department and being proactive with this so thank you thank you very much thank you yeah great all right um next order of business public comment is allowed under Council rules each speaker is limited to subject manager on tonight's agenda and must be two minutes a clerk do we have any sign in for public comment well we had one that was emailed into us tonight by Mr seya but he's in did do you want to speak in person instead he prefer to speak in person since he's here all right come up uh your name and address and you'll have two minutes to speak I don't have to press the button right it's it's lit Ahad um so my name is John SE from 37 Pierce Street M Massachusetts and I just want to uh speak um towards councilor McDonald's file 42624 with the $25 million recommended appropriation for Maplewood Park um so my recommendation is that the council put it back to the finance committee I just received earlier today uh public record request for the um for the document that's a probable opinion for the opinion of probable cost for $2 and half million dollar so I was just thinking if the city coun I was thinking the discussion would be a lot more informed if the council knew what the itemized expenses were in that document um there's I know there there's a long discussion that I think that could be taking place in the finance committee there two two minut two minutes isn't enough to bring it all up right now so all right that's the comment right basically it anything else thank thank you very much all right so uh next order of business is the consent agenda this evening consent agenda consists of meeting a minutes to be approved one appointment to be referred to Personnel committee one appointment to be placed on file one appointment to be confirmed 29 petitions to be referred to license and one communication to be placed on file um do any counselors have a desire to remove any of these items from the consent agenda for the purpose of further discussion okay everybody got a chance then so um we have a lot of licenses that are getting referred so it'll be busy next uh next Tuesday for folks on license so be sure to be on time there um so um so um not hearing any and seeing any objections to um the consent agenda on counselor um on counselor sell's motion to approve the consent agenda seconded by councelor Crow um all those in uh do do we need to take a roll call on this because we have an appointment so we um so clerk will call the role Council colone Hayes Council Condon councel Crow Council linahan councel McDonald Council Ali Council sea Council simonelli Council Spa four Council Taylor yes council president wiso yes um the items on the consent and and agenda are hereby approved all right um next order of business um motion order and resolutions clerk will um read the paper Okay um so yeah so we first have the committee report from the um from the uh rule rules and well that the charter Review Committee so um so let me see so yeah what I first want to do is take the we have actually committee reports uh with paper 48224 which is the committee report from the standing um committee on Charter review so do is there any objection to changing the order of business so we can take that paper out of order you can do it right well I'm I can but if does anybody object otherwise there's no objection all right so we're going to take um yeah so um so just uh clerk will read the uh paper 4822 4 committee report the standing committee on chter review to whom was referred paper 418 series of 2024 having considered the same make the following report committee recommends the council ask the solicitor's office to draft a home rule petition consistent with the memo presented with paper 48-24 for the council's review and consideration the committee further recommends the council refer to paper 4 43-24 to the rules and ordinance committee to consider setting forth proposed ordinance changes consistent with the memo presented with paper 48-24 all right um so on councelor Al's motion to accept the committee report second by councelor Taylor all those who in favor say I so that the committee report is made so I'm G to hand councelor Ali the gavl so I can talk about the paper so clerk will read the paper now sure paper 443-2434 and is hereby amended as noted in the body of said paper effective upon the successful passage of a home rule petition approving corresponding amendments to the city Charter all right so um so as many of you did attend we had Charter Review Committee um meetings the last couple weeks and many of you were there so um as you recall back in the springtime we were looking to do basically a h whole new city Charter um that discussion stalled out because it was just a lot to handle um the mayor's office came back uh last month and said let's maybe do a simplified First Step Charter review so um that was what was referred to committee um that you know the committee reviewed the the paper prepared by Ron Hogan so that's what's referred to as um you know the paper for 1824 so that was basically the communication from the mayor l laying out um you know key provisions of the charter that were kind of the most urgent to address and so um the charter Review Committee did you know review both um those sections of the charter that would be essentially what we be we would be doing is um striking parts of the charter and then replacing those with uh new ordinance Provisions so we discussed those um you know the committee um we had a good discussion but