Reference Blog: "Oasis for Sanity" There is a presumption that all government employees perform their duties in an honest and impartial manner.
Julie’s promised blockbuster was just that. In fact, it may be a blogbuster. Of the two letters from the Secretary of State’s office to Joseph Viglione, I call attention to the document, from Shawn Williams, dated Dec 20, 2013.
Some time, in late 2013, Joe apparently requested the following from Medford City Hall:
1. Meeting minutes of the non-profit Medford Community Cablevision, Inc. (MCC) from 2011, 2012 and 2013
Find out what's happening in Medfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
2. All financial records of MCC from 2011, 2012 and 2013, including the bank statements from every bank used by MCC.
When the request was denied, Joe appealed the City’s response to the State where it was reviewed by the Secretary of State’s office. The appeal was denied when the State determined that City did not have the requested records and was under no obligation to attempt to obtain them.
Find out what's happening in Medfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The important part of 20 Dec document is paragraph 3 (copied here for convenience) and in particular, the last sentence.
“In a December 11, 2013 email communication, Attorney Rumley informed Lori Sullivan, an attorney on my staff that MCC is a non-profit corporation, and that the City had no direct obligation to request the responsive records from MCC. Moreover, Attorney Rumley stated in his email to Attorney Sullivan that the only obligations that the City had regarding MCC are set forth in the written agreement between the City and MCC. The written agreement with the accompanying Article 6 Public, Educational and Governmental Access Facilities and Support document were voluntarily provided to Attorney Sullivan for review by this office. A review by this office of the Agreement and Article 6 finds that there is an absence of any rights of access by the City to the financial records that you requested.”
To paraphrase: The City has no rights to the financial records of MCC (aka TV3). Please correct me if I misinterpreted the meaning here.
From Patch bloggers to the Medford City Council, so much time was wasted chasing documents that, even if they exist, appear to be unobtainable.
Acknowledgements go to:
Julie: For for locating the documents and bringing them to our attention.
Joe: For raising this to the State level where a definitive judgment was made (and for providing exculpatory information to the "TV3 cronies").
