Memoirs

Somerville — A person will accumulate a lot of stories over four decades in local office, and now longtime Somerville politician Gene Brune is putting them down on paper.

“I started jotting down things… and I realized I had some stories to tell,” said Brune.

Brune hasn’t found a title yet for his memoirs, and hasn’t worked out how they will be published, but said he expects to finish the manuscript this spring.

Without getting into the all the specifics, Brune said the book would chronicle some of the scandals that have shook the city over the years but it won’t be a tell-all that names the names of all the players.

Brune grew up in Somerville, traveled with the U.S. Army to Japan, married, divorced, and then started a life in public office. Brune was Ward 6 alderman from 1972 to 1980, when he unseated Mayor Tom August in a four-way race against a young Mike Capuano and Paul Haley.

During his time as mayor, the police chief at the time was indicted for cheating on a Civil Service exam, the FBI busted officials for taking bribes and Brune re-configured the often-corrupt Board of Assessors. He is credited by many as being the first “reform mayor,” while others credit Lester Ralph with that distinction. Brune is an ally of Mayor Joe Curtatone.

Brune became the register of deeds in 1988 and his old rival Capuano won the mayorship. Twenty years later, the man Brune backed in that mayoral race, John Buonomo, was arrested and charged with stealing cash out of the copier machines at the Registry of Deeds. Buonomo had been elected register of probate after another failed mayoral run in 1999.

Most Somerville histories fall into two categories, according to Brune: the architectural retrospective and the gangster confessional. Brune wants to add political memoir to the Somerville library.



Read more: Former Somerville mayor Gene Brune writes memoir - Somerville, Massachusetts 02144 - Somerville Journal http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/x1354948976/Former-Somerville-mayor-Gene-Brune-writes-memoir#ixzz1jXtkG0Gv