Angry Capone asks why this is the only vanished
By JOSH RESNEK
The case of the missing city council video will not be solved any time soon following a thorough investigation by the mayor’s office, the mayor’s chief of staff Erin Deveney informed the council Monday night.
The efficacy of allowing the mayor’s office to investigate the missing video was not questioned.
The missing video from the meeting several months back detailed how Councilor Gerly Adrien was harangued and asked to resign by several of her colleagues because she refused to attend the meeting in person, among other difficulties her colleagues had with her presence on the council.
Adrien believes the attacks on her were racially motivated, a sentiment expressed by many of those who watched the proceedings that night.
Adrien did not attend the meeting in person, preferring Zoom, because, she said, of COVID 19 illness fears concerning her family.
The city council meeting set off a firestorm of controversy that led to well-attended rallies in front of City Hall decrying racism in Everett.
That led to a number of articles that appeared in the Boston Globe, highlighting Adrien’s difficulties, presumably because she is Black.
Some of the discussions led by Capone openly questioned how of all the city council meetings why did this one disappear.
“Why this video out of all of them?” Capone asked.
Deveney did not have an answer for Capone.
Capone asked her if she had any insight as to how the video disappeared.
“It was hacked outside of the building,” Deveney, herself a lawyer, told Capone.
Capone complained that the lost video might be the only evidence of the meeting’s controversial nature and that it is a travesty that it no longer exists.
City Clerk Sergio Cornelio’s notes detail some aspects of the meeting however do not note any of the tension between city council members or the possibility of race being an issue.
The Leader Herald has spoken with an Everett resident who taped the entire hearing.
“If anyone in government is needing this, I am happy to provide it,” he told the Leader Herald.