Malden City Hall

215 Pleasant Street

Malden, MA 02148

City of Malden

Meeting Minutes - Final

City Council

Council President Amanda Linehan

Councillor at Large Karen Colon Hayes

Councillor Paul Condon

Councillor Peg Crowe

Councillor at Large Michelle Luong

Councillor at Large Carey McDonald

Councillor Ryan O'Malley

Councillor Jadeane Sica

Councillor Chris Simonelli

Councillor Ari Taylor

Councillor Stephen Winslow

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

7:00 PM

City Council Chambers

215 Pleasant Street

Malden, MA 02148

Watch the meeting with Teams: https://tinyurl.com/9w5f5mcw

1. CALL TO ORDER

Council President Linehan called the meeting to order at 7:04 PM.

2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE & MOMENT OF SILENCE IN HONOR OF SERVICE

MEMBERS

3. ROLL CALL

Also in attendance was Prasanna Rajasekaran, Lisa Cagno, Maria Luise, Nelson Miller,

Yem Lip, Alicia McNeil, and several members of the public.

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Present - Councillors:

Karen Colon Hayes, Paul Condon, Peg Crowe, Amanda Linehan, Carey McDonald,

Ryan O'Malley, Jadeane Sica, Chris Simonelli, Ari Taylor, Stephen Winslow and

Michelle Luong

4. GUESTS, CITIZEN ACHIEVEMENT, AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mayor Christenson will appear before the Council to provide an update on the

Fiscal Year 2027 budget.

Mayor Christenson provided the Council with a comprehensive update on the FY'27

budget, emphasizing the ongoing structural deficit of Chapter 70 school funding, and

challenges posed by reduced state and federal aid. With the failure of the recent

Proposition 2 1/2 ballot questions, the city must now look to budget cuts to help stabilize

the budget. The Mayor briefly touched on the recently realized $1.6 mil reporting error on

school employee health care costs. This mistake was blamed on human error and it was

explained that the expense was reflected on the city side instead of the school side of the

budget. The mis-reporting does not affect the bottom line of the overall deficit. The

Mayor's goal is to submit the budget to the Council earlier than is normal to allow for

more public meetings and collaboration. After completion of his written statement, Mayor

Christenson left the Chamber without taking questions.

It was the general sense of the Council they would have liked if the Mayor stayed to take

questions but it was acknowledged there would be time for questions in Finance

Committee during the budget approval process. The majority of the Councillors stated

they are interested in hearing more about how the $1.6 mil mistake was made, which

staff were involved, what steps will be taken moving forward to eliminate something like

this from happening again, and when the error was first discovered.

Councillor Simonelli expressed that now is the time for the Council, in conjunction with

the Mayor's Office, to roll up their sleeves and help pull this budget cycle together with as

few employee layoffs as possible.

Councillor Luong notified the Body that the Mayor did apply to have the State's DLS

Management Audit and it is scheduled to begin in the fall. The city had wished to have it

begin sooner than this but it was the first available time the State had available.

Multiple Councillors spoke to the need to speak candidly about the reporting error as well

as deficits during this budget cycle as a means of building trust with the residents of the

city.

5. PUBLIC COMMENT

One person in attendance, Mohammad Abutaha of 190 Mountain Avenue, spoke during

Public Comment and one email, from Brian DeLacey of 1 Earl Street, was received. Both

spoke on the subject of the city budget.

6. CONSENT AGENDA

Approval of the Consent Agenda

A motion was made by Councillor Sica, seconded by Councillor Winslow to

approve the Consent Agenda.The motion carried by unanimous vote.

Minutes for the meeting of March 10, 2026

183-26

184-26

185-26

The Council Minutes were approved.

Minutes for the meeting of March 17, 2026

The Council Minutes were approved.

Minutes for the meeting of March 24, 2026

The Council Minutes were approved.

Order: That the Finance Committee engage in discussions with the City’s Finance

and Legal team as well as a representative from the insurance company to discuss

the City’s current insurance policy.

196-26

Sponsors: Karen Colon Hayes

Councillor Colon Hayes stated that after speaking with CFO Ranaghan, she would now

like to amend this order to include the city's financial team, Legal Department, and

insurance representative in the conversation with the Finance Committee. There was no

objection to this amendment.

The original language was stricken and replaced with the following: Order: That the

Finance Committee engage in discussions with the City’s Finance and Legal team as well

as a representative from the insurance company to discuss the City’s current insurance

policy.

A motion was made by Councillor Colon Hayes, seconded by Councillor Sica,

that the Order be amended. The motion carried by a unanimous vote.

