[John Petrella]: Hello, everyone, and welcome to your show, Method Happenings, a show far and about the city of Medford, and I am John Petrella. And the purpose of our program is to give Method citizens facts and information to help you make informed choices to discover city services or businesses that you may not have been aware of. And we got a special guest today. Our guest is Matt McLaughlin, who is a candidate for the second Middlesex District State Senator. Matt, thank you for joining us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for having me, John.
[John Petrella]: It's a pleasure to have you here. So we're just going to get right into this, Matt, okay? We're just going to go right into questions. So if you can, just tell us a little bit about yourself. Who is Matt McLaughlin? People want to know, who is Matt McLaughlin?
[SPEAKER_01]: Medford, I am Matt McLaughlin and I'm your cousin from Somerville. That's where I grew up, born and raised, fourth generation family there. Grew up in this community, care very deeply about this community. I grew up in a working class home, both my parents were custodians. My father passed away when I was young, one out of five children, so I was kind of the adult family member. At a very young age, learned leadership that way from just having to take care of my family. We were fortunate to have my grandmother's house. She bought her house in the 1950s for $12,000, working at the Hostess Cupcake Factory. It was a union job. She took care of her three children on her own. And she was generous enough to let the five of us and my mother live in her home. And I really don't know where my family would be if she didn't let us live in that home. I don't exaggerate to think that my family, we could be dead, we'd be in prison, we'd be doing things that we ended up not doing because we had a home. And that's why it's very important to me. The core tenet of my belief system is having a home for people. That's what my campaign is really about, is affordability, the ability to afford to dream in Massachusetts. And that's the number one thing for me, is making sure people have a home, because I know that it kept my family together, and it keeps families together. And I see that as the greatest struggle for working families in Massachusetts. Yeah, so I grew up here, you know, a lot of people got addicted to drugs in my community. They got into crime, violence. I had a very close friend of mine murdered right around the corner from my house, 16 years old. When I was, I joined the army in 2003 to escape a lot of these problems, served two tours in Iraq. And while I was gone, my friend was murdered and I saw this drug epidemic taking over. And I made a commitment to myself while deployed that I was going to come home and serve my community. I came home in 2008, started organizing the community years before I ever even thought about running for office. I was organizing people, having vigils, trying to get local hire for young people in the community, all sorts of things to just represent the neighborhood. And in 2013, I was able to run for office where I won the city council seat board of Alderman at the time. And I've been doing it ever since. I've done a lot in between there. But yeah, affordability has been my issue for 20 plus years. Politicians are talking about it now like it's a new thing. But I've been committed to it. It's a catchphrase now. Everyone's like the affordability candidate. But I've been doing it for 20 plus years. I've seen this happening since the 90s. And it's been my commitment to the community to make sure people can afford to live around here.
[John Petrella]: That's a great story. And I got to tell you, there's a lot of similar stories when I grew up, too. I grew up in Method, but my father had a business in Somerville. So it's a great story. Thank you for that. And also, thank you for your service. Thank you both in the military and on the council. I love it when people serve their communities, whatever they're doing. It's it's always nice. And that's a great story. So. Let's get into, since we brought up, you know, affordability and things. You know, with housing and the cost of living continuing to price work and families out of Massachusetts, you know, are there any specific state-level policies or, you know, programs you see that you would champion to lower costs? Is there anything going on now? I mean, how do you feel about that?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is there, really? I really believe there's a hundred ways to solve this problem, and one of the issues we have is everyone wants to do things their way. And I'm open to all options. Sometimes, you know, some people want to build housing, other people want to do tenant protections. I think we need both of those things, and we need to be working with each other. That's the obstacle I see right now, is that everybody wants to take their angle. but they won't acknowledge that someone else might have a good idea too. So I'm open to all options. A few things I've done in Somerville, as a city councillor, where I was the chair of the Land Use Committee for many years, I introduced the triple-decker ordinance that people know, which allows the three-family housing throughout the city of Somerville. A lot of people are familiar with the triple-decker. It's a form of housing that's unique to New England. You can't find it anywhere else. And it's illegal across the state. You can't build a three-family house anywhere except for Somerville and Cambridge. Yeah, well, because it's not allowed as of right, so you have to get a zone impairment, you have to get a variance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't aware of that. Most people don't know. No, they don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a hundred years ago, there was anti-immigrant, anti-working class backlash against the three-family house in particular, the triple-decker. You're old enough to remember the West End.
