2019 Quality of life questions Q01 Public Meetings

The 2019 Malden Mayoral & City Council elections are approaching. The Municipal Election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5

To help Malden voters, there will be a series of answers to Malden’s 2019 Quality of Life Questions, ten were sent to our Councilors and expanded to our Mayoral race for 2019. These questions were collected from the suggestions provided via a Malden (MA) Politics FB page poll. Ten questions were formulated by the moderators. The questions were then edited and sent to the Mayoral & City Council candidates. Multiple attempts were made and a 150-word limit was imposed.

The topics include quality of life issues that have come up in the previous year.

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QUESTION 1 – PUBLIC MEETINGS
Would you support a plan and provide resources to have Committee of the Whole, Subcommittee and License Board meetings be live streamed and archived for the public? (GRANICUS)

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MAYOR – Incumbent – GARY CHRISTENSON

Not only would I support such a plan, but as Chair of the Municipal Building Committee for the new City Hall, I have made it a priority to ensure that each conference room on the first floor, where these type of meetings will be held, is wired and setup to be live streamed and stored online for future viewing. I believe this increases transparency in government by enabling a greater percentage of the public to be able to find out what is taking place in real time while also preserving the meetings so that they may be reviewed at a later date. I am confident that with the new technology in place it will allow the public to be informed and engaged without the limitation of having to be there in person at the actual time a meeting takes place.
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MAYOR – Challenger – JOHN MATHESON

Yes, I support more visibility of public meetings and will
provide the resources needed to accomplish this. The
residents have a right to know how their government is
working. When residents have increased access to these meetings, it results in better policy making and fewer deals that benefit the politically privileged.

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At-Large Councillor – Incumbent – CRAIG SPADAFORA

Yes, I would be in favor all board or organization that our associated with the city of Malden. Committee meetings is where the bulk of the work is done and are important because some of the most significant topics, fact and issues are discussed in detail. For example, it's the city's finance committee that discusses and debates the city's budget in detail. It's the city's ordinance committee that approves or disapproves of new developments, such as a new shop, housing complex, or multifamily on your block. Listening to a City Council meeting you get bits and pieces of the policy, whereas committee meetings will give you that full flavor—the crucial and important details about potential city polices
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At-Large Councillor – Incumbent – DEBBIE DEMARIA

Working closely with MATV, I would most certainly support the opportunity for more filming of meetings. I have always supported transparency, as proven by my advocating and sponsoring “Public Comment” at City Council Meetings. This has opened the door for dialog and has given all a voice while embracing the needs of our busy community. I am blown away with the dedication of residents that attend meetings, donating their time and talent to film. I do believe there is a huge need for more. I also support the translation of our meetings in multi-languages as well as for those hearing impaired. I will be sponsoring a Resolve in the near future.
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At-Large Councillor – Incumbent – STEVEN WINSLOW

The Council has voted to fund many technological improvements as part of the Malden City Hall Project. Once that system is in place we can evaluate the extent new staffing may be necessary to expand live stream and archiving of meetings
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At-Large Councillor – Challenger – JERRY LEONE

Yes I would support that

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WARD 1 Councillor – Incumbent – PEG CROWE

I do think it makes sense to have meetings streamed and archived for the public. The new City Hall is equip with state of the art technology which I believe will allow us to more one step closer to making that happen. At this point I don't have a proposal to review and offer support and as I always say "the devil is in the details".
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WARD 2 Councillor – Incumbent – PAUL CONDON

Did not respond.
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WARD 3 Councillor – Non-Incumbent – AMANDA LINEHAN

Yes. I believe public meetings should be as accessible as possible, and streaming and archiving more of them allows citizens to stay informed, even when they can’t attend in person. Right now, we rely on dedicated citizens who are going above and beyond to provide extra streaming, but our new City Hall should be wired to do this, and if Granicus doesn’t provide the level of support we need, there are other platforms to explore. I know first-hand that it’s hard to stay involved in local politics when you work full time, commute, or have caregiving responsibilities and can’t attend in person, and we risk losing those voices in decision-making if we don’t provide an additional way to stay up to date. I’ll support finding additional resources to do this and I believe it would ultimately also help us recruit a broader diversity of candidates for local positions as well.
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WARD 3 Councillor – Non-Incumbent – JULIE ORSINO

Yes. I also support MATV and their role providing important public services such as broadcasting public meetings. Many in Malden get their information via MATV. It would be helpful to work with MATV to formalize a way to balance all means of meeting coverage including social media.

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WARD 4 Councillor – Incumbent – RYAN O’MALLEY

Yes, absolutely. Government transparency has been a primary goal of mine since joining the Malden City Council. Through the help of citizen journalists, we have been able to document more public meetings than ever before. While this grassroots approach has worked well we should make it at priority to fully utilize Granicus, the tool we already pay for, to record and document all of our public meetings.
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WARD 5 Councillor – Incumbent – BARBARA MURPHY

Yes, I would support a plan to have Committee of the Whole, Sub-Committee and License Board meetings be streamed and archived. In fact, in the future, technology should allow us to go beyond just those meetings. As a member of the City Hall Municipal Building Committee, I have ensured that the three public meeting rooms in the new City Hall, easily accessible on the ground floor, will be outfitted with state of the art conference technology. They will have the capability of streaming live to the internet, broadcasting to MATV and archiving to Granicus. While we currently have technology resources, my goal would be to expand support to provide training and ensure that all staff is adequately trained to utilize that technology so we take advantage of those expanded capabilities.
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WARD 5 Councillor – Challenger – DANYAL NAJMI

I support making government as transparent as possible. Presuming the resources are available, I see no reason not to do this.
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WARD 6 Councillor – Incumbent – DAVID CAMELL

Yes. Right now we have citizens doing this work, getting it our on various streaming sources. But we should do our best as a City to provide this so our citizens can stay informed; it is crucial in a democracy.

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WARD 7 Councillor – Incumbent – NEAL ANDERSON

Did not Respond.
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WARD 8 Councillor – Incumbent – JADEANNE SICA

Absolutely. We currently have some logistic challenges that make a consistent practice of streaming meetings difficult if not impossible. I understand those challenges will be a thing of the past when we move to a permanent City Hall, and expect that will be a catalyst for making this goal a reality.
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WARD 8 Councillor – Challenger – ANDREW VANNI

Did Not Respond

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You must be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi