City of Malden
Malden City Hall
215 Pleasant Street Malden, MA 02148
Meeting Minutes - Final Finance Committee
Councillor McDonald, Chair Councillor Taylor, Vice Chair
- Councillor Condon
- Councillor Luong
- Councillor Sica
Councillor Simonelli
Tuesday, June 9, 2026
6:00 PM
City Hall, Room #105
- 215 Pleasant Street
- Malden, MA 02148
Watch the meeting with Teams: https://tinyurl.com/u2bafztm
A quorum of the City Council may be present at this meeting. While no formal votes or actions are anticipated by the City Council, members may participate in the discussion of topics listed on this agenda. This notice is filed to ensure compliance with the Open Meeting Law should a quorum of the parent body be present.
Roll Call
Present: 6 - Carey McDonald, Ari Taylor, Paul Condon, Michelle Luong, Jadeane Sica and Chris
Simonelli
Also Present: Council President Linehan, Councillors Colon Hayes, Crowe, O'Malley, Winslow
- Maria Luise-Special Assistant to the Mayor
- Ron Hogan-Chief Strategy Officer
- Alicia McNeil-City Solicitor
- Christopher Mooney-Assistant City Solicitor
- Charles Ranaghan-CFO/Controller
- Dan Grover-Treasurer
Councillor McDonald called the meeting to order at 6:11 PM.
There will be audio and video for this meeting via Teams.
Minutes to be Approved
287-26
Minutes of June 2, 2026 to be approved.
A motion was made by Councillor Luong, seconded by Councillor Condon, that the Committee Minutes opf June 2, 2026 be approved. The motion carried by a unanimous vote.
Business
233-26
Order: The Mayor will submit the Fiscal Year 2027 Annual Appropriation Orders for the General Fund.
Sponsors: Carey McDonald
Attachments: Mayor Christenson's Memo
Link to Proposed FY2027 Budget
FY 2027 Summary Report Expenditures by Department for DBB
Finance Schedule of Meetings
FY2027 Budget Overview May 4th 2026
- FINAL FINANCE COMMITTEE SCHEDULE FOR DEPARTMENT
- MEETINGS FY27 PROPOSED BUDGET
- Please read this as my public comment at the June 2nd Public
- Hearing 233-26
- Comments for Open City Council Meeting Today 233-26
Finance Committee-Superintendent Presentation
Memo from CFO Reporting Error 6226
Mayor's Response to City Council Request to Amend the Budget
Revised Budget Appropriation FY27, as of June 4 2026
Final Paper: 233-26
Councillor McDonald explained following prior discussions and a public hearing, the Mayor sent a memo outlining his position on requested changes, which was attached to the budget paper and reviewed by the committee and invited Maria Luise, Special Assistant to the Mayor, Chuck, CFO/Controller and Ron, Chief Strategy Officer a chance to say anything they's like to about the memo or where the mayor's finance team is at, at this stage, as we prepare for potential vote on this.
Ron said at this point everybody recognizes that there are still variables in this budget that we'll find out, you know, a month from now in terms of GIC and the State and further things that may happen. We have said from day one also that this is the start of a process in rightsizing, it will continue to evolve as variables become null and thinks the Mayor is like everybody disappointed with any cuts but also realistic about the fact that it gets harder and harder each year and feels like even with the compromises made last week it starts that process and starts setting the right tone for its budget.
Maria stated she feels the memo speaks for itself
Councillor McDonald asked Chuck can we get a more detailed update on what we know about the GIC?
Chuck the GIC director of operations informed the city that the full report of coverage's and cost premiums would not be available until the first week of July, leaving the budget's health insurance savings estimate at $3 million as a provisional figure. Contribution percentages vary by hire date and department, with pre-2012 hires contributing 20% and post-2012 hires 25%, and the fire department and retirees having separate arrangements; HR is working to break out these metrics for accurate budgeting. As of this morning we received a list of 2100 subscribers.
Ron explained the city is moving away from a self-insured health plan, which introduces timing differences in claims settlement and trust closure, with the process expected to clarify over the next 12 months as claims are resolved.
Councillor McDonald asked do you know how many employees were are currently in self insured pool?
Chuck explained there's a little bit of a discrepancy between because of the time the GIC every day enters people mailing in their enrollment forms. So they send human resources a list once a week as of today it was off by about 35 people but we are hoping in about two weeks it will match up. The HR Department is reaching out to emergency contacts of retirees and active employees who have not enrolled. They have done a great job with outreach. We really cast a wide net and got as many people as possible to re enroll and not lose their insurance.
Councillor Linehan when we were bringing in the GIC a year ago, they had explained to us that there is sort of a guaranteed savings component?
Ron said I think that the folks that do this long enough have a fairly good idea of who's going to map to what. Even with some small variations and so I'm very comfortable knowing that, yes, we will absolutely spend less than what would have spent, hadn't done nothing.
