Finance Committee — 2026-02-02
Attendance
Jason Chen ; Bradley Freeman ; Maya Jamaleddine ; John Obremski ; Christopher Park
Agenda
Minutes
Finance Committee Monday, February 2, 2026, 7:30 PM City Council Chamber, 1st Floor 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 MINUTES I. CALL TO ORDER Christopher Park Vice Chair Jason Chen Maya Jamaleddine John Obremski William Bradley Freeman President, Ex Officio Member Manjula Karamcheti Chair Meeting was called to order by Chair Karamcheti at 7:30 PM Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Christopher Park Vice Chair Present Jason Chen At-Large Present Maya Jamaleddine At-Large Present John Obremski Ward 2 Present William Bradley Freeman President, Ex Absent Officio Member Manjula Karamcheti Chair Present Also in attendance were non-voting counselors: Elizabeth Kowal Kimberly Vandiver Ryan Williams II. MINUTES APPROVAL Motion to Approve the minutes by unanimous consent without reading made by Chair Karamcheti RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] AYES: Jason Chen, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, John Obremski, Christopher Park NAYS: None ABSENT: Bradley Freeman III. PUBLIC COMMENT 1 When: Feb 2, 2026 07:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Topic: Finance Committee Meeting Join from PC, Mac, iPad, or Android: https://cityofmelrose- org.zoom.us/j/93811800155?pwd=vSIQZQbqpoAsGUdSlt9bcXcMTXz25a.1 Passcode:982686 Webinar ID: 938 1180 0155 Motion to Open public comment made by Chair Karamcheti at 7:31 PM There were no comments on the floor or via Zoom Motion to Close public comment made by Chair Karamcheti at 7:31 PM IV. ORDERS
A. (ID # 2026-174): Reappointment of Linda Reed, as Assistant City Clerk for a one year term, ending on the first Monday in February 2027. Motion to Recommend to full council made by Councilor Jamaleddine Seconded by Councilor Obremski All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council AYES: Jason Chen, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, John Obremski, Christopher Park NAYS: None ABSENT: Bradley Freeman City Clerk Tanji Cifuni could not be in attendance and here are her comments regarding reappointment candidate Linda Reed. Chair Karamcheti read this to the committee: I’m sorry, I could not be in attendance this evening… I wanted to make sure I shared my experience working with Linda Reed over the last year and a half. Last February, Linda Reed was appointed as an assistant city clerk for the City of Melrose… Each year the assistant city clerk has to be reappointed… A year has gone by so fast and Linda continues to be a strong asset to our team… Over this past year, our department hired an elections administrator, as well as a senior clerk for our office… She was very instrumental in helping me get both of these individuals up to speed in their new roles… She brings so much knowledge and experience to the front office of the city clerk… She manages all of our business licenses and all of the permits that we give out on behalf of the City Of Melrose… This year, we are managing the dog database, and we make sure that we have it posted up on our website for all residents to view… She manages all of our vital records with ease and expertise. She continues to keep up with all of our training manuals… Making sure that each time we roll out a new procedure, it’s all documented.. Linda is always willing to provide a helping hand to anyone within the department or outside our department… A complete team leader… Her attendance is impeccable… I think she practically opens up the building every day of the week… I cannot ask for a better partner to work with, and I look forward to working with her for many years to come. 2 I truly hope my endorsement for Linda can help all of you decide to extend her contract for another year… Thank you all for taking the time to read this Comments on Discussion: -Councilor Jamaleddine wanted to learn what is the plan going forward next year. V. ADJOURNMENT Motion to Adjourn by unanimous consent made by Chair Karamcheti at 7:36 PM Meeting was adjourned 3 § 56-10. Assistant City Clerk. A. The City Clerk shall, on or before the first Monday in February in each year, appoint an Assistant City Clerk, subject to confirmation by the City Council. B. The Assistant City Clerk may be removed by the vote of a majority of all the members of the City Council taken by roll call. C. In the absence of the City Clerk, the Assistant City Clerk shall perform all the duties of the office and shall perform such other duties as he/she may be called upon to perform by the City Clerk. State law reference — Authority to appoint assistant city clerk, MGL c. 41, § 18. :1Comments from City Clerk Tanji Cufuni regarding the reappointment of Linda Reed: I’m sorry, I could not be in attendance this evening… I wanted to make sure I shared my experience working with Linda Reed over the last year and a half. Last February, Linda Reed was appointed as a assistant city clerk for the City Of Melrose… Each year the assistant city clerk has to be reappointed… A year has gone by so fast and Linda continues to be a strong asset to our team… Over this past year, our department hired an elections administrator, as well as a senior clerk for our office… She was very instrumental in helping me get both of these individuals up to speed in their new roles… She brings so much knowledge and experience to the front office of the city clerk… She manages all of our business licenses and all of the permits that we give out on behalf of the City Of Melrose… This year, we are managing the dog database, and we make sure that we have it posted up on our website for all residents to view… She manages all of our vital records with ease and expertise. She continues to keep up with all of our training manuals… Making sure that each time we roll out a new procedure, it’s all documented.. Linda is always willing to provide a helping hand to any one within the department or outside of our department… A complete team leader… Her attendance is impeccable… I think she practically opens up the building every day of the week… I cannot ask for a better partner to work with, and I look forward to working with her for many years to come. I truly hope my endorsement for Linda can help all of you decide to extend her contract for another year… Thank you all for taking the time to read this
Transcript
▶ 7:24 Manjula Karamcheti: and non-voting members, counselor Williams, councilor Coleman, counselor Van Vandiver. This also provides notice of a quorum for the record in accordance with the open Meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast on our local cable access channel MMTV, as well as live streamed through mmt v.org. This meeting will be available for future viewing through the City of Melrose website meeting portal as well. Um, we are gonna start by minute approvals. Uh, the minutes we are approving are from the finance committee meeting that was held on September 2nd, 2025 at 6:45 PM Um, I will motion by unanimous consent to approve the minutes. Seeing no objections. The minutes are approved. We'll now move on to public comment portion of this meeting.
