Another election year
Last week, Jose Ayala wrote about the upcoming elections and it was like an abrupt awakening for me. For the next few months we’ll have to keep track of who-says-what in order to remind the public in time for the day they grant their vote, probably to the same people who have not earned it or who have done damage to the city by their inertia.
While it is true that electing a newcomer could be a mistake, it is a chance well deserved in the case of replacing someone who has shown little or no effort to serve the public’s interests. Oh, yes, we still have councilors who don’t do their homework before casting a vote.
Right now, I can tell you of one case that makes me question if we are better off as we are. The case of a contender for District A Councilor, someone who has been placed there by Mayor Dan Rivera to dethrone the current one. While I have a problem with Sandy Almonte’s attendance to City Council meetings and leaving before they are over as well as her grandstanding at times, I don’t think she has been faced with a competent opponent. Her challenger has political signs all over District A which is illegal. The ordinance clearly states that political signs are permissible 30 days before elections, and this is only May. What can you expect from a candidate that begins campaigning by breaking a law?
Another example of ineffectiveness with the City Council is that they keep creating ordinances that people don’t obey and neglecting to enforce them. There’s a rule that you need a permit for a yard sale although, most people don’t know it. All they have to do is assign someone to make the rounds through the city on the weekends and fill the city coffers with fines. I guess the priority is in the bigger fines, like towing cars without registration or insurance from private properties. For that, they do have an officer assigned to go through the neighborhoods.
Then, they have a Public Safety Committee chaired by Kendrys Vasquez, along with Roger Twomey, Oneida Aquino and Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez. This committee is supposed to meet quarterly as needed but they have met only once; three other times it had to be canceled due to the lack of quorum. Nilka had notified the chairman that she no longer was interested in participating in this committee so Estela Reyes was to take her place on the May 20th meeting scheduled for which there was no quorum, either. There are so many things to discuss when it comes to public safety and they can’t make the meetings! Let’s give them our vote so they can continue failing us!
Fun at the Police Department
You might not think that anything funny happens at the Lawrence Police station but some people were in stitches last week.
New equipment to scan plates on the road was received and Sgt. Sandy Picard went out to test it. Right behind the station but on a public way, the machine detected Officer John Tully’s car for having its insurance revoked. That’s not just a traffic infraction but a criminal violation.
I wrote to the Police Chief James Fitzpatrick and his response was that, “The vehicle was not on a public way. The vehicle was not registered to the Officer. The plates were removed and the vehicle was towed and held until properly registered.”
I still question why the scanner picked it up as belonging to Officer Tully if it was not registered in his name as the chief said.
Since the beginning of this year I have been warning the public about the increase in car thefts and there is no one at the police department working on that. But we do have new equipment to search the streets for violators who may be driving without registration, insurance or valid licenses. The result of that could be several hundreds of dollars for a common resident while police officers may be exempt from following the laws.
There’s another issue that bothers me terribly: Community Policing. That department is currently composed of three white, non-Spanish-speaking officers: Lieutenant Shawn Conway, Sergeant Joseph Cerulo, and Officer Chad Lawlor. None live in the city. You should recognize the name Chad Lawlor as the officer who recently made the news by illegally seizing the cell phone from a resident and handcuffing him under the threat of an arrest, only to let him go free.
The problem, as I see it, is that we don’t have a permanent police chief. Chief James Fitzpatrick has his hands tied when it comes to making big decisions and disciplining his officers. This is one time that I blame the city council for not taking the initiative to follow the charter and stick to the 90-day limitation for temporary appointments. Why go through the search to bring an outsider when we already have a proven officer doing a fairly decent job. Give him the authority and he can have the department marching at a different tune. Right now, the mayor is running the department.
New School Department building
I have been thinking about the purchase of the church building and Mayor Rivera’s words resonate all over again. During the campaign, he said that “contracts are just a piece of paper” and he was planning to break some of them.
He started out by moving the School Department out of the 255 Essex St. building last December. The administration went to the basement of the North Common Education Center (former high school) and the Parents’ Resource Center rented the basement at 60 Island St.
I suspect that Mayor Rivera thought Carmine DiAdamo was going to play dead instead of bringing suit against the city for bridging the contract along with $3 million in damages and multiple code violations making it impossible to lease his property. I will have more details at a later day because I am still looking into it.
Everyone thought that the move was permanent until just five months later, the Mayor requested borrowing $8 million for the purchase of the Methodist Church building at 374 Essex St. and it was quickly approved by the City Council. $600,000 was for the purchase of the building and the rest will go for renovations.
The question is how is he going to break a 5-year lease with the Yepez brothers at 60 Island St.? Looks like the mayor doesn’t look for legal advice, acts impulsively and his actions end up screwing up the city. Worse than the mayor’s behavior is the city council’s for not doing their homework and jumping blindly on board with his crazy ideas.
Do we need to change them? Of course, but we have no viable candidates to replace them.
Campagnone Common
Dominican Night, part of the Hispanic Week celebrations will take at the Campagnone Common and they are advertising it on the radio in their usual way: “At the squirrels’ park.”
I have been educating our residents as to the real name of that park and the serious meaning it conveys for a family still living in Lawrence and Methuen. The Common’s name was changed when it was dedicated to three brothers who lost their lives during the Second World War and several other relatives who served in the military at that time.
Dominicans are very patriotic people and I am sure they would be highly insulted if anyone calls a park dedicated in the memory of one of their martyrs in the same disrespectful way.
If we want to be respected, we must begin by being respectful of others.
Rhina Espaillat at LPL
Dominican poet and Newburyport resident Rhina Espaillat offered an inspiring presentation at Lawrence Public Library on her new book with 40 of Robert Frost’s poems translated into Spanish. It was one of those rare literary performances that we so much need and that was thoroughly enjoyed by the majority English-speaking audience.
Yes, missing in action: Members of the Dominican community. I believe I counted three only.
What makes a trip ‘illegal’?
Do you remember when the local, English-language newspaper judged the former mayor’s trips to the Dominican Republic as ‘illegal vacations’? Well, seems that State Representative Marcos Devers takes off for a home visit and no one cares.
I noticed that his new legislative aide/driver/photographer is showing his face at public events without him and it caught my attention. Yes, he was back at home and attending House sessions and committee meetings was of no importance to him.
He arrived just on time for the photo op at Bellevue Cemetery on Memorial Day. Don’t ask him about speeches or details because he was not there.