[John Petrella]: Listen, the West End, as a matter of fact, we were there. We got tossed out of there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly. So that was all triple deckers. That was a working class community. And people said it was a blighted community. I tore it down to build high rises. So yeah, so 100 years ago, they outlawed it. But you can find this building type anywhere. And I would like to allow that to happen again, allow the three family house which built the working class allows working class families to survive here. So that's just one thing alone. Let the house that exists, exist. And also change the building code to make it cheaper and easier to build that housing. Right now there's a difference in the state building code between building a two-family house and a three-family house. It's significantly more expensive to build a three-family house because it's considered urban residential. as opposed to neighborhood residential. If you change that number from two to three, you drop tens of thousands of dollars off the building price, which would reduce the cost. And then one other thing we've done in Somerville, which was affordable housing overlay, which would allow affordable housing to be built. Lots of times in my early activism in Somerville, I saw a lot of affordable housing developments get stopped. because they were short two parking spots, or the building was a floor too tall, and someone would sue and stall the project for years. And that adds to the cost. It's actually more expensive to build truly affordable housing than it is market rate housing. So I'd like to make it easier to do that. Those are just two things we've done, but it really is, there's so many different ways we could attack this, and we just need to get it done.
[John Petrella]: So when I grew up, I mean, you know, we used to go to Revea. A lot of my relatives, when we got thrown out of the West End, went to Beachmont, Medford, Somerville. Somerville had plenty of three-deckers. All my friends are in three-deckers.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're everywhere.
[John Petrella]: Yeah, I mean, I had no idea that they were outlawed.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wrote a paper about it for school actually. I also should add I graduated from Tufts University on the GI Bill and I just recently got my master's at Harvard. I'm the first in my family in four generations to go to college so I'm very proud of that. But I did a paper on the triple-decker and I learned so the triple-decker house was built by French Canadians, my ancestors, came here they were boat builders and they made the three-family house. And it was made, it was seen as a path forward for the working class. Poor people working in factories could buy this house, they could have either three generations of their family living in that house, or they can rent out two floors to subsidize their own income. But it was a way for people to move out of poverty. And then it became seen as a blight to people, and they outlawed it, and now you can sell a triple-decker for like a million dollars a floor. So everything's come full circle now.
[John Petrella]: I mean we grew up it was my my grandfather owned the building and it was actually four four stories yeah building beautiful oh really so it was all family I lived in one of the few four-story four-deckers in Somerville huh yeah which is now 100% affordable housing yes because I advocated for that yeah yeah but it was all you know my grandfather lived with us aunts uncles all the cousins whatever it was all fair it was nice it was a nice way to grow up
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, something worth noting on that, too, because I discovered this recently. So my grandmother just turned 99 years old. Wow. She's the reason we're still in the city at all, if not alive. One of the things I learned, there was a study recently that studied people who make it to 100 years old. I knew England and one of the common themes they found was three family housing because there was always a family member there. So my mother, my grandmother still lives in that house with my mother, my brother and his wife and kid because they can't afford to live anywhere else. But they all stick together and they're able to look after my grandmother. She doesn't need home nursing. She's not in a home. She gets to stay where she wants to stay.
[John Petrella]: see now in my opinion, my opinion, which I don't give too often, that's a good situation sometimes. It really is to have family and you take care of each other. That's what I grew up with.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's what makes us unique and it also is like it's important to have family for everybody. Yes. And that's why it's so important to me.
