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http://medford.patch.com/groups/joe-vigliones-blog/p/time-for-the-city-council-to-flex-its-collective-muscle
To those watching my TV show tonight - the festivities started off with Paul Camuso's campaign 2013 robo-call (finally got the darn thing off the voice mail, kinda like the Exorcism of Emily Rose, but I digress...) - we had a sports host, Johnny Byers, phone in, with the topics turning, of course, to Medford and Winchester politics.
Johnny thinks under our present form of government the council is somewhat powerless. I disagreed. And this was a good, unplanned healthy argument with people on different sides of the issue. A year or two ago I implored the city council to file public records requests, engage the Freedom of Information Act. If the Mayor's going to hold information back, utilize the legal tools to put Mike McGlynn in a position where the transparency he brags about is something he is required to embrace.
At $27,000.00 per councilor plus more for President of Vice and Council President, at close to four thousand dollars per meeting, we citizens want some value for our dollar.
I say five councilors ought to file three public records requests a week for the kind of money we are paying them. Let's get some real clarity on Medford issues. National Grid doesn't repair a street they tore up, public record's request for the pertinent documents. Street not plowed properly, public record's request to see if the job was bid on. A $2.00 additional fee for a Comcast adapter and no public access tv, public records request for the financial records and meeting minutes (is there an echo in here?)
Why is it that the conversation in Medford has taken awhile to discuss the Open Meeting Law?http://www.mass.gov/ago/government-resources/open-meeting-law/. The Open Meeting Law supports the principle that the democratic process depends on the public having knowledge about the considerations underlying governmental action. The Open Meeting Law requires that most meetings of governmental bodies to be held in public.
________________ Thanks to this writer we got a clear and precise answer from our City Solicitor, who was on the top of his game Tuesday evening in the Committee of the Whole. This is the Mark Rumley you don't want to be in a duel with in a court of law. Precise, factual and with subtle humor (the dig at Rep Delahunt's marijuana license(s) had better timing than Jay Leno.) When Rumley is this efficient he is dangerous. It's good to be on his good side when he's as on as he was this past Tuesday evening, February 18.
Some on the city council have these same attributes. They can pull out the political nuclear optons, and it is high time they started doing so. At least when Bela Lugosi played Dracula night after night onstage he had the brio to keep it dynamic. When the councilors take the stage, they need a little bit more than "amps turned on 11" and a bad attitude. They need to go back to the rule books and find the regulations that give them the authority to do the people's business.
Unlike Freddy Dello Russo, Jr. who stares off into space for approximately $28,200.00, this writer stares up and sees a ceiling in a gorgeous hall that is starting to crack. ANY Politician who holds the corner office for 26 years has to start hauling in storage units for all the skeletons. Today McGlynn sharpens those scissors for all those lovely ribbons, meanwhile his on again/off again lieutenants - Knight, Camuso, Caraviello, Lungo-Koehn, all licking their chops to take on Staphanie Muccini Burke in the next election for Mayor when Brute hands McGlynn his "et tu?" moment.
If you workout and build up your muscles and don't use them, it's a waste of resources. With my help this city council survived TV3. Now I'm educating the council on how to get the Mayor to roll up his shirtsleeves and finally do some work, or else hand him his pink slip.
Post Script:
Yes, we did discuss The Exorcism of Emily Rose on my show tonight, along with Primal Fear (all before REELING, the movie show taped at Malden Access TV.) Watch both movies to see Laura Linney absolutely reprising her role from Primal Fear (as prosecutor) for Emily Rose (as counsel for the defense.) Some of her lines, and certainly her delivery, can be swapped for either story. Delicious stuff.