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10:25 am July 25
______________________________
Kaitlin Maher Paralegal,
Division of Open Government
Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General
One Ashburton Place, 20th Floor
Boston, MA 02108
Boston, MA 02108
Dear Ms. Maher,
The response from Medford City Hall I find deficient.
Members of the school committee and the city council had no clue that there was any such committee. The high school has had multiple names for the committee, the so-called Medford Chapter 74 Advisory Committee for Vocational Education only came to light after my investigation when Superintendent Roy E. Belson and Mayor Stephanie Muccini-Burke decided to use the alleged PUBLIC (caps mine) access Television for the Vocational Education on or about June 14, 2017, where I met three members who told me they were on the Cable Advisory Committee.
Very important as the ONLY time we were informed, voila, that the Radio / Television Advisory Committee or the Cable Advisory Committee instantly turned into a Chapter 74 Advisory Committee (was in response to my public records request.)
The problem here is that in the newspapers and at the school committee and city council the Mayor and Mr. Belson have kept pushing their pom poms saying it was a PUBLIC access station they were building (as I was involved, with others, in saving the city $600k or so in public access monies that had nothing to do with Educational or Governmental access TV monies.) Belson and Muccini-Burke have so muddied the waters between tossing about sixty percent of the money into the invisible "General Fund," twenty-percent to pay teachers Lisa Dunphy, Jack Dempsey and Allison Goldsberry (allegedly robbing Peter to pay - not Paul - but Lisa, Allison and Jack!) - monies I believe are due the government channel, and now hijacking the 600k or so that I helped save the city when we shut down TV3 (now hang on to your seat belt on this one) - the now frozen Medford Community Cablevision, Inc. which can't tell the city about the missing 38k (which I believe is - allegedly - a hell of a lot more than that; use of "hell" to make a point about the intentional negligence of City Solicitor Mark E. Rumley, leading the investigation though he was on the board of directors of that company - a complete conflict of interest in my eyes,) only to have Rumley throw the hot potato to the AG's office, where it has languished for years.
The bottom line is this: the phony "Chapter 74" was done, as Muccini-Burke likes to do things, in the dark of night, no postings about a public meeting, elected officials on the school committee and on the city council not even aware of a committee, the public be damned.
The mission: shut down access TV so that there is no criticism of the highly unpopular Belson (see the two petitions - one where even the diversity director, along with upset parents, wanted Belson ousted) - and no criticism of the Mayor. Reportedly, embattled Belson had school committee person Paulette Van der Kloot (my name for her is "the stealth bomber") twisting arms to get 7 votes to keep the unwanted Belson as superintendent. Two committee people, smartly, voted against Belson. We're stuck with this individual who refuses to publish open meetings in an appropriate fashion and - get this - who gave me a tour of the facility in November of 2016 but failed to mention he had a committee.
Roy Belson and the Mayor, Stephanie Muccini-Burke, maliciously and intentionally violated the sacred Open Meeting Law to keep the public uninformed on how they were spending public access monies on the Vocational/Technical school AND the government channel.
The monies that I saved this city have been dispersed in an unethical, underhanded and very hush hush way.
It is beyond creepy. The City Solicitor will praise himself at the council ("I'm the city solicitor and I demand respect" - what a jerk! In public and screaming like a 5 year old who lost his pail and shovel) meanwhile Mr. Rumley will smear, denigrate and assassinate from the witness stand in court (my simple objection had the Solicitor removed on 9/1/16 in Somerville Court, which Rumley will deny and shade the truth to try to color his humiliation. These individuals have more ego than brains, and they do not have the best interest of the city in mind. But who are you going to believe? A respected judge, or a city that blatantly engages in deceptive business practices and will throw mud and rocks at the residents paying the freight.)
These aren't just bad people, Ms. Maher, they are very bad people who abuse the offices of city government for their own personal gain. The roads are broken, water and sewer has millions of dollars with no repairs that the public can see on either the water or the sewer, and a school superintendent so lacking in ethics that he sends a letter to many people naming me "Mr. Piglione" for my investigations into his wrongful conduct. Then Belson tells a new hire that I think that Mr. Belson hides sexual predators at the high school. THINK? When a Mark Smith gets his pension and the news media tells of harrowing "missteps" it is clear that Belson is a danger to the children of Medford given his negligence in regards to alerting the parents to a female alleged sexual predator or to bomb threats. But who are you going to believe? Belson or the news media.
These are not very nice people and the big question is: why did they not post the meetings in the sunlight and why did it take me going to the Vocational / Technical school to alert the school committee and city council that there was a board / commission that no one knew about?
They failed to post the public meetings or let us even know that there was a commission. Now they dust it up and give it a new fancy name that I had not heard of ....
They must face legal consequences for their secretive way of doing business with so much public money and no oversight. Mayor Burke is the "issuing authority" and she is derelict in her obligations to the cable TV subscribers. Mayor Burke cannot articulate, her voice is like broken glass on a chalkboard, so if she lets the public speak intelligently, she has a good chance of losing the election.
They have motive, means and opportunity. The government must sanction Belson, Muccini-Burke and Rumley for these deceptions. These people have "broken the spirit of access (TV)" I am quoting Muccini Burke from when she was on the city council and when we were on the same side.
Sad how the moment she became mayor she became every bit as ugly as the people she was screaming about as a city councilor. What a hypocrite.
Sanction them.
Thank you.
Joe Viglione
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 1:23 PM
Subject: Re: Open Meeting Law Complaint
Dear Ms. Maher:
Attached is a copy of the Response of the City to Mr. Viglione’s Open Meeting Law Complaint.
Mark Rumley
City Solicitor
Law Department
Medford City Hall
12:20 pm 7-24-17
Subject: Open Meeting Law Complaint
Mr. Viglione,
Please find attached a letter pertaining to the Open Meeting Law complaint you filed with the Medford Chapter 74 Advisory Committee for Advisory Education.
Sincerely,
Kadie
Kaitlin Maher
Paralegal, Division of Open Government