Yesterday, May 17, 2012, the Cambridge Chronicle reported in its feature headlines, the order of the Secretary of State’s office that Cambridge, MA, USA, must release its records on the settlement in the case of Monteiro v. Cambridge. Its report is posted on line at: http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/features/x1986334626/State-Cambridge-must-release-lawsuit-settlement-details#axzz1vDjJYQCa.
Monteiro v. Cambridge is yet another example of Cambridge certainly looking like it considers itself above the law.
Jury, Judge and Appeals Court found that Cambridge destroyed the life of department head Malvina Monteiro in retaliation for her filing a civil rights complaint.
The trial judge’s use of the word “reprehensible” places the case squarely in the canon of way too much Cambridge behavior.
The Cambridge City Council / the Cambridge Pols, in their usual denial of reality, see no reason to fire the Cambridge City Manager. Reading the opinions, two words come to mind with regard to the Cambridge’s remaining in its own private world: arrogance and corruption. When you are dealing with judicially found deliberate violations of significant law or ethics by a municipality, it seems rather silly to avoid the word “corruption.”
The Secretary of State treated Cambridge in the Cambridge Chronicle case with more respect than the Appeals Court treated Cambridge in the Monteiro appeal. In Monteiro, the Appeals Court refused to grant Cambridge the respect of a formal opinion.
In the Secretary of State decision, Cambridge won a point, one point. So it is difficult to simply call Cambridge’s behavior in this matter as demonstrating lack of ethics, but there is too often an apparent mentality of: “You expect me to obey an inconvenient law, go to Court.”
The Chronicle has attached a PDF of the decision to its report.