[John Petrella]: A lot of that's missing today. That's all I'll say. All right. So, good answer. I appreciate that. And I, for one, learned something. I'm sure a lot of people learned something from that answer. So, you know, what is your position on the proposed, you know, TARPA legislation, you know, the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act? I know, is it still in the bill? It's out? I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I heard today that it's the tenant opportunity to purchase, which is also known as right of first refusal, which would basically allow, if a building is being sold, that the tenant living there would have the first option to buy. So I support that because it's one of the many hundred things we could do to help people stay where they want to stay. I'm not surprised in the least that it was taken out of the bill. Because the city of Somerville, we introduced tenant right of first refusal probably a decade ago by a homeowner petition. Went to the state house, nothing's happened with it. And when I saw that it was being reintroduced this year and it was being used as like, hey, we're gonna do this, I was like, that's not happening. I just know it's not gonna happen because we've been down this road so many times. And what frustrates me, what I said earlier about everyone wants to focus on their one thing. And it's like, that is one good thing that has repeatedly failed. And what more are we going to do? Can we do something else? Can we adapt and figure out like, what can we get out of the same legislation? I've really come to the conclusion when it comes to affordable housing, that sometimes like people submit these things knowing that they'll fail. And then they throw their hands up and say, what can you do? You know, the state legislature just won't get out of the way. And it's like, but there's a lot of things we can do, like the accessory dwelling units, that passed at the state level. So that's something that they were able to get through because there was a consensus around it. So I support the right to purchase, tenant opportunity to purchase, because even myself, like when a house has been sold, It would be nice for the tenant to be able to stay there. Right. Most tenants are not going to be able to afford the house that they're renting out of. Right. Otherwise they'd already be owning their home.
[Unidentified]: That's correct.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like, so I felt like I saw it coming and I was like, heard people talking about it. I'm like, this isn't happening, but what can happen?
[John Petrella]: Yeah. I mean, I haven't read too many bills lately. I used to though, believe it or not. I was very into it. And it just seems like, You know, I always use the term negotiate. No one wants to negotiate. It's like this side and this side and that's it. There's like no middle ground anymore. I mean, there was a lot of good things that used to happen because whatever different opinions, but they all managed to give a little, take a little, and things got done. It just doesn't seem to... Everything seems like a stalemate up there now, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think that, you know, you have to fight for what you believe in, too. And I do believe in something like that, and I would fight for it. But you also, I'm about getting wins for the community, and it's not good enough for me to submit legislation knowing that it's going nowhere, and then say, well, what can you do? It's like, we have to do something, so what more can we do?
[John Petrella]: Yeah, exactly. Okay, so let's get to the next question now, you know, how will your specific background And it's a good one Enable you. I mean you got a lot of communities in your district. Yeah, so You know, how do you connect with all the different people yeah, I mean I find that you know interesting like what's how do you connect and
[SPEAKER_01]: How do I connect with the voters?
[John Petrella]: Yeah, with all the different, I mean.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the first thing I'd say, first of all, I love Medford. I've grown up here. You know, I played football and wrestling, basketball against Medford for years. I have many friends. I, in Medford, grew up with people in this community. I go to the Middlesex Fells all the time. I'm always in the neighborhood. So And I feel like Medford is really, a lot of Medford that I love is what Somerville used to be. And I see what's happened in Somerville, like Cambridge got gentrified and then Somerville did. And now I see that wave coming to Medford and I want to protect Medford because I like how, you know, this community is. So I care about, you know, it's not just about borders to me. It's about, you know, human life and making sure that people can actually afford to do what they want in life. So I think I gel well with that. I've knocked the entire district of Medford, including the whole Senate district. And I just hear the common stories over and over again, like the cost of living, the ability to stay where you want to stay. And I hear that in Medford all the time. I've heard it in Winchester. Like I was told by many people, several people, that, you know, Winchester is really rich. They're not going to care about this story. They don't care about affordability. And one of the first doors I knocked on was a woman who told me that she can't afford to live in the city that she grew up in. Her son is looking out of state because he can't afford to live here. He's graduating from college. He's done everything that's expected of him to succeed in life, and he can't afford to live in the state.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a huge problem now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then even in Cambridge, I hear that from a lot of longtime residents who the cost of living is just too high. So the more I talk to people, It's sad how validating it is that the common themes are everywhere about people's cost of living and I think it's affecting a lot of people like Winchester again. 30% of Winchester residents say they're cost burdened. So what does that mean for Medford and Somerville? It's like people are living, are paying more to live than they can. And that means not saving, it means not having a family, it's not contributing to the economy. It's just constantly struggle just to make basic ends meet. So I think that, I hope that message resonates with Medford residents because I know it's resonating with some of our residents for many years.
