By Dalia Diaz
Last week I wrote about the recycling coordinator in Lawrence because he has a city truck for his personal use. Sometimes it’s parked in front of his house; others, he has been seen riding around Methuen. The worst infraction was going to Lowe’s in Salem, NH with City Councilor Celina Reyes, to return a table she had purchased.
Rules are very clear regarding city vehicles. No one who is not a city employee has any business riding around with them. Employees have gotten in trouble for that in the past but this guy is immune. He picks up trash someplace else and drops it off at the City Yard which has nothing to do with recycling.
Mr. Morel was quick to respond to my column demanding that I apologize for my “lies” and he was cavalier enough to send me the photographs you see here. He claims that he requested permission to take the councilor to pick up the recycling barrels “donated” by Celina Reyes and Marcos Devers as she was paying for them.
He also went on to say that he doesn’t have a key to enter city hall and is working from home which is irrelevant but also not true. He is an essential and emergency employee and his office is at the City Yard on Auburn St.
Upon contacting Brian Peña who is acting DPW director, he said there was no permission granted for such an errand. When he found out about it, he asked Carlos to explain and believed his story. Of course, he didn’t say it was returning a table but the barrels.
It’s a conflict of interest for the recycling coordinator to be assisting someone donating recycling bins. It’s beyond comprehensible and his response to my column of May 22nd created new suspicions.
Along with the pictures explaining that he was justified, he attached the receipt from Lowe’s dated Sunday, May 17, 2020, but he told Brian that they were purchased online and picked up during the week. That was not correct; purchases online do not issue sales slips.
Mr. Morel’s response made his situation worse because my May 22nd column was referring to an earlier visit to Lowe’s at which time Councilor Reyes was seen at the Service Desk returning some folding tables she had purchased. He made me aware of this other trip for the barrels that I don’t think are “donations” because they have politicians’ names printed on them. Second, is he supposed to pick up donations?
Once my faith is lost on someone, I tend to go further starting with checking their addresses because Carlos Morel is registered to vote at 28 Yale St. while Councilor Celina Reyes is at 76 Coolidge St. Then, I noticed that her daycare center is located at 26 Yale St., next door and neighbors say that she lives there. Things began to get a bit confusing for me and I took several pictures of their cars parked in front of both properties.
The pictures clearly show that she requested a 20-minute parking to be placed in front of her daycare but it became her personal parking space all day long and night. Mr. Morel, instead, has no shame parking from 4:30 on when he gets home from work and all weekend long in front of a fire hydrant.
Yes, we have laws and ordinances in this city but the police and city inspectors look the other way when the violation is from someone politically protected.
Who’s the liar now?