I I think generally the committee appreciated their reproach um and that what made most sense is to um you take the step of having um our solicitor's office take the step of drafting the home Ru petition so that would come back to the the council to review and approve and the mayor to sign send to the legislature um and as part of the the the package that came down to the mayor there was some you know relatively specific ordinance language that you the charter Review Committee take took a look at um they like the approach but really thought it was important to um do some more work on that you come next year so um so as the solicitor's office is working up the home rule petition the rules and ordinance committee can be be working through some of the more detailed um discussion that we wanted so that's the basically the plan and um you know to try to sync up you know when the the council feels confident enough that we have a pretty good version of the ordinances um you know we'll have the we will'll advance the home rule petition that time and then essentially what they'll be um they'll be synced up so that the home rule petition for the charter you eliminating Charter Provisions will only take effect when the ordinance is in place and the ordinances will only take effect when the the legislature uh and the governor pass the law that would would enact the um Charter changes so that's really the plan so does anybody have any more further questions about that I know a lot of people were at committee but basically that's the strategy going forward so any any further discussion so so I mean otherwise I guess it's it's this so this paper 4432 24 would essentially be um Carolyn so carolly and I worked on the um the draft ordinances so this is basically to um refer the draft ordinance changes to rules and ordinance so they can be taken up next year and then you know we we we'll already have been acting and having the solicitor's office do this so This 4432 24 is the draft the ordinances that will go to the ordinance committee and and be taken up by the ordinance committee next year so any questions on that let's see councelor councelor Ali yeah no I don't have any questions I was just going to ask are there are there any motions on this that you'd like to take up so I I mean the motion right what we need to do right now is um just make the motion to refer this paper 4432 24 to the rules and ordinance committee um to advance um the the rules and ordin the ordinances the draft ordinances to the rules and ordinance committee so to be so the city council can work on its part so do does does the 482 need to be acted upon 48224 is that being passed or um just a committee report so we we'll just yeah we received it and I think then do we have to place on that recommendation or is that I guess so okay right paper 443 so I guess we're just we're just referring four paper 443 242 ordinance committee and then I guess I as Council you know president I will just we will refer the committee report to um to the solicitor's office so so yeah all right so count on councelor sell's motion to refer paper 4432 24 to the rules and ordinance committee seconded by councelor Lenahan uh all those in favor say I any opposed all right so that paper is referred and then we will also be following up with the um with the solicitor's office and what will happen that the solicitor's office will fop the home rule petition they will send that back and that'll have its uh a paper number as well so I think ultimately we'll the ordinance we pass will refer to the the home rule petition paper number and vice versa or something that's what we're trying to do so that that's uh those things are taken care of all right so so um okay point of information councelor let see y go ahead let's see yeah I I apologize I'm just I'm reading so paper 482 says that the committee recommends the council ask the solicitor's office to draft didn't didn't you want to like vote on that didn't you want to vote favorably let's take a vote why didn't you just make that motion that we uh why so on councelor wiso's motion to um adopt the committee report or accept the Comm we've accepted the so I think it's just to take that action to right uh on councelor yes on councelor wiso's motion to to uh uh request the solicitor's office to draft a home rule petition consistent with uh paper all right paper 478-2389 24 are to adjust the effective dates to January 1st 2025 into add SL education after the word longevity recommendation amendment to paper 434242 C of subsection D okay on councelor Lan's motion to receive the committee report seconded by councelor McDonald all those in favor say I I any opposed that uh committee report is received clerk will read the paper then so paper for the first paper is paper 43224 beat ordained by the malen city council that the code of the city of Malden is amended by adding title 2 chapter 28 section 100 union benefits applicable to non-union members all right Council l a hand for the committee let me call thank you uh Mr President so this paper is really to um enact parity and benefits between our Union and non-union staff in City Hall it really covers sick vacation longevity and then as the amendment stated we added education just to make it clear um because there is an education um bonus in addition to longevity pay that they can um experience so we wanted to make that clear and consistent and then we also fixed a typo um just to make the the year correct uh the way