[John Petrella]: I hear that message all the time and I unfortunately know, had some good friends that, I mean some of them didn't move out of state but they moved far enough away so they're living very comfortably, put it that way. They're retired, they're my age. They didn't want to, but they did. I mean, they're doing well. And I know other people that have actually, you know, they had a small house here, whatever, they sold their property and they went somewhere else because they were, I don't know what the term is, you know, they got the house, but they're poor, put it that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, house poor, they are house rich and cash poor. And that's a lot of people. And it's not just renters either, it's homeowners as well.
[John Petrella]: No, no, I know some, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's a lot of people struggling, I would say, too. Another affinity I have for Medford is I know so many Somerville people who live here now because they can't afford to live in Somerville. So a couple stats that interested me when this race first opened up is one out of three Massachusetts residents think about leaving the state completely. And 30,000 people did last year. They chose to leave because they couldn't afford it. And a lot of those people are young people. They have a job. They have an education. They don't see a future here. They don't see having a home or having a family here. And that not only affects me personally, because it just bothers me as a human being, but it affects our economy. It affects our voting base. We lose a congressional representative every 10 years. And those votes are going to Florida, Texas, New Hampshire. Yeah, they're going everywhere else.
[John Petrella]: I don't know if you went to Carolina, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly. So our votes are leaving. And that means less political power at the federal level as well. And then it's also we're losing very bright, educated people who want to contribute to society.
[John Petrella]: I know a lot of people from Somerville. I had a lot of relatives in Somerville that did... I don't want to say they got... Oh, they did. They got kicked out, basically. But they came here, and now it's the same thing. Because now they feel like they're gonna get kicked out of here, too, because of what's going on. I mean, the last five or six years of Method, it's been difficult for a lot of people. Costs are just, whoa. Yeah, a combination of everything. All right, so let's get on to the next question. Many Massachusetts communities really do need to increase their revenue. Are there any state programs that you initiate or support to generate I mean, we need business development. We definitely need a little bit of increased commercial streams for some of these cities. I mean, what do you think? I mean, is there anything you can think of?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think there's a few things. So the first thing I'd say as far as generating business, new business into a community, is to focus on the things that people want still. Even though it's businesses, like what do people want? What's going to drive people to come here? And those driving factors are transportation, that's a big part, public transportation, the ability to get somewhere, and making it a cool place to be. I remember. We had to pay for that. And we weren't supposed to pay for that, but we had to. And we did it because we knew that having that train line is going to bring people into work. And that's worked out. Assembly, I forget how much we paid for that. We weren't supposed to pay for that either, but we did. And it has paid off. So I'm actually I go to assembly squares in my neighborhood. I should have mentioned. I'm a ward one City Councilor as well in Somerville, right? And I see people going through that train station every single day and tens of that's the second highest Use train station after Davis Square in Somerville. So that brings business people the businesses want to come there we just got a biomed company in a time when I A lot of biomed retail, the office spaces are shuttered. There's shrinkage in the market right now. We got a huge biomed company to come to assembly and it's because we have the train line and we have a place where people want to live. So I think that's a huge part of it is just making, provide for the people here right now and people are going to want to come here. And then the other thing that we've done in Somerville, we have offered tax incentives to draw business to us. And that's something that happened in Union Square. We've also used that to finance the train itself. So we had a TIF as it's known, Tax Incremental Financing, which allows business, it's like a special tax on business, in order to pay for the utilities. But it's a deal for them and it's a deal for us, and it helps pay for things in the long run.
