[Patricia Doherty]: Okay, got it.
[Patricia Doherty]: Patricia Brady, Dougherty, 190 High Street, Medford. I turned this on to watch what was going to happen to the rezoning. Instead, I'm watching this. It's so horrible. This is horrifying. To think that you have put longtime senior citizen residents, actually of all ages, at risk, and to think they feel the need to come up and say to you, I'm afraid. For Barbara Rutstein to have to come up here and tell you that is horrifying. This is so embarrassing for the city of Medford. You shouldn't be laying this on the table. You shouldn't be continuing this. You should be having a motion tonight to end it tonight. You people ought to be embarrassed. Thank you.
[Patricia Doherty]: Thank you. I'd like to address this through the chair to the prior speaker. You don't have to be Jewish to care and hear the sadness and how frightened these people are. This resolution cannot affect what happens in the Middle East. In fact, it really doesn't even have a place on the council agenda. I'm Catholic, but tonight I'm Jewish. I feel for these people. This is such a disgrace. Thank you.
[Patricia Doherty]: Hi, this is Patricia Doherty. I have a question for you about something you were just referring to. On Harvard Ave, you said there were three homes there that were home-like. What did you mean by that?
[Patricia Doherty]: So why then would you think that they are not homes?
[Patricia Doherty]: I don't mean that. That's a neighborhood. And it abuts St. Raphael's. And St. Raphael's does not own a lot of property there. They have a rectory that looks like a house. And they have a convent, which is maybe two and a half stories of a beige color brick. And then the rest of those homes are older Victorian single family homes, well kept. And I think the residents would be horrified to find out that all of a sudden they could be in a higher density neighborhood. I don't think anyone wants to find out that they can have three or five stories built next to their lovely Victorian, particularly the one that, I forget her name, Miss McDonald, I think it was mentioned. That is what's setting Medford on edge right now. These boundaries are blurring into residential neighborhoods and no one's paying attention to it. That's my comment, thank you.
[Patricia Doherty]: Hi, Patricia Brady Doherty, 190 West Street. I'm a former Medford City Councilor. I spent eight years on the council, and a majority of that was working on zoning. Even though I'm an attorney, it's such a nuanced field. I hired a Boston zoning attorney to walk me through it. So, I think a lot of these people feel like they need to do that, and some of them, as you may have heard earlier, have done just that, and they should not have to be put through that expense. But what I'm hearing tonight is that no one's protecting the neighborhoods, and the overwhelming majority of these people have come forward to say they are scared, they're nervous, and they don't like what they see. It used to be that the city council had one motto and that was protect the neighborhoods. What I hear from this city council is, and maybe from the mayor and hopefully not, let's protect the developers. The only thing I think that you people can do tonight is take this off the table. It's impossible to fix. It is so overwhelming. It is so high. It is so dense. You are going to ruin the neighborhoods and that should not happen. So I ask you to think very, very carefully about what you're doing and to consider who you're representing. You're representing the residents of the neighborhood, nobody else. You're not representing the OCD board or the mayor or the city councilors. Thank you.
[Patricia Doherty]: Oh, I see a hand.
[Patricia Doherty]: Hi, Patricia Daugherty, 235 Winthrop Street. I'm so glad to see this on the agenda tonight because you may or may not know that since the day after the election, there have been a lot of issues about getting information from the city clerk's office and from the register of voters office. Did any of you know that? Well, normally before the election, campaigns can come and get information freely from the city clerk's office or the register of voters office. And usually after the election, a volunteer will go in and ask for the voter activity list. And so after the September 2nd preliminary, we have got the voter activity list. And that list is important because it'll allow you to fine tune the list you'll use in the next mailing. It tells you who voted, who didn't vote, what parties voted.
[Patricia Doherty]: No, I'm saying as volunteers, as like a volunteer.
[Patricia Doherty]: No, I went in there. I went in because I had volunteered on several campaigns this fall.
