EDITORIAL:
Lantigua’s resignation, the right thing to do |
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Forty
days after being sworn-in as Mayor of Lawrence, William
Lantigua gave up his job as State Representative, “For the
betterment of the city,” as he said at the press conference
held at the City Chambers last Friday.
Lantigua said that he arrived at this decision after
consulting with his mother, wife and closest collaborators.
If you think that he lied, that he resigned because of the
pressure mounted by the media and the legislators, then you
don’t know Lantigua. He did not make himself known by running
for a cushy job but by standing in front of the city
councilors years ago, at every session, with a sign offering
his private telephone number asking anybody with a problem, to
call him.
Lantigua treasures the confidence his constituents have
deposited in him by electing him not once, not twice but three
times to be their State Representative and lately, by 53.79%
to be their mayor.
It’s not a secret that the media in general was looking for
anyone willing to make a statement condemning Lantigua’s
attitude regarding keeping both jobs for which he was elected,
the State Representative and Mayor of Lawrence.
We read statements in different publications from some
legislators who conditioned the authorization for Lawrence to
borrow $35 million only if Lantigua resigned to his job as
representative. Some expressed concern about his being able to
perform both jobs. Furthermore, donating one of his salaries
to charity was the way to go for others.
Conditioning the loan to Lantigua’s resignation had the making
of blackmail. About his not being able to perform both jobs
was merely speculation. How can you quit before trying? In
just 40 days? And lastly, the most ridiculous of all
suggestions, donating one of his salaries which implied that
the objection was not that Lantigua did not have the capacity
of doing both jobs but that he was going to make more money
than he deserves.
One of the best statements condemning Lantigua of which the
media made a big deal without even checking it out, was the
one made by Massachusetts State Treasurer Timothy Cahill, when
he called Lantigua “Piggish,” for holding two jobs. The fact
is that for 6 years (not 40 days) he held two state paid
elected positions. He was Norfolk County Treasurer from 1997
to 2003, while serving as City of Quincy Councilor from 1987
to 2003.
The ¿Oíste? statement calling for Lantigua’s resignation was
widely reproduced: “Latino organization calling Lantigua to
step down”. Keeping both jobs was “unacceptable and
irresponsible" for its president Giovanna Negretti.
Perhaps many still remember when several years ago that
organization’s president took the City of Lawrence to court
for trying to implement the voter ID. In her last intervention
in Lawrence, when ¿Oíste? sponsored a forum at Casa
Dominicana, it took Negretti three hours of discussion to
endorse Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez as the best candidate for the
position of mayor.
We are not debating Alvarez-Rodriguez capabilities but
question her endorsement by ¿Oíste?’s president about her
knowledge and pulse of the local Latino population. The
candidate of her preference received 2.59% of the vote,
placing her in 8th place between 10 candidates, in other
words, out of 10,564 voters she received only 275 votes.
Coincidentally, the only candidate who did not participate in
the debate, William Lantigua, topped the ticket with 21.41% of
the votes or 2, 272 in the Primary Election.
We are convinced that Lantigua upset his fellow lawmakers when
he said that they all go there only once a week when a vote is
needed, leaving them with a lot of free time to perform other
duties, that is probably why they were calling for his
resignation.
After all, having judged him as not competent for the job he
was running for, (the fact that he was at the State House as
elected representative meant nothing to his detractors) we
just found out that the rest of the legislators must still be
in school, since they all went on “School Vacation” for a
week, delaying the vote on the future of Lawrence,
unnecessarily.
In closing, we are all relieved after Lantigua’s resignation,
considering that it was the right thing to do to stop the
media frenzy. It was not only hurting the city but the
citizenry. |
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