From My Corner: November 8, 2021

Elections are over!
If anyone believes that now is the time to relax, enjoy the world around us just because there’s a new administration, is terribly mistaken. While we can put the candidate signs away, there is a new dilemma bursting out. That’s the redistribution of districts.
Come next elections, we may have to vote at a different polling place and a new rat race will begin. With the creation of a District 19, some of the names that we have been seeing running for others posts will be running for State Representative of this new district.
We’ll be selecting a State Senator since Barry Finegold will finally be out of Lawrence. Come to think about it, I believe that it would be a real advantage if instead of selecting one senator and one representative, there was a clean plate and pick all three. Most of you will find my words harsh but they all proved to us that they don’t know what they are doing. Perhaps they were in such a rush to screw the public last December that made a mess out of that Home Rule Petition.
They felt insulted by me because I called them “traitors” (Finegold, Rivera, Morán, Devers, Minicucci, and Gov. Baker, but who cares?) for selling out our rights to holding a special election. Now we realized that they never consulted the City Charter to create the rules for the winner of the November election to take charge. We should include our City Council who signed it the day after it had been approved by the Legislature and Governor Baker. Bunch of traitors all!
The politicians who created that farce didn’t even know they were violating Massachusetts General Laws when they wrote that, “The mayoral candidate elected in the regularly scheduled 2021 municipal election shall be immediately seated, administered the oath of office, and assume all the powers of mayor immediately upon the proper certification by the board of registrars, and serve for the balance of the then unexpired term of mayor.”
It is obvious that they were accommodating Kendrys Vasquez to continue at the helm and, not expecting someone else to win our smart legislators didn’t bother to check that the Board of Registrars meets ten days after Election Day in case there are complaints or requests of a recount. Had they taken the time to compare it to the City Charter, they would have made a request for the Board to meet the day after for the purpose of administering the oath of office, pending the rest of the procedures, in case the plan backfired.
It was a sloppy, careless, inconsiderate document that wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. That’s why I wonder how many times these legislators pulled the woolen over our eyes, about things they pretend to be well versed on.
I can only say that a new chapter is beginning – hopefully, this time it won’t involve corruption.

Now, pick up your signs
We have an ordinance requiring all political signs to be removed within 30 days once elections pass. Some signs have been left year after year to the point they are discolored, becoming part of the local scene and we don’t notice them.
Inspectional Services claims not to have sufficient personnel to go after these violators. That’s not an appropriate answer because it has an easy solution: hire more people. The fines imposed to politicians who fail to remove their signs more than will pay for the inspector’s salary.
We have been suggesting that for a long time to control the number of weekend warriors doing major upgrades and repairs when there are no inspectors around. It’s understood that they don’t want to pay for city permits to do that work legally, but very often work done illegally is not done correctly putting the families at the peril of electrical fire or other mishaps

Question on the ballot
The question on the ballot this year about overriding the 2 ½% property tax did not pass. The votes were: YES 4696 and NO 4925. It was an emotional issue because we all want new schools for our children but there are ways to obtain a new building without rejecting the protection that Proposition 2-1/2 offers and get into more debt borrowing $43 million.

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