Councillor McDonald offered clarity that this paper isn't about Malden's self-insured status

for employee health insurance. This is soon coming to an end beginning in July as

employees are being moved into the state's Group Insurance Commission. What

Councillor Colon Hayes is seeking to talk about is property, casualty, general liability,

cyber security, etc. types of insurance.

Councillor Winslow indicated Mass Municipal Association has a program called

Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association (MIIA) that provides insurance services

to municipalities throughout the state. This particular program is not appropriate for a city

the size of Malden, it serves cities and towns under 60k in population. He stated there

are options for purchasing one-off policy to cover individual issues but when seeking an

all-in policy, cost and value and liability limits come into consideration. Purchasing

insurance policies for a city as large as Malden can become complex but he is happy to

engage with the city's insurance representative in committee.

A motion was made by Councillor Colon Hayes, seconded by Councillor Sica,

that the Order be referred to the Finance Committee. The motion carried by a

unanimous vote.

Be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the Code of the City of Malden (MCC)

6.08.070 C(2) LICENSING OF MARIJUANA ESTABLISHMENTS is hereby amended by

inserting ‘, provided that no fewer than five marijuana retailer licenses shall be

made available.’ after ‘Mass. Gen. Laws ch 138 § 15’.

197-26

Sponsors: Karen Colon Hayes

The proposed added wording to this ordinance is to accommodate fluctuations to the

amount of marijuana licenses the City may hold. It is currently written that marijuana

licenses are based on the number of package store licenses that are active in the city.

This ordinance is meant to create a minimum of marijuana licenses of at least five so

that slight variations in the amount of package stores will not force the marijuana

licenses to drop below minimum.

A motion was made by Councillor Colon Hayes, seconded by Councillor Sica,

that the Ordinance be referred to the Rules & Ordinance Committee. The motion

carried by a unanimous vote.

Be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the Code of the City of Malden (MCC)

12.12.030 USE REGULATIONS is hereby amended as follows to update the existing

Table of Use Regulations by:

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Striking the “N” designation for Self-Storage Facilities in the Industrial 1 (I1) and

Industrial 2 (I2) zoning districts and inserting in place thereof the “SP” designation.

This amendment shall restore the status of such use of Self-Storage Facilities to its

state prior to the 2023 amendment as was ordained with Paper 198 Series of 2023

and shall take effect upon its passage following the completion of the public

hearing process as required by M.G.L. Chapter 40A, Section 5.

Sponsors: Jadeane Sica and Peg Crowe

Councillor Sica explained the reason for this paper is that she has a storage facility in

Ward 8 that is interested in expansion. They would like to build up but as written, MCC

12.12.030 does not allow for expansion, even by an existing business. She would like to

see consideration for existing facilities to expand be offered on a case by case basis via

the special permitting process.

Councillor Winslow is not in favor of this paper because he does not believe the city

should be encouraging the expansion of self-storage facilities. Currently, the city is

working on a master plan for future growth; that process should be allowed to move

forward giving thought as to if these are the types of businesses the city wishes to

support. He further feels Economic Development Committee is where this paper should

be considered prior to bringing the Planning Board and/or Rules & Ordinance.

There was discussion wherein some Councillors do not support encouraging self-storage

facilities to grow their businesses in Malden. There were others who felt as if they

wouldn't support new storage facilities to start up in Malden but the expansion of current

businesses is something that deserves discussion. It is important for Malden to retain

the commercial base it currently has while working to expand business opportunities for

future growth.

A motion was made by Councillor Sica, seconded by Councillor Simonelli, that

the Ordinance be referred to the Rules & Ordinance Committee. The motion

carried by an 8-3 vote.

Councillors Condon, Linehan, and Winslow dissenting.

8. COMMITTEE REPORTS

Committee Report: The Standing Committee on Finance to whom was referred

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Paper 160 Series of 2026, having considered the same make the following report:

Committee recommends this paper out favorably to the Full Council.

A motion was made by Councillor McDonald, seconded by Councillor Taylor, that

the Committee Report be received and filed. The motion carried by a unanimous

vote.

Order: That Three Hundred Ninety-Eight Thousand Six Hundred Seventy-Four

Dollars and Twenty Five Cents ($398,674.25) is appropriated from available Water

Sewer Enterprise Fund retained earnings to fund principal only debt payments due

to the MWRA in May 2026.

160-26

Sponsors: Carey McDonald

Attachments: Final Paper 160-26 MWRA Appropriation

This appropriation is to pay a bill previously owed for loans and lines of credit issued from

the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority for standard water/lead pipe replacement

work.

