My thoughts on the ‘debate’
Here is my opinion about what went on at Lawrence High School’s Performing Arts Center, last Monday, September 9th. I am making it clear that this column is about my opinion because someone approached me at the end accusing me of being biased in my writings. I attack everybody and endorse no one.
Also, there was someone up front repeatedly saying that Rumbo would twist the results of the debate. There is nothing to twist and because it was so uninteresting, we decided to just translate the article written by Marc Vogler for The Eagle- Tribune instead of drafting a similar one. Even though it was called a debate, it was a long way from being so. It was more like a forum, or a period of questions and answers.
From the planning stages, I said that it was unfair asking the same question of all the candidates because three of them have held public office while three others have not. The experience of having gone through that allows them more understanding and knowledge on the issues than those entering the political arena for the first time. I also asked if it would be televised or broadcast live on the radio because they have done so in the past with simultaneous translation. There were no plans to do either. I was told that the school system had no way of transmitting live TV like when they do the School Committee meetings, so it will be taped for future showing on Lawrence Community Access Television.
Well, an entire week went by, Election Day is tomorrow and nothing yet. Maybe we’ll see it on New Year’s Eve. Now you probably will understand that this is all an intentional effort to keep an entire community ignorant by not informing them.
I would have liked to ask individual questions based on what I know of each one and we would have gotten to know them much better. There was no pressure on them and even when we knew they were lying or mistaken, no one called them to task. It would have been different also if the panel had been made up of local news people. Things would have taken a different route with Lou Blasi or Jim Carter of WCCM-AM 1110. They follow the news at the station and are on top of local political issues, not just personalities.
Some of the candidates said that they will fire Patrick Blanchette and hire a professional economic development director. Don’t they know that if Lantigua goes, so goes Blanchette for being part of his cabinet? Those things sound good but to a thinking voter are dumb.
Particularly of interest was when James Patrick O’Donoghue stated that the city replaced a funeral director with a pharmacist. Mr. Cortnoir was not chased out of Lawrence. He decided to leave on his own accord after his court appearance for shooting at people in the street. Mr. O’Donoghue said, “If this were Boston we’d have a high rise”. Well, we are not in Boston. We are Lawrence.
He stated that he would champion jobs for all types of people. He basically said that even if it’s the lowest type job, people needed it. However, when asked about economic development he slammed the CVS sales clerk jobs. The CVS deal took over five years to come together (see article on The Eagle- Tribune ‘Deal for Broadway CVS took 5 years’ published on February 18, 2011). It began when the owner of the funeral home started shooting at a crowd of a nearby night club and then decided he was to move out of Lawrence. Negotiations started immediately afterwards when CVS wanted to open in that same corner. The problem was that CVS required more land space that the funeral home had available. Therefore, CVS official started to negotiate with the firefighters to buy the Firefighter’s Inn. The firefighters not only wanted more than $1 million, but wanted CVS to buy the Knights of Columbus property for them, which became their new location. They wanted more money than it was worth.
O’Donoghue sounded like a caller who criticized me during my radio program. When I asked him if he has seen what I write in this column he said that he doesn’t read Rumbo. Well, there goes his argument! O’Donoghue said that if elected, he would sit down with the state-appointed overseer to get a detailed assessment of the city’s financial situation because it has not been made available to the public. All he needs to do is ask for a copy of the Fiscal Overseer Review and Report that Robert G. Nunes presented to the City Council on April 16, 2013. I can email it to him if he wishes. No, I am not picking on Mr. O’Donoghue. He made the most foolish comments.
The forum ended early and we still had questions to be asked, such as: How would you stop police brutality? Would you suspend without pay an officer who beats up someone under his custody or rapes a woman in his car right outside the station? Please note that they all agreed on raising the property tax, if necessary. Some suggestions were made regarding cost savings but nothing specific. In general, they all provided opinions but no plan on how they were going to do any of their ideas.
Credit, credit, credit!
During the ribbon-cutting of the playground at Campagnone Common, District F Councilor Marc Laplante, former chairman of the Lawrence Redevelopment Authority, distributed a press release clarifying that, it was he and the Sullivan Administration who started planning for this renovation. Please read Susan Fink’s comments on page 8 which are in disagreement with Laplante’s.
All governments at any level work continuously in projects that may be completed by the next one. Laplante’s insistence on giving credit to Sullivan four years after he left his post forces me to wonder why he kept quiet all that time regarding admitting that they also left a $24.5M deficit. That is a fact as well as the $9.7M stolen by the Information Technologies Department. I did not make that up. Bryan Cahoon pled guilty on a lesser charge to avoid a trial and a longer sentence. That happened during the last four years of the Sullivan Administration and Councilor Laplante has never asked for an investigation.
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