City Finance Director Alleges Hostile Work Environment: Patch PM

It's Friday, June 25. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Medford's CFO, a Black woman, alleges the mayor told her a white man should present the budget to the City Council instead of her "since they will listen to a white male."
• Is "trigger warning" triggering? Brandeis seems to think so.
• A sergeant is suing his police department after having to endure what he said was discrimination and racist acts.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's top story

Medford's chief financial officer is accusing the mayor's administration of creating a "hostile and toxic" work environment following a comment she says Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn made during a June 1 meeting.

Aleesha Nunley Benjamin, who also serves as Medford's auditor and financial director, alleges Lungo-Koehn told her "a white male should present the budget to the City Council instead of [Ms. Nunley Benjamin] since they will listen to a white male," according to a cease and desist order sent by former city solicitor Mark Rumley on Nunley Benjamin's behalf.

"Recently, certain personnel allegations have come to our attention," a spokesperson for the city wrote in an email to Patch. "While the mayor strongly refutes several of the quotes, facts, and characterizations included in the complaint brought forth, she takes every complaint seriously and we look into them appropriately and thoroughly."

The city solicitor has enlisted an independent third party to conduct an investigation.

Read the full story

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Wednesday's Other Top Stories

Is 'trigger warning triggering? A new rule of thumb at Brandeis University is to rethink using the phrase "rule of thumb" and say something more like "as a general rule." That's according to a list of "potentially oppressive language" collected by the school's Prevention, Advocacy and Resource Center and posted online recently. The list that's garnered nationa attention is part of mostly student-led anti-Blackness response program.

Sergeant sues department: A police sergeant is suing the Sharon Police Department for what he is saying was discrimination and acts of racism against him. First reported by The Patriot Ledger, Sharon Police Sgt. Brian Mannetta, who is of Chinese and Ecuadorean descent, is claiming that his superiors ignored or brushed off his complaints about a colleague who made racist comments to him. The lawsuit Mannetta filed claims that Lieutenant Jeff Penders started the comments during roll calls, asking if he had the Chinese Bird Flu after he coughed, harassed Mannetta with sounds from an "oriental riff song," and asked, "Cats – you people eat those things, don't you?"

Sudbury dealt blow: For the second time in nine months, the state Supreme Court has ruled against Sudbury in a legal battle over an Eversource project that would bury power lines under a former rail line that runs across the town. On Friday, the Supreme Judicial Court upheld a December 2019 Energy Facilities Siting Board decision granting Eversource permission to build an underground transmission line from a substation in Sudbury to one in Hudson. The power lines would run through Sudbury along a 4.3-mile former MBTA corridor. The state Department of Conservation and Recreation wants to pave the corridor for use as a portion of the Mass Central Rail Trail.

Picture this

Gillette Stadium's own version of Jurassic Park returned to Gillette Stadium Friday, except these dinosaurs won't try to eat the researchers — or anyone else. Stadium officials teamed up with Jurassic Quest to open an interactive drive-thru exhibit where guests can simulate prehistoric life with more than 70 moving and roaring animatronic dinosaurs and other creatures from the time period.

They said it

"Do you think Congress should investigate?"

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton on Twitter regarding the Britney Spears consveratorship saga.