By Lorna Garey
Council President Amanda Linehan opened the March 10 meeting with a moment of silence for Stephen Lewis, a longtime Ward 3 resident who recently passed away after a multi-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Linehan read from a statement by Lewis’ wife, Sandy Felder, herself a fixture in the community, that celebrated a life defined by “conscience, curiosity and an enduring belief in justice.”
Lewis lost his first professional job because he refused to cross a picket line and went on to serve in prominent union leadership roles. His extensive collection of more than 7,000 political and labor posters has been preserved for future generations as part of the Stephen Lewis Collection in UMass Boston Archives. Neighborhood View published a story about Lewis in 2018.
Councilor Stephen Winslow also took a moment to remember Arthur Kahn, a veteran and sports lover who helped develop Malden’s Pop Warner Football program and, with his brother, ran the Malden Jewelry Store in Malden Square for many years.
“Kahn served in the Army during the Korean War and then dedicated himself to serving veterans, including the Jewish War Veterans and our Malden DAV,” said Winslow. “He was involved in so many organizations, too many just to really mention here.” Donations may be made in his memory to the Disabled American Veterans.
The cost of transparency
A surge in public records requests has placed unprecedented strain on Malden’s legal staff, City Solicitor Alicia McNeil told the city council on Tuesday. The city spends almost $78,000 annually for a dedicated public records administrator, a specialized role within the legal department created specifically to handle these requests. Yet escalating volume is impacting the entire department, given the time required to properly redact information in a way that protects confidentiality and individuals’ privileged and personal information, said McNeil. She added that the city has experienced a 60% increase in public records requests, or PRRs, in 2026 compared with last year. The issue is exacerbated by councilors themselves filing PRRs and Open Meeting Law (OML) complaints.
The issue took center stage when McNeil addressed the council to discuss Councilor Ryan O’Malley directly responding to a Feb. 19 PRR from a resident. She said that bypassing the city’s established review procedure, which is outside the role of a city councilor, led to the unauthorized disclosure of information from a City Council executive session that would otherwise have been redacted by her office.
“This, again, is not about Councilor O’Malley filing an open meeting law complaint — he has every right to do that,” said McNeil. “This is about the process of responding to a records request, and in that process of responding, confidential information that I would not have released to the public was released.”
O’Malley defended his actions, stating he was fulfilling his ethical duty as an attorney and elected official to expose what he believed was impermissible deliberation during an executive session. He characterized McNeil’s description of what transpired as “unethical,” maintaining that discussing unpermitted topics in an executive session does not grant that information legal privilege. He also asserted that councilors “often” receive PRRs, though councilors Jadeane Sica and Chris Simonelli disputed that characterization.
“If Councilor [Peg] Crowe wants to tell me that she had a ham sandwich for lunch in executive session, just because you told me … in executive session does not make that a privileged matter,” said O’Malley. “Additionally, doing something that’s not permitted in executive session is not privileged. That was the whole basis of my Open Meeting Law complaint.”
The exchange prompted Council President Amanda Linehan to weigh in that the voluminous nature of not just PRRs but OML complaints is actively impeding the council’s ability to operate. She stressed that she and the city clerk are the only two members who can properly receive OML complaints and hopes the council heard the message “loud and clear.”
“At a time when we’re sitting up here talking about reducing folks’ pay and cutting city services, I know there’s a lot of chatter on social media about whether we’re really going to eliminate city staff, whether we overspend on legal services, whether the councilors should take a pay cut,” she said. “I essentially, every single day, sometimes multiple times a day, have to liaise with our legal department and the clerk’s office on a records request, Open Meeting Law complaint, sometimes a complaint about that complaint.”
While acknowledging that transparency is fundamental to democracy, Linehan urged her colleagues to respect staff and consider the volume of complaints during a period when the city is facing severe budget cuts.
