1:26 am - 2:13 am...It's time for Attorney Lungo-Koehn to IMPROVE MEDFORD or face a CLASS ACTION SUIT

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HARMONY leads to Unity, TRANSPARENCY leads to HARMONY

a JV essay

Medford can get on the right track with all issues - handling Covid-19, upgrading the school system, improving efficiency at city hall, bringing true harmony into the community.

Breanna Lungo-Koehn has an obligation, and an oath, to heal the polarized world created by the previous two administrations. Renewing Medford is about renewing the spirit of Medford. 

Grading the city council and school committee on that efficiency noted above - by planning and organization - is the breeding ground for the unity Breanna promised. You see, when citizens are kept in the dark, that unification process is eradicated and the "public trust" dissolves.  If you are going to promise Transparency (with a capital T) and integrity then utilize the mayor's office to bring some sunlight to the operation of city government.

If I sound like a broken record, well, I am a record producer, and was business partner of one of the greatest rock and roll producers of all time, relocating the legend into Medford back in the 1980s.  Listen to "Gimme Shelter" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" to hear the work of the fellow I worked with.  Breanna ran on hiring those with the talent and experience, yet the most qualified people in Medford have yet to be hired.

There is still time for Breanna to make good on her promises and rebuild Medford after decades and decades of autocratic rule.

Rewarding those who made remarkable changes in our city, and who did so because it was the right thing to do, should supersede political favors. That means a changing of the guard over at the Park Commission in the position of Foreman.  That means a devoted television producer at the access television station who has vast experience with Medford's cable activities past, present and future.  That means a Chief of Staff that the citizens know, trust and can work with.

Fill those three positions with smart, capable, passionate people, and Adam Knight won't be able to perpetuate his "One Term Mayor" myth with his stumbling over simple words at the city council.  To earn thirty-thousand plus a year should be an honor that makes a city councilor go beyond the call of duty, and a mayor under Plan A government should fine an Adam Knight when he tears paper up in the microphone so a female army veteran doesn't get harassed by some bored juvenile delinquent who should know better.   Mayor Lungo-Koehn should fine and remove a Rick Caraviello for lying to the police. Neil "paper shuffle" Osborne sure in hell isn't going to do it.  

And, by the way: it doesn't have to be a perfect world to make these adjustments, just a sane one.

We MUST do better than George Scarpelli and Zac Bears and Rick Caraviello.  Replace them with Erin DiBenedetto, Jean Nuzzo and Natalie Breen and Breanna suddenly has HER city council, not the council McGlynn built for Stephanie Muccini-Burke. 

McGlynn would do this in a heartbeat.  Just ask Jay Griffin.  And if you don't know your Medford history why are you being paid to be on the school committee and  city council?    McGlynn was a bully who got what he wanted.  Breanna Lungo-Koehn should employ a different approach: make Adam Knight, Caraviello, Scarpelli and Bears an offer that they can't refuse - make being a city councilor a VOLUNTEER position.  Ask the town of Wakefield how that allegedly works out for them.

Lower taxes and less self-importance.   Take away the paycheck and watch Scarpelli, Knight, Bears and Caraviello, LLC vanish into the fog.  Let Isaac Bears go back to playing video games in mommy and daddy's basement so that we adults can take charge and bring some harmony and efficiency to Medford.  Seventy Thousand Dollars to Patrick Gordon, really? when he is better suited to wiring Zac's bunker where they can both play Ms. Pac Man to their heart's content.  Or is it hearts' content?  Who cares, just get rid of them and let Medford start to heal.   The private government access station that Mark Rumley lusted for is the current reality, and that hurts Medford.  It is what dictators want and relish: no transparency, no free speech, a clear violation of the oath of office of a city lawyer, a mayor, a city councilor, a school committee person, etc. etc. etc.

The Paul Ruseau convicted felon and ex convict problem has to be addressed.  Here's a little ad "vice," Breanna. The term vice chair shouldn't have to include the dictionary definition of the word "vice" when it comes to the school kids.  Not after the previous superintendent joked to me that he was "hiding sexual predators" in the school system.   After M.S. and Jenna Tarabelsi and allegations against D.G. the joke was on old Roy as he was, clearly, hiding them in plain sight.  That "transparency" you keep promising us, Breanna, your friend Roy delivered, though not in the way that was healthy or good for Medford.

 

This all starts with a strategy for the access television station.  Let the qualified people build an access station of the future, not dependent upon cable subscriber franchise fees but a true community station.   This veteran of access TV with his first show in 1979 knows how to do effective outreach, knows how to bring in hundreds of members while simultaneously fostering programming and promoting those shows properly.    Instead our Mayor has a lazy, ineffective young man with no love for Medford and no vision for the city.   Yet Breanna Lungo-Koehn offered so much more.

We elders have the knowledge that the mayor should tap into.  Breanna knows how good I am in a court of law...and that I'm also smart enough to let a good team of lawyers lead the way.  What I'm thinking is that we need to get people together for a Class Action Suit to wake up the behemoth that is those Medford residents fast asleep and apathetic.   Breanna, being a lawyer, knows that this is one way for the people to have their say, listing ALL the issues in legal documents that will go on the public record. 

Medford United isn't very.  Our Revolution or the Medford Revolution or whatever they are calling it this week divides the community.   Mobilize Medford is just another bit of evidence that Medford is polarized and fractured.   If you need Anna Maria Cugno to pick you up in her Mercedes, park in a fire lane to pick up the coffee, and drive you to her house in order to "unite" Medford, then you're crazier than I am.

Me?  I've been called crazy as a fox.  I'll take the compliment AND help you get elected to another term, Breanna,

but you have to wake up, smell the coffee, stop auditioning for Walt Disney's reboot of the Polyanna series, and start acting in a professional manner.

From what I'm hearing there are a LOT of disgruntled people who got you elected.

Be honest about your campaign promises.   I'll build you an access station that will be the envy of every community in Massachusetts, and you, of all people, know that I can do it with my eyes closed.   It's why God put me on this planet.

Do you really want a second term?    Are you serious about that integrity, transparency and unity that you sold us?

Your actions are what will damn you or propel you back into the corner office.

The choice is yours.  I'm just the messenger, twice your age, and with a wealth of life experience.

Joe Viglione