Correction!
Last week’s article about the Homeless Coordinator in the City of Lawrence said that he is bilingual in Spanish. I was mistaken; he does not speak Spanish. I’m sorry for that.
Reason for voting for the mayor
I usually don’t talk about the mayoral candidates because I don’t want to give the impression of supporting any of them, but I must tell you about a senseless conversation I had with Tom Spitalere, a Methuen resident who works in Haverhill, and who is actively working on the Lawrence mayor’s reelection campaign.
He briefly criticized some of the candidates for their incompetence or previous negative publicity and when I pointed out my recent charges against Mayor Rivera, he said having read them but his excuse for supporting Rivera is that, “All past mayors have done it.”
It’s hard to believe that some people choose to ignore information when deciding who will be in charge of the city. Tom believes that all mayors have been corrupt and dishonorable people and apparently Rivera fits the bill.
Lawrence Fireworks (the real ones)
The day after the fireworks display at Lawrence Memorial Stadium, many people were heard on the radio thanking the mayor and his administration for doing such a good job. I tried to set them straight explaining that in recent years, the Lawrence Rotary Club has been in charge of organizing the events and raising the necessary funds to pay for the acts, activities and fireworks.
And the funds left over were donated to Lawrence/Methuen Community Coalition and the Lawrence Neighborhood Association Partnership. In the coverage of the fireworks on pages 12 and 13 we included the names of the Rotarians who made it possible.
Trump’s wrestling video
A lady stopped me at a function this week alarmed asking if I had seen the Trump video beating somebody. She watched it and believed it was a news item.
Then, another lady told her that it was not real, that it was made up to look like Trump but that’s the danger with gullible people and I felt sorry for her.
This illustrates the impact of the news media in our lives and how it can be abused in order to influence our decisions.
But she reflects a large portion of the population who chooses to believe what is more agreeable to their own way of thinking and make decisions based on them.
The danger is that these people vote.
The mayor’s pet on DWI
The newspaper Manchester Union Leader reported on June 11 that Laiza Lizardo St. Onge of Salem, NH had her driver’s license revoked for driving drunk. She is the Property Acquisition/Disposition Officer for the City of Lawrence.
Obviously, it happened prior to the June 11 publication date and she continued reporting to her job regularly. We didn’t find out about it until The Eagle-Tribune reported it on July 6 taking everyone by surprise.
Mayor’s home renovations
Lately I have been writing about Mayor Dan Rivera utilizing city employees to renovate his old house prior to selling it and I was curious to see if he pulled any permits for them.
I spent several hours at Inspectional Services checking on building permits issued to 12 Jefferson St. and I only found one for the roof replacement. All other work was done in violation of the law. Of course, he knows there are no inspectors working on weekends.
Mayor’s State of the City
Mayor Rivera cannot be happy with the turn of events we are seeing in his administration. I looked at his State of the City address of February 2017 before the City Council and decided to include some clips from it:
“4 years ago the government of this City had no moral compass, and no focus.”
How do you measure ‘moral compass’ when job and favors are passed out to contributors and supporters only? You have admitted that you don’t worry about lawsuits because another mayor would have to handle them.
“We had a police department that was demoralized, divided, and decimated to a fraction of the size appropriate for our City.”
People at City Hall are working in fear for their jobs. The police department is more divided than ever.
“The staff, with some exceptions, at the highest and amongst the most crucial levels was either vacant or did not have the capacity to manage the complex workings of a $240 million dollar municipality.”
And those he brought in to occupy important positions did not have the required skills and education (John Pina, treasurer; Theodoro Rosario, city engineer; Jessica Valentín, librarian). For most of the year, positions were not filled in order to justify a surplus at the expense of several employees doing double duty in different departments.
“Boards and commissions were under staffed and without training.”
The Human Rights Commission has disappeared and the Commission on the Handicapped is being neglected by the City, some members have resigned because they cannot perform as a Commission should and several boards are still shorthanded.
“The pride and morale of people in our City was low.”
How can there be any pride when two governors have blamed Lawrence for the increase of opioids usage in their states? Eight murders in 6 months and homeless people almost knocking at our doors.
“We were left a mess.”
What are you talking about? The previous administration cleared the real mess with the deficit of $24 million. You created the mess with hatred and antagonism against anyone who reminded you of the past.
“Since becoming Mayor, we have avoided the scandals that plagued the previous administration. And when we have been wrong or have made miss steps, we admitted our problems and have been open and honest on how we have fixed them.”
Apparently Mayor Rivera doesn’t consider a scandal the accusations from the Gov. Paul LePage of Maine and Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire blaming Lawrence for the invasion of drugs in their respective states.
What about the shutout at Dubai Nightclub making headlines?
Theirs is total silence coming from the administration, there’s no openness or honesty.
Of course, the publicity about Councilor Estela Reyes buying up properties directly from the mayor and accumulating wealth using inside information is not a scandal. Since he is the CEO, he can personally dispose of city property. The arrest of Theodoro Rosario the non-City Engineer which was kept quiet for 8 months. He doesn’t consider those as scandals in his administration.
“In the Police department, this is the 3rd year in a row that we have had a drop in crime. This is the 2nd year with a double digit drop. This year the crime rate in Lawrence is down 13.1% from the last year.”
I compared the figures and they remain the same. We see crimes happening on a daily basis – but it’s not reported to the public as well as the nightly shootings that are never reported by the police or the media. We know of events occurring yet, police don’t respond and can never be found on the daily logs. Most of the calls found there are for noise ordinances, disturbances and motor vehicles violations. Nothing ever happens in Lawrence.
“We are putting housing downtown where blight and red “X”s on buildings used to keep people out. Even the storied Valley Lodging Motel on Common St. is no longer a flop house but 21 units of housing for Lawrence families. As soon as 6 months from now and growing every month through 2019 the City will see a (sic) increase of close to 1,000 housing units with a mix of affordable and market rate, most of which will be downtown. Combating the City’s growing housing and rental crisis.”
BIG MISTAKE! Bringing more families into the city will mean more children into the school system. The taxes the property owners will pay do not compensate the $14,000 each year each one of those children will cost us. Plan carefully: The State might not be there to subsidize us in the future.
Also the strain more families will press on the police and fire departments services. And the traffic is already horrendous.
“This does not include the over $500,000 leant to small businesses in Lawrence as part of the Venture Loan Fund that we secured in lock step with the Lawrence Partnership.”
You take the credit for the work of the Lawrence Partnership that arranged for several banks and credit unions to loan the funds to business owners in Lawrence. You did nothing!
“Our library is becoming the cultural center and icon our City needs and deserves. Thanks to Jessica Valentine, the Board of Trustees and the staff, the community is finding a home in our library.”
Another embarrassing accomplishment of yours. Putting an incompetent receptionist from your office in charge of the library.
“I will also work with Council President Vasquez and the rest of the Council to establish a significant increase in graffiti fines in order to fund more removal and a financial reward program for residents who assist in finding people doing the graffiti in our City.”
I don’t know when you are going to start because the entire city is loaded with graffiti.
“Just know that now for the first time in a long time serious people are running the City and we are focused on making Lawrence better.”
Serious people? The acting Water Commissioner who was fined in Lowell $12,000 for using city employees to work in his home? John Pica, Theodoro Rosario, Laiza Lizardo St. Onge, Wendy Luzon – all liars!
WCCM
I miss the local programming of WCCM 1110 AM and, though I am informed on local issues being bilingual listening to the Spanish-language radio stations, I wonder how alienated non-Spanish speakers feel.
WCCM has changed to an all-music format which I love but people need news, as well and right now there’s nothing for them in English.