[John Petrella]: It's called creativity. Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's being creative. It's being flexible. I think you have to be willing to work with people in order to get what you need. And I'm not taking credit for any of these things, by the way. This is something we've done on a city level that I've learned has worked. And we could do that at a state level.
[John Petrella]: I mean, assembly is something that I look at, and to me, it's the perfect place for it. It was developed the right way. The businesses are all successful. The things they do, there's a lot of activity down there for everybody, not just for adults. I mean, they really did an incredible job down there. And you got a variety of places to go to, restaurants, stores, it's everything. But it's in the right area, too. I mean, it's perfect, in my opinion.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, you remember what it was before. Yes, I do. Model T was built there. Yes, yeah. And before that, in my time, it was just, it was Good Time Billiards. We had a great time at Good Times.
[John Petrella]: Right, I remember the Good Time Billiards.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was a strip mall. And when they were trying to build out assembly, if you recall, there was a big push to have like an IKEA there, to have box retail.
[John Petrella]: Yes, I remember all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there were residents who actually fought that and why Bill White a city councilor Did a great job fighting to have a train line there because he said this isn't gonna work without a train line Yeah, no, we managed to get that train line there and then we also managed to build housing as well that's the other thing that comes with this is people who work there are going to have to live somewhere. And people want to live close to where they work. So we have a great mix of like, you know, you've got the Partners Building there. You've got everything, yeah. Mass General, Mass General. We've got a biomed company. We're building business with housing. And it's cool. I'm not a huge... Oh, it is.
[John Petrella]: And you've got the Riverway.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly, the Riverway.
[John Petrella]: The art club's over there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[John Petrella]: It's just a nice nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think I guess if you look at it compared to like station landing, too Right, it's like there there was maybe more opportunity there right didn't happen. Yes. I agree. That's what we got to look at. Yes.
[John Petrella]: There you go Yeah, that's the things I look at. Yeah. Yeah Seriously, that's a great answer. Yeah Wow All right, so Let's get on to the next one now, and this is one that I often care about, put it that way. The Massachusetts legislature often operates behind closed doors. People will say, oh, that's not true, but they do. How would you push for more transparency and recorded votes? Actually, how do people vote on Beacon Hill? It seems like it's, and I'm not gonna get too far into this, but it seems like a lot of things late Friday night, you know, I don't have to. I don't know if it still goes on as much, but there was a lot of, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, so first I'll say that I think when we talk about transparency, everyone wants to talk about the audit. So I support Diana DiZaglio's the state auditor and her audit attempts. Both of my opponents at the statehouse have opposed the audit through their own votes, and I would have supported it. So that's one difference between me and them. I think a lot of it, when it comes down to transparency, I just think about my role as a city councilor and how we respect open meeting law. So in Somerville and in every city across Massachusetts, we are held to open meeting law standards, which means all of our votes are recorded. All of our meetings happen in public. There's a minute, they're provided minutes of those meetings. As the chair, as the president of the city council for three years, I made sure all of our meetings were video recorded. We transcribed them into languages. We transcribed them into braille. And there were times when I actually filed an open meeting law complaint against my own colleagues because I felt like they were doing things behind closed doors. So there are times when you're allowed to, it's called executive session, where you're legally allowed to have a discussion behind closed doors, but you have to have it in a certain way and you can't talk about certain things. that wasn't happening so I stood up for that and those people later thanked me like they actually were like oh you were right we didn't realize that we were going against the rules here and so every city has open meeting law but the state has exempted themselves from it so they don't record the minutes they don't record the votes uh deals can happen behind closed doors and the worst thing my experience is uh... having things uh... sent to study that's what happens at the state house is i go up to the state house i testify in support of meaningful legislation i have state representative smile tell me what a great job i did thank you for your service and then it gets sent to study which basically means the bill is dead with no vote it means it's over it's over and there's no explanation about this whatsoever and it's like as a Councilor There's lots of times when there's something before us that isn't ready. Like we're not ready for a vote. So it gets tabled, which is kind of the same as being sent to study. But you at least get an explanation as to why. Your elected officials have to stand up and say, this is why I'm not ready to vote for this. And that's why we're tabling it. there it just gets sent to study there's no discussion about it whatsoever and i i've said often that you know i don't think people would care as much about transparency if things were getting done if they were meeting behind closed doors to make amazing deals for the state then nobody would care no but it's a fact that things are going there to die and no one knows why And that's why I would like to make sure open meeting law applies to the state legislature, just like the city, just like the majority of states in this country. Florida has open meeting law, so they're more transparent than we are. And I do think that's a huge reason why things aren't getting done, because you literally can't hold your elected officials accountable. You have to take their word for it that they're doing the right thing, because there's no record of it.
