City Council Meeting Postponed due to the snow that wasn't...
http://medford.patch.com/groups/joe-vigliones-blog/p/city-council-meeting-postponed-due-to-the-snow-that-wasnt
Author's note: Rather than anonymous commentary, I welcome readers to come up to the City Council on January 28 and discuss this editorial, in front of the council that is so handsomely paid.
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An e mail message appeared at 4:43 PM on Tuesday night:
Jan 21 at 4:43 PM Due to the pending snow storm the Medford City Council Meeting of January 21, 2014 is cancelled and orders of business will be transfered to the January 28th Meeting Due to the Pending Snow Storm
Another followed 22 minutes later:
Due to the pending snow storm the Medford City Council Committee of the Whole meeting scheduled for January 21 at 6:00 PM is cancelled and will be rescheduled for next week Jan 21 at 5:05 PM
The agenda that didn't get heard is available on Inside Medford
http://insidemedford.com/2014/01/20/medford-city-council-meetings-tuesday-jan-21st/
We pay about three thousand five hundred or so dollars a week for the City Council of Medford.
Medford, Massachusetts is one of the most expensive city councils in 19 cities north of Boston
Payday varies widely for city councilors and aldermen north of ...www.bostonglobe.com/.../north/.../19/payday...city-co...The Boston GlobeOct 20, 2013 - A Globe review of payroll data for city councilors in 19 cities north of Boston puts Medford at the top
This was no blizzard of '78, and haven't we trudged up to City Hall in more inclement weather?
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The supporters of the new council president will come out in droves and ignore the invitation to speak at the Council next week rather than litter the Patch with nonsense. In a city of 57,000 or so people our elected leaders need to have priorities, priorities that don't include following the lead of the most inconsistent and absent councilor noted in the above Boston Globe article from Kathy McCabe.
For the first two council meetings the new "president" had a party stopping a Republican party person, Robert Cappucci, from having his say. At what he has called "the People's Forum" we've witnessed a senior citizen stifled and a council candidate, Jeanne Martin, told to stay on topic. Aham. The "People's forum" with rules designed to both fracture and eradicate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
What better way for the excuse-ridden "Council President" to play hookey but to sense 3 inches of snow on the way and tell the citizens, the other councilors and the Government channel handlers to "take the night off." Unless we stop this pernicious abuse of power in its tracks, this will be the rule, not the exception.
Why wasn't the City Council meeting re-scheduled for January 22, 2014? Wednesday night? If it was, why wasn't a memo sent out. So next Tuesday night, January 28th, will be the third - not fourth - meeting of the Medford City Council. The agenda will get bunched up, and the council president and his thirty thousand dollar gig will think to himself "such a deal" as he slams the gavel and tells you your ten minutes are up when, indeed, as I've been informed by a reliable source, Councilor Paul A. Camuso's clock is at 45 RPM when the rest of the world is at 33 1/3rd RPM.
The "new" City Council has to stop infringing on rights and start recognizing that the definition of "public service" is serving the public. Not taking yet another night off to kick off the new year.
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"People say Im crazy doing what Im doing Well they give me ... Well I tell them there's no problem, only solutions"
- John Lennon "Watching the Wheels"
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On December 17, 2012 the final public access show aired in Medford. On April Fools Day 2013 the color bars went up. As of this writing, January 22, 2014, we pay for a product that we are not getting.
Now, for the anonymous posters who say we don't need public access (which is a joke; no credible person publishes such nonsense) we say, forget about access for a moment. Some links below declare that about 1.7 million dollars was spent between 2010 and 2011 for P/E/G access tv. Consumers forced to pay that much money would like to know where the money has gone. Those at City Hall who know where the money trickles don't offer a "three person panel" that is promised the consumer. So, where's the three person panel? Where is the cable TV commission? Why are there color bars on Comcast and allegedly nothing on Verizon? And when will we have something for the monies we pay for on a monthly basis.
A Jeff Vrabel wrote an essay in the weekly paper Feb 11, 2013, about a year ago. He states:
Seriously, after enough reading about putting antennas on my house, I started to wonder how I could be so impressed by technology that was available to my grandparents, which I regarded like WHAT IS THIS MAGICAL FREE TELEVISION RECEPTION DEVICE? If someone invents a free way to listen to music on some sort of small transistor machine, for real, watch my brains melt.
Read more: http://www.wickedlocal.com/medford/archive/x1959339534/Jeff-Vrabel-Life-without-cable-TV#ixzz2rBUtCwe8
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But it isn't about swapping one thing not to pay for another. It is the monies that get collected and where they are going.
And a city council that has a leader who, ho hum, thinks if there's a tsunami harmlessly out there on the ocean not hitting land, he needs a day off, and to collect "his" 30K without going through a vetting process to become the Council President.
The citizens of Medford didn't vote for that individual to be "president" - which he declared personally to me on January 7th, taking the reality of an election out of context. What happened was that in December, there was a bully vote and - voila - the citizens had no say in appointing an individual who isn't ready for prime time to go up there and embarrass the city of Medford on a weekly basis. That is, when he decides to show up for work.
NOTES:
A February 8, 2012 article in the weekly paper noted:
Comcast currently provides service in 238 Massachusetts communities. Medford is the 111th community in Massachusetts to receive cable TV services offered from Verizon.
Another part of the agreement between the city and Verizon is that the company allots Medford the same 5 percent franchise fee it receives from Comcast cable subscribers. Of the 5 percent fee on cable TV bills, 3 percent goes to the city coffers while 2 percent is divvied up between the city’s three local access channels.
Read more: http://www.wickedlocal.com/medford/news/x962218706/Medford-FiOS-contract-signed-city-picked-for-access-pilot-program#ixzz2rBRp9Gmy
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Author Nick Iovino also wrote: this? In fiscal year 2010, the 5 percent franchise fee generated $820,867 and in fiscal 2011, about $888,316.
City Councilor Robert Penta argued more money should go towards upgrading equipment for recording public meetings at City Hall, which currently uses equipment installed about 20 years ago.
Read more: http://www.wickedlocal.com/medford/news/x962218706/Medford-FiOS-contract-signed-city-picked-for-access-pilot-program#ixzz2rBS75U9V
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