OpenCommonwealth

OP-ED : Mayor Gary Christensen protects his cronies and tailors his "cuts" to exact revenge on the voters, will the city council hold him accountable? -- by Bruce Friedman

The City of Malden (Official)'s Fiscal Crisis is of its own making and will continue until we demand it stops.

The new proposed budget is out. The budget actually increased, yes; it increased from 2026’s budget. Mayor Gary Christensen’s proposed 2027 budget is $4,207,892.71 LARGER than 2026’s adopted budget.

This mayor and his administration could not be more tone deaf.

The people spoke, they asked us for a proposition 2.5 override and we voted NO.

This budget is also NOT balanced, it depends on $8,920,000.00 of transfers of funds from free cash, enterprise funds, special revenue and trust funds. It should be noted that the. Budget has not been balanced (revenue equals or exceeds expenses) since at least 2022, however prior to this, the non-revenue additions to the revenue were buried in a generic “other financing” category in the budget.

Now let’s look at what’s really proposed by the budget:

1. There has been no proposed cut to the mayor’s budget for his administration and NO reduction in his staff from 2026, they have actually increased their salary expenses. This is abhorrent.
2. Human Resources has not reduced staff from 2026, and had added 3.2% in salaries and 6.5% overall increase over 2026.
3. The City Clerk’s office has not reduced staff from 2026, and has increased salary expense.
4. Strategic Planning has not reduced staff from 2026.
5. The Legal Department has not reduced staff from 2026.
6. The Controller has not reduced staff from 2026, and has increased salary expense.
7. The Library, this is the worst offense in my opinion, they eliminated the custodian, then they kept all remaining 20 city-funded positions and increased their longevity bonuses.

Mayor Gary Christensen did cut; he cut police, fire, public works, public facilities, the senior center, veterans services, the youth employment program and many other things that hurt the citizens.

It is clear, Gary fulfilled his promises, he promised to bring the pain to the people of Malden if they failed to vote yes to his Proposition. 2.5.

The Mayor has saved and actually expanded his cronies departments, he has taken care of those who remained loyal to him and has punished the people of Malden with this budget.

You should contact your City Councilor, you should voice your concerns and you should instruct your city councillor to vote NO to this budget.

Gary should be forced to go back and correct #1-7 above, reduce costs from his office, HR, the City Clerk, Strategic Planning, Legal, the. Controller and the library with meaningful and substantial cuts.

You should ask your city councillors to only vote for a balanced budget, one where our revenues are the same or more than our expenses, no more stealing from the reserves.

All of the budgets can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/7ytxd08mt30pyoipyh2ut/AJvcgLjdEFDKLue6mTeeH2E?e=1&fbclid=IwY2xjawRoJrtleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFkZ3lEZ0pvQTlndGNaTWhPc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHpMINS_NrtQHB499FZnWABcOchl9CFaR6NS8iDQdtitYa8y1p-B8qKtqMX_B_aem_ufSK8B_NFwSBxUqXxG5pFw&rlkey=ble1aiouzpz485c9ktowlrpdq&st=pimfyqaq&dl=0.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of OpenCommonwealth.org

The OP-ED was originally posted on May 6th to OpenCommonwealth