A motion was made by Councillor McDonald, seconded by Councillor Simonelli,

that the Order be adopted. The motion carried by the following vote:

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Yea:

Colon Hayes, Condon, Crowe, Linehan, McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli,

Taylor, Winslow and Luong

9. EXECUTIVE SESSION

Order: That the City Council will vote whether to go into Executive Session with

200-26

legal counsel for the City for the purpose of Exemption Three Massachusetts

General Laws Chapter 30A Section 21(a)(3) for the purpose of discussing strategy as

to possible future litigation related to budgetary constraints, where such discussion

in open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigation position of the

City, if so declared by the chair.

And if so allowed by the Body, to admit Special Assistant to the Mayor Maria Luise,

Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Ronald Hogan, and the Honorable Mayor Gary

Christenson.

(Roll Call Required)

Sponsors: Amanda Linehan

Attachments: Final Paper 200-26 Executive Session on Budgetary Constraints

Councillor Sica indicated she would like to table this paper while she obtains

confirmation the wording of the paper is appropriate for the purpose of the Executive

Session. It was explained that the wording and exemptions cited for this paper are exactly

the same as was used three times since December for another issue that required

confidentiality. When questioned, City Solicitor McNeil indicated the docketing of this

paper was initiated by the Legal Department. The language has undergone review from

her office and she does not have any concerns about the appropriateness in the way it

was written.

Councillor Winslow asked if the city has received correspondence from an entity in

regards to potential litigation. Councillor O'Malley stated he would like to know if this is

about defending against or initiating litigation. Councillor McDonald observed, to learn

about the need for confidentiality the Body must enter into Executive Session to hear the

concerns of the Legal Department and only then will they know if confidentiality is

justified but that can't be known until the Council enters Executive Session.

A motion was made by Councillor Sica, seconded by Councillor Colon Hayes,

that the Order be tabled. The motion failed by the following vote:

3 - Colon Hayes, Sica and Winslow

Yea:

8 - Condon, Crowe, Linehan, McDonald, O'Malley, Simonelli, Taylor and Luong

Nay:

Council President Linehan declared that discussion of Paper 200-26 in open meeting

would have a detrimental effect on the city's litigating position. The Body voted by 7-4 roll

call vote to enter into Executive Session. Personal privilege was allowed before the

Council adjourned to Executive Session and it was announced that they would not

reconvene for any further business this evening.

A motion was made by Councillor Taylor, seconded by Councillor Luong, that the

Order be adopted. The motion carried by the following vote:

7 - Condon, Crowe, Linehan, McDonald, Simonelli, Taylor and Luong

4 - Colon Hayes, O'Malley, Sica and Winslow

Yea:

Nay:

10. TABLED PAPERS

Petition: Massachusetts Electric Company dba National Grid Plan No. 31200905 -

National Grid to install underground facilities on Main Street. Customer to trench

and install (6) 4” conduit from MH A/34 on Main Street to proposed switching

module, approximately 55 feet on public right of way. 204 Main Street, Malden, MA.

(Hearing Required)

150-26

Attachments: 204 Main Street Petition

Abutters 204 Main Street

Hearing Notice 204 Main Street

Petition: Massachusetts Electric Company dba National Grid Plan No. 31186713 -

National Grid to install underground facilities on Main Street. Trench and install (2)

4” concrete encased conduit from MH A/34 on Main Street to pad located on 213

Main Street approximately 220’. Malden, MA.

151-26

(Hearing Required)

Attachments: 213 Main Street Petition

Abutters 213 Main Street

Hearing Notice 213 Main Street

Petition: Massachusetts Electric Company dba National Grid Plan No. 31239416 -

National Grid to install underground facilities on Main Street. Trench and install (6)

4” concrete encased conduit from MH A/1 18 to switchgear located on 1100 Main

Street approximately 60’ on public right of way. Malden, MA.

(Hearing Required)

153-26

Attachments: 1100 Main Street Petition

Abutters 1100 Main Street

Hearing Notice 1100 Main Street - Updated March 25, 2026

11. PERSONAL PRIVILEGE

12. ADJOURNMENT

A motion was made by Councillor Taylor, seconded by Councillor Luong, that

this meeting be adjourned into Executive Session. The motion carried by the

following vote:

Meeting adjourned at 8:54 PM and the Council did not reconvene in open session

for any further business that evening.

7 - Condon, Crowe, Linehan, McDonald, Simonelli, Taylor and Luong

4 - Colon Hayes, O'Malley, Sica and Winslow

Yea:

Nay:

CAROL ANN DESIDERIO, CITY CLERK

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, please contact Maria Luise, ADA

Compliance Coordinator at mluise@cityofmalden.org or 781-397-7000 Ext. 2005

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