it was worded it said this year which would have made it retroactive and we would actually like it to go in effect January 1 of 2025 and it was recommended favorably unanimously okay thank you and just just uh you know one of the things I I asked both the clerk and and the mayor's office about was sometimes we have papers come this time of year that are we change the salary schedule and there's some you know back pay um so we sometimes on an ordinance like this we will expedite it but there's no really you know there's not any retroactive pay or benefits that are hanging in line so so there's I I didn't think we need to do anything to expedite this other than you know you know enroll so I just clarify by that so all right and so on councel Mo Council Lan's motion to enroll the or is there any questions on this or second so uh so just so on councelor uh lenihan's motion to enroll the ordinance seconded by councelor amaly what oh let's see okay so we do have to vote so on okay councelor On LAN motion to amend the ordinance seconded by councelor Ali all those in favor say I I um any opposed all right so the ordinance has been amended and now on councelor Lan motion to enroll the ordinance as amended seconded by councelor Ali all those in favor say I I any opposed all right so that ordinance is enrolled as amended and then we will we can Endor ordain it next week so clerk will read the next paper paper 4 34-24 be it ordained by the malen city council that the code of the city of Malden 6.8.7 licensing of marijuana establishments is hereby amended as follows under subsection D strike paragraph 2 C insert in its place the following applicant shall enter into a host Community agreement with the city of malen under subsection D striking paragraph 2D in its entirety striking subsection e in its entirety so all right thank you clerk um councilor linan for the committee thank you so again this is just um pretty simple and straightforward it's really aligning our local ordinance with a new state law that mandates how your host Community agreement has to be worded um it's a template it's simplified you really aren't allowed to have have um locally specific things in there anymore and so this just tidies that up uh we did amend it to make clear that in the future we're going to reference and defer to state regulations around cannabis so that if there are changes in the future we don't have to come back and reopen the ordinance and make that change again so that's what the amendment is about um but again this was recommended unanimously favorably okay um does anybody have any comments or questions about the paper so on Council Crow's or councelor Lan's motion to enroll the paper seconded by councelor Crow uh oh let's see was do we have I'm sorry so so on councelor Lan's motion to amend the ordinance seconded by councelor Crow all those in favor say I I any opposed all right so the ordinance is amended so then On councelor LAN motion to enroll the ordinance as amended seconded by councelor Crow all those in favor say I I any opposed all right the ordinance is uh enrolled as amended and we'll we can ordain that next week so next order of business so paper 4792424415 say I I any oppos that the committee report is received uh clerk will read the first paper paper 426-428 500,000 is appropriated from the available General free cash for the Maplewood Park Turf Rehabilitation great so councelor McDonald for the committee thank you council president so there we took this set of six um papers uh in sequence in our finance committee meeting last week and had some great conversation about each of these the the overview is of the purpose for each of these is contained in this document that's Linked In the agenda the the free cash appropriation memorandum um dated November 26 as a side note I think it's important for the general public to know that free cash is not free um it is in fact our cash reserves that's just a state term so you know don't get too excited about that um but that is our full cash reserves to make sure that we can you know we have liquidity and that we're able to cover um all of our liabilities so um I'll also just clarify as I often do that these papers are not in fact my papers they are from the mayor uh under state law only the chief executive can propose spending in a municipality so I carry them through the process under the name of the chair of the finance committee but they are not mine um but I do support them as did the finance committee in each of these so um I'm happy would you like me to talk through these together or individually and vote on them individually I think we we have to we have to vote individually so why don't you talking individually yes okay great so we'll start with this one um 42624 that the clerk just read $2.5 million available for the um uh for the Maplewood Park Turf Rehabilitation um and I know John spoke to this in the uh public comment I think we did have a good discussion in committee we reviewed the planning um it's true that the planning for this project actually took place a few years ago and the and those plans have been updated um in conversation with the rec department and the ward counselor uh to and I was very excited to see this be able to not only replace the turf um that is end of life but add in a full sizee or near full sizee field for soccer and Lacrosse and these kinds of things that are really hard you can't do them on a baseball field so they somehow managed to get that in design