It's All About Trust

For me, the upcoming election for mayor and numerous city council positions is all about trust. My observation over the years is that the Melrose government and political scene have been characterized by a lack of transparency, a lack of accountability, a lack of financial planning, and arrogance in decision-making.

Nearly 20 years ago, our "leaders" thought is was a good idea to circumvent sound contracting practices and laws to embark on a project involving major alterations to Mount Hood using poor quality materials from the Big Dig and other sources. The state Inspector General audited the situation and in 2002 issued a report critical of the city's procurement, management, and financial practices for the project.

Over the past 15 years our “leaders” have neglected the city’s water, wastewater, and public safety infrastructure to the point where police and fire stations are unsafe and raw sewage is flooding homes. In many cases, due to a complete lack of planning, maintenance of these facilities is no longer an option and complete replacement is necessary.

We had teacher contracts negotiated in 2013 and 2016 that were lavishly praised by our "leaders" who were involved in negotiating them, then later criticized by many of the same people as inadequate, in order to help justify the 2019 override.

In 2014 through 2016 our "leaders" spent significant sums of money defending the school department against federal investigations of civil rights violations in the school district. The details of this incident and related expenditures were kept from the public.

In 2017 our "leaders" spent $6 million for modular classrooms to address overcrowding in certain schools only to tell us this solution was inadequate, in order to help justify the 2019 override.

In 2017 our "leaders" prepared a master plan for the city but decided not to implement it, instead relegating it to the dust bin at city hall. Only after passage of the override has the plan been resurrected, presumably to justify the need for more tax increases to address needs that are much harder to dispute (e.g., water, wastewater, and public safety infrastructure).

Also in 2017, one of our mayoral candidates joined with his colleagues in the state legislature to vote him and them significant pay raises behind closed doors and with virtually no public involvement. They even designed the legislation to be exempt from the public’s vote by including raises for judges.

In 2019 our "leaders" rammed through an override based largely on fear mongering and misleading information. Unless I'm mistaken, every candidate now running for office in November (with one exception) supported this opaque override campaign.

In 2019, our "leaders" (with a few exceptions) failed to protect our citizens during and after the fiasco on Brazil Street. They even went so far as to declare contaminant infested homes as fit for habitation by children, without screening for pollutants. Subsequent environmental sampling, paid for by a local crowd funding effort, detected several dangerous pollutants including e coli and coliform.

In 2019, our "leaders" hired a new METCO director at the high school, essentially ignoring the input of the families most effected by the decision. Our "leaders" defended their actions by stating that they followed a "set process." Perhaps the process, which ignores key constituents, needs to be improved.

In summary, I don't trust the same old cast of characters to do what's best for the city moving forward. We need change. We need honesty. We need accountability.

I will be voting for Monica Medeiros for mayor because I trust her.

I will be voting for Maya Jamaleddine, Jack Eccles, Chris Cinella, and Cory Thomas for councilor positions because I trust them and because they bring diversity and skill sets that will be needed to address the many challenges that lie ahead.