“If we’re putting these in in what I view to be a harassing manner, we’re not doing the work of the city, and I would just ask that we use our common sense and not disrespect one another,” said Linehan. “I really feel that this has gotten to a point where it’s affecting our ability to get other city business done.”
Councilor at Large Carey McDonald questioned whether surrounding cities face a similarly expensive situation.
“Do you know of other cities like Malden that have to have an entire specialized record access officer due to the volume of requests they receive?” McDonald asked McNeil, adding, “We had to hire a specialized position to handle the amount of public records requests and then that workload went up 60%?”
“No, I do not,” she replied. “And yes, that is correct.”
In most Massachusetts municipalities, city clerks triage complaints and requests. Legal teams typically handle redactions, exemptions, and appeals to the state. It’s difficult to parse the full cost of managing a steady stream of PRRs when the soft costs of a request might include a salaried attorney spending hours redacting emails instead of doing their primary job. Malden’s legal team has eight employees and a budget of $1,758,339, while Everett has three legal staffers. Melrose has a two-person legal team.
The council then turned to the two formal OML complaints. Assistant City Solicitor Zaheer Samee presented findings in regard to the OML complaint filed by O’Malley regarding the Feb. 10 executive session. Samee cited a recent Attorney General decision that allows discussions of litigation to naturally evolve when a board is reviewing executive minutes for release, concluding that no improper deliberation took place. For the OML complaint challenging the council’s refusal to release Feb. 3 executive session minutes concerning a $1.2 million settlement with Tufts Construction, the legal department maintained its position that withholding the minutes does not violate the law, as the records cannot be legally released until the court officially enters a judgment and accepts the final settlement agreement, which can take some time.
The council authorized the legal team to respond.
School funding requirements soar
A financial presentation by Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Ron Hogan outlined an “impossible situation” for the city’s FY27 budget due to soaring state-mandated school funding requirements.
Malden faces a required $4.87 million increase in educational spending compared with the previous year. This spike is driven by the state’s foundation budget calculations, a municipal growth factor, and penalties applied because the city’s local contribution currently falls short of state targets; Hogan’s presentation, below, contains more details.
Compounding the crisis, Malden’s Chapter 70 state educational aid has plummeted by approximately $5.3 million from the previous year, leaving local taxpayers to make up the gap.
Hogan warned that required educational spending will swallow the entirety of the city’s projected increases in local revenue — including property taxes and local receipts — plunging the rest of the municipal budget into a deeper deficit than expected before it’s even drafted.
“You can see that before we start the budget, the lion’s share of our increase in revenue is already spoken for,” he said. “Now we’ve got to start talking about funding the rest of the city operations. So it’s a little sobering.”
Linehan acknowledged that voters are looking for clarity on the budget, specifically where promised cuts might be made, and that the city just received the “cherry sheet” that summarizes state aid.
“It’s going to be some time before we get the mayor’s budget, and obviously we do have a special election in March,” she said. “I think this is helpful, because the public is asking for what information can we talk about now, and this does feel like that kind of level sets a little bit to understand what we’re facing.”
McDonald noted that this financial pressure highlights the high stakes of the upcoming March 31 special election for a Proposition 2 ½ override, as the city has no way to avoid these state-mandated costs.
Both McDonald and Linehan sat for interviews with the Malden Community Coalition to discuss the budget situation.
While not mentioned in the meeting, O’Malley recently announced his candidacy for state senate, with education funding reform a key issue for his campaign. He’s looking to replace retiring Sen. Jason Lewis in the Fifth Middlesex District seat, which covers Malden, Melrose, Wakefield, Stoneham, Reading, and Winchester. State Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian is also running to represent the Fifth Middlesex.
Key appointments
The council reappointed City Engineer Yem Lip to his position through March 1, 2029, by a 10-1 vote, with Sica the lone nay. Councilors cited Lip’s track record, praising his extensive oversight of the city’s infrastructure, traffic calming measures, and the highly successful lead pipe replacement program.