I think that's key for our portfolio of um of youth sports facilities around uh around the city a a key piece that showed up in this discussion also was folks may know that the um one of the primary users of this park is molden Catholic U molden Catholic is adjacent to the Maplewood Park and um two things about that one is that under one of our updated ordinances any large scale user of a park like this has to have a special permit that's that comes to the council for approval so once this project is done if molden Catholic would like to continue continue to use that Park they will have to negotiate a a special agreement about this that would come back to the council for approval um and two um that there have been good and collegial conversations between the city and molden Catholic about the potential there and what that would require and how molden Catholic would do you know would would make good on on the amount of usage uh in terms of other benefits to the community or paying um for certain types of usage you know we don't have any details but just wanted to just wanted to folks to know that um that uh those conversations are happening and will continue to happen and and we've had um good rapport with Malden Catholic or so has been was reported in committee um so the I I will just if I may just as an overview of all of these papers there was a you know we asked well why are we why do we need to do these now uh rather than say waiting until the budget process when we might know how much um cash reserves we may need for the fiscal year 26 budget and the answer which I think is um really smart is is that this is a lot about the timing of construction bids and that we now that we have certified our cash reserves from the previous year um now is the time to go out and before the construction season really starts and and make sure we can lock down um the uh the contractors needed for these various projects um and so while I understand the you know the desire for more conversation I think Maplewood in particular is is one of of our most urgent Park projects um the facility's condition is so bored that we think it you know it's it's liable to cause injury to the to the players on it um and so as we know Turf has to be replaced it has an end of life and Maplewood has reached it and we've and we've had that flagged as as at a point of con like at the concern Point not the Cosmetic point But at the at the safety Point um by our um by our Consultants um so we just had a good conversation and folks were uh those were the points that came through that folks wanted to discuss uh and had unanimously recommended the um adoption of this financial order all right uh any questions from counselors all right so on uh counselor Simon's motion to uh adopt this paper seconded by councelor McDonald um clerk will call the role Council colone Hayes councel Condon councel Crow councel linahan councel McDonald councel R Al yes councila councel simonelli Council spora Council tayor council president wiso yes so that order is adopted clerk will read the next paper paper 42824 order that the sum of $300,000 is appropriated from available general fund free cash for traffic calming initiatives so councelor McDonald for the paper again uh thank you this was one that I I know I was very happy to see the mayor propose and a lot of my colleagues were as well so traffic calming initiatives are really about helping to slow down cars on our residential streets uh we certainly hear a lot about concern uh is it safe to across the road we hear it from families people with strollers wheelchairs our seniors um I live on a busy street and and cars come roaring down it and I know this is a this is a problem in literally every W across the city um so $300,000 is not does not fix all of those problems but it does give us enough to actually do the kinds of pilot projects we've been talking about the city's in the process of hiring for the vacant Transportation planer position this will give them um some money to work with um you know so just to give you a sense like a speed bump for example might be 105,000 a raised inter redoing an intersection costs well into the six figures so it's not again it's not all the money but I think it's enough that we can get a good range of projects actually down on the roads and having this money ready to go when we have someone um who can pick up that portfolio uh is is going to be is going to be excellent and I hope that we will invest more in the future I'll just say for this one and the next paper you know this is there's no magic number there's no magic to these numbers they're just the ones that uh we prop that were proposed looking at the overall available resources um and uh so I think the finance committee agreed this is at least a good place to start okay any any discussions yeah no I mean I think this is a a great step I know the mayor has been um you know very conservative about starting down this path because um we know there's a street in every one of our Wards or more that people really want to see something like this so it's but it is starting it and um getting familiar with it and getting um that that's a important step I was even saw that uh today there was a new uh report about um you because vehicles are taller than they used to be there's a lot more risk to pedestrians and cyclists from being struck by cars even at less speed so you know we you know this Council a lot of our councilors voted for this the drive 25 campaign