Melrose Cares: Open Community Dialogue




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Alderman & City Politics
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Coalition Forming for a Better Melrose

There are some community members joining with a couple of our civic leaders to call for action in returning Melrose to a more civil and decent community, where our elected and paid officials will be held accountable. The recent direct abuses of two of our elected officials--Monica Medeiros and Carrie Kourkoumelis--are a call to action. These officials have worked tirelessly and selflessly for us and now it's time for the community to step up and demand ethical, lawful, and decent treatment by all of our hired and elected officials.
With the finding of overt civil rights violations by the Federal Office of Civil Rights and the multiple instances of hate crimes noted in the media ("Kick a Ginger Day at the Middle School"), it's clear that Melrose has a large and burgeoning problem, one that is complex in nature and one that requires the community at large to step up and take responsibility. With last week's despicable attack against Ms. Medeiros by the city's chief financial officer, calling her "ignorant" and "disgusting" in a public meeting (in reply to professional, impersonal and justified questioning around a large financial request for which there had been a belligerent refusal to provide appropriate transparency), it is past time for this community to demand an end to this abuse of power, one which has been played out many times in the past six years towards Ms. Kourkoumelis on the School Committee as well. These brave representatives have fought hard for us, while the community has sat by and basically done nothing (though we have spoken via our rejection of the administration's unjustified call for a tax override and via the many blank entries on the ballots). We must do more, and soon. Despite the busy-ness of the holidays, it is incumbent on all of us who care to step up immediately. There is power in numbers, and it's high time that we join together and demand decency, transparency, accountability, ethical and lawful conduct from our officials.

Look for organizing materials in the near future. Happy Holidays! Let's hope for a better Melrose in 2016!