Councillor Linehan wanted to give a brief kudos also to the HR team. I was one of the non retired members who despite enrolling before the deadline fell through the cracks due to a problem with the GIC. Our HR team actually got on the horn with my HR team at work there was a miscommunication because I was a previous GIC, enrolling through my state job. GIC couldn't connect the dots and they kept thinking, you're going back on your old plan so they just couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting hooked in, but our team figured it out and it took hours. The fact that it is down 17 members is a tremendous effort by the HR Team and she wanted to pass that
- out to the community. She feels they went above and beyond and were so dedicated
Ron stated they did it down a Director and Assistant Director they were at 60% staffing and took on probably the most complicated thing that they'll take on over the course of the significant year period with a positive attitude.
Councillor McDonald asked if there were any objections to adding into the minutes the committees appreciation for all the hard work put in by the Human Resources Teams. They all agreed.
Councillor McDonald explained we will need a motion to recommend the amendments as part of the committee report back to the floor which we have received the Mayor's support. They also explain receiving an email from Councillor Colon Hayes about submitting recommendations she did not have time for last week and would address those also. The motion would be to recommend amendments to the budget, specifically to restore reductions to the professional services line for the City Clerks Department to reinstate the Elections Outreach Coordinator's capacity, and adjust ward improvement lines by zeroing out the July 4th line and allocating $7,500 per ward account and $2,500 per at-large account and asked Councillor Simonelli is that is his motion.
Motion was made by Councillor Sica and seconded by Councillor Simonelli to restore reductions to the professional services line for the City Clerks Department to reinstate the Elections Outreach Coordinator's capacity, and adjust ward improvement lines by zeroing out the July 4th line and allocating $7,500 per ward account and $2,500 per at-large account. Roll Call Vote: Condon-yes Luong-yes Sica-yes Simonelli-yes Taylor-yes McDonald-yes. All were in favor. Passes 6/0.
Councillor McDonald asked Councillor Colon Hayes to discuss the recommendations she wanted to share
Councillor O'Malley asked how many layoffs are we expecting now?
Chuck explained he is in impact bargaining now with all the unions. He and Maria on a daily basis have been meeting with various unions and are making a lot of progress. As we have said since day one the end goal is to minimize or prevent anything. We've made huge strides in making that happen. There will be layoffs but nowhere near what was presented because of retirements.
Councillor McDonald asked Chuck did you give us the total number of positions that are being reduced I in the proposed budget, either through retirement only?
Chuck explained the proposed budget doesn't assume any retirements, but you know the original list of layoffs was. As of today and again, things could change from the end of the week we're looking at 4 to 5 layoffs, including several part time positions. So 35 to five we've made a lot of progress and we still have a couple of weeks to try to make that 0.
Councillor Colon Hayes one of the things I was looking at was the legal professional services at 120,000 and then there was a legal court judgments fees for 200,000 and I was going to present an idea I can't make
a motion here, but to talk about whether we could do a reduction which would be contingent upon a requirement that the solicitor's office would have to come to us, if they did the those services, so it would kind of open up more on transparency part.
Alicia McNeil, City Solicitor explained that the $120,000 professional services budget is needed to pay outstanding bills for outside counsel hired due to insufficient staffing, and that reducing this budget would require frequent requests to restore funds. The court judgments budget, typically set at $200,000, is maintained to cover potential judgments during the summer when the council is in recess and free cash is unavailable, with past practice supporting this approach for financial stability.
Councillor Colon Hayes also suggest the executive professional services of $40,000 be cut in the Mayor's Office.
Maria explained the professional services account funds annual subscriptions for website services, also for Board and Commission needs, and IT-related functions, with specific allocations for services like NNA, NAPC, and Recollect.
Chuck agreed the bulk of that professional services account are yearly subscriptions for various website services these are services that we use every year, but it's mostly Elena Savino managing the website and things of that nature.
Councillor O'Malley asked about the revenue from the movie fees where are they found in the budget?
Chuck said they are in the general fund in departmental receivable movie revenue. It says we have $0.00 planned for that.
Councillor McDonald asked if there are any motions to be recommended out favorably
A motion to recommend Paper #233-26 out favorably as amended was made by Councillor Simonelli seconded by Councillor Taylor. Roll Call Vote: Condon-yes Luong-yes Sica-yes Simonelli-yes Taylor-yes McDonald-yes. All were in favor. Passes 6/0.
A motion was made by Councillor Sica, seconded by Councillor Simonelli to restore reductions to the Professional Services Line for the City Clerk's Department to reinstate the Elections Outreach Coordinator's capacity and adjust Ward Improvement Lines by zeroing out the July 4th line and allocating $7,500 per Ward Account and $2,500 per At-Large accounts. Roll Call Vote: Condon-yes Luong-yes Sica-yes Simonelli-yes Taylor-yes McDonald-yes
A motion was made by Councillor Simonelli, seconded by Councillor Taylor, that the Order be recommended favorably as amended to the City Council. The motion carried by the following vote:
Yea: 6 - Councillor McDonald, Councillor Taylor, Councillor Condon, Councillor Luong, Councillor Sica and Councillor Simonelli
- The Finance Committee will consider any final amendments or motions
- proposed for the FY/27 Appropriation Order for the purpose of voting out the
F/Y27 Annual Appropriation Order.
Other Business
Adjournment
A motion was made by Councillor Sica, seconded by Councillor Simonelli, that this meeting be adjourned at 6:51 PM. The motion carried unanimously.
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
For instructions on enabling live translated captions in Teams, please visit: www.cityofmalden.org/captions