they're saying that for larger Vehicles 25 miles an hour may not be safe enough so to um having to have streets where people really seriously take the speed limit seriously is is an important thing so starting down this path is important councelor Ali yeah yeah I just wanted to speak in favor of this of this proposal uh and I'm sure that the that the city and uh oscd is is looking at these funds and how they can best uh leverage um I know there are a lot of Grants out there like shared streets and uh and spaces and oftentimes these grants require local matching funds uh so if there's ways that we can turn this $300,000 into a mill A Million by by using it as a match for a grant um you know I think that uh you know Becca and the team at OS c will will be doing that so I think this is a great thing to support thank you all right um so on councelor McDonald's motion to um approve the paper second by councelor Taylor um clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes Council Condon Council Crow Council linahan councel McDonald councel Ali councila Council simonelli Council spora yes councelor Taylor council president Winslow councelor Winslow yes uh that paper is approved um count clerk will um read the next paper thanks paper 42924 order that the sum of $2 million is appropriated from AA available general fund free cash for road construction so Council McDonald for the paper yeah thank you so again this is uh a this is a round number because we there is $37 million required to repave all of our roads to get them up to excellent condition it's not something we can do in a year so the question is how much uh can we take a bite out of that in each given year I do just want to note as we talked in committee the nature of Road repair and construction is that the further behind you get the more expensive it is to replace because if it's just a you know if it's just one crack in the road you can patch it the next stage is you you have to pull the top layer off and and and Mill it and repave it um that's the next tier up when the road gets so bad that you can't do that anymore then you have to rip the whole thing up and start again and that's much much more expensive so it is not only about the fact that this is a very popular program and residents are you know excited in every neighborhood to get new pavement and better roads and streets and that's better for everyone and and whatever even you know for cars yes and trucks and bikes and scooters and everybody else um but the further behind we get the more expensive it is to catch up so I think it's important that we do what we can um we've already been improving the average quality of the streets we did a Citywide um pavement condition assessment which is where that um $37 million came from I think about two years ago um with our city Engineers office uh and so since then we've we've dedicated I think about $7 million in additional funds to road paving so this is in about that pace you know about two2 to3 million a year it's it's it's on the conservative side compared to the last couple years um since arpa and things have gone away but it's but it's keeping up a bit um we do get about a million dollars in Road repaving money from the state every year which is Formula driven which is not enough uh and we do get roads paved when they're a part of other types of projects like utility projects are replacing water mains and we try to coordinate with that as best as possible but this is additional and so you know I think it varies how many how many individual streets based on the length of the street based on the condition of the street and all these other factors but you know we've been doing a dozen or two dozen um streets a year here and I think so we want to be able to keep up that that pace so all right we had unanimous support from the all right great so on councelor McDonald's motion to approve this order seconded by councelor sea uh clerk will call the role councel colone Hayes councelor Condon councel Crow Council linahan yes councel McDonald yes Council rali Council sea Council simonelli Council spap for yes councel Taylor council president Winslow yes that order is adopted clerk will call the next order Pap paper 43-24 order that the sum of $1,500,000 is appropriated from available general fund free cash for parking garage improvements all right Council MC for the uh committee so we have two large parking garages they're owned by the city they were formerly owned by the uh molden Redevelopment Authority but when the MRA merged into the city what two years ago um those garages came to be owned by the city and those garages came with a significant amount of delayed maintenance and so this is another area where again we've been just biting off as much as we can year-over-year um folks will remember you know particularly in the the Central garage so not the Jackson street but the one that's you know um down by faces Brewery um is uh you know was just really there was all kinds of repair work happening there and it was hard to get through that was just to stabilize the garage but there's a long way to go again to do the preventative maintenance as well so that we don't get behind water doesn't get into the concrete which can be just you know catastrophic over time the garages are stable uh but we got a long way to go with these and um we had a good discussion about the longer term investment of having these parking garages in downtown Malden um it's been a tough time with