Removing guns from the streets
Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera and Police Chief James Fitzpatrick are instituting a gun buy-back program which was presented to the City Council on February 21, 2017. (See the Mayor’s announcement on page 2.)
The request for a transfer of $260,000 included $110,000 for the gun buyback and $150,000 to cover the cost of opening some school gyms after school as a way of controlling violence in the city.
The approval was postponed until the next council meeting because some councilors did not agree with that item being placed on the agenda as an “emergency” and Councilor Laplante explained his anger. The meeting agenda is finalized on the Thursday previous to the Tuesday night meeting and there have been other times when the Police Department places requests at the last minute. According to District F Councilor Marc Laplante, that did not qualify as an emergency and they should have planned properly when to send it before the council.
On May 11, 2013, the Lantigua administration conducted a similar effort yielding only 27 shotguns, rifles and handguns. Police Chief John Romero said at that time that criminals don’t usually turn in their guns and those came from private homes whose owners were afraid they would end up in the hands of criminals.
The mayor’s announcement states their hope to collect 1,000 guns and I wonder about his reasoning. Is it that we have more guns in the street today and more crimes being committed than in 2013?
This gun buyback goes completely against their logic that crime is down. Every day I hear about car owners who find their automobiles on four blocks, stores being assaulted and people just mauled in the streets to rob them. I like checking on the Daily Log of the Police Department’s website using the address given to me and the time, only to find that it was never entered or responded to. My search becomes more difficult when the information is missing. Right now, the last day entered was January 16.
There are cases in which victims have chosen not to call police aware that they won’t do anything and it might make their situation worse with the culprits.
The other portion of the funding will go to fund opening the South Lawrence East School gym for two nights to keep children busy and out of trouble. The Guilmette School’s gym is already open two nights each week thanks to the Shannon Grant.
Thank you Councilor at-Large Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez for asking Chief Fitzpatrick about the Police Athletic League (PAL) program. That was a model effort serving over 20,000 children each year operated by Frank Benjamin and the reasons for stopping it a few years ago, according to the Chief was because “the funds ran out.”
Public Participation
During that council meeting, Michelle Downer Poletta of the Commission on Disability testified on the negligence from the Rivera Administration regarding their operations. The city council approved months ago funding the salary of $20,000 for a coordinator and no posting or interviewing has been done as yet. That position will be very difficult to fill because who would want to work for that money? Ridiculous!
Ms. Downer Poletta is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the city for ADA violations.
My guess is that Mayor Rivera wants the Commission on Disability to go the way of the Human Rights Commission and disappear. They had the same complaints and one by one the members were resigning until they stopped meeting in January of 2016. The community didn’t miss them because that body was so limited they couldn’t even hear from victims of abuse and discrimination because they were almost non-existent.
Winter parking
The parking ban established by the city lasts from December 15th through April 1st and the listing of streets where no overnight parking or alternate parking is allowed doesn’t change.
People keep asking around if the alternate parking (odd/even side of the street) is in effect even when there is no snow. Can’t they understand what the city issued? It’s until April 1st! Well, some residents continue getting tickets and being towed.
Upon contacting Carlos Jaquez, the director of DPW, he told me that the City of Lawrence has not implemented any changes on that ordinance. He has been having conversations with Councilor Kendrys Vasquez exploring options with other cities with similar problems during the winter.
Do not listen to anyone – not even Kendrys – and keep observing the odd/even parking until April 1st even if we never see snow again.
By the way, the IT Department added Carlos Jaquez’s name as DPW director on the city’s website but did not remove Theo Rosario’s name as city engineer. That website needs major updating.
Parking meters
For the past few months the maintenance of the street meters has been awful. The paper is missing and cannot issue tickets; some would not accept credit cards or had a little note that they are “Out of Order.”
I also noticed that the attendants are no longer dressed in the yellow garb but in black outfits. Upon checking, I found out that the 5-year contract with Standard had expired and the city published a Request For Proposals.
Meanwhile, Standard stopped maintaining the equipment until Republic, the company granted the contract took it over on February 1st. They know the work they have ahead of them with repairs and upgrades.
Another wedding
On December 27, 2016, Mayor Dan Rivera paid $20 to the Secretary of State for a Marriage Officiant Filing Fee. Now that Kendrys Vazquez has proposed to his girlfriend, we can only assume that the mayor will be the celebrant.
Since he is the City Council President, the ceremony will most likely take place in the council chambers since he calls the shots no matter what the residents say.
