A few days ago, I posted a report on the letter printed by the Cambridge Chronicle that had been sent in some manner to the Cambridge City Council by former members of the Cambridge Human Rights Commission.
The letter shed new light on the Monteiro situation in Cambridge city government. Malvina Monteiro is a former head of the Cambridge Police Review Commission who, according to finding by judge, jury and appeals court had her life destroyed by the Cambridge City Manager in retaliation for her filing a civil rights complaint. $8.3 million has been paid by the city to her including $1.1 million actual damages and $3.5 million penal damages.
I am not able to find the letter in the City Council records. I have informed the Chronicle editor of this and checked the agenda for next Monday. The Chronicle editor had no comment on this oddity in the October 27 edition, so I assume he has checked things out and is confident in his source. I thus submitted the following response.
The original letter is posted by the Cambridge Chronicle at http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/opinions/x984138967/Letter-No-information-on-Monteiro-case-from-the-start#axzz1c50xzNv4.
Explaining the closing sentence, “Team Healy” refers to Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy.
Editor
Cambridge Chronicle
The letter from the FORMER human rights commissioners concerning Monteiro gives a rare insight into how the machine which controls Cambridge works.
The writers say their commission sought Monteiro information from the City Solicitor. They state “We were accused by the law department with interfering, told that our inquiry was out of line and informed that as a city-appointed body our interest and concern should be with city officials . . .”
This mentality is shared by people who control “protective” organizations in Cambridge.
This mentality shows why the Cambridge machine’s “environmental” groups machine constantly “save the world” but do not want to know about Cambridge destroying Cambridge.
This mentality reaffirms the Globe columnist who said Cambridge fought the Monteiro case beyond any level of reason. That fight sends a message to the machine.
This mentality shows why, when one City Councilor wanted an outside legal opinion on pursuing the Monteiro appeal, NO other Councilor was interested.
This mentality shows how a group supposedly defending Alewife spent 15 years maneuvering people away from the totally avoidable public destruction of the animals and trees in the irreplaceable core Alewife reservation.
This mentality shows how the Alewife “protectors” “cannot understand” that the destruction of the core reservation cannot possibly protect North Cambridge from flooding. They are protecting against the worst possible rainstorm in any two year period. They need protection against the two fifty year floods which have hit the area in the last twenty years. There is a big difference.
This mentality shows how the Alewife “defenders” cannot look at the other side of Cambridge Park Drive from the Alewife reservation. It shows why they cannot see that massive parking lot which could protect against 50 year floods if it were used instead of the core Alewife reservation.
This mentality shows why certain people run around proclaiming that, if you support transportation, you MUST support the City Manager’s subway proposal under the Grand Junction, and why those people insist there is no other proposal. They do not want to know that MassDOT and the MBTA say there is a responsible alternative to the city manager’ irresponsible proposal. The responsible alternative was subsidized by the legislature in the rebuilding of Yawkey Station.
This mentality could show why, yet again, Council deliberations are being kept secret concerning Monteiro.
This mentality shows that all that REALLY counts to the Cambridge Machine is being part of Team Healy.