the you know folks not coming back to the office postco um fewer people are commuting downtown we lost a major tenant with um when the department of Elementary and secondary education left and they had been using a lot of parking spots but we think there's a lot of opportunity with future development and so it's it's an important time to make Headway at this the $1.5 million figure is you know kind of the lowest amount the lowest rough amount we could do that's basically worth our time to bid and worth the contractor's time um to to do some actual work on both of the garages there's much more that could be done um so that is the recommended amount and uh that was unanimously supported by the finance committee any councel have any questions on that um otherwise on uh councelor McDonald's motion to uh approve the uh P the order um seconded by councelor simonelli um clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes yes councel cond yes councel Crow councel linan yes councel McDonald councel Ali Council sea councel simonelli councel spora councel Taylor council president Winslow uh yes so that paper is adopted I think it is why don't we skip down to paper 42724 so cler could you read that next 4272 24 the final fin the committe report that came with it um well let's introduce the committee report and then we can yeah so paper 48124 committee report the standing committee on finance to whom was referred paper 427 series of 2024 having considered the same make the following reports so on uh councelor McDonald's motion to receive the committee report seconded by councelor Maly all those say I any opposed that committee report was received clerk will read the paper paper 42724 order that the sum of $500,000 is appropriated from available general fund free cash for the restoration of the salemwood school Plaza all right so uh councelor McDonald for the paper well I don't know about you but it just feels so good to do delayed maintenance I mean there's nothing like parking garages and Paving and so in that vein let's talk about concrete um the salemwood school Plaza folks may know the salemwood school is built on a a hill and the entire lot is kind of old construction infill right so this this portion of the building Plaza that backs up onto the kind of the kindergarten Wing it's kind of right by the parking lot in the path there um has sunk over the 20 years of school of the school being there and you can look at it and it and it's that it's about that far off the bot the exit of the door um and so it's you know it's a major Hazard it's a trip Hazard um kids are running through there and you know probably biting it on their faces my kids certainly Al almost took a spill on that exact spot um so this is a priority for the school it's a priority for the city uh and there we took a little bit more time with this one because we wanted to review the engineering report they looked at the other options for how to repair this this is by far the cheapest option um the risks involved have to do with you know the original nature of this problem the ground had settled underneath because of the unique nature of the site and so that's why the that's why the concrete pad was sinking so this $500,000 will replace the pad with a bigger more stable pad it'll report it there are other ways to put in supports and other kinds of things that are much more expensive um they may have a longer lifespan but would you know with the with the the the amount of money it cost to repour the concrete if it's if it's got twice as much life on this uh for the for the for the project that cost three times it's not much it's not really worth it right so this is um we agreed the the best route forward um this doesn't impact the park at all any Roosevelt Park plans this is just the salemwood plaza like attached to the school um and we were all uh in unanimous support of this paper all right any questions from the counselors um so on counselor McDonald's motion to adopt the order seconded by councelor Taylor um clerk will call the role Council clone Hayes councel Condon councel Crow Council linahan yes councel McDonald yes councel Ali yes Council sea Council simonelli Council spaur Council Taylor council president Winslow yes that um order is adopted so let's go back to this regular order clerk will we next paper let's see do we we have a committee report and then all right paper 48-24 committee report the standing committee on finance to whom was referred paper 425c of 2024 having considered the same make the following report right on councelor McDonald's motion to receive the committee report seconded by councelor spatap for all those in favor say I I any opposed all right so the committee report is received clerk will read the paper paper 425- 24 order that the city of Malden accepts the provisions of mgl chapter 200a section 9A relative to disposition of abandoned funds by city or town notice of period during which funds may be claimed City Treasurer authorized to hear claims appeal dis disper sponsors Carrie McDonald all right councelor McDonald for the paper thank you council president um so while this is not Financial order it is also not a paper that originates from me I am just carrying it as the uh Finance chair it's one that originates from our Treasurer and uh he was good enough to bring to us the fact that the state has recently updated uh the laws around tax title so when you owe back taxes and the city has to intervene and sell you know seize the property