State of the City Address
I thought by this year the Mayor would go beyond the “is Lantigua’s fault” excuse; however, I was wrong like many taxpayers who were waiting to hear what he has done in three years, as you can see on the State of the City Address beginning on page 2.
The first page of five was entirely about the exaggerated Lantigua administration although his name was not on the report. The mayor completely forgot that he voted always with Lantigua in the past administration, is very hypocritical of him now to disconnect himself from that history. He does not take any responsibilities for any wrong with the last administration.
Mayor Rivera move on, move the page, and show the taxpayers that you have done better. The last four pages I could summarize as more of the same but here are my highlights with my comments.
- “Since becoming Mayor, we have avoided the scandals, which plagued the previous administration.” Really Mayor? I guess you forgot the legal cases you lost, the inspectors’ grievance that you had no right to violate their union contract, the inept staff you hired and the Theodoro Rosario Sex Scandal. And you probably don’t consider the disaster of the stadium which made national news as a scandal.
- “We had a drop in crime.” Another amnesiac moment. Tell that to the community member that found his car in four cinder blocks before going to work, which is becoming an epidemic all over the city. I guess you failed to remember that your own Chief of Economics’ car was vandalized and left with no tires.
- “Total number of incidents of crime continues to drop year after year.” That’s not what I hear in the community; perhaps on your street because I had to install an alarm and cameras in my home. On Tuesday night, while the mayor was praising the city’s good news, there was a huge shootout outside of the Merrimack Court Projects and some people had to leave their homes for fear.
- “I will be sending to you for appropriation and passage a proposal to fund a Director level Community Police.” This is a waste of money; make your existing staff more community friendly and have them respond in a timely manner to our needs.
- “We have opened the Bailey Street fire Station.” Why would that be an accomplishment in three years?
- “Theresa Park who joined our team in the spring of 2014 is the first professional planner to head that department for the City in many years.” I guess the numerous planners and community development staff don’t mean anything to you. I guess you forgot the stellar James Barnes that under your administration and guidance today you can claim a lot of his successes as yours.
- The Park St upgrade, La Fruteria Market, and Ferrous site all started before your time. Those are projects that take a long time to complete and you found them well underway.
- The DiAdamo Building. Why would you bring up a fiasco like that as a success? By the way, when are you going to put up for sale the Essex St. building you purchased and don’t need now? Are you reserving it for some friend when things quiet down? You mentioned the Oliver School but those plans have been progressing for many years before you took office.
- The housing developments of Essex and Common. Please don’t take credit for a private investment. These investors are your friends and permits were expedited because they financed your campaign. I would not mention that Mayor.
- The Public Schools, the YMCA and Boys & Girls Club are not your successes. All we want to know is what you have done.
- The Library. Please! I wasn’t going to touch that but praising putting someone totally unqualified as director, overlooking internal candidates who have been working there for so many years was the biggest insult!
- You told councilors that you will be submitting the name of a candidate for the position of city engineer but you failed to tell them about your negotiations with her current employer. Milagros Puello is qualified indeed for that job but she is committed to that company because they paid for her education and you want us to reimburse them. That is equivalent to paying for someone’s education before being employed by the city. I understand that to be illegal although I am willing to make a prediction: you will manage to dress it up as a stipend over her salary.
- $12 million dollar in free cash reserves. This I agreed with you. You do have that money but at the cost of employees, cutting equipment and eliminating services. There was a point in which the city had over 20 positions available. Ask the employees in the comptroller’s office, the tax department and the assessor’s office because they were doing double duty to cover all bases. No wonder you saved all that money!
- “Our administration has kept taxes lower than any administration in the last 12 years”. You also still have the state helping you run the city.
- “I want you to know that you are safe in Lawrence.” We had a decapitated CHILD found in the river, how can you say that? On a personal note, your tears at the council disgusted me because I know you had not visited the grieving family, refused to meet with them for over a week and failed to order the police department to act accordingly. Ultimately, you are responsible for the negligence of the police department. Shame on you Mayor!
And, speaking of the police, the reason we need more officers is to raise more money for the city. Officers who are assigned to patrol the streets every day are required to make a minimum of 2 stops a day. In the period from December 1 to 31 statistics show that in 2015 there were 794 traffic violations and in the same period in 2016 rose to 1,566, a 97% increase.
I noticed that you failed to thank most of the employees that help do your job and that you don’t have in your staff just Parks, Fitzpatrick and Valentin. They too deserve some recognition. You also failed to thank Groundwork Lawrence and Lawrence CommunityWorks. They have been working on projects for years and you have made them yours.
