Cheating the children
This week, Alberto and I took an executive decision not to turn the other cheek anymore. If we are not wanted, we won’t show up. That was the situation last Friday with the lighting ceremony of the Christmas Tree next to City Hall.
We first found out about it the night before from someone we met outside of our office. We love covering anything having to do with children and particularly something as magical as the Christmas Tree lighting but we’ve had enough.
Months ago, I spoke to Mayor Dan Rivera about not being notified of city events of which Wendy Luzon was in charge. No matter what my opinion is of her, Wendy should do her job when it comes to calling the media or sending out a press release. Yes, I know how incompetent she is but that much I’m sure she can do. The mayor told me at the time that he would talk to her about it. Obviously, nothing changed.
Also in charge of that celebration was Marisa (or Maritza, or Marisela, she has used many names in the past) Melendez who works for Greater Lawrence Community Action Council. She doesn’t know the difference between taking in the chin my well-deserved comments about her before she was hired there and her duty to this community. We cover most of the events her agency sponsors but not thanks to her.
Through 18 years, we have been there taking beautiful pictures of children receiving gifts and being greeted by Santa Claus. We take pride in our work! And then, the final recompense is when they see their pictures published; we know they are kept in scrapbooks and sent to other relatives, wherever they may live.
That’s why the Lawrence History Center is mindful of preserving each edition of Rumbo so that future generations can learn about us and what we were doing today. Anything said over the radio has a momentary effect and no lasting impact. According to their records, Friday night never happened.
By shunting Rumbo aside, your selfishness and narrow-mindedness is only hurting the ones you claim to protect and support as well as the businesses contributing to the gifts who deserved being mentioned here.
The honeymoon is over
That is the common expression being used by City Hall watchers but I don’t like it. It implies that from now on the relationship between the City Council and the mayor’s office will be in constant turmoil or battle when it doesn’t have to be such. This will provide an understanding of why the members of the council believe the mayor has been acting inappropriately thus opening up communications.
During the recent City Council meeting, President Modesto Maldonado distributed the material which will serve as basis for the discussion on December 16 in order to take a “no confidence vote” on Mayor Rivera. The package outlined 14 issues questioning the mayor’s authority and was marked “confidential” but I believe that once it was revealed in a public meeting, people are entitled to see its content. Also, once the residents are aware in advance of the accusations rendered, they will be able to understand better the discussion as it happens.
The 14 complaints against Mayor Rivera range from violations of union agreements, unfair labor practices like the nurses, hiring employees to non-existing positions, not posting or publicizing open positions, not recruiting employees as required, hiring political supporters without qualifications, making temporary appointments over the 90 days stipulated in the City Charter, bypassing the police Civil Service list and the number of civil lawsuits pending against the city which will end up costing millions to the taxpayers.
The Council seems to be getting tough on the mayor and I wonder how much of that is just a show for television. For example, President Maldonado is now making noise about temporary employees serving in that capacity for over three months which is what the City Charter allows. Acting Fire Chief John Marshall and Acting Police Chief have been in their jobs for well over a year and there are no plans to replace them.
Apparently, Maldonado agrees with me when I have criticized the council for its incompetence admitting at that meeting that “we are powerless.” Unless the council takes a stand, they will continue being “a paper council,” as he called it. They proceeded to take a vote requesting the attendance of Mayor Rivera at their next meeting but the mayor has refused saying that he will not discuss it in that stage because it won’t be good for the city. Eileen O’Connor Bernal and Marc Laplante were the only ones not voting to request the mayor to be present because they need time to read the complaints against him.
Comcast Public Hearing
The public hearing on the Comcast contract (they are now calling it “license” although my copy says “contract”) turned out to be nothing more than a Listening Tour Farce and that’s what we deserve. Only five residents attended the meeting with Council President Modesto Maldonado who has become very interested in this topic as of late. If councilors Vasquez, Aquino and Almonte were there it was because they were having a Housing Committee meeting following ours, showing up about half-way through the discussions. The meeting was conducted by Lisa Torrisi, Mayor Rivera’s Chief of Staff.
The previous contract was for a period of 10 years and expired on November 4th. On October 2nd there was a public hearing to discuss it but it was only advertised in The Eagle-Tribune and Ms. Torrisi’s Facebook page. I found out about it on October 30th and as a result of my insistence, this second public hearing was scheduled. I thought that the public would be taking part on the different aspects of the contract, giving their opinions. Instead, it turned into a “bitching forum.”
Council President Maldonado questioned why the “packages” have to be the way they are containing so many channels we don‘t care to watch. There is something called “cafeteria style” where you pay for only the channels you want. Jay Somers, said the company is looking at “unbundling” but doesn’t believe the rates will go down as a result – meaning, it’s not going to be cheaper. Mr. Somers was representing Jane Lyman from Comcast who was at the previous meeting held at the Senior Center but could not be present this night.
Denise Perrault has been researching this issue for a long time and she delved into all aspects of the contract and said that whenever she calls Comcast, she cannot get answers because no one knows what to respond or they put her on long forever. The most information she got is that they still have Michael Sullivan on their records as the signing authority.
We learned something very interesting: The residents of any Housing Authority building cannot choose between cable companies. Michelle Pauletta complained about the charges and the fact that they are obligated to get Comcast. No one seemed to be aware of that and we agreed that it is not right to deprive a resident from transferring to Verizon if they so choose.
Council President Maldonado and I questioned the mayor’s decision not to appoint a Cable Advisory Council as the one disbanded upon the creation of Lawrence Community Access Television when Mayor Sullivan backstabbed all of us secretly forming that non-profit organization and appointing Jim Ross in charge. The end result is that we don’t have the Commission to air our complaints against the cable companies or access to our television station. I insist that this is a concerted effort to keep all residents ignorant.
I purposely did not mention the abominable quality we get from the PEG channels (Public, Education and Government) because that’s a local issue but at the conclusion of the meeting, while talking to Rob Harhen, the director of the city’s Information Technology Department, he said that it was being considered in their discussions, as well.
There were many questions posed but no answers were given and we were told that our comments would be taken into consideration at their next meeting. Ms. Torrisi said they hope to have it finalized by the end of the year and this time, they are trying to narrow it down to three years only.
Elections Department
I am still analyzing several documents and interviewing people regarding the firing of Rafael Tejeda but I am not ready to write at length about it.
