New faces at City Hall
With the arrival of the new administration, over 30 municipal employees were fired and nothing has been said about their replacements. Most of them were from the parking garages and the Department of Public Works, earning little more than minimum wage. They have been replaced by similarly qualified employees so capability or qualifications was not the reason for the firings although one thing in common was the camp where they helped during the campaign. Even professional positions were filled by people who are at a lost, unable to do the work, complaining about the workload and having to redistribute the responsibilities among others in their department in order to keep it going.
Meanwhile, people are being hired such as John Pica, the new Treasurer (a personal friend of Mayor Rivera) who is from Lowell and Wednesday morning, on “The Big Show” with Nelson Silva on WCCM 1110 AM, John Isensee, DPW director announced that an offer has been made to an individual for the Water Commissioner position vacated by Robert Fazio’s retirement. The job was offered to Brian Peña, an engineer working with Woodward & Curran, the company working on the water lines repairs.
The openings for the Water Commissioner, Treasurer, Planning Director and Comptroller were advertised only on the city’s website only and quickly removed once the “right” applicants showed up. There has been no announcement of the new hires.
Isn’t this one of the reasons Mayor Lantigua was severely criticized for hiring his friends? Mayor Rivera promised a transparent administration and thus far, we have seen unfair firings, questionable maneuvers like the car paid for from the Water Enterprise Fund (which is illegal), and hiring practices of favoritism violating proper procedures of advertising to provide equal opportunity.
Is that the way he is planning to find “the best” police and fire chiefs?
The City Council is a big joke. They don’t question anything; they aim only to pleasing the mayor and even the Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, Kendrys Vasquez, doesn’t appear to be interested in getting answers.
The ambulance contract
Last week I described how the mayor has absolute power to honor the contract for ambulance service without going out for bids. Also, the conflict of interests having Lisa Torrisi, Mayor Rivera’s chief of staff being the sister of David Torrisi, lobbyist for Patriot Ambulance.
This week Mayor Rivera announced that the city’s ambulance service will be provided by Lawrence General Hospital. At face value, it was an honorable idea helping the local hospital that is investing so much in our city. But looking closely at that decision, I discovered that David Torrisi, (lobbyist for Patriot) is also a member of the board of directors at the hospital. I can’t believe that the story will end there.
No politics here (Oh, sure!)
One thing I’ve learned is that politics moves every aspect of our lives and we are silly putting our blind trust in politicians. They are necessary but it is up to us to keep them honest.
From the moment Mayor Rivera started talking about consolidating several departments, it sounded suspicious as if someone is going to benefit from that change. Then, an article published by CommonWealth Manazine entitled “A fight brewing in Lawrence” revealed the battle he is facing with Carmine DiAdamo, owner of the two buildings housing the Lawrence Public Schools offices. The article explains that the current lease, signed in November 2003 by former School Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy and former Mayor Michael Sullivan, called for the school department to pay an initial annual rent of $344,300 with regular increases according to tax assessments, which at present is $380,000 annually.
Attorney DiAdamo told me that according to the lease, the city is responsible financially for the condition of the buildings and maintain the interior and exterior as well as being responsible for maintenance and repairs.
The article also states that, “at the current lease rate of $380,000 per year, the cost per square foot is about $9.50 per square foot. The Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board is paying $15 per square foot at 439 South Union Street and the planning and development departments are paying $14 per square foot at 225 Essex Street.”
Attorney DiAdamo is now suing the City of Lawrence for five million dollars because the city has failed to keep up with the building’s maintenance and it will require a lot of money to bring it back to the condition it should have been left once they move out.
Now, where do we have sufficient space to house the school department, community development, planning and inspectional services? And, would it be for less than what we are paying at present? I have my suspicions but I don’t want to speculate.
Please read the article on CommonWealthmagazine.org.
