Welcome to the world of Camuso buffoonery at the Medford City Council
http://medford.patch.com/groups/rock-journalist-joe-vig-/p/city-council-and-significant-free-speech-part-1---54-days-to-election-day-2013
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Exhibit A as to why the City Council should not get the summer off, Alden Chambers was jam packed with some important...and not so important ...items on the agenda.
The saga of taxi cab licenses in Medford goes on, and it is a joke, a circus sideshow that is so transparent to the logical mind. Medford, with public transportation unavailable in other cities and towns, does not need this many taxi cabs as much as Woburn, Reading, North Reading, or Bangor Maine might. People in Medford have cars and bikes and bus routes galore. Perhaps Davis Square and Sullivan Square have more direct access to trains, Wellington Station being on the Everett line, but our council chamber is filled with faces from Chelsea, the aforementioned Everett and other communities.
Two questions for those paying attention:
1)Do you think other cities and towns are entertaining Medford residents to get a dog license or a 007 license or a taxi license or even some poetic license?
2)Have you witnessed dozens and dozens of cabs lined up near Carroll's or CVS with people flagging cabs down?
The answer is "no" and "no."
On May 8th Patch ran an essential article worth resurrecting after the issue became a topic at the 9/10/13 Council meeting last night:
FROM PATCH, 5/08/13
Councilor Michael Marks suggested Camuso's subcommittee do more work before the council fully take up any recommendations.
When Camuso said the subcommittee had done work on the issue, Marks said he hasn't seen it in the last several months.
"You're the chairman," Marks said. "Put the time and effort into it and be the chairman...I'm not a member of your subcommittee."
http://medford.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/medford-council-to-tackle-taxi-ordinance
Exactly four months later the council and the issues of taxi licenses look like Mercury retrograde: an illusion that allegedly causes chaos.
And there's the chairman of that subcommittee, Paul A. Camuso, with his Alfred E. Newman "What? Me worry?" look upon his face.
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EIGHT WEEKS TO NOVEMBER FIFTH!
54 days to Election 2013
http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20131105T00&p0=43&msg=Election+Day+2013+McGlynn+Rem...
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FUN AND GAMES WITH COUNCILOR CAMUSO
An important vote on something, perhaps the Everett casino, had Councilor Camuso scurrying like a jackrabbit out of Alden Chambers. As Camuso got up and was walking away his name was called for the vote. Camuso's uncle, soon-to-be-retired Council President Robert A. Maiocco, called out to him, Camuso said something like "I'm not behind the rail."
IN an election years this kind of wrongful conduct is shameful. We pay Paul A. Camuso about 27K a year. The weekly paper notes that Camuso has the absolute worst attendance record on the council, and rather than be a man and vote on an issue, Camuso ran out the door.
Voters need to remember that on November 5.
Then, once again, Paul Camuso gets up later in the evening and follows Fire Chief Gilberti out the door like a Jimi Hendrix fan seeking an autograph. I sauntered outside to listen in on the public conversation that Camuso should have initiated ON CAMERA for the citizens to see (he's talking to the chief OFF CAMERA while getting paid $27K a year.
Think about it. )
Now why eavesdrop on this Councilor we pay so much money to every year? Very simple: he's in a public place and this citizen wants to know what Camuso's habit of not talking to the public but talking in secret is all about. Probably intimidated by my presence, Camuso went "back to work" (ahem) ...so I looked at the Chief and said "Imagine if all seven councilors came out of the meeting to greet you." When Camuso was leaving Alden Chambers to see the chief I gave Michael Marks a big grin and Marks gave me a big grin right back. We were laughing at Paul A. Camuso, not with him.
What kind of Councilor has a habit of leaving Council chambers week after week afer week? The kind that has 14 absence marks on his record according to the weekly paper. Mr. Camuso did this to Chief Leo A. Sacco of the Medford Police Department about six months ago, and Camuso did this to me in October of 2006 after I had spoken to the council and was walking to my car.
Think about it: a City Councilor in 2006 got up off his seat, went down the stairs, ran down the hall to talk to me off camera. I wanted the discussion on camera. This pattern of leaving the council to do city business outside of the prying eye of the cameras has to stop. That's not what the councilors are getting paid for. It's time for someone to make a note of it and get back to business.
END OF PART 1
Part 2 on City Council 9/10/13 to post later.
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