Getting along together
Last week we published an announcement from Mayor Dan Rivera and Police Chief Roy Vasque explaining how they will be using $600,000 with the youth of our community. Some people asked me why I was so nice to them but they don’t understand that it was a press release that I translated without editorializing.
That was not the time for my opinion.
Now, it is.
The purpose is to Strengthen Youth-Officer Relations, something that should be part of a day’s work. I don’t understand the need for more money; they call it training but I believe it’s more like common sense.
Perhaps they are going to do their “connecting” with the youth by working overtime. Maybe it’s going to salaries for “consultants” to teach them the proper way to talk to kids.
Good community relations IS part of their job.
The Tale of 3 cities
Welcome to July 1st, the beginning of FY21.
I want to show you the difference between Haverhill, Methuen and Lawrence and how they handle their financial woes. This responsibility falls directly on the City Council of each city demonstrating their concern for the residents while providing adequate services to everyone.
In Haverhill, they could not agree and decided to vote for a 1/12 budget, giving the city sufficient funding to run and pay bills, instead of shutting down. Now, they have the entire month of July to study alternatives to pass the entire budget for Fiscal Year ’21.
Mayor Neil Perry could not have come at a worst time to Methuen City Hall. His city is struggling with a $7 million deficit and he’s preparing a list of layoffs that will take place on August 1.
While they continue to work together for a solution during July, the City council voted 9-0 for a 1/12 budget allowing the city to keep functioning.
But in Lawrence, (Oh God, Lawrence!) they did a lot of talking, fought a little not a lot, listen to Danny and the final vote was 6-3 approving the budget without a single change.
The big difference is that Haverhill and Methuen are looking for ways to protect the taxpayers and in Lawrence, they increased property taxes by 2.5%.
Increasing a budget loaded with pay increases for department heads and other friends and no one suggested holding back those raises.
Voting YES: Celina Reyes, Maria De La Cruz, Estela Reyes, Kendrys Vasquez, David Abdoo and Marc Laplante.
Voting NO: Ana Levy, Pavel Payano and Jeovanny Rodriguez.
City Council needs a raise
At the June 22nd City Council meeting, when the 2.5% tax increase was approved without any reductions, there was something outrageous going on that probably few of you know about.
District A City Councilor María De La Cruz mentioned that the council should get a raise.
Talk about the worse councilor on that board asking for more money! This woman says the most ridiculous things and just recently she had to be told to shut up because she started talking about something that was not being discussed.
She doesn’t know what’s going on at the meetings half the times. I remember one night they just finished voting about something when she went to the next item on the agenda and she was told, “That’s what we just voted on.”
When it comes to voting, she votes for whatever the Master Dan wants without even thinking about consequences.
She keeps her telephone number secret and I finally found it when it was posted on Facebook (978-303-7243) in the list of all councilors and their phone numbers.
Councilor De La Cruz claims to be active in her community but if we check, she is only active with her neighborhood association and appears only in time for a photo op.
Well, she figured that now the city will have lots of money to spend with the tax increase and feel deserving of a portion of that money. What a nerve!
Mail-in Voting
For a few weeks, I have been warning about the perils involved in mail-in voting. Now that Senate Bill S2755 was approved by the Massachusetts Legislature, as I understand it, anyone can request an absentee ballot and there will not be a separate ballot to be mailed.
Meanwhile, in states where it has been approved, there have been several cases of people arrested for cheating on those ballots. Stealing them, filling them out and signing for those people to whom they were mailed. Several people have been arrested all over the country for tampering with the ballots, which is a federal offense.
A great story on race relations
Please take a look at my Facebook page and see the public service announcement entitled P&G: The Look. It’s a silent video about a Black man in different situations where people “look” at him with a surprising ending. Powerful!
That reminded me of a movie appropriate for the times we are living.
Allow me to recommend it as a great movie because is very in-tune with the current racial problems in this country.
Finding Forrester starring Sean Connery plays a reclusive author who becomes a mentor to a young Black prodigy.
Rob Brown plays the young man’s struggles at his Manhattan University to impress a bitter teacher and the interplay between the two rings with honesty and authenticity.
Have an uplifting experience and see that there’s hope in this world.
Francisco Ureña, the scapegoat
We have all heard the news about Francisco having to resign from his job as Secretary of Veterans Services. Alberto and I would like to add to the list of people who are appalled about this action from Governor Charlie Baker.
Please take the time to read the opinion piece published by The Lowell Sun and which we reproduced on page 5.
Since he is term-limited and cannot run again, the governor is granting favors and positions to his friends. Let’s hope that something good for Lawrence will come out of this decision.
