My take on the 2018 State of the City
Mayor Daniel Rivera started by saying, “Tonight I will report to you on the state of our City,” repeating something all presidents say at the State of the Union: “The State of our City is Strong.”
He also warned that we are living in interesting times and during interesting times everything in one’s life is harder then, he spent half the time bad-mouthing the Trump Administration, the Stock Market and still, the Lantigua Administration. He even brought up the City of Brockton’s plan to lay off over 190 teachers and Everett planning to dismiss over 100 school employees, over 50 of them teachers.
He went on about, “Women and men are taking to the streets to protest for women rights, the treatment of immigrants and treatment of black men by police.
But don’t worry; the state of our city is strong.
Come on, get to Lawrence!
“The good news for us is that while we remain a community that is not as affluent as many that surround us, we have made tremendous strides in building fiscal stability in order to weather these storms and reduce the impact of these ‘interesting times’”, said Rivera.
If you feel confident, listen to this: right after that, he said, “the State insurance commission almost kicked us all off our insurance plans.” I wonder how many residents listening understood what that meant. If it was relative to employees’ health insurance, I think they have something to worry about because the mayor was very surreptitious about it.
Commonwealth Magazine on February 1, 2018, had an article entitled Group Insurance Commission reverts to status quo by Bruce Mohl. According to this piece, on January 18, 2018 the State’s Group Insurance Commission eliminated an ambitious proposal they had to save an estimated $21 million by paring back the number of health insurance carriers available to its 430,000 state and municipal customers.
The January 18 vote tossed out the earlier decision and reinstated the three carriers that had been booted from the city’s health insurance. Everything is back to normal for them but the mayor should have explained it.
In July of 2017, the city passed the 7th balanced, municipal budget, on-time… without borrowing money to balance it thanks to barebones spending plans. “We have also been frugal throughout the year and implemented policies to ensure day to day operations in each department to keep them within their budgets.”
Not so. Employees are overworked covering more than one position because the city refuses to fill jobs in order to look good on paper while bragging about the $14 million cash reserve.
“In the past 4 years and we have collected more back taxes than the previous 9 years combined; to the tune of $8,710,000,” but was careful to avoid the General Donovan investigation.
Referencing the high rate of homicides and opioids epidemic, the mayor simply said they will be dealt with.
The following paragraph is something I don’t want to paraphrase and I am reproducing it as he said it.
“The other crime categories that have broken records in a positive way must be talked about too. There has been a 7% Reduction in all Part I Felony Crimes, 24% Reduction in Robbery, 30% Reduction in Residential Burglaries, the lowest since at least 1999 along with a 30% Reduction in MV Theft; the lowest since 2008. The Lawrence police were able to maintain these rates while responding to 65,912 Calls for Service, 18,874 M/V Stops and 2,355 Arrests. This is more calls for service than a big department like Lowell gets annually. Trust me; I know we are not considered making gains in public safety until people actually feel safe. That is our goal.”
Is there anyone in Lawrence who believes those numbers? As residents of this city, we see crimes happening around us that are not reported in the police logs. Those calls that make the list are usually downgraded in importance, for example: SPECIAL CHECK. I think that category is widely overused because it means nothing. Responding to 65,912 Calls for Service in the year makes me think that they were not ordering pizzas.
This is the middle of February and the crime stats for the month of December 2017 have not been posted. That’s where we find the total numbers for all sorts of crimes committed through the year and how it compares to previous ones.
In education, he praised the work of School Superintendent/Receiver Jeff Riley and the successes we had but when he mentioned the Lawrence Alliance for Education will be open and transparent with considerable local control, there was no mention of the School Committee. The Alliance will be selecting a new superintendent of schools. I wonder why the Commissioner didn’t opt for appointing another receiver/superintendent to replace Jeff Riley instead of having the new person report to this board that will then report to the State, thus abolishing the need for a school committee properly elected by us all.
In the economic development front, the mayor thinks building more apartments is the solution while promising to build an additional 1,000 units. After three o’clock is impossible traveling from north to south and vice versa with the congestion of traffic. I’ve never heard of a traffic study or how this increase will affect the school system, police, fire department and all city services. Ask the firefighters about what they discover whenever there’s a fire; they usually find 3 families living in one apartment because they rent them by room. That’s a problem to tackle!
He claims these constructions create jobs. The reality is that unions complain that developers bring low-wage workers from out of state and very few jobs are permanent or given to Lawrencians.
Rivera bragged about the same names and projects as every year (Showcase Cinema, Tombarello, Riverwalk, etc.) and the only plans outlined for the future were hiring a permanent police chief, $1 million to fix sidewalks, $1/2 million for trees and $1 million to fix basketball courts. Those outdoors basketball courts can only be used in good weather. How about investing in making the schools available all year around to keep kids off the streets?
He even takes credit for the Lawrence Partnership loans to businesses.
Rivera considers installing a new dance floor at the Senior Center and the new A/C and heat unit installed at the Library as accomplishments instead of routine maintenance.
“Our neighborhoods are experiencing new life with hundreds of units being brought back on line by local developers. Thanks to the work of the Distressed Property Task Force, the pace of transforming abandoned and dilapidated buildings to quality housing is faster than ever. This process has helped us stabilize neighborhoods,” said Mayor Rivera.
The Distressed Property Task Force is made up of Mayor Daniel Rivera, Community Development Housing Manager Evelyn Ureña and Asset Officer Laiza St. Onge, Attorney Brian Corrigan, Chief of Staff Eileen Bernal, Building Inspector Horacio Rodriguez and Fire Department Lt. Mike Armano.
The PowerPoint presentation he brought didn’t work and the same for NECC that had one. Lawrence Community Access Television (LCAT) is in charge of Channel 22 and its equipment. That accounts for the poor cameras and sound equipment they have. But, in this case, that is something for which the city must be blamed. They were supposed to have an IT person there and failed to do so.
Things the mayor won’t talk about
There was a time when Lawrence had a Cable Advisory Commission where residents could go and complain about anything having to do with the local cable channels that we pay for as part of our monthly bills. It was conveniently dismantled during the Sullivan Administration, when the Lawrence Community Access Television was created.
I am convinced that there is a concerted effort to keep this community ignorant. The lack of information on local issues is the reason for making the wrong decisions at election time.
The Human Rights Commission was never supported as it should have been as if the intent was making it fail. Another reason for the internal turmoil was that it had become very political and a tool for Police Chief John Romero. He never missed a meeting and the general public never heard when and where they would be held. They held on as long as they could until members were so disgusted that gave up.
Most recently, the Commission on the Disabled suffered the same fate. They tried being a voice for those in need without support from the mayor’s office. Mayor Rivera refused to appoint new members so they could have a quorum, just like he did with the Human Rights Commission. Eventually, they gave up.
Keeping quiet and giving up is the worst thing to do. Keeping silence is not in my book.
