Between 2010 and 2011 the City of Medford, Massachusetts received 1.7 million dollars from cable TV subscribers. Michael J. McGlynn, entering his twenty-sixth year as Mayor of Medford, allegedly uses a "home rule petition" to take 60% of the access TV monies for his "general fund." Citizens cannot get a handle on how the other 20% of those monies designated for governmental or educational access are used. The Finance Director/Auditor Anne Baker allegedly stated to the City Council that $200,000.00 was for "cameras." When pressed on it in her office she said it was "the big machine that went along with the cameras." A high-end camera can cost 15K or so. A public record request uncovered that three individuals at the high school were having their salaries paid for by the monies designated for access television. The Mayor is the Chairman of the School Committee and has two of his daughters working the the school system, which landed on the front page of a newspaper for being a huge conflict of interest. Mayor McGlynn feigned ignorance to the ethics laws, yet he's been Mayor longer than currently anyone in Massachusetts and has lawyers and advisers who certainly are well aware of the rules. McGlynn is also the Chairman of the Mystic Valley Development Commission which lost a 4 million dollar judgment in an eminent domain case. Http://www.wickedlocal.com/medford/news/x592696072/Verdict-upheld-in-4-million-Medford-eminent-domain-case#axzz2E6lWLFwj See Mayor's official website noting that he is Chairman http://medford.org/Pages/MedfordMA_Mayor/index
This is a serious public safety issue as a member of the public was viciously assaulted at City Hall on or about April 26 by three members of the public access tv station. The Mayor was given the police report and told the victim to go to the judge. The victim brought the police report to Judge Diane Kottmyer who told the victim to have the Mayor handle it. Finally the District Attorney's office was notified and the Medford Police and the TV station, Medford Community Cablevision, Inc., signed three different agreements in mediation to stop harassing the victim. There have been over 61 violations of those agreements committed by the station since the signing on or about June 21. The Mayor of Medford is not transparent about the 1.7 million paid for by cable TV subscribers within the 2010 and 2011 period, which begs the bigger question, how many millions has the Mayor received over the past 25 years? Why are there not hard copy reports of the finances as other cities and towns offer? Some cities have a hard copy of the public access tv finances that citizens can pick up annually. This would be fair. Even more disturbing is that the Mayor's own "cable TV commission" has included a deceased person on the board since the year of the man's passing. Mayor Michael J. McGlynn uses a dead man on his cable TV commission for a reason: http://www.medford.org/Pages/MedfordMA_BCommOLD/cable the cable TV commission has no say. It is an impostor commission including two individuals who have since moved on. McGlynn doesn't utilize the cable TV commission, and he signed Amendments to the Verizon agreement on November 19 even though the City Council put forth a resolution that the Mayor delay the Amendments till after Thanksgiving and hold a public hearing. So if you want to save a homeless animal or talk about politics on local tv you will be censored. McGlynn, during the 2011 elections, had individuals running the public access TV station that demanded the copyright of a show featuring his opponent. They refused to air the program which gave the Mayor a free ride with relentless promotion running, a blatant infomercial created by Comcast, the other cable tv provider. The Mayor ran the public service announcement during an election cycle. Don't you find that interesting when Timothy Cahill is on trial in Massachusetts because Lottery advertising ran while he was running for Governor, even though Cahill's face was not featured in those ads. Why is McGlynn not on trial for running a blatant commercial during an election cycle and having the TV station inhibit not one but two of the Mayor's opponents during Election 2011. The TV station has someone offer "video services" and the politicians that pay for those services get airtime while the Mayor's two opponents were limited to maybe 15 minutes of airtime during the cycle, while the Mayor got hours and hours of airtime. We are talking about millions of dollars and clear unfairness during an election cycle for the opponents of the Mayor. The Mayor is known as the Issuing Authority in regards to cable TV issues and is the sole "oversight" over the P/E/G stations. McGlynn is nothing more than a wolf in a hen house infringing on Free Speech and First Amendment Rights with impunity. We pay for cable tv, the citizens co-own the equipment, yet the citizens (including a former vice president of the station) are censored. The former vice president has a Monday night show and they watch him like a hawk. So while the advertise "free speech" it is the exact opposite, censorship, harassment, retaliation and lawsuits if you dare speak up about the brutality exacted on citizens of Medford who want to use the access TV they pay for. Even the police seem to be afraid of Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, the police department in a building so bad off it was condemned by the City Council. There are literally rats in the wall of the police station, walled up allegedly by the electricians because they weren't licensed to remove them. What a metaphor for the city. McGlynn's brother-in-law operates public transportation in Massachusetts and he has other relatives that are very powerful. The Mayor's own cousin threatened to hurt a man five times in three different courthouses, joking in July in Superior Court that he could make it "six."
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