Candidate Profile: John Petrella, Medford Mayor

MEDFORD, MA — John Petrella is one of three candidates running for mayor in the Sept. 14 preliminary election, which will whittle down the field of candidates ahead of the municipal election in November. There will also be a preliminary election for School Committee.

Medford Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles over the coming weeks.

Petrella and his wife Daria live on Locust Street with their two children, John and Margaret, and their dog Wolfie. He worked in retail management for 35 years.

Are you running for office in Medford? Contact Alex Newman at alex.newman@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate profile and submitting campaign announcements to Medford Patch.

Age (as of Election Day)

66

Position Sought

Mayor

Party Affiliation

Unenrolled

Family

My wife, Daria (Belcastro), and I, along with my two children, John and Margaret, and our dog, Wolfie, live at 61 Locust Street. Daria and I raised our family in West Medford where I coached West Medford Little League and St Raphael's CYO Basketball and later we moved to North Medford.

I was born in the West End. My parents, "Yano" and Rita Petrella, moved our family to Medford when I was four. My dad's father had come to Boston from Sicily and had taught my dad and his siblings the value of hard work and perseverance which he passed on to his five children. We all grew up working in our dad's and Uncle Sammy's three businesses that they had started from scratch.

When I graduated from Medford High School, I went to work full time in the family companies. In the early 80's, when Dad and Uncle Sammy sold the businesses, I went to work assisting BJ's open their Medford store. It started a long career in retail management. At the same time, Dad retired and Uncle Sammy opened Sammy's shop on Main Street in South Medford which he operated until his death in 2017.

I attended, as did my siblings, the Hancock Elementary School, Lincoln Junior High School and Medford High School. Some might know my brother Peter, a now retired mailman, from his long time West Medford postal route.

Daria's parents, Bernie and Barbara Belcastro raised their family of six on Sagamore Ave in West Medford. Many people will remember Mr. Belcastro as the Director of Veterans Services at Medford City Hall during the 70's and 80's. Daria graduated from Medford High School and the University of New Hampshire.

My son, John, played football at MHS, where I was the Vice President of the Medford Mustang Football Club which is the booster club for the team. John went on to UNH and Lesley College. Margaret also graduated from Medford High School and has been involved in many musicals and plays in the Boston area since then. Both John and Margaret were CCD volunteers at St Raphael.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

Graduate Of Medford High School

Occupation

35 years Retail Management

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

N/A

Campaign website

johnpetrellaformedfordmayor.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

The past two years in Medford have been unusual and not just due to the pandemic. Normally, city politics is divided over the differences of who can do what better than the other political candidate. This year, the city became seriously divided due to the progressive left's interjection of national issues into our city. For instance, the Mayor and the School Committee voted to change the name of South Medford's Columbus school during the pandemic, on a zoom meeting, without citywide community input, claiming Columbus was a serial, genocidal killer. Also, a year ago in June, the Mayor and the City Council declared the city systemically racist and provided that the administration would spend time and energy to correct this. Then the Mayor criticized the police rally held on city hall steps in the summer of 2020. This past spring, the administrators and teachers in the MPS were coached to integrate the racist, anti-American Critical Race theory into the curriculum when teaching. CRT teaches our children to see everything through a lens of race and that includes teaching children that if they were born white, they were born privileged.
To make matters worse, the Mayor and several City Councilors and School Committee members took to the streets in Medford Square this July to protest the Salem Street Baptist Church lawn sign which read “He made them male and female”. Regardless of whether one believes that or not, the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution expressly forbids our government and its officials from interfering with the free exercise of one's religious beliefs. These elected officials have now exposed the city to the possibility of the Baptist Church filing a Federal Civil Rights lawsuit against Medford.

These are only a few of the actions that the Administration has taken in the last several months which should not have happened or, at least, should not have happened without community wide input which was not possible due to Covid. It is as though common sense departed city hall. But the real damage to the city is the lack of concentration on the nuts and bolts of running the city. All of our city services have suffered. I believe that due to my experience in management, which the other candidates lack, that I can help to get the city back to good running order. I will not bring national politics to the local level. I will concentrate on making sure all of our departments, including the police and school departments, are fully funded and supported at all levels. The last two mayors have hired a chief of staff. I will not. Like our first mayor under Plan A, I will be the chief of staff. I will meet with the department heads weekly and more often than that, if needed. I will visit the DPW yards and Oak Grove Cemetery on a regular basis to see why we are failing to do the jobs the residents expect. I will be a hands-on mayor to make sure the city is operating efficiently and effectively to the best use of taxpayer's dollars, a topic sorely missing in the daily discourse of our elected officials.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

I incorporated the answer to this question in the above question on why I was seeking office.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

The biggest difference between my two opponents and me is the lack of common sense at city hall. The last 18 months have been extremely difficult not just due to the pandemic but also due to tumultuous national issues. The Mayor and the City Councilor brought those national issues to Medford City Hall. Time and energy spent on these issues was time and energy not spent on the nuts and bolts of running the city.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)?

As mentioned above in the answers to two questions, I believe that by spending time on national issues, such as changing the name of the Columbus School and criticizing the Medford Police Rally, has taken the emphasis off the local issues in the city particularly to the nuts and bolts of running the city.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

With the help of state guidelines, the city performed adequately. The Mayor made many decisions based on covid that were hastily done, without a health based reason and without regard to who was being impacted and how. One of the things I would have done differently is to have allowed the Medford High Class of 2020 to have graduated at Hormel Stadium instead of canceling the graduation days before scheduled. If the Mayor, and other elected officials, can be part of a Black Lives Matter protest at Hormel only a few weeks before, then surely a milestone, such as this in a student's life, and certainly in the parent's lives, could have been accommodated. Furthermore, around the time of MHS graduation being cancelled, the Mayor allowed Arlington Catholic's planned graduation at Hormel Stadium to be cancelled, again days before the big day. As I just mentioned, if the Mayor can attend the protest rally at Hormel with hundreds of people, accommodations could certainly have been made for these very, very important events in people's lives at the same site.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

Several of the above answers have included this topic.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Having grown up in an Italian immigrant family, we were made aware of what it takes to succeed in our great country. My grandparents came here not knowing the English language nor did they have any money. Their strong work ethic, a love of family and country, and a trust in God allowed them to succeed in America. They passed these values down to their children and to us, their grandchildren. As a result of my upbringing and as a result of a life long record of hard work from the time I was a youngster in our family's businesses to the end of my 35 year career in retail management, I believe I have the grit and fortitude to succeed as the city's top manager, also known as the Plan A strong mayor.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Surround yourself with good people and Seek Up (to God)

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I never envisioned that I would after a 35 career in retail management be involved in politics. However, with national issues needlessly intruding upon city hall, I felt I must stand up and speak out. This is the greatest country on earth and we need to take part in our democracy or we are going to lose it. Ronald Reagan famously said that freedom is only one generation away. Well, that generation is us. We need to take the next right step and do the right thing. For me that is running for the office of Mayor of Medford. I hope you will join me in our fight. It is time for strong leadership, it is time for respectful representation, it is time for competent action and it is time to stop the division in this city. Thank You.