“Yem’s employment record has been excellent in the time that he’s been here,” said Crowe, who leads the Personnel Appointments Committee. Referencing the recently settled lawsuit, councilors cautioned that there is more to the situation than is in the public sphere.
“You cannot take a snippet of information, especially from social media, and believe that you have the full story,” said Crowe.
O’Malley also praised Lip’s performance in areas important to city residents.
“When it comes to traffic safety, our sidewalks, there’s so many things that he’s involved in,” he said. “The lead service lines — I mean, there’s nothing that Yem doesn’t touch.”
Special Assistant to the Mayor Maria Luise addressed the council in support of Lip’s reappointment, saying he’s involved in overseeing traffic calming along with ADA upgrades, sewer and storm water work, supervising full road reconstruction and sidewalks and, most importantly, as O’Malley noted, implementing Malden’s lead pipe replacement program.
The council also unanimously reappointed Anthony Rodriguez as the city’s Director of Information Technology, with Crowe saying they discussed all the areas of responsibility for the IT team as well as plans going forward.
Police advisory report
The council received the inaugural recommendation report from the city’s Police Community Advisory Council (PCAC). The report praised the Malden Police Department’s recent accreditation and high community visibility, while strongly recommending the addition of a second mental health clinician to assist officers.
McDonald noted that mental health crises are the primary driver of the department’s use-of-force incidents, making expanded clinical support a critical need for the city. The original position was made possible by a grant secured by Crowe.
The PCAC was established by a city ordinance a few years ago to facilitate ongoing community conversations regarding public safety and the role of the Malden Police Department. Over the past year and a half, the council has met monthly, said McDonald, toured the police station, participated in ride-alongs, and gathered feedback at various community fairs and festivals. The council also notably includes youth members, such as outgoing member Vinny Spartacino, who have been praised for their contributions.
Other recommendations:
- More accessible data: The council recommended that the MPD make raw data more readily available for analysis, specifically regarding officer demographics, use-of-force incidents, and traffic stops.
- Tracking unhoused interactions: They suggested implementing new ways to code data regarding police interactions with unhoused individuals.
- Department affirmations: The report praised the MPD for its high visibility and presence in the community and diligent traffic and pedestrian safety enforcement.
Residents interested in engaging with the PCAC can reach out via email at PCAC@cityofmalden.org or attend their public meetings. The council typically meets on the third Wednesday evening of each month, offering both in-person and online attendance options.
Personal privilege
Winslow: The annual bike trail cleanup will be March 28, with support from the DPW and Bike to the Sea. Meet up behind Salemwood School at 9 a.m.
Simonelli: Apologies were extended to Sica and Crowe for being “overly passionate” when calling them out on not discussing in advance with colleagues the resolution eliminating ward improvement and July 4 funding, eliminating the council president’s stipend, and reducing each councilor’s base pay by $7,500.
McDonald: Early voting starts for the upcoming special election on Monday and runs for next two weeks. Voters can cast a ballot in the City Clerk’s office whenever City Hall is open, including late on Tuesdays. They also noted that, except for MHS, schools will be closed on March 31, and that there are two more forums upcoming, on Monday, March 16, at 6 p.m. at the Ferryway School, and on Wednesday, March 25 at 6 p.m. at the Linden STEAM Academy.
The Green Malden Fair will take place on Saturday, April 25 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. The event will be held at the field house at Pine Banks Park. It’s an opportunity to learn about everything from tree planting to composting to the city’s climate action work.
Sica: Friday, March 13 will be the annual Pocketbook Bingo event at Anthony’s of Malden to benefit the Malden Teen Enrichment Center. Tickets are $60, and a $3,000 handbag will be raffled. More information is on her Facebook page.
The Ward 8 annual Egg Hunt will be Saturday, April 4 at 10 am at Linden Park. The event includes an egg hunt and photos with the bunny.
This is a recap of the 3-10-26 City Council meeting. The full meeting is on YouTube.
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