Divide Over Virtual Forum Stymies Medford Budget Talks

MEDFORD, MA — Budget talks were expected to begin once Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn submitted her Fiscal Year 2021 proposal to the City Council Thursday, but meetings are at a standstill after four councilors have refused to log onto Zoom. Councilors Richard Caraviello, George Scarpelli, Michael Marks and Adam Knight did not show up to scheduled hearings on Saturday and Monday, forcing a quick adjournment of both meetings.

The councilors have yet to speak publicly on the matter and did not respond to Patch requests for comment Tuesday. A resident shared screenshots of an email exchange with Knight on Facebook, citing a May 5 vote in which Knight said the Council voted to hold budget meetings non-virtually.

Knight wrote that the Council met June 16 and expressed its desire to hold budget meetings in-person, which Council President John Falco agreed with "100 percent." The next day, the virtual budget hearing schedule was published, which Knight said was "improper."

"If non-virtual hearings were not possible this should have been brought back to the members," Knight wrote. "The President in scheduling these hearings virtually acted in direct conflict of the vote by the Council."

Two resolutions pertaining to public meetings passed May 5 – one asked the council president and mayor to work with the council to develop a plan to safely hold in-person budget hearings, and the other established safety measures for in-person meetings. Critics of the four councilors say neither vote stipulated that budget meetings be held in person.

One person the holdouts have in their corner: Harold MacGilvray, president of the Medford Police Patrolman's Association. In a since-deleted post to the union's Facebook page, MacGilvray applauded the councilors who "took a stand." MacGilvray wrote that the department's budget and manpower – which would be cut by 3 percent under the 2021 proposal – has been "decimated" since the mid-2000s.

"I believe the majority of Medford supports the Medford Police and appreciates what we do day in and day out," he wrote.

"ZOOM IS NOT THE ANSWER," he continued. "Over the years, many issues have been resolved through active discussion in the City Council Chambers. If the issue is important enough... the people show up to be heard."

Mayor Lungo-Koehn weighed in on the controversy Monday, saying Medford has "adapted and persevered through an unprecedented time," logging over 500 meetings with more than 10,000 participants since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Is the current format perfect? No. Is it ideal? No. But given the alternative of having dozens, if not hundreds of Medford residents packing the Council Chamber at a time when there continues to be an ongoing threat of a resurgence, perfect cannot be the enemy of good," she wrote.

She acknowledged the drawbacks of holding meetings over Zoom – "issues with connections, with 'zoom-bombing,' and with other distractions" – but said the decision to move forward with budget talks is an "easy" one for her administration.

"If faced with the choice of meeting virtually and doing the work on behalf of the residents of Medford or not meeting, that choice is easy," she wrote. "And me and my team will keep showing up."

Lungo-Koehn urged Medford to come together and continue to display the "positive collaboration and sense of community I've seen and unity we've shown throughout this pandemic."

Another Committee of the Whole meeting on the budget is scheduled for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

Read the mayor's full statement below: