Sister Yolanda at Arlington High School must have been VERY disappointed in Mike McGlynn after his performance this evening.
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D'Antonio delivers stunning concluding speech; McGlynn's Watergate moment; Mayor looked like a deer in headlights
http://medford.patch.com/groups/rock-journalist-joe-vig-/p/dantonio-delivers-stunning-concluding-speech-mcglynns-watergate-moment-mayor-looked-like-a-deer-in-headlights
Mayoral candidate Anthony D'Antonio saw an opportunity to land a haymaker and did so with authority, respect and facts that the community had been denied in the past. And candidate McGlynn looked like a deer in the headlights, not used to tough questions, not used to answering any questions - making allegedly only one appearance in front of the City Council in 26 years.
The lack of transparency is the opposite of what McGlynn promises on the campaign trail, but now - with the forum (it was actually a subdued "debate") on camera and televised - the River's Edge fiasco that McGlynn - amazingly - attempted to say was something to be proud of - was exposed when D'Antonio brought up the judgment against McGlynn's Mystic Valley Development Commission.
You'll find information in the Malden Observer and the Boston.com online site (from the Boston Globe,) but the weekly paper in Medford has not covered the story in a detailed way:Boston.com wrote on July 24, 2009
By Travis Andersen, Town Correspondent
A Superior Court judge has upheld a $4 million ruling against the body overseeing River's Edge - a 200-acre, mixed-use development spanning three cities.
"Malden Mayor Richard Howard said the commission has no liability insurance, and a final settlement would come from state economic development funds. The commission receives state and federal funding for several costs related to the project - including environmental upkeep, design, and legal expenses."
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/malden/2009/07/rivers_edge_award_upheld_in_la.html
River's Edge website
http://www.riversedgema.com/team.html
McGlynn, the chairman of the Mystic Valley Development Commission, should have been "forward thinking" enough to have liability insurance - the City made sure TV3 (which wasn't brought up at the "debate") had liability insurance, why not River's Edge's MVDC?
This story has been swept under the rug and the last thing McGlynn expected was a serious opponent putting a spotlight on arguably McGlynn's signature accomplishment, the embattled Telecom City reincarnated as "River's Edge."
D'Antonio also pointed out multiple failures of the McGlynn Administration, while McGlynn squirmed, uncomfortably having to experience being outed as an old-time politician spinning fiction (basically, lying to the public about his accomplishments) and - amazingly - McGlynn was so arrogant as to saying he had no "regrets." After 26 years, no regrets?
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At 8:57 PM the School Committee portion of the "debate" that wasn't, the alleged "forum," concluded. It was a dog and pony show - the School Committee is running unopposed and an honest look at both Mayoral candidates with a 2 hour debate was denied the residents because the Democratic City and Ward committee also features - if you can believe this - Mike McGlynn as the Chair of Ward 2.
So the entity that put this event on has as one of its chairs an individual looking to gain momentum to be elected for another two years that he does not deserve.
This was a huge setback for McGlynn, no matter how he wants to spin it. Less people in the audience for him than in 2011, the alleged union guys clapping and leaving, but the residents of Medford, the real residents of Medford, denied the opportunity of a true grilling of a 26 year incumbent who left in a hurry in a big SUV that just one week ago was found sitting in a bus stop. That's right, candidate McGlynn left the event at 8:05 PM driving that big SUV with the McGlynn bumper sticker that was found illegally parked in a bus stop just one week ago on October 9.
D'Antonio noted how McGlynn thinks he is a king with serfs he doesn't have to pay attention to. McGlynn left seemingly angry, angry that he has to be held up to scrutiny, thinking that the taxpayers should invest in his pet projects with no real ability to ask a 26 year incumbent questions.
The citizens deserve a real forum. The two candidates need to have a real debate, not one controlled by McGlynn's Democratic Ward and City Committee which answers to him and only to him. Just as the Mystic Valley Development Commission found out in a court of law in front of a judge that McGlynn was wrong, having McGlynn's own Democratic City and Ward Committee fail to have credible journalists and panelists is exactly how McGlynn wants it. It was run exactly the way the soon-to-be-defunct Medford Community Cableivision, Inc. (alias "TV3") operated - with no checks and balances, with egotistical insiders and cronies keeping the time and allegedly "moderating" a forum which they skew in favor of the incumbent.
Only this time a Mayoral candidate, Anthony D'Antonio, in his second campaign for Mayor of Medford, put the big floodlight on McGlynn, and you can watch McGlynn's face as he squirms: a picture's worth a thousand words. Don't take my word for it, watch the magic moment on TV, it is like when David Frost asked Dick Nixon a question about Watergate which really exposed Nixon as being a huge part of the cover-up.
Tonight D'Antonio was frost handing Richard Milhouse McGlynn his Watergate moment. The citizens need to hear more about this and explore the other avenues D'Antonio brought up. But, alas, just as McGlynn controls the Democratic Ward and City Committee, the School Committee and the Mystic Valley Development Commission, McGlynn is also the Issuing Authority over P/E/G access TV, which is why you pay a cable bill and McGlynn rips you off and doesn't let you have access TV. That's right, the "candidate" McGlynn doesn't want access TV running without his iron fist controlling it like some dictator in Russia from the Stalin era.
On October 16, 2013, McGlynn's Watergate moment - facts about River's Edge - was revealed to the public, and the guilty party, the chairman of the MVDC, was not pleased by the exposure.
To be continued.
