Preserve the CPA Before It's Too Late

Two proposals are being presented to Malden’s Ordinance committee, that will help determine how our city’s green spaces are managed. Spontaneous grass-root efforts from Malden residents brought this measure forward. Canvassing, phone calls, flyering and campaigning all through election day 2015 helped to bring this initiative to life.

In the spirit of cooperation, Councilor Debbie DeMaria crafted an ordinance proposal based on Massachusetts law and best practices, which includes a slate of four un-elected representatives of the Malden community to give their expert and honest input into managing the direction of the CPA resources.

In a vacuum, Councilor Neil Kinnon of Ward 6 has crafted a competing ordinance proposal, that invents some annual rotating, alternating scheme to enhance the Massachusetts law with four sitting city councilors. This is not normal practice in many Massachusetts cities, where the CPA provisions have taken hold. One would be hard pressed to try and find anywhere else using such a top heavy, confusing and unrepresentative bureaucratic scheme to implement CPA in Massachusetts.

“One general concern of residents is that the CPC members will be independent voices, and not City Councillors or de facto delegates of City Councillors.

Residents of Malden gathered the signatures to put CPA on the ballot, and worked to educate Malden residents to adopt CPA with 60% of the vote. The community put CPA on the ballot and the community adopted CPA, so the community deserves significant input on the CPC ordinance and constitution of the Community Preservation Committee.”

The choices are stark and clear. In my opinion, the process is being corrupted. The process is being hijacked. The voice and vote of the people are being ignored and taken advantage of. Malden residents are left helpless as a fresh power grab takes place right in front of us.

In my opinion, we MUST support Councilor DeMaria’s thoughtful and well researched proposal for managing the green space resources being allocated for our city’s use. At a minimum, we should hope to get this process slowed down and explain to residents that sometimes it is best to have everyday concerned citizens, not tied to election cycles, helping to guide our community’s healthy resources and future.

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