▶ 8:17 Manjula Karamcheti: This is a time where any member of the public may speak to any item on our agenda. The committee does not engage in a back and forth dialogue, but we'll listen to what each individual has to say. I'll motion by unanimous consent to open public comment. Seeing no objections, public comment is now open. I'm not seeing anyone in the audience this evening. But do we have anyone online? No one Online. Okay. Since we have no one online, I'll motion by unanimous consent to close public comment. Seeing no objections, public comment is now closed. We have one order this evening. This is ID number 2026 dash 1 7 4. The reappointment of Linda Reed as the assistant city clerk for a one year term ending on the first Monday in
▶ 9:08 Manjula Karamcheti: February, 2027. Um, first I would just like to say that our city clerk really wanted to be here this evening to provide an endorsement. However, she's not able to be here after all. But she has given us something in writing that I would like to read into the record. Um, and these are her words in support of, um, Ms. Reed. Good evening. I'm sorry. I could not be in attendance this evening. I wanted to make sure I shared my experience working with Linda Reed over the last year and a half. Last February, Linda Reed was appointed as an assistant city clerk for the city of Melrose. Each year, the assistant city clerk has to be reappointed. A year has gone by so fast, and Linda continues to be a strong asset to our team.
▶ 9:57 Manjula Karamcheti: Over this past year, our department department hired an elections administrator as well as a senior clerk for our office. She was very instrumental in helping me to get both these individuals up to speed in their new roles. She brings so much knowledge and experience to the front office of the city clerk. She manages all of our business licenses and all of the permits that we give out on behalf of the city of Melrose. This year, we are managing the dog database and we make sure that we have it posted up on our website for all residents to view. She manages all of our vital records with ease and expertise. She continues to keep up with all of our training manuals, making sure that each time we roll out a new procedure,
▶ 10:38 Manjula Karamcheti: it's all documented. Linda is always willing to provide a helping hand to anyone within the department or outside of our department. A complete team leader. Her attendance is impeccable. I think she practically opens up the building every day of the week. I cannot ask for a better partner to work with, and I look forward to working with her for many years to come. I truly hope my endorsement for Linda can help all of you decide to extend her contract for another year. Thank you for all for taking the time to read slash listen to this, um, from Tangi Uni. Any comments or questions from counselors at the table? So, go Ahead. Um, um, I don't have questions, but even if we do, who do we ask it for?
▶ 11:31 Maya Jamaleddine: You can ask me. We could No, I I put them on the record the questions. I'm, I'm very happy with what I heard. And you know, it's, it's, it's a great to hear from, uh, colleagues about their experience, um, uh, with other colleagues, uh, and, and team members. Um, I do appreciate that I'm, you know, out of curiosity and, and to, to Linda's role. Um, I would like to learn what is the plan for, uh, moving, uh, forward for next year and, uh, in terms of her work plan. And, um, uh, but I do understand, um, the absence of, um, JI and Ms. Uni is, um, unexpected. And for that, I will move forward taking, uh, the word of MSS and, uh, make motion to approve. So you're making a motion to approve? Yes.
▶ 12:30 Manjula Karamcheti: Okay. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion to recommend from Councilor Jamine and a second by Councilor a Abramsky. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. So this, uh, reappointment passes. I will say, um, we do have an opportunity when we have the larger, well, actually, technically we don't. 'cause I think it's on the agenda for our next, uh, meeting. But if there are any questions or information people are looking for, um, I would be happy to follow up and we can share that at our next meeting. All right. We are at that time of the meeting where we will consider adjournment. Um, I'll motion by unanimous consent to adjourn the meeting. Seeing no objections. Our meeting is adjourned.