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Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Medford Public Library

The Library and Access TV

Barbara Kerr
Assistant Director
Medford Public Library
111 High St.
Medford, MA 02155
(781) 395-7950
http://www.medfordlibrary.org

Hello Barbara:

Councilor Rick Caraviello's ideas of the library working with public access television (as well as his Springstep idea) are valid and worth looking into.

With 144 days to November 3, election day, it is CRITICAL that politicians / candidates like Christine Barber, Pat Jehlen, Neil Osborne, John Amirault, Michael Ruggiero, Kathy Kreatz, Mario Martin, Mark Crowley and others all put pressure on Michael J. McGlynn to be honest and put an access TV station together immediately.

The only proposal given to Louise Miller, then in procurement, now Budget Director, was written by Joe Viglione.  The Mayor intentionally put too many restrictions into his Request for Proposals, and there is no other word for it but deceptive.

As I stated at the City Council on June 9th, 2015, we will have close to one million dollars.  We can purchase a van, obtain equipment and cablecast to Comcast and Verizon.

Mayor McGlynn's wrongful conduct has hurt the library; it has hurt the residents of this city who want to learn computers, utilize cameras, and not be harassed and bullied by McGlynn's friends who ran the old tv station into the ground.

Why is Pat Jehlen so reticent to read the riot act to McGlynn?  Didn't she vote for 3 of the Mayor's pay raises?  She's a senator and can trump a lame-duck, outgoing individual who damaged our wonderful library, hurt the growth of the Chevalier, and who destroyed free speech rights in the city of Medford.


In 2014 the city of Edna, Minnesota found an efficient way to get programming out to cable subscribers:

Edina Community Channel 16 in Minnesota recently became the states first Public Access-Educational-Government (PEG) channel to broadcast in HD on Comcast cable systems, with technology from Tightrope Media Systems supporting the transition and new production workflow. 

About Tightrope Media Systems
Founded in 1997, Tightrope Media Systems is the pioneer of web-centric digital signage and broadcast automation systems. It provides station automation, video servers, internet video on demand, live streaming, the Carousel Digital Signage system, and ZEPLAY, a multi-channel instant replay machine for stadiums, arenas and Outside Broadcast vehicles. Tightrope's award winning systems are used throughout the world. 
www.trms.com.

The City Solicitor talks a good game, he gives wonderful speeches that are in direct conflict with his actions, like making good on two promises he gave this city:

---an election for a new board of directors of Medford Community Cablevision, Inc. in January of 2008.   When Mr. Rumley failed to take my advice that the President of MCC was going to shut down the election, the city got sued, costing Rumley hours and hours of time he could have spent on something else. The city prevailed over TV3.

---Mr. Rumley's alleged promise in July of 2014 to demand the financial records and meeting minutes of MCC ...or else.  TV3 laughed at the Solicitor, ignored him, and the Solicitor, as usual, did nothing, hurting the cable subscribers who pay for access.

When the Solicitor said to me he thinks access is obsolete (paraphrased) I immediately responded "So education is obsolete?"
 
Mr. Rumley thought about it and acknowledged he was in error (paraphrased again.)

But the chilling thing is that a City Solicitor failed to respect the monies people pay for a service the greedy Mayor refuses to let them have, what State Rep Paul Donato called "the most protected right."
POLITICAL SPEECH.

Here's Mr. Rumley's lip service, in direct conflict with his actions, and he said this to a retired judge:

“The one sentiment that I have heard that I take great exception to is that the city is trying to limit speech,” said Rumley. “The notion the city would censor or squelch free speech is baseless and as city solicitor I would find any such effort repugnant.”

City Solicitor Mark E. Rumley / Medford Daily Mercuryon or about Nov. 16, 2008 (quoted from the 2nd Judge Jackson-Thompson hearing)


The library and public access TV can work hand-in-hand to document this city's sports teams, arts community, and allow citizens to express themselves creatively.  Mark E. Rumley and Mike McGlynn have denied me this, and have allowed me to be stalked and harassed by the TV3 crowd.  They did not help me.  In fact, when the Mayor saw a police report, he snidely said to me "Have fun with that."

Mayor Michael J. McGlynn reveals his true self and it is not a pretty sight.  Look at the library, the police station, the fractured streets, the fire station, how bad off the DPW was for years, the infrastructure of the water and sewer pipes, all ignored by a Mayor who appears to be incapable of leading.

A lame duck Mayor.

This resident has the knowledge and skill to build a television station that also houses a radio station. The Mayor knows this.
He refuses to work with us because McGlynn does NOT want free speech before Election 2015.  

Michael J. McGlynn is clearly hiding something and wants to install his "lieutenants," as certainly as Frank Pilleri of Medford Community Cablevision, Inc. does NOT want anyone to look at the books.

So Mark Rumley does nothing, the library suffers, public access suffers.