[John Petrella]: Right. Yeah. I mean, that's incredible. I it's good to hear someone say that. And I know You know, there's a lot more that can be done up there as far as that stuff. And you hit it on the money with the transparency and how people feel.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I honestly, it kind of blows my mind as a Councilor because this is just common sense to us. It's not it's not revolutionary at all. No, we respect open meeting law. And if we don't, then we get a slap on the wrist. It's not even that big a deal. Right. But we all know the rules. Right. And we know we know what's expected of us. Yeah.
[John Petrella]: All right, so, you know, the next question I have, you know, we often hear, at least most of us often hear, Representative, they're always telling us about, you know, grants they have gotten, you know, all kinds of money, this, that, but, you know, can you tell us, what they can do or what you might be able to help, just to better track, you know, how is the money actually spent? Like we're, I mean, so many times I hear about a grant and it's gonna go for a specific person, a nice person, a reason, whatever, you know, a certain situation. And then it just seems like it just doesn't get there or only partial gets there. I don't know, it's just, it's confusing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I guess it's confusing for me, too, because once again, on a city level, you've got to count for every penny. And we're expected to show the receipts for everything. So really, that's something that I don't understand, why you would not be if the state wouldn't be held to the same standard. As far as grants, and I do think it is very important, especially when you can't pass legislation for a state representative to bring money home for the district. And I would like to bring money home in terms of the state roads in particular Around here that are a mess the high school that's gonna have to get rebuilt. Yeah, there's a lot of expenses every building I would say every building every city building in the state could probably use a ballot override to repair it And that all falls on the local taxpayer. But nobody can afford that. Like no one city, no one city could afford to renovate every building they have. They're all crumbling. And that would be much better done by the state. The state has way more money. They could spread that. They're able to absorb that money a lot more. So that would be my answer to that is I think, you know, the state needs to do more for cities. And we'll actually manage the money better because we're held to a different standard.
[John Petrella]: I'm going to ask you this. The state gives out a grant. They call it a grant, I understand that, but where does the grant come from? Is it taxpayer money? Is it a gift from somebody?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost always taxpayer money, yeah. It could be business tax, it could be any number of taxes, yeah.
[John Petrella]: so basically they're giving us our money back where it's actually our money they're spending yes it's always it always comes from the tax money it's not magically appearing because some people seem to think that oh it's a grant that's great well yeah but it's still our money yeah right so how they spend it why they spend it and where they spend it should be a concern.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. Oh, definitely. And the only other place it would come from is from our business taxes, which is also a big part of our tax base. Yes. But even that comes from us, too, because where any business is making money off the residents. So that's also our money. Yeah.
