Malden City Council Rejects Proposed Roosevelt Park Ballot Question

MALDEN, MA — An effort to place a question on next year’s Malden municipal ballot regarding city plans to renovate Roosevelt Park failed via a City Council vote on Tuesday, defeated by an 8-2 margin as project supporters criticized what some councilors described as “delay tactics.”

The matter may not be permenantly settled, though, as project opponents including City Councilor Ryan O’Malley said that citizens may work to petition their way onto the ballot without needing City Council approval.

Project opponents and ballot question supporters, including Councilor Karen Colón Hayes, also pushed back this past week on "delay tactic" comments, saying ongoing opposition instead represents advocacy on behalf of and by impacted communities.

“The people need to speak, and we should put it to the ballot and see what is said,” Colón Hayes said before the council’s vote on this question. “It’s important enough.”

Debate over Roosevelt Park has continued for years in various forms. Parties broadly agree that the lead-contaminated park, which sits next to Malden’s Salemwood School is in need of improvements.

Stakeholders have disagreed, however, about a city plan to replace much of the current field with artificial turf instead of grass. Discussion has also focused on the level of contaminated soil remediation that the city may do.

Under its current plans, the city is looking to remove 15 inches of soil. O’Malley recently said at a community input meeting earlier this month that the city should scale up its plans to remove at least three feet of soil to prevent pollutants from bubbling to the service.

Where some city officials have touted the level of outreach in relation to this project to date, others opposed to the project have raised concerns, saying outreach has excluded minority groups that might be disproportionately impacted by flooding, increased heat and pollution following the completion of work.

Enter the recent ballot question push.

O’Malley filed an order to ask voters whether they preferred grass or turf surfacing on a Roosevelt Park renovation project. The question would have appeared on next year’s municipal ballot for voters to weigh in.

“Let’s let the people decide, is this going to be a turf field or a grass field?” O’Malley said.

Where he had some backing, O’Malley saw opposition from other councilors, who said the city needs to move forward on this work rather than wait another year for ballot question results.

“This is a good project and a good plan,” Councilor Barbara Murphy said. “...We need to get a shovel in the ground and we need to get this project moving forward.”

Some discussion veered to the topic of a special election before Malden’s 2023 municipal election. City Clerk Greg Lucey, however, said that costs would be high for a likely low turnout of voters.

Continuing discussion, Councilor Stephen Winslow, who has supported the city’s Roosevelt Park plans, said the matter has already been on the ballot in the form of City Council elections for both his and Murphy’s seats.

They faced challengers who highlighted differences in opinions on Roosevelt Park work, Winslow said. Both Winslow and Murphy prevailed to win re-election.

“This is the democratic process,” Winslow said, also citing other steps to date in the development of city plans. “The democratic process has made a decision, and some folks just can’t accept that.”

The matter proceeded to a vote, where O’Malley and Hayes were the lone “yes” votes in favor of a Roosevelt Park ballot question.

As the city looks to move forward on work, O’Malley on Tuesday left the door open to a future ballot question, saying residents could gather signatures themselves to try to place a ballot question on next year’s ballot.

The Friends of Roosevelt Park organization, which has opposed municipal Roosevelt Park plans has plans to hold its own hybrid community meeting on Monday in the meantime.

That meeting is set to take place at 7 p.m. both at City Hall and remotely via Zoom. It will aim to help stakeholders share their thoughts on the process, creating space for “perspectives, concerns and important information” which organizers said in an event announcement were left out of the city’s community meeting last week.

READ: Malden Roosevelt Park Debate Continues As City Holds Community Meeting