City Council Rejects No Confidence Vote Against Mayor McGlynn

The Medford City Council rejected a resolution on Tuesday that called for a vote of no confidence against Mayor Michael McGlynn.

By a vote of 5-2 the council turned down the resolution, with Michael Marks and Robert Penta being the only two supporting it.

The councilors who voted against it called the resolution disturbing and extreme. Some pressured Marks and Penta to withdraw the call for a vote, but they both stood by it.

A vote of no confidence against the mayor would have been largely symbolic, and would not have changed McGlynn's duties or day-to-day work requirements.

Marks said the lack of communication from the Mayor to the city council as a whole had gone too far, and he wanted the vote to serve as a "shot across the bow" to local government.

"It is vital for the administration and the council to communicate and pull together," Marks said.

Penta listed off a myriad of topics the City Council has passed resolutions on, but had not heard back from the Mayor. They ranged from street lighting to the new trash and recycling program to renovations of city facilities.

Penta said it reached the boiling point for him when he learned the Mayor planned to continue forward with plans for a parking garage on Governor's Avenue, even though the council voted that parking enforcement plans be made before garage plans are considered.

"This should not continue to be a one-way operation," he said.

Councilor Stephanie Burke said she had long been frustrated with a lack of timely responses to resolutions and lack of regular municipal budget projections.

"We, collectively, we cannot remain in this quagmire we are in now," she said.

Still, Burke called for Penta and Marks to withdraw the resolution "in the spirit of the season and the season of good faith," she said.

Councilor Frederick Dello Russo also requested the resolution be withdrawn.

"I think this resolution is exteme," Dello Russo said. "I hope it would be removed."

Councilor Paul Camuso said he was disturbed when he read the resolution on the meeting agenda. It should be up to the voters to decide whether they have confidence in the mayor, he said.

"As far as I'm concerned to even put this on the agenda is challenging the will of the people of Medford," Camuso said.

Although the mayor rarely attends city council meetings, he always makes himself available, Camuso said.

"As one city councilor, the mayor is responsive," he said. "At least to me."

The resolution read, "Be it resolved that after much consideration reviewing the many unresolved and failure to respond to issues and facts requested by this Council of Mayor McGlynn that have been discussed week after week for months, a vote of no confidence against Mayor McGlynn be made at this time."

Robert Maiocco, Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Camuso, Dello Russo and Burke voted against the resolution, and Marks and Penta voted for it. McGlynn has been Medford's mayor since 1987 and is the commonwealth's longest-serving mayor.