MALDEN — The faces around the City Council meeting table hadn’t changed much in almost 10 years but Ward 6 Councilor David Camell and Councilor at Large Stephen Winslow officially joined the 11-member body earlier this month, marking a new era.
Camell, a first-time municipal official, actually began his term in November, several days after the general municipal election when he was immediately sworn in to fill the post left vacant for 4½ months because of the resignation of former 10-year Councilor Neil Kinnon in June.
Kinnon then pursued and was a finalist for the Malden City Treasurer position but the Council broke a 5-5 tie in favor of another candidate, with Camell casting the deciding vote. Winslow came in third in a four-candidate race for Councilor at large, knocking out two-term incumbent David D’Arcangelo.
Council President Debbie DeMaria, presiding over her first meeting as council president,
set the stage for how the council will do business throughout 2018 by announcing
her appointments to council committees.
She plans to reduce the size of a number of the council’s standing committees from five members to three. There are three committees which are considered the “Big Three” dealing with key citywide issues and decisions: Finance Committee, License Committee, and Ordinance Committee. These committees will remain at five members.
All of the committees include a chairperson and a vice chair.
The four committees DeMaria has proposed to be reduced from five to three members include the Cemeteries Committees, Public Safety Committee, Problem Properties Committee, and Public Works Committee.
“City Councilors spend a great deal of time on regular meetings, dealing with their constituents and then on their committee assignments,” DeMaria said. “The Finance, Ordinance and License committees meet often, nearly every week at certain times during the year and that is the reason to leave them intact. By reducing the number of members of the other committees it will make the Council overall more time-efficient as those committees do not meet as often.”
There are not many changes within the major Council Committees by appointments this year. Ward 2 Councilor Paul Condon, the council’s dean, returns as chairman of the Finance Committee for another year with newcomer Camell serving as vice-chairman. There will be a change in the Ordinance Committee leadership as Ward 4 Councilor Ryan O’Malley takes over as chairman for the first time and Ward 3 Councilor John Matheson will be vice-chairman.
Since the makeup of the Council committees is governed by municipal ordinance, DeMaria’s reshuffling plan will be considered by the Ordinance Committee and then presented for a full Council vote if the committee endorses her proposal.
