Bravo for Ana Levy!
Last Tuesday’s City Council meeting was about to end when City Councilor at-Large Ana Levy requested taking Item #336-18 out of Tabled which was approved last May 15, 2018 authorizing the purchase of 25 voting machines as part of the Capital Improvement Plan.
It’s imperative to get them before the end of May in order to prepare them for the upcoming elections in September to assure voters of this city a clean and accurate process.
Since nothing has happened and they have not been ordered, it was decided sending a letter to the mayor asking to use $160,000 from ‘free cash’ to purchase them. The vote was unanimous with David Abdoo, Pavel Payano and Kendrys Vasquez absent.
City Council appointments
There were a number of board and commission appointments brought before the council for approval at the February 19 meeting. They were:
Lawrence Redevelopment Authority – Ana Medina
Historic Commission – Kate Hernandez
Historic Commission – Jonas Stundzia
Historic Commission – David Meehan
Zoning Board of Appeals – Richard Rivera
Planning Board – Tamar Kotelchuck
Planning Board – David Quarrell
Planning Board – Antonio Reynoso
Planning Board Full Voting Member – Brenda Rozzi
Conservation Commission -Tennis Lily, Eddie Rosa, Mary DiMauro & Joseph Kluft
At times, I don’t understand the action of the City Council or whether they make sense. These applications were sent on January 16 and should have been decided within 30 days. During that time, they are sent to the Personnel Committee and sent back to the full council for approval. If that is not done during that period, they are automatically appointed for lack of action. The 30 days were up on Friday, February 15 so they had been appointed by default.
There was discussion back and force as to the need for a vote anyway to confirm them and I could not understand the need for that.
When Ana Medina’s name was brought up, District F. Councilor Marc Laplante noted that her application was not signed. Someone suggested appointing her pending the signature but Laplante was adamant saying that ‘she was already appointed by default’ for failing to act on it within 30 day. The rest of them seemed lost. Laplante abstained from voting and it was decided to appoint each applicant one by one, with 5 YES and Laplante abstaining to vote on all of them.
I contacted Mr. Laplante because it is my understanding that someone who earns a paycheck from the city cannot take part on any board or commission and Ms. Medina runs the Summer Program for the Recreation Department. He was kind enough to explain that city ordinances differentiate between a “special” and a “regular” employee.
For example, Mr. Laplante said, “being a poll worker two or three times a year (and receiving a stipend) does not take away from your ability to also serve on a board and commission. Another example is being a contract plow worker and getting money from the city does not disqualify you from serving on a board or commission.”
So, this position during the summer is equivalent to that and does not disqualify an individual from serving.