[John Petrella]: Yeah. Yeah. It's incredible. It really is. So, you know, this is probably I can go on with you, Matt. I appreciate you coming on. I really do. Some great answers and I call them down-to-earth dancers, put it that way. You touched on this already, but I, you know, I have to bring it up again because I know a lot of people that are like so upset with this, but, you know, Beacon Hills' response. We know how you feel about it, you know, what you would have done, but, you know, their response
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... to the yard and and to the people of massachusetts who voted for it yeah i mean what are they telling us uh... they're not saying anything that's a problem right it's like not once again it's like there's not really an explanation and they don't feel like they have to give an explanation and one of the things i've told people when they ask me like what's the problem here right uh... is i think one of the biggest issues is the lack of competitive elections at the state level So, Massachusetts has the second least competitive elections in the whole country, after Alabama. Alabama, then Massachusetts. People do not run for office, so people feel safe, and they don't feel like they have to explain themselves. So, even this year, where there's actually several serious races, majority of people are going to get re-elected with no opponent at all. seems to happen Yes, I respect a few of them. Yeah, they've said, you know, there's a constitutionality issue with the audit. That would be their defense. And my response to that is open meeting law, because there's nothing unconstitutional about open meeting law. If you had open meeting law, you wouldn't need an audit, because everything would be above ground. Everybody would know what's going on. So instead of fighting it and saying why it can't be done, show me what can be done. And there's plenty that can be done around transparency. If it's not the audit, like, what are you going to say? When we talked about tenant right of purchase, it's like, OK, you don't want to do that. What are you going to do instead? And we get we just constantly meet this brick wall where it's like there's no answers whatsoever. Right. And just like our taxpayer dollars come from us, our elected officials come from us as well. Right. So they should be answering to us. Yeah.
[John Petrella]: Yeah. I get very disappointed. And I'm going to just plead with people to Please get out and vote. Yes, because You know, I consider it at least my father put it into my brain and every one of my family. It's your civic Obligation. Yeah, you can't complain. You can't get front. You have to vote. Yeah, that's that's how you speak. That's how you so To me, that's part of it, too, getting the people out to vote.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[John Petrella]: You know? It just seems like there's not enough people out there voting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we'll be lucky if 30 percent of the public vote in this race. Yeah, and that's terrible. Yeah. And that would be a huge turnout. Yeah. So, almost 70 percent of the voters will choose not to vote.
[John Petrella]: And that breaks my heart. Yeah. 70 percent of the voters are not having a say in how things are done for other voters.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly. By choice.
[John Petrella]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, for those of you who are voting, September 1st is the election, and Medford is already voting as well. People will have their ballots at home, and they'll be early voting as well.
[John Petrella]: Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm going to urge everyone, you know, You've done a great job today Matt. Yeah Excuse me. I don't know what's going on with my voice, but I really appreciate you coming on and I think Really, it's nice Nice to have you on the show nice to hear your thoughts your opinions and they matter and um, you know, I urge people to like I just said earlier, just get out and vote. If 70% of the people stay home, it's no good for anybody. It really isn't. But that's about it for this show. I wish I could keep you for another half hour.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be back. Well, hopefully I'll be back as your state senator. Yes, I hope so. Oh yeah, you know something?
[John Petrella]: I'd love to have you back and hopefully it will be a state senator. You know, I think our audience appreciates you and I think they're gonna, I think a lot of people like what you had to say. I know I did. I learned a lot today. I really did. So I want to thank you again. It's been our pleasure. It's been an honor for me to meet you and to have you on the show. So thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for having me. Yeah.
[John Petrella]: Good luck with the election.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to go knock some doors right now. There you go. I'll see you out there.
[John Petrella]: All right, everybody. It's that time again. And I want to thank Matt McLaughlin, candidate for second Middlesex District State Senator, and I want to wish him continued success. I also want to take a minute to thank everyone who has been watching the show. And thank you so much for your feedback. And if you would like to appear on this show, you can contact us at methodhappenings02155 at gmail.com. And you'll be able to watch replays of this show, of course, on Method Community Media Access Channel. and please check out our website methodhappenings.com where you can now view or listen to the podcast of this program and a lot of you people out there are really listening to the podcast. You can find all of our shows on YouTube just go to youtube.com search for Method Happenings it's easy and we appreciate everyone that's been subscribing. Please like subscribe to our channel and videos you can also find us on Facebook at method happenings we also have our own subreddit which you can find us at reddit.com slash a slash method happenings I wanna thank everyone, just take a second to thank everyone that's been watching. We're so happy, the things, it's been successful, the show, and obviously we must be doing something right, and we really appreciate the viewership, and I just wanna thank everybody for watching the show. So for the Method Happenings team, I want to thank Paul, Marco, Bruce, James, and Joseph. And I'm John Petrella. And remember, everybody stay informed. Thank you.
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