Moving on and up
Carlos Matos has left the city as director of the Office of Planning and Development to take a position in the Lawrence Public Schools.
Resignation of Dan Rivera from Mass Development
Since Dan Rivera resigned from his Commonwealth job, a few newspaper articles have been published that are not very flattering of him and his tenure there.
I could read articles in State House News Service (4/29/24) and Contrarian Boston (5/4/24) describing some details. Still, the Boston Business Journal had a piece with more information about his reason for departure. According to BBJ, Mass Development is in desperate need of cash, projects are held back, hiring is frozen, and there will be layoffs.
After Rivera’s hiring, cash balance fell from $114 million in mid-2021 to a projected $28.9 million at the end of June.
As Contrarian Boston first reported, Rivera, who earned $235,000 a year, submitted a letter of resignation last Friday. With Dan’s resignation on April 26, Deputy Director Theresa Park and Tania Hartford, executive vice president of real estate, were let go from MassDevelopment on Monday, sources told the publication Contrarian Boston. Park and Hartford both worked closely with Rivera since joining the agency.
Dan has served as CEO of the quasi-independent government authority since Gov. Charlie Baker appointed him in 2020.
Rivera and the MassDevelopment board, which includes several prominent developers, also fought over the degree of autonomy the former Lawrence mayor should have.
Dan O’Connell, a MassDevelopment board member and former secretary of housing and economic development under Gov. Deval Patrick, will step in as interim CEO while the board searches for a new leader.
Federation Dilemma
The confusion created by many changes and delays on the approved grants, which are being held back for many businesses, remains dark. The city had set aside $400,000 for that project to be distributed as grants or loans. The Federation expected to receive the money and distribute the checks among the awardees, but everything changed.
Sara Perez, president of the Federación de Comerciantes, has often appeared before the city council advocating for the Federation membership that has applied for these grants while others chose loans. Then, the city decided to change it to all grants, and those who applied for loans would have to apply again for the grants.
The city attorney recommended starting over again to allow other businesses to participate. This process is still unfinished.
A second project has been added, with $500,000 transferred from the cemetery account, which went unused last year. The City of Lawrence advertised the new program, which gives a chance to private companies that are not non-profits. The deadline to apply is August 8th for a maximum of $20,000.
That’s a simplistic explanation, but it isn’t apparent. So much so, a couple of weeks ago, Carlos Matos, director of the Office of Community Development, appeared on Carmen Chalas’ radio show trying to explain it, only to reveal that he was also confused. Even the host had difficulty following his explanation and asked Sara Perez, to call into the show.
Sara was angry because Mr. Matos made it sound like they were working together on planning and distributing that money when they had never had a meeting or a conversation about that fact. She corrected him on several things he said that misrepresented her role since she was not involved at all.
I tried calling Mr. Matos and Frank Surillo to get their responses about where this project stands now but my messages were ignored.
Hopefully, the city will resolve it in the next few weeks.
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