← Appropriations & Oversight Committee · 2026-04-06 · Appropriations & Oversight Committee
An Appropriation from Free Cash (account 01-324001) i n the amount of $50,000 to the Melrose Cultural Council (#2543) for the purposes of grant funding for arts and cultural events and programs in Melrose.
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
B. (ID # 2026-614): An Appropriation from Free Cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $50,000 to the Melrose Cultural Council (#2543) for the purposes of grant funding for arts and cultural events and programs in Melrose. Motion to Recommend made by Councilor Williams Seconded by Councilor Karamcheti Motion passed 3 RESULTS: ACCEPTED TO: City Council AYES: Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams NAYS: Jason Chen ABSENT: John Obremski Comments and Discussion: Lauren Grymek was in attendance to speak on behalf of this request and answered questions from the councilors. Discussion included debate on the amount of funding requested being increased from $17,000 to $50,000 this year. There are other needs in the city, such as funding for firefighter self-contained breathing apparatuses, where this money could be spent. Reducing the amount to $30,000 until after the budget process is completed was proposed. Funding it from grants versus free cash versus a line item budget was debated. The final decision was to keep the original request as written. During discussion a Motion to Recess by unanimous consent to start the city council meeting was made by Chair Romanul at 7:45 PM Meeting opened again at 8:04 PM
Transcript
▶ 50:23 Devin Romanul: That motion passes. All right. Motion passes- Thank you ... and will be brought up in our next full council meeting. Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right. Up next, ID number 2026-614, an appropriation from free cash in the amount of $50,000 to the Melrose Cultural Council for the purposes of grant funding for arts and cultural events and programs in Melrose. Joining us this evening is Mayoral Chief of Staff, Lauren Grimek. Thank you so much for joining us.
▶ 50:48 Speaker 1: Hi. You heard a lot in public comment about what the free cash appropriation is for, and you have a memo before you that was included with the order, along with letters of support from others who couldn't be here. So I will start with just taking questions rather than summarizing that all.
▶ 51:05 Devin Romanul: All right. Up first, President Freeman.
▶ 51:07 Bradley Freeman: Thank you very much, and thank you, Ms. Grimek, for being here. And thank you to everyone who offered public comment on this. Particularly, I don't know if Oren's still here, but Oren, you are an inspiration for everyone in high school, and I appreciate all that you do for the city. I'm strongly supportive of the Melrose Cultural Council and this appropriation, and my one question is, I know that the Massachusetts Cultural Council gives an annual appropriation to the city, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council also gives out individual awards to other nonprofits. Will the city have opportunities, or the Melrose Cultural Council, to tie into those awards and provide some sort of matching fund to help make various awards to nonprofits in Melrose more attractive?
▶ 51:44 Speaker 1: So, I think a good example, that they read a public comment letter from Follow Your Art. So I know that Follow Your Art is both a beneficiary of the local allocation, but then Chris Rotoligo does a great job applying for some of these other opportunities that the Massachusetts Cultural Council provides. There's also 61 other municipalities in Massachusetts that provide a municipal appropriation on top of the annual allocation that the Massachusetts Cultural Council provides to them. So this isn't a unique thing to Melrose to know that we need more funding for arts and culture in our community.
▶ 52:19 Devin Romanul: Thank you. Next I have Councilor Williams.
▶ 52:22 Ryan Williams: Thank you. I just wanted to echo my support for this order. I've personally engaged with the Melrose Cultural Council and Follow Your Art, to put an idea in place to put art in the parklets, specifically the initial one that the Ped Bike Committee built, and then other ones that the city built after it. Mm-hmm. It was great to have funding on hand to be able to execute that idea, a community art idea, that just became real in a matter of weeks. And I think they do great work over there. And for such a small, about 0.3% of, sorry, 0.03% of our overall budget, I think it's well worth the ask.
▶ 53:02 Devin Romanul: Up next I have Councilor Finocchiaro.
▶ 53:04 Cal Finocchiaro: Thank you. So I was just playing with the numbers. Basically, the Cultural Council receives about $17,000 in grants, and we have appropriated about 20,000 historically. So the annual allocation for this year, from the Massachusetts Cultural Council was like $16,800. $800, yeah. I was rounding up to seven. Yeah. Right, yeah. And so then we're putting that on top of that. And as they said, they could certainly use the money because they have more asks than they can give out. Right. And I'm absolutely supportive of the arts. I'm just wondering if we think that next year and the years to come, do we think that we'll be appropriating this amount as well? That that will be the ask? Mm-hmm. I don't see it getting smaller. Okay. I think the arts in Melrose are going to continue to grow, as we've heard tonight. But I think we can do it in a way that is a thoughtful, fiscally responsible way. So I would imagine it would be the same. Okay. Yeah. So this is what's tough as a city councilor. I do support this- Yeah ... but I was working... And this is just a general comment and general statement. We also have this list of capital improvement projects. Sure. One of them is for, I was looking, is $41,000 for self-contained breathing apparatuses for our firefighters. So I just want people to be aware that we are constantly dealing with all these numbers and all these asks and costs. So, I don't think any of us take these appropriations lightly. But these are just things that we're dealing with, the Rover ride and everything. So- I love to see the ask and I love the arts, but just, it's something to think about. Gotcha. Absolutely. Thank you.
▶ 54:57 Devin Romanul: Up next I have Councilor Karim Chetty.
▶ 54:59 Manjula Karamcheti: Thank you so much. I have less of a question and more of a comment really. I'm also in support of this appropriation. This is going to sound like a humble brag, and I don't mean it to be. But I actually have a master's degree in community social psychology and the psychological health of communities, particularly mid-size cities, and the work that the Melrose Cultural Council does actually really contributes to that in terms of wellness, mental health, diversity, equity, and inclusion. So, and it is one of the, I think, few very specific organizations that we have that works on that, and so I don't like to think of it as a competition between breathing apparatus and the arts. It is all important, and yes, we have hard decisions to make as city councilors, but the wellness and psychological health of our city really matters, and we are providing through the Melrose Cultural Council for children to veterans and everybody in between. So this is a no-brainer for