Personnel Committee – Breda Daou
I watched the Personnel Committee meeting on Monday night, September 12 and there was the confusion that characterizes many of those meetings.
They were there to approve the dismissal of City Assessor Breda Daou. Finance Director Mark Ianello realized that she doesn’t live in Lawrence and ask Mayor Rivera to submit her name to City Council for consideration to terminate employment because there is a city ordinance requiring that Assessors reside within the City of Lawrence.. The City recently fired another assessor, Belkis Jimenez, for not being able to pass a state test. Ms. Jimenez is a resident of North Andover but that was not an issue at that time.
The reason for the confusion during the meeting was that the City Charter does establish that all board members, except Airport Commission and Library Board of Trustees, be a resident of Lawrence. However, the Assessors have been treated more as employees. Although the position requirements indicates residency the City’s job postings have never indicated residency requirements.
During the initial hiring of Ms. Daou, residency was required for many positions until a vote to eliminate residency requirement was passed for all employees. She has since moved outside of the City. But, ordinance for Boards, Commissions, and Committees have never changed. Some of the candidates currently interviewing for the vacant assessor position, are not Lawrence residents. That became known when Mrs. Daou’s husband spoke before the councilors during the Personnel sub-committee meeting on Monday.
Personnel Director Frank Bonet suggested that there are three options for the City Council to consider: 1) Updating the ordinance; 2) discharging the employee or; 3) have Ms. Daou move into the City.
I asked Director Bonet about the residency on job postings and he responded that “Anyone can apply to be considered for the Assessor position, but the offer of employment will include requiring the selected individual to move into the City if they are not currently a resident.”
He also indicated that all of the Assessors were residents of the City when originally hired. He was not in office during the time when two assessors moved out of the City. It was only during the recent job posting of the current vacancy that the question was asked and researched.
There was a doubt as to whether the mayor has authority to fire a city assessor, under the City Charter 3.7(b). According to the City Charter, that becomes the City Council’s responsibility 3.8.
Since it may involve taking into consideration of two or more options the document was divided into two different committees of the city council. The matter was divided to be studied by the Personnel and the Ordinances committees. The decision was postponed until the city attorney can provide them an opinion.
Firefighter Carberry
Last September 6, police was called to the home of Joseph Carberry, a Lawrence fire lieutenant who was arguing with his wife, drunk and threatening to harm her. When the officers arrived, Carberry ordered his dog to attack and they had to shoot the animal. He had shot himself on his leg with a .375 magnum revolver and was taken to Lawrence General Hospital.
Upon searching the home, they found an arsenal, all appear to be legally owned but along with that was a sawed off shotgun with an overall length of under 26” and a barrel under 18” which makes it illegal to possess without the proper paperwork.
WWW.ATF.gov offers information on the National Firearms Act (NFA). According to the NFA, “(1) a shotgun having a barrel or barrels of less than 18 inches in length; (2) a weapon made from a shotgun if such a weapon as modified has an overall length of less than 26 inches or a barrel or barrels of less than 18 inches in length.” Based on information obtained by Rumbo, the shotgun appears to meet both requirements.
The question remains, did the Lawrence Police Department check the list of legally owned, registered firearms as they were going through the arsenal in Carberry’s home? The question is, was the sawed-off shotgun registered and legally owned?
While in the hospital he reportedly had visitors. A person in Lawrence Police custody for a violent crime involving a firearm was allowed visitors. That was until Sergeant Maurice Aguiler took action and ended the visits.
Carberry was arraigned on the following charges: Discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building; Threat to commit a crime; Assault with a dangerous weapon; and disorderly conduct and remains without bail.
The bullet went through his leg, shattering the bone that stuck out through the other side and he is in for a lengthy recovery.
But I have a question regarding the sawed off shotgun. Why didn’t they charge him with owning that weapon along with the other charges? That alone is a felony and carries a 5-year sentence.