or sell the property um occasionally uh after all of that process the property is unclaimed uh or the or what's left of the assets after the back taxes and the cost of the pursuant you know cost of pursuing that and the court cost and all that have been paid occasionally they there's money left over uh sometimes a lot of money and if that is not claimed then you have to go through another process that the the city has to run working with the court to try to get those funds to the who should be their rightly owner in the event that that does not happen uh under this updated system uh under an updated law from the state that reverts to the state uh the the value of those assets um the state had changed this process for a bunch of other reasons to make it fair and transparent for property owners but this is in there they created the option for cities and towns to say that that if we get all the way through that process and no one has climed the funds that we should keep the money rather than the state um we who have had custody of this whole process um so while this has never happened in recent memory in Malden if it were to happen uh we think we would do better to keep the money so all this does is opt us into that state law and um we were unanimously very supportive of this I think councelor called Conan called it a no-brainer all right any uh any discussion on this no-brainer all right so on councelor McDonald's uh motion to adopt the order seconded by councelor Ali clerk will all those in favor say I I any oppos that order is adopted so um let's see and then we are that is the docket is clear um there's no effort to take any of the table motions T table papers up so thank you um would anyone like personal privilege all right nobody's jumping in right let's see councelor councelor Colin Hayes jumped in first and then councelor Taylor I was going to get my second one ready um but I'll start with this one um so I just wanted to let everybody know that um a a team a group of us have started working on plan the planning of the Martin Luther King day um event for this for 2025 it's um once again going to be at the Emanuel Baptist Church uh it will be held um on Saturday January 18th and we have the keynote speaker uh Dr Deborah Jackson so we're really excited and uh just wanted everybody to save the date more information will come um and then also we are already planning juneth which is until June 19th but we're going to have our annual um Bingo uh music Bingo to help uh cover some of the cost for that and that is going to be at the Irish American on February 27th it's a really really fun event and it helps us um You Know cover some of the cost for juneth so um we'll be blasting that out and hopefully I'll see you there thanks all right let's see councelor Taylor thank you so just two very quick things um this weekend's a a pretty big weekend on Friday we have um sorry Saturday if my dates wrong uh 10: to 4: at the senior center team Center will be the girl gang craft show from from 10: to 4: so come finish your holiday shopping um and check it out there will be a DJ um it's it's a different type of of craft event and I think it'll be a lot of fun um and then on Sunday if you are able to Santa will be at Pine banks for the 75th anniversary of him coming to Pine Banks um and you can take photos there'll be crafts it looks like it'll be a great EV event former councel Murphy is sponsoring it um I hope to see I know my kids are going I have a prior engagement so I won't be able to make it but um my family will be there and I hope to see everybody's photos when Pine Banks post them online um from 2: to 5:30 yep awesome okay so any okay all right any other counselors um so just just a few things um for next week a few things we will be electing the council president for next term so just to let everybody that's that'll be on the agenda next week and we also have the calendar for next week so uh you our clerk will be sending that out along with the agenda so just take a note so um uh to if you have any comments or concerns take a look at that um this Thursday um is the mayor's um holiday um uh lunch up at the um the conference room so if you happen to be in the office um you know Nish just drop in and say hi to staff and it's a great way to say thanks to people and I appreciate the mayor having that um and then just to be uh just to let everybody heads up for next year um so I've been working on a a a new display outside of our city council chambers and uh and outside the mayor's office to um kind of celebrate our our city and town halls over the years um that I I thought maybe we'd do that next next week but I I've decided that we're going to do it at 6:30 on January 7th which is before our next meeting so um so that'll be something just up outside our Council office so I'll make sure people get notified of that but just uh you know since we will not have any committee meetings as as as having the first meeting of the year I just figured we'll have a little bit of a unveiling of of of that that artwork and then um you know just celebrate that way so um just letting people know that and otherwise um you know people have a enjoyable week leading up to the holidays and uh we'll uh I don't see any other lights so I will entertain a motion so motion to adjourn by councilor Maly seconded by counselor spatap for all those in favor say I any opposed all right we are eared great all right not too bad Lisa said 8:30 I said N9 we ended up 8:45