[Patricia Doherty]: But at this moment, I'm speaking as me who went in. So I went in to get, so the day after the November 2nd election, I went in to get the numbers, the unofficial official numbers, and knowing that they are not official until of course they're certified. And I also asked if I could then, when would the voter activity list for November 2nd be ready? Usually that's a week or so. And so they gave a date. But I also heard when I was down there, that a list of 12,546 people had been moved from active to inactive back to active again before the preliminary election. Now, were you people aware of that? Through the chair, Councilor Marks, you were aware of that? Correct. called the Secretary of State's office and Michelle Tassinieri got back to me and she's chief legal counsel, as many of you might know, and she explained what happened. She said that the city clerk's office had moved 12,546 people to inactive status and then it, but it was done too close to the next election. So, and I can't remember whether she said notices were sent out or not sent out because what happens is the city does their annual street listing. And if you don't respond, you then are removed from the active photo list. And, but before they do that, they send a card out to remind you that you didn't fill out your street census. And so when I was talking to her, She said, but it was too close to the timeline. Someone had filed a complaint. And I said, well, how would they know that? How would they know that there was anything to complain about? And she said, well, I'm not sure you'd have to find that out from the city clerk's office. So, but the other thing I asked her about is I said, there are 41,000 people registered to vote in the city. And the census says we only have 59,000 people. Doesn't that seem very high to you? And she said, it seems really high. And she said, why don't you go back take out, go to the recent census and take out all the kids, everyone under 18 who can't vote. And then if you come up with a really high number, then go to your council, go to the registrar's office and suggest that maybe there needs to be some sort of deeper review. So I did what she said, and we came up with a really high number. And just to make sure it wasn't off base, I took Wellesley, which I knew to be a very high, owner occupied city. And I knew they had very high public participation because they have hundreds of people show up at their town meetings. And then I thought, well, this is kind of extreme. I'll just go next door to Winchester, the same thing. And so both Wellesley and Winchester have an 80% of their population is registered to vote and they have 90%, give or take, owner occupied. So you would expect that. Well, Medford has 85% of our population registered to vote. And that is extremely high because we're only at 56% owner occupied. So I'm suggesting that there might want to be some investigation into why our we have such a high number registered to vote in the city. But the other thing is I said to her, well, if We were going to delete 12,546 people from the list that would leave 29,000 people registered to vote. Listen, that seemed like a really high number to delete and she said it is a really high number, she said you need to ask maybe. the city clerk wasn't deleting the list, cleaning up the list every year. You know, maybe you go back seven or eight years and they hadn't cleaned up the list. And I thought, well, that was unusual. That would be not right. Well, I happened to run into Ed Finn outside one day and he said, no, we cleaned up the list every year. And he said, I think Adam has been doing it also. So I think another question we have to ask is how did we get to 12,546 people on the list? Maybe that's part of the review. Well, there were a couple more questions here. So anyway, I waited the week and I walked back into city clerk's office to see if the voter activity list was ready. And I was told, we can't talk to you. I said, me or everybody? We can't talk to anyone. And I said, what do you mean you can't talk to anyone? We can't give out any lists, we can't do anything. I said, what do you mean? I was told we could committing, you have the voter activity list, why can't I have it? And they said, we just can't tell you anything. I thought, this is really weird. Like normally you only shut down the flow of communication when there's a criminal investigation. I said, is there a criminal investigation? They said, we can't talk. So I went down the register of voters office. This is Wednesday, November 10th. And I said, Sandy Gill was there. And I said, could I get the list I talked about with you last week? And she said, I'm sorry, we can't talk to you. And I said, what are you talking about? And no one would look up. Everyone was really nervous. And it was the weirdest state of affairs. So I went home, called up seeing Michelle Tassineri again. And she called me back later on. And someone said, we can't talk to you. The Secretary of State's office said we can't talk to anyone right now. Oh, I forgot one important thing. So I went upstairs. They said, you got to go to the city solicitor's office. So I went there. And she was too busy to talk to me. They said, you have to file a freedom of information to get this information. I said, this is unbelievable. I said, we just got the exact same list like in September. So I went to the mayor's office and there was a meeting going on and I got to go in and I said, can you please tell me under what authority are you shutting down the flow of information? Is there a criminal investigation going on here? And the mayor didn't answer me.
[Patricia Doherty]: That is the question. That's a very factual statement I made because that's what I said. I said, how are you shutting down the flow of information? Is there a criminal investigation going on? Because normally that's the only time you would shut down the flow of information. And I was told by the chief of staff answered me, not the mayor. And she said, you have to go through the city solicitor and file a FOIA.
[Patricia Doherty]: So Mr. President, to continue, Michelle Tassinari legal counsel for the Secretary of State's office called me back that afternoon around 430. And she was very upset. And she said, I not only called city clerk's office, city hall, she said, I emailed them. And I told them under no circumstances are they to use our office as the authority in shutting down information. She said, I don't know why they're doing it. It's extremely unusual. She said, but in order for you to get information, you'll have to file. The next day was Veterans Day, the office was closed. I went Friday and filed eight or nine requests for the information that is normally given to us. So the questions I'd like to know is, you people hire and fire the city clerk, did you give the order to shut down the information? No. So, but the most important question now is, What is the background on the 12,546 names? Did you have that information before either the preliminary or the election? That there was this list that went from active to inactive to active?