Those are sufficient reasons for firing. The mayor has managed to come up with excuses to fire employees who have done much less than that. At least he’s consistent and never fails to show preferential treatment of certain people.
Brady Sullivan and Pacific Mills
New Hampshire Public Radio reported on the state of politics and political contributions in that state since the creation of a loophole that “lets individuals with multiple corporate alter-egos donate up to $7,000 in the name of each business. And thanks to that loophole, real estate interests’ account for more than a third of the $1 million in cash collected by Gatsas’ campaign so far.” (Ted Gatsas is the mayor of Manchester, NH who is now running for governor.
Among the Manchester-based companies that have used it to give money to Gatsas is Brady Sullivan Properties, owner of Pacific Mills on Canal St., Lawrence. This is the building where contaminated trash from his Manchester building was dumped in the basement.
The NPR continues, “The company, which is the subject of investigations by state and federal regulators for alleged illegal dumping of toxic waste, funneled $53,000 to Gatsas via 10 LLCs. Brady Sullivan is also being sued by tenants of a refurbished Manchester mill building who say they were exposed to dangerous levels of lead dust.
In Brady Sullivan’s case, an on-going investigation by the New Hampshire Attorney General into the company’s alleged environmental violations may hinge on the next governor — and whoever who he or she appoints to lead that office.”
No loyalty in politics
In politics, loyalty is everything; however, in Lawrence that philosophy goes out the window as soon as a candidate loses. Political newcomer Juana Matias toppled State Representative Marcos Devers in the Democratic Primary in the 16th Essex District that represents parts of our city.
Rep. Devers and Mayor Rivera were twins of Lawrence politics for the last three years. Where you saw one you saw the other. We even stopped responding to the mayor’s “press conferences” because they were nothing more than photo ops for Devers. On the day of the Primary Election, Mayor Daniel Rivera’s staff went into action to help him get reelected. Wendy Luzon’s Facebook page filled up with photos of Devers and her. She changed her profile picture to one of her and Devers. She spent two days urging her friends to vote for him during working hours.
Rivera’s City Hall staff was outside polling places trying to influence voters to vote for Devers. Mayor Rivera, his wife, and their son, were visible doing their part. No matter the tumultuous effort, Devers lost in a landslide to Juana Matias. Out of sight, out of mind.
“I’m a loyal guy,” Mayor Rivera told the Eagle-Tribune. However, his campaign president sends the opposite message. “The time for the Lantiguas and Devers is over and we need to transition to a younger generation, educated here in the United States,” she stated to the Tribune. Not even 24 hours passed and Luzon changed her picture with Devers to a picture of Delamano.
Devers has served since winning a special election in 2010 to replace William Lantigua, who gave up his House seat and supported him to succeed him. Soon after that Devers forgot his loyalty to Lantigua and moved on. I guess what goes around comes around. It remains to be seen if all these friends will continue to be friends after the “love and power” are gone.
My error – and apologies
Attorney Richard Rodriguez was very kind in an email he sent me with a correction on the article about increasing parking fines in handicapped spaces from $100 to $300. He said, “I noticed a typo when the article was published. It states, “Jovanny Rodriguez, Chairman of the Ordinances Committee surveyed and analyzed over 80 municipalities’ traffic and parking ordinances. It should have stated: Chairman Rodriguez (me) surveyed and analyzed over 80 municipalities’ traffic and parking ordinances.”
That was not a ‘typo’! It was a big mistake.
But that was not enough! In my column about the Elections Department, I gave a promotion to the City Clerk William Maloney and referred to him as City Attorney.
Leave it to Charlie!
We’ve seen these signs many times and understood what they said, never realizing that they are not grammatically correct. Leave it to Attorney Charles Boddy, (an American) to point out two signs in Lawrence District Court. The translation of Cashiers Office should be “Cajera” not just “Box”. The other one says “Northeast” which should be “Noreste”. Instead they wrote “Noroeste” which means “Northwest.”
