Rivera’s legacy
Mayor Daniel Rivera issued a written statement just hours after the Lawrence Board of Registrars met to certify the more than eight thousand signatures on recall petitions filed with the City Clerk. His statement referred to the failed recall, at a time when the recall remains ongoing, and a second recall is beginning. His statement warrants the following rebuttal from those who petition for his recall:
Contrary to his assertions that the recall is organized by “bad employees, bad cops, tax cheats, and unscrupulous landowners,” many of the organizers are his former supporters and campaign workers such as Randy Reyes and Rafael Guzman who worked to see him beat William Lantigua. So why are former supporters working to recall the Mayor? Their support of Rivera wasn’t because he was popular among the people, or even that he was a good administrator. They supported him because he was the only viable candidate who could defeat William Lantigua. The last mayoral campaign was, as Rivera states, an effort to restore the City’s image, and to promote responsiveness, responsibility, and integrity to our government. All of these characteristics dwindled over many administrations.
The mayor made many promises during his campaign that resonated with voters, city employees, and those outsiders watching Lawrence. He promised that he would bring sunshine to City Hall, that he would end political infighting, and that he would bring responsive and responsible government. He did not. He began his term singling out for termination those hired by the last administration. Some of those terminations were beneficial to the City, but were done without regard for the proper legal requirements for termination.
Other terminations were vindictive and spiteful. Rivera ignored provisions in union contracts, ordering employees not to park on public streets knowing that they have contractual rights to park by City Hall. On the other hand he provided Laiza Lizardo St. Onge with a parking placard and lets her park for free wherever she wishes, including, in one instance, on a handicapped ramp. Theo Rosario, his unqualified city engineer, parks daily on Common Street without paying, and parking employees are instructed not to give him a ticket.
In another instance of pure vindictiveness, the mayor ordered a parking ticket issued to an employee whom he later fired. The employee’s violation? There was no parking violation, the man paid to park, he was, however, a supporter of Mayor Lantigua in the prior election. As to the employee who wrote the ticket, when he protested about issuing a ticket to a lawfully parked vehicle, his job was threatened. Far from bringing sunshine to City Hall, Rivera has brought unprecedented levels of political retaliation to Lawrence, all with complete disregard for law and procedure.
Time after time, stories are told of simple people seeking an audience with Rivera. The Mayor has no time for them. He has brought with him one of the most fiscally irresponsible administrations in years. While William Lantigua was criticized for his “friends and family” hiring plan, Lantigua hired very few employees. Rivera, on the other hand, hired most of his employees without advertisement or competition. Amanda Wall at the police department is his wife’s friend and member of his bridal party; Justin Crow is his friend, and Theo Rosario, the city engineer who is not qualified to even take the state engineer’s examination, worked on his campaign. Even his assistant Kate Reilly, another campaign worker, did well when her boyfriend was hired to work at the DPW. Yes, political patronage, suppressed in years of budgetary imbalance, is back in full swing with Dan Rivera in charge. Even campaign worker Wendy Estrella benefited when a property under city receivership was, through an inside deal, taken from one receiver and sold to her husband.
Rivera hired employees and paid them more than what the ordinances said they could be paid. He promised benefits that they were not entitled to, but gave them anyway. The mayor tried to give financial stipends to his former campaign workers who are now city employees. Some stipends may even have been paid. The plot was discovered and stopped by the City Council once it was determined that such patronage ran afoul of the state ethics laws.
Dan Rivera has exposed us to liability to former employees whose rights were violated when terminated. The first case resulted in a payment of more than $210,000 to an employee, and the taxpayers received not one bit of work in exchange. The man was illegally fired without a city council hearing. This case was mentioned in Rev. Victor Jarvis’ letter of resignation from the Human Rights Commission as one of his reasons. His violation of a lease in scheduled for trial in the next few months and the payout is expected to be in the millions and he suppresses the political speech of his opponents in violation of the United States Constitution.
Rivera fired election workers, and hired his friends, without advertisement or a competitive process. Those same allies reviewed the recall petitions and disqualified more than 3,000 signatures. Surely, some should have been disqualified, but the initial review shows many signatures were disqualified without any legitimate basis. Those that were certified have been threatened with denial of housing benefits if their names were not removed. Just as attention focuses on what those mayoral employees in the election division were doing, one employee, the same who claims her husband’s name was forged on the petition, suddenly resigns. What were the true pressures brought to bear on her? Also, why was one of the employees of the Election Department working on weekends for the mayor for several months? What election work did the Mayor want done on weekends, when no one was around to see it? What is the Mayor’s particular interest in elections that sends an employee in on weekends? Whoever heard of a City election worker who was so interested in his work that he came to work on weekends without additional pay?
When a mayor trespasses upon the lawful rights of the meek, the poor, the humble, and the powerless, when he ignores the laws and the city’s contracts, and when he abuses his power by providing special privileges to the few political insiders who worked to get him elected, he must be removed. That’s why 8,069 people signed the recall because in their estimation, he is no longer worthy of elected office.
Jobs, stipends, parking privileges, and the like, are not to be given out to the favored few in back-room deals like a new era Tammany Hall. (This organization controlled New York City for almost two hundred years serving as an engine for graft and political corruption, allowing their bosses enrich themselves and their associates through fraud and administrative abuse.)
Unqualified employees are not to be replaced with even less qualified employees, and the treasury is not a personal fund to reward members of your wedding party. Many of those who once worked on Rivera’s campaign, along with thousands of others seek to recall Dan Rivera because not only has he not delivered on his promise of sunshine, he engages in all the practices we tried to stop, but this time with a more engaging relationship with the media.
Speaking of the media…
During a dinner hosted by Benny Espaillat to raise funds for his radio station, Alberto Vasallo, III, president of El Mundo newspaper was the guest speaker. He accepted an award from Mayor Dan Rivera and confessed that he had promised he would never publish anything negative about the City of Lawrence, and that promise will remain in effect for his four years in office.
What kind of responsible journalism is this? Hiding the truth is not the way to inform and educate the people.
The law is not equal for all
Lt. Steve Scheffen was suspended since September for having lied on the payroll records of the officers under his command and his own. He had been collecting his salary for three months at home while the investigation of the case was to conclude, but this week he had his retirement papers approved. Instead of sending the complaint against him to the Attorney General of Massachusetts or Carmen Ortiz, the US Attorney and send him to prison, he was allowed to retire.
Kendrys Vasquez started badly
The President of the City Council has begun badly: The beginning of the public participation section, he took the liberty of changing the rules by announcing that from now on Lawrence residents have preference in addressing them. This change should have been approved by council members.
Something else, he is responsible for maintaining decorum in the chamber and should demand the public’s respect towards the members of the council or risk being expelled.
DPW Director
John Isensee, director of the Department of Public Works, retired last week and Lance Hamill took over as interim director before returning to his position as supervisor at DPW.
Mayor Rivera wanted to appoint Theodoro Rosario and I mentioned several weeks ago that we have competent people in our community – such as Brian Peña the Water Commissioner who is a civil engineer – and qualified to be DPW director. That did not mean that I approve of the way the mayor appoints employees without advertising the positions, giving the opportunity to other applicants and choosing among the best qualified.
And that’s what’s happening now. Brian Peña is on vacation and will be appointed director of DPW when he returns.