[Patricia Doherty]: Well, through the chair, Secretary, Michelle Tosineri said that, that is something that was, so it was a major mistake, but it was a major mistake that should have been brought to the attention of the administration in the city, both council president and the mayor, because it was, it meant that nobody had to go to a voting, to the precincts and show a license and or sign an affirmation that they lived where they say they lived and they had lived there January 1. And so did any of you, Councilor Bears, Councilor Knight, the Councilors over here, did you people know that there was this information of 12,546 names out there?
[Patricia Doherty]: It's the city clerk's office.
[Patricia Doherty]: Yes, but the city clerk is the city clerk that was the one that was told.
[Patricia Doherty]: I'm not suggesting any of that. I'm asking questions. I have questions to ask. So what Michelle Tosineri, legal counsel, she said these questions should be answered by city hall. Now, I said the city council hires and fires the city clerk's office. I don't know what the city clerk knew or didn't know, but she did tell me that he, she had him put the list back, the active that he put on inactive, she had him put it back to active because it was within a timeframe. And she said a citizen had called in to complain to the Secretary of State's office. And my question to her as well how would anyone know to even call in. And to do that, like in the different campaigns that people were out there, they didn't have this list. And if you knew the list existed or the information existed, it would be something that you would wanna get just like the way you go in and get the voter activity list from September 2nd. All right, well, I just have the questions I'd like answered is who gave the authority in city hall and under what authority did they have to shut down the information?
[Patricia Doherty]: Yes. And then, but, but I don't so as of today we still, I do know that one person who requested the information did get was sent had the list. I have not been sent the list. And now I know that city clerk's office, they have COVID and maybe they're all out sick with it and they can't do that. Maybe that's the answer. But it is very discouraging to know that anything that you normally would get, you cannot get right now.
[Patricia Doherty]: Well, through the chair, never ever has it been known that anyone goes to the city solicitor's office to ask for the active voting list of any election. for the registered voters, you go to the city clerk's office. Thank you.
[Patricia Doherty]: Michelle was kind enough on the 10th to let me know that the deadline for Any campaign that I may be volunteering for, the recall deadline to file the papers was Friday the 12th. But she said, don't forget there's section, Mass General Law 54, section 134, which is once an election is certified, you can contest it for 30 days. So it isn't as though everything's hunky-dory. We don't know that. There's just a lot of questions and we don't have the answers.
[Patricia Doherty]: Patricia Brady Darty, 235 Winthrop Street. The people here tonight aren't so much here to ask you to do something, although some individuals may have said that to you. They are here because they're extremely upset about the comments made by the individual, actually written on, I think, Facebook. I saw a screenshot of it. denigrating the Italians who took the time to vote. And he said that they all voted for Gene Barry and they cheated. We forgot that important point. In print, he wrote, and they cheated. Well, you know, then the other thing he said, which was said earlier, he wasn't sure that Gene Barry had not treated black children badly. Now that's the equivalent of saying when was the last time When did you stop beating your wife? Those are disgusting statements. These people understand that you can't do anything about it. But as Councilor Mark so eloquently said, this is the people's forum. I learned that from serving with Councilor Mayocco. He said it over 30 years. It's the only public forum in the city. How did we get here? How did we get to this point from a great city of 58,000 people who have a reputation of racial harmony to the point where we're here because people who are on city commissions say the flag represents rape and pillage and that people that the Italians voted on, and maybe they did, and maybe they didn't, cheated, and that the person that they voted for may have mistreated black children. How did we get here? This is a city that in 1963 elected Madeline Duggar Andrews, the first black school committee person elected in the state of Massachusetts to a school committee. This is a city that in 1981 put Ken Holmes on the city council. That's not the mark of a racist city and we're sick and tired of hearing it. So how did we get there? Well, it started when the mayor decided we're a racist city and there was a proclamation that we are racist and it's a health crisis. No, we're not a racist city and we're sick of hearing it. So what happened in the past year and a half and I'll just do the topics. You all probably know what happened with the subheadings are. After that, the Columbus school name changed. Then we had the July 4th incident at Exchange Ave where over 200 people threw rockets and firecrackers at the police and they had to call in the state police and the firefight is to help defend them. And how did that happen? Because people had been marching through the streets of Medford, calling the police names and saying, defund the police. So then we had the rally here on the steps, as you all know, and at the end of the rally, very peaceful, loving rally, a group of teenagers who were holding Black Lives Matter signs very quietly, crossed the parking lot, stood