I am writing to ALL candidates and alerting them that they are absolutely being cheated by a lame-duck regime.
 
We can put a new TV3 van in the driveway of the library and work with the library to preserve Medford's history.

Please work with me to make this happen within the next few weeks

Sincerely,
Joe Viglione

Joe Viglione's article on Globe North, Online - The Chevalier Theater


A view from the balcony at the Chevalier Theater in Medford.
By Joe Viglione, Guest Columnist

Last year, Medford residents were talking to the City Council about the Chevalier Theater and public access television.  From out of the blue, Mayor Michael J. McGlynn has announced that he is looking for one addition to the Chevalier Civic Auditorium Commission, for a total of five representatives, and he seeks three new people for the seven-person Cable Advisory Commission.

The Chevalier has been a hot topic of late with the magnificent room on Forest Street not having as many high-profile shows as the Lynn Auditorium, Regent Theater in Arlington, or Stoneham Theatre in Stoneham.  This writer suggested to the City Council - and anyone listening to the broadcast - that there is a natural synergy between the Chevalier Theater and a new public access television station that could benefit this city in a variety of ways.

I have told the City Council of Medford that making room for a TV station at the Chevalier would save Medford residents money and benefit both entities.  The current nonprofit pays tens of thousands of dollars in rent while a neighboring town pays $1 a year for space in a public building while Winthrop and Stoneham both own their own buildings. 

Which brings us to the issue of Public, Educational and Governmental access TV.  In 2005, the Mayor signed a 10-year agreement with Comcast and an additional 10-year agreement with a nonprofit to operate a studio for broadcasts on Channel 3.
In 2006, I wrote a report for the Mayor after meeting with him at City Hall - and at his request - which was followed by a report by Mark E. Rumley - Report On Present State of Public Access Television in the City of Medford.   Mr. Rumley has stated publicly that I was never authorized to write a report, which is absurd - any Medford resident can write a report at any time, however Mr. Rumley was not in the meeting I had with Mayor Michael J. McGlynn and the late Richard Lee and we weren't having tea or discussing the Field of Dreams. Anyone who has followed this story knows that the main issue I've been discussing with City Hall since my initial meeting with the Human Rights Commissioner, Diane McLeod, and City Solicitor Rumley as far back as early 2003 - eight long years ago - is the situation with Channel 3.

My 27-page report in 2006 (whether the Mayor wants to acknowledge that he requested it or not, it still exists) was clearly the driving force that led to the Rumley Report which led to the Evaluation on October 29, 2008 by Judge Marie O. Jackson-Thompson, her second evaluation hearing of November 15, 2008, the audit of Medford Community Cablevision, Inc. by Melanson Heath & Co, PC, and the eventual release of Judge Jackson-Thompson's "Hearing Results, Findings and Recommendations."

In the opinion of this writer, who first broadcast on local origination "public access" in Somerville in 1979, this amount of activity is unprecedented when it comes to an access television station.   And something that I've asked the City Council is very simple: Where is the Cable Advisory Commission with so much time, money, and effort being spent on an evaluation and an audit?

In June of 2008, I noted on the MedfordMass groups Yahoo! site that the Mayor's Cable TV Commission link was missing from the city of Medford's website.

The seven members of the Cable TV Commission at that time were  former School Committee member Robert E. Skerry, Richard Giovino, Michael Wyche, Michele Bordieri, Donald McCarthy, Raymond McDonald. and Richard Trotta who teaches audio/visual at the high school.

In August of 2006, before I wrote my initial report to City Hall, information on Merrimack's Cable Television Advisory Commission was sent to the City Solicitor of Medford. That group's mission was very clear - and missing in the city of Medford:

The Merrimack Cable Television Advisory Committee works to provide and promote a medium, a method, and a facility for the greater Merrimack, N.H., community to communicate a diversity of non-commercial messages.

Purpose

The purposes of this Committee shall be:

1. To recommend policies and procedures to the Franchising Authority (in Medford the Mayor's title along these lines is "Issuing Authority" ) for the use of the public access channel;

2. To monitor the use of the public access channel and the public access center, and to make recommendations to the Franchising Authority regarding the non-appropriate use and/or non-compliance for such use by any individual or group;

3. To promote the use of the public access channel and the public access center;


In March of 2011, Mayor McGlynn states that "Cable Advisory Commission acts in a supervisory role to the local cable channels, by recommending policy changes, meeting with cable company representatives to discuss issues of mutual interest, report to the mayor on company compliance with the license, respond to citizen questions regarding the cable television system and keep the community informed about community programming."

Why it has taken so long to put this entity back in action after years and years of complaints is a big mystery. However, it seems like things are moving in a positive direction.  Medford needs a fully functional Public, Educational and Governmental TV situation.  Other cities and towns enjoy this ... Medford deserves no less.

Opinion: Make room for Medford TV station at Chevalier
on