~ OP-ED ~ Lesson: Actions Have Consequences

By Craig Spadafora, Councillor-At-Large

Each year, the Malden City Council elects from its ranks one individual to lead the body for the calendar year.  It is both an honor and a responsibility.  The Council President is entrusted to set the tone for the council, to set priorities, to lead, and most importantly, to prioritize the success and integrity of the body as a whole.

Last week, the City Council voted, for the first time ever, to remove Councillor Ryan O’Malley as sitting Council President in a historic bipartisan vote.  It has never been done before for good reason.  It takes A LOT to lose the trust of enough members in a way that results in this extreme call to action.  That O’Malley managed to do that is not a reflection on those who took the courageous vote to replace him, but a reflection on his willingness to time and time again put his personal agenda first, lie to the council, and break all norms when it comes to integrity.

There’s been plenty written on social media about this topic, so let’s set some facts straight.  O’Malley was NOT removed because he initiated a lawsuit against the Malden Public Library.  While the decision to do this without Council knowledge to settle what had become a personal agenda showed incredibly poor judgement, O’Malley had ample chance to recover from this poorly thought-out misstep by simply owning it and following the will of the Council who voted to withdraw the lawsuit.  Instead, he doubled down with a series of steps that truly told the City Council that O’Malley had zero regard for his colleagues, votes, our legal department, and our Public Library.  It was not the lawsuit, but rather the ensuing actions of ignoring the council vote, threatening to turn city lawyers into the Board of Bar Overseers, and continuing to use city funds to meet his personal objectives that resulted in the order to consider removing O’Malley.

Even with the item docketed for the June 17^th meeting calling for O’Malley’s removal, I believe he had one last opportunity to show true recognition of the damage he had done, the impact of his missteps, the hurt his lies had caused, in a way that may have kept him on as President.  Once again, O’Malley doubled down, telling lie after lie to the Council and the public.  I am thankful to the City Solicitors office who was in attendance and able to correct on the spot several flat out lies O’Malley told as part of his cover up for his actions.  I believe it was his reaction on the 17^th that truly resulted in people who had been supporters throwing in the towel and voting for new leadership to get the Council on track.  It is well known that O’Malley was passed over multiple times by the Council for president over concerns about his ability to lead and be trusted.  Sadly, those concerns were proven to be valid.

Not surprisingly, O’Malley’s most ardent defender was Councilor Karen Colon Hayes, who unsurprisingly dusted off her favorite ‘do as I say not as I do’ term in defending O’Malley: Transparency.  So, let’s try to understand this.  O’Malley files a lawsuit without authorization, behind the backs of the entire Council, and that represents a lesson in transparency?  Then here comes Karen Colon Hayes, the only City Councilor in Malden history to admit to a state ethics violation and pay a huge fine for hiring her own daughters secretly at inflated rates of pay, violating all state and city regulations, preaching transparency.  You can’t make this stuff up.

Life teaches us lessons, and how we react to them tells the world who we are.  O’Malley has been taught a valuable one: Actions have consequences.  How he reacts will tell the voters of Malden who he is.