By Dalia Diaz
On Tuesday, August 21st, the full Lawrence City Council met with a gigantic agenda before them. Within the agenda was the interview of two candidates nominated as the semi-finalists for the vacant City Attorney position.
If you viewed Lawrence’s Personnel Committee meeting last week and thought that members of that committee looked lost in this process, then you would agree that the full council looked even more astray in the process for the selection of this position. I am not sure it had anything to do with the absence of the Personnel Committee Chairperson David Abdoo than it had to do with the authoritarian process by Council President Vasquez.
Councilor Payano made his disappointment at the process that the Personnel Committee chose to present. They may want to blame Councilor De La Cruz for making the motion to send the top two candidates during the Personnel Committee, last week.
Eventually, after some procedural information and a few questions of each candidate, Councilor DePeña made a Charter Objection. That was an end of discussion for that meeting on that topic.
What Councilor Payano, Councilor DePeña, and other dissenting councilors, realize is that there is collusion between Mayor Rivera and Council President (with the other acquiescent councilors) to hurry the selection process, eliminate the most skilled and knowledgeable, and play favorite to select the Mayor’s Chief of Staff.
There is no way that two previous real estate attorneys have more knowledge than a person who has worked labor law, civil rights, and municipal law than both nominated candidates combined. It’s the audacity that the conspiracy among these councilors discriminate the only Latina to have applied for the job, the most knowledgeable person in municipal law, the second-in-charge (after Charles Boddy), and the person who has kept that office afloat for many times (once when the prior council was intending not to rehire Attorney Boddy and now while the position remains vacant).
When residents see councilors debating and rebellious, it’s because there is something to be concerned about. After all, the stakes are high. The city does not need a person in that position to rubber-stamp anything that the Mayor or Council wants rubber-stamped. Just because someone is from Lawrence does not make it the best fit. Who remembers Mayor Rivera and Councilor Vasquez declining to approve the city residency law that was voted on by the resident on the ballot? They are hypocrites!
The most appalling aspect of the council meeting was the people that came before the podium to speak in support of a particular candidate. These people are the same people from the Rivera campaign or people that the Mayor has provided jobs to family, city real estate, favors, etc.
William Green said it best: “It will be a conflict of interests if Eileen Bernal is selected. She knows where the bodies are buried and will continue being the mayor’s attorney, not the city’s attorney.”