on the steps, and were yelling, F the police. They chanted it for several minutes. We have it on videotape. There's no making that up. And then, two days later, the people at the rally and the organizers were condemned. And not one, were condemned by the mayor's office. And that gave ammunition for people to start the Racist of Medford website. I'm on there. You know why it says I'm a racist? Because I supported the rally. I was an organizer for the rally. Now, I've been a public figure, so people can call me whatever they want. They can call me a slut, it doesn't make me one. But you know what? There are people on that, site who never in their lives had their name in public print. And they were devastated. And no one in public office in this city came forward and condemned it. Then we have racial sensitivity courses at the high school that the teachers had to take this winter. Talking about white privilege, and how the fact that if you're white, you automatically do not like minorities. It's a version of the race theory, critical race theory, that's condemned by many states across this country. Now, we don't have white privilege, and we're really sick and tired of people telling us we're racist when we don't see color. Then we run into, The flag where a commissioner felt it was okay to get up last month in an official meeting and say, the flag represents rape and pillage to certain people. And the mayor shouldn't appear next to the flag in a meeting. And then we end up last week finding out that the city's asking the state to waive veterans preference when they hired the police. And now we're here because someone on a committee empowered to vote for the name change says the Italians cheated. I would suggest that's how we got there. That whole 18 months and no one's standing up for us, but ourselves in the background. Well, we're here to tell you we're not gonna stand for it anymore. We are all Americans. We are here. We're gonna stand in the breach and we're gonna work as a community, as Americans. And we happen to believe what Martin Luther King said, which is he didn't want his children judged by the color of their skin. He wanted them judged by the content of their character. And we do have something for you to do. We hope that you will take the lead and stop this madness. Please emulate Martin Luther King and speak up for us and stand with us. Thank you.
[Patricia Doherty]: I didn't say that.
[Patricia Doherty]: And if Councilor Bears wants to misinterpret what I said, he's welcome to do that. But he'll stand as someone who's willing to put a verifiable truth out there. I did not say that. What I said was, the mayor said we're a racist city. And how did we get there? We are Americans. We don't look at race, we never did. And this city is a great city. We are sick and tired of being told that we are racist, you know we're not subjects were citizens. And that's why we are going to stand in the breach. This is a Marxist agenda. Someone said that earlier. It's called divide and conquer. And we're not putting it up with it anymore.
[Patricia Doherty]: Through the chair, I can tell you what this is about. This is about the fact that we are sick and tired of listening to people who haven't experienced half of what most of this people in this room have due to their age or their inexperience. I happen to have had the great privilege to have lived for 30 years in Judge Brooks's house. We bought the house from his estate. He marched in Selma in his 80s. That's the type of people we come from. And so what's tonight about? We finally got sick and tired when we found out that this person on the committee put these statements in writing that the Italians cheated. That's what this is about. We want to be heard. We know maybe you can't do a whole lot. I have a suggestion for something you could do if you wanted to. Councilor Mayorko told me that four votes of this city council could put an advisory question on the ballot in November, asking if we want the name change. Yes, it may be too late, but at least people would feel like they've been heard. Now that's your druthers whether you wanna do it. So what are we doing here today? We're saying we're sick and tired. We're not gonna sit here when someone says that Jean Barry maybe mistreated black children. We're not gonna sit here when the Italians when a man wrote on that committee that the Italians cheated. Nope, we're done, we're sick of it, and we're gonna come back here every night if we have to on Tuesday nights.
[Patricia Doherty]: I wanna say that in a world where love lives, we don't see racism, we don't know racism.
[Patricia Doherty]: Yes.
[Patricia Doherty]: Patricia Brady Daugherty, 235 Winthrop Street. Thank you. Councilors, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. In order to stay in my timeframe, I'm going to read my statement, so please bear with me. Last Tuesday, I placed this on the agenda to speak about a statement made by a Human Rights Commission member in an April meeting who was critical of the fact that the mayor was on a Zoom meeting alongside the flag. The statement made was, and I quote, I noticed that the male was sitting next to the flag and the flag means so many things to so many people, but to black and brown people, it means rape and pillaging. I want to repeat that statement so that you understand that you heard it correctly. I noticed that the mayor was sitting next to the flag and the flag means so many things to so many people. Ms.
[Patricia Doherty]: We don't want to create- I'll put it under my chin, but I am going to follow the Councilors and not wear my mask over my face when speaking. They're separated by- Ms.
[Patricia Doherty]: You can ask me, but I don't want to do it. It'll cause me to have problems speaking.
