MELROSE — City Councilors this week decided to keep the lights on in Memorial Hall despite the fact the facility loses money at a time when municipal managers face severe fiscal austerity, which has prompted a call on residents to pay more in property taxes so the city can maintain a certain level of essential services.
During a Monday meeting of the council’s Appropriations Committee, Councilor-at-Large Ward Hamilton saw the $215,937 fiscal year 2026 budget request to operate the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building as a symbol that the city is stuck in its ways and councilors won’t make really hard decisions months before voters will be asked to override Proposition 2 1/2.
Hamilton said that over the last couple of months, he and his colleagues have heard of dramatic reductions in the city’s public safety budgets and of a “gutted” School Department, and wondered how the “optics” of approving the Memorial Hall operating budget would go over with Melrosians.
The building loses money and is not essential to the operation of city government, Hamilton said before making a motion to reduce the Memorial Hall budget request to zero.
This set off a lengthy discussion, with the majority of councilors arguing that Memorial Hall needs to stay open at least until a $95,000 study on how it can be made better is completed. One of the things to be examined will be increasing revenue generation.
Ward 1 Councilor Manjula Karamcheti argued that voting to essentially close Memorial Hall now “is absolutely the worst time.” Memorial Hall, she said, is a facility the community relies on. Karamcheti said she has championed the coming study on how to improve Memorial Hall’s operation.
“It is very shortsighted to do this now,” she said.
Councilor-at-Large Maya Jamaleddine agreed.
Ward 6’s Cal Finocchiaro sided with Hamilton. She called Memorial Hall her favorite building in Melrose, but she said she has recently thought about jobs already lost because of the tough financial straits the city finds itself in. She mentioned the loss of the Veterans Memorial Middle School principalship and many other positions in the School Department.
“I can’t approve this budget,” she said.
Ward 3 Councilor Robb Stewart said he would agree to reduce the allocation, but not cut it to zero. He explained that the community relies on Memorial Hall and he would rather see what the coming report finds than shutting the facility altogether.
City Council President Leila Migliorelli questioned the degree of savings the city would realize by shuttering Memorial Hall. In addition, she felt she was not qualified to determine where to reduce spending in the operating budget request. She described Hamilton’s move to zero out Memorial Hall as “a little ambitious” given that over 200 events are planned there in the coming year.
Ward 7’s Devin Romanul also felt reducing the building’s operating budget to zero was being shortsighted, adding that while it would be saving $216,000, “it’s not like it solves the litany of fiscal challenges” Melrose faces.
The city is looking at 21 municipal positions eliminated across multiple departments. Adding the jobs cut in fiscal 2025, the city’s workforce will have been reduced by 10 percent over the past two years.
Those coming reductions include both unfilled vacancies and the wholesale elimination of positions: five positions in the Department of Public Works; two positions in the police department; one position at the Library, one position in the Solicitor’s Office; the Emergency Management Director; reduction of Veterans Services staff by 50 percent; and reductions to the Clerk and Elections staff positions.
“All of these cuts will come in addition to the difficult cuts we made last year for the FY 25 budget: the elimination of the City’s Sustainability Manager, Economic Development Director, and Social Services Coordinator. Deferred investment in our information technology capital needs. Cuts to Health Department, Veterans Services Department and Council on Aging programs. And the painful elimination of several teacher positions at our public schools,” Mayor Jen Grigoraitis said as she officially presented her budget plan to the City Council for its review at the beginning of May.
Among the mayor’s budget recommendations were increases in the fees at Memorial Hall.
Memorial Hall Executive Director Kathy Pigott-Brodeur, at Karamcheti’s request, named a wide variety of groups that use Memorial Hall, including the Melrose Symphony Orchestra.
Hamilton did not question the value of Memorial Hall to the city. However, the building is a financial loser and Hamilton said he was concerned about its role in the narrative of Melrose’s situation as an override election in November gets ever closer. There are people who have already decided to vote for the override, and people who have decided to vote against it. However, Hamilton said it is critical to reach those people who are still up in the air about the override. Those are the people that councilors and others need to convince about the need to raise taxes so a level of services can still be provided.
He explained that Memorial Hall, the library and the Senior Center are “all great things, but if anyone thinks we can continue to operate like nothing bad is happening, that all we need is more money, it’s not going to fly in November. And we need this override to pass or we’re going to be in big trouble.”
He continued that police, fire, the DPW and the schools are essential to the city. “Memorial Hall is not when we’re talking about a very dire budget.”
Ward 5’s Kimberly Vandiver said the move to shutter Memorial Hall doesn’t “many any sense. She explained that Memorial Hall is a loss leader, meaning it loses money but it brings people into the city to spend money, which is a good thing. She also said she was among the councilors who had no idea where to being making reductions to the building’s operating budget.
Migliorelli expressed concern that Hamilton had mentioned “selling the override” in the City Council Chamber, although the very same thing was said when Grigoraitis asked that three separate override questions be placed on the November election ballot on May 27.
She said the council has already backed about $2.7 million in cuts recommended by the mayor, saying she didn’t understand the logic in Hamilton’s motion.
“If we’re going to cut something, cut our salaries,” Migliorelli said.
Karamcheti said that constituents “are asking us to be fiscally responsible, but the (entire city) budget before us already is.”
Hamilton said later that he did want to close Memorial Hall but he did not want the city council to “keep doing things the way we’re doing them.”
When it came time to vote, Migliorelli, Jamaleddine, Ryan Williams, Karamcheti, Robb Stewart, Mark Garipay, Vandiver and Romanul approved keeping the Memorial Hall budget request intact. Hamilton and Finocchiaro voted against it.