City Council to mayor: How many lawsuits have been filed against the city of Medford? And for how much?

Just how many lawsuits have been filed against the city in the last six years and what is the real and potential cost of those lawsuits to taxpayers?

That is essentially what the Medford City Council asked Mayor Breanna Loungo-Koehn when they filed a resolution asking her to review the city’s litigation practices back through 2019. 

“This one’s a barn burner,” said City Council President Zac Bears prior to reading the lengthy resolution.

City Councilor George Scarpelli, who along with Bears and Councilor Justin Tseng filed the resolution, called the mayor’s litigation practices hate-based.

“I say hatred because it’s blatant that it’s union based,” he said. “It’s blatant that the mayor is attacking our workforce … we are losing so much money because of, it seems to me, a more personal and ego driven, narcissistic focus.”

Scarpelli said it was time for the council to take stock of the situation since the number of lawsuits against the city appear to have skyrocketed.

Bears, reading the resolution, said that between 2011 and 2019, a total of 22 unfair labor practice charges were filed against the city; the number jumped between 2020 and 2024 when 74 unfair labor practice charges were filed against the city, a 573% increase. There was also a 33% increase in civil service actions. 

Those lawsuits include:

• 2025: Medford vs. Metro Fire Fighters IAFF Local 1032: The city violated state law by refusing to hold grievance hearings as required under the collection bargaining agreement.
• 2024: Police Chief Jack Buckley vs. Mayor Breanna Luongo-Koehn for failure to issue payment of contractual benefits under the collective bargaining agreement, including three years of raises and COVID-19 hazard pay.
• The emergence of housing appeals (2) when previously there were none.
• Multiple federal wage and hours lawsuits and ongoing labor disputes with firefighters and Teamsters “demonstrating a pattern of escalating legal conflict that warrants scrutiny by the council.”
• Multiple suits involving police appointment bypass, fire lieutenant promotion disputes and other personnel actions.

Scarpelli also asked to include a breakdown of the outside law firms being used for city litigation, including the cost of private investigators if any were used, and an update on the city’s insurance premiums from 2019 up to 2026.

“There is something here, and I’ve been saying this for years now,” Scarpelli said. “The mismanagement of this community’s finances are frightening. And this information that was gathered … it should speak volumes.” 

Scarpelli and Bears also both called for an audit or independent review to look at the city’s litigation practices, including using outside counsel rather than retaining a city solicitor, and compare them to other Bay State communities.

“Is this what labor relations looks like in any other city in Massachusetts?” Bears asked. 

Tseng said the resolution also boils down to oversight.

“Residents trust us with their tax dollars, their school or streets, and with that trust comes a responsibility to understand the full financial picture of our city,” he said. “And over the last few years, as this resolution shows, the volume of litigation facing Medford has increased.”

Every dollar spent on prolonged litigation is $1 not spent on fixing the city’s structural deficit or investing in classrooms or road repairs, Tseng added. 

But wait – there’s more

Steve South, secretary/treasurer of Teamsters Local 25 and Medford resident, said he hasn’t always agreed with everything the City Council says, but he agreed with everything they’d said regarding and including the resolution.

South also offered additional information by way of lawsuits and settlements against the city, that he’s aware of, since 2020 include: 

• School custodian case – city settled for $475,000
• School security suit cost the city $28,500
• CODIS, also school security – $12,000
• DPW suit – $32,800
• City settled an unfair labor practice with one woman for $47,500 and, according to South, she has another open wage and hour lawsuit pending.
• The DPW’s Teamster steward received a $165,000 settlement and South said, “there was another lawsuit that you guys approved last year. I guess it’s supposed to be confidential, but … you settled it in executive session for $120,000.”

South pointed out those were only settlement amounts and doesn’t include attorney fees. 

Nick Guirleo said councilors might want to up their game and make the resolution an ordinance because he believes it’s unlikely that Luongo-Koehn will respond to the request for information.

The mayor has 60 days to issue the report and Bears said as of last week, they had not heard from her.

Guirleo also suggested the council is not completely blameless and that “careless lawmaking has also led to this plethora of lawsuits against the city.”

He pointed to the recent values aligned ordinance that was passed, despite a legal opinion warning that the wording had issues. The mayor vetoed it and the city is being sued in federal court over the ordinance.

That said, Guirleo said he still appreciated the resolution.