[Patricia Doherty]: I want to give you your turn to speak.
[Patricia Doherty]: Only as a favor to you, Adam.
[Patricia Doherty]: It appears that no one at the Human Rights Commission meeting spoke up to defend the flag. However, one person did step forward on social media, but I will speak to that in a minute. There are thousands of veterans in this community. There are hundreds of people in this community who have shed their blood and died on the battlefield in defense of their flag, our flag. Every person who's into the military takes this oath, takes their oath in front of the American flag. Every morning, the army awakes to the rising of the flag, the raising of the flag with revelry. And when the day is done, the flag is lowered when the evening gun is fired in a solemn ceremony. An American soldier wears the flag on his sleeve. If a soldier dies in combat, he comes home in a flag-draped coffin. When a soldier is buried with full military honors, the last thing that happens is that the flag is folded, presented to family with the words, by a grateful nation. A soldier does not allow the flag to touch the ground, and when the flag is worn out, it's burned and its ashes buried. Between World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, Gulf War, Afghanistan, and Iraq, almost a million and a half Americans lost their lives overseas. We do not speak German or Japanese as a captive people because of these veterans. We decorate our veterans' graves on Oak Grove with flags for Memorial Day. This weekend and next, veterans will place 8,700 flags on graves for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday on May 31st, when the city will honor the men and women who died while serving their country. Veterans look to this flag as a symbol of this great country, the lives lost and the freedoms won. Veterans are bonded to the flag as are most Americans. We say the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag as school children, the city council and the school committee starts its meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance as do people at baseball games and other sporting events. It is who we are as an American people. If this statement regarding the flag were made in a private conversation, then I would fully support the commission members right to say this no matter how offensive it is to veterans and other citizens. However, this person was serving in an official capacity as representative of the city of Medford when she made the statement. All people who are elected officials and appointed members of boards and commission in this city take an oath to uphold the constitution. The constitution is the basis of the country and the flag is a symbol of our country here and around the world. The statement regarding the flag made by the Human Rights Commission member calls into question her ability to faithfully execute her duties impartially as an appointed member in this city. For instance, would she treat a veteran fairly or unfairly if he or she appeared before the commission wearing a hat with a flag on it? And speaking of veterans, This week, veteran organizations in the city learned that the city is seeking a waiver from the state to override the law requiring veterans preference when hiring new police officers. Again, another insult to veterans is that veterans do not matter in this city any longer. As mentioned earlier, one Medford resident expressed his anger on social media about the statement made by the Human Rights Commission member disrespecting the flag. He titled his post defending the flag. Although I do not condone some of the language he chose to use in his post, nevertheless, he has a constitutional right of free speech as we all do express his opinion. However, in response to this post, the Human Rights Commission called an emergency meeting, essentially to attack this resident expressing an opinion they do not like. During this emergency Zoom meeting, the Human Rights Commission members, including the mayor's liaison, the director of diversity, two city Councilors, a school committee member, including members of the public, proceeded to vilify this resident, simply because he had expressed his criticism of the statement attacking the flag. They called him a racist, a misogynist, and a deviant, all under the pretext of a public meeting. One woman even asked the chief of police who was present if they could visit this person, if they could investigate him, if they could intimidate him. That sounds like someone advocating KGB action, like in a police state. And not one person present objected to that statement. Again, all of this vitriol is directed an individual simply because he exercised his constitutional right to free speech. Is it not height of hypocrisy for commission members, elected officials and others to condemn this resident for exercising his first amendment right to free speech while at the same time claiming the commission member, the original statement to spreading the flag was a proper exercise of free speech? Thank you.
[Patricia Doherty]: Thank you to the chair to Council of bears. It'd be a lot nicer if you could come see me eye to eye like the other Councilors are here.
[Patricia Doherty]: Thank you. I want to let you know that I watched that meeting, all 143 minutes of it, painfully watching it three times. I have many, many notes. What you did say was, you did say he has a right to say it, but you went on to vilify him and you went on to vilify white males in the community. And you said it was a white male problem. It was a cultural problem in this city. And I don't have those in front of me, because I got to stay within my 10 minutes. Thank you.
[Patricia Doherty]: The chair councilor bears more than 350 Tuesday nights a chair to countless committee of the whole meetings. I know how the process works. I'm also a member of the bar. I heard what you said. You didn't say a word when that woman on Grove Street said what she said about police tactics and intimidating him. You did say something earlier and I said what you said, but you also said it was a white male problem and it was a cultural problem in this city.
[Patricia Doherty]: Thank you.