“I made you mayor!”
That’s the phrase that no one repeats.
Yes, there was an article on the local newspaper revealing what the State House News Service had published and that was the end. No one is to talk about it or question its meaning. The Secretary of State William Galvin refuses to talk to the media on that subject and nobody else is asking Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera why he said that Secretary Galvin told him that in a private telephone conversation.
During the first election of 2013, the rumors of improprieties were rampant so this time, during the 2017 contest, candidates as well as voters took precautions to prevent similar things from happening. The end result was that there were witnesses of wrongdoings, videos of people stealing absentee voting ballots from mailboxes, complaints of strong-arming the elderly while filling out their ballots and vote for Rivera, but in the end no one was willing to testify.
Some elders have said that the volunteers helping them fill out the ballot marked Rivera’s name when they meant to vote for Lantigua. When confronted with their right to say it was wrong their answer invariably was, “I didn’t want to embarrass her” and left it like that.
I wrote about seeing the warden on my polling place at the Frost School holding a stack of absentee ballots, according to her. They were opened, there were no envelopes (this is against the procedure) and she was going to process them through the machine. I called the city attorney and city clerk who ran over and she just said that she has always done it like that. Nothing happened! Who is to say that they were legitimate or fake ballots? Imagine if that happened at other polling places as well. Those ballots would account for the lead taken by Rivera.
During the 2017 election some of the residents who took measures to prevent cheating told me of the evidence they had gathered. No matter how many times I asked to see it, they promised they would provide it and never did. Some of those people were holding out in search of a job that never came because Rivera knew they were playing both ends in the middle and he only compensates those who risked their honor to serve him.
People live in fear of losing their jobs, of not having their streets plowed as revenge. Rivera behaves like a real CEO: This city belongs to him and distributes jobs, favors, city land and wealth of taxpayers at whim.
If you wonder how it got this bad, I’ll tell you. This city has the politicians it deserves. We have a City Council made up of mostly coconspirators who won’t ask for explanations of anything the mayor does.
The mayor violates laws and ordinances at will and they are never questioned by the council. The DPW pervert Theodoro Rosario was hired on an interim basis and that status allows for his salary to be at the minimum range until he becomes permanent. Well, he now made him permanent and gave him a $15,000 raise but also made it retroactive to December.
Now we read the JEERS from the local newspaper criticizing that move but they were just as much coconspirators in getting him elected – twice.
The City Council holds the purse strings and could reverse many of his actions but none of them is willing to bring it up. Everybody wants to play footsy with the mayor, perhaps looking for something, too. This city is loaded with hypocrites and cowards!
Speaking of cowardice, Jennifer Lopez had sufficient reason for filing charges against Theodoro Rosario after Lawrence Police issued a warrant to appear in court on August 26, 2017 for threatening her with harm. Instead of going ahead, she received some telephone calls “convincing” her that she or her son could get hurt more if she went ahead with the court date. This is how criminals get away with everything: When we protect them by intimidating witnesses.
Just imagine for a moment if William Lantigua had said that about Secretary Galvin. Every State and Federal office in the country would have landed on Lawrence investigating the meaning of it, ready to convict based on the appearance of corruption. This comment would have caused so much commotion that the investigation would have triggered an assembly of a grand jury by summer. However, everyone is silent including William Lantigua, his campaign manager and his committee.
I remember in 2013 and beyond the committee that we thought helped elect the mayor was walking around town like peacocks all happy and proud of their work. They attacked everyone that didn’t like the mayor. Today, we know that their efforts probably did not influence the election at all; it was the Secretary of State William Galvin’s hand according to Rivera’s statement.
It’s our money Mayor Rivera!
Like a perfect CEO, not a real estate owner Rivera is disposing of our land, buildings and money at will. We are seeing the case of the lot across from the police station that will be purchased at a huge profit for Dr. Joel Gorn. I don’t know one real estate investor in this town that would pay that kind of obscene money for those lots. Next is the construction at the Oliver School on Haverhill St. and the fate of the three lots behind the building on Oak St. is still to be seen.
I checked the appraised value according to the city records and they are as follows:
92 Oak St.
Owned by Junior Rozón (City Councilor Estela Reyes’ business partner) is 3,225 sq. ft. and it was sold for $3,300 by the mayor, personally. Current value $3,700.
96-98 Oak St.
Owned by the Lawrence Redevelopment Authority is 3,000 sq. ft and is valued at $4,400.
104-106 Oak St.
Owned by the Lawrence Redevelopment Authority is 3,400 sq. ft and is valued at $6,600.
The two lots owned by the LRA appeared on the agenda for the February 21, 2018 meeting with the notation “Reyes potential sale.” They noticed there were some people in the audience who were waiting to see how this would be handled and it was tabled, instead.
Can you see the corruption? First we pay Dr. Gorn, creating a precedent and then we have to pay Councilor Reyes whatever she estimates the real value to be for the three lots. After all, she is one who lost many shoe soles walking through the elderly buildings collecting ballots to favor the mayor. In other cities and towns politicians have gone to jail for less.
Oh, the LCAT saga!
I hate turning on the local channels controlled by Lawrence Community Access Television (Comcast 8 and Verizon 42) but I have to do it to see how our money is being wasted.
A few days ago, there was a tape of a young Kathy Rodgers at the public library talking about the LEAP Program. She later became the director of Northern Essex Community College Lawrence Campus. She retired, and moved to New Mexico several years ago. I assume that tape was about 15 years old. They probably thought when they looking for something to fill the time slot that people wouldn’t know the difference.
And to think that we all pay more than $3 each month in our cable bill to support those salaries!
Go to their website and see that the next training session posted there is the one held last October 2017. No shame!
But then again, I blame the public for not fighting back.
No common sense
This week, someone had a baby and announced it to a large group of colleagues without using BCC on the email. Immediately, people started with the congratulations by pressing “Reply to All” instead of just “Reply.” Well, my finger got a blister pressing the delete button.
People don’t learn and have no common sense. They don’t realize that our mailboxes get filled up with “Congratulations” that are not for us?
