By Dalia Díaz
This community needs a watchdog, and in absence of a watchdog organization we have the responsibility to watch how the taxpayers’ money is being spent.
Since the Community Liaison Director’s position was approved, we have questioned why we need this glorified social workers position. Not one mayor prior to Rivera has seen the need to have a Community Liaison Director’s position. I am wondering if this is another favor to someone to make between 80K and 95K in a state pension plan. This reminds me the school department circa Wilfredo Laboy, where anybody who needed to complete months or years of service with their pension plan could find a job within the school department.
I have a problem with the title of this position too, because it has a tittle of Director. Director of what department? Director of what team? Who would she be directing? Does the word of Director is used to justify the salary? The Community Liaison Director will be a non-union position, to be appointed by the Mayor, Ding, Ding, and Ding! Do you smell political favor pay back? This person will report directly to the Chief of Police. This person or should I say woman, will plan and implement the Lawrence Police Department’s efforts to prevent, deter, and investigate domestic violence. I cannot help challenging this effort.
Lawrence has three organizations that receive public funds to deal with the domestic violence issue. These organizations are Women Resources Center, Fina House, Delamano Inc. and the YWCA which has an advocacy program dealing with domestic violence. In addition to that, the Essex District Attorney’s Office provides a Victim & Witness Assistance program offering a wide range of services to crime victims and their family members dealing with domestic violence.
The mission/vision of these programs is almost identical: “Our primary purpose is to be one of the many forces dedicated to the elimination of violence against women and children,” Women Resources Center. Delamano’s vision is “through intervention & education we may eliminate domestic violence”. Fina House provides “housing opportunities and social services for some of the most vulnerable women and families in our community: survivors of domestic and/or sexual violence and their children”. The YWCA Court and Legal Advocacy Project in conjunction with The Essex District Attorney’s Office employs two full-time Court and Legal Advocates, including bilingual advocates housed full-time in the Lawrence District Court building to work with Domestic Violence cases. This program states in their mission statement that they are working to educate local police departments and court personnel about domestic violence.
The new Director is going to work under the chief of police and in the police station. Isn’t this a duplication of services? Do we really need this position? Or do we have a bigger problem that we are not told about. I asked our acting Police Chief Roy Vasque for some statistic. Mr. Vasque who immediately responded to my request told me that, “The city responded to 1,203 Domestic calls last year. 152 calls turned into Aggravated Assaults. We served 1,396 Restraining Orders.” Chief Vasque added that the “Total Missing Persons is 563, and the majority of those are children.”
I also asked him for a monthly average resulting in “about 125 domestic type calls per month and 46 missing persons per month.” We are going to employ someone for 160 hrs. per month to work on 125 calls? Shouldn’t this be a half time position?
The Director will be working with missing, run away, and exploited children. One of the worst cases of missing children was that of Lee Manuel Viloria Paulino here in Lawrence. This case was horrendous, and the way it was handled was pitiful. According to Chief Vasque we have a total of 563 Missing Persons last year. The majority of those missing are children. We have an average of 46 missing persons per month. This turns out to be 1.5 cases per day. The job description outlines what this person is going to do with these 1.5 cases per day, mostly disseminating this information to all the organizations, departments, and social media. My question is: can the chief’s secretary send a huge email to disseminate this information and save us some money?
The rest of this job description looks to me that came straight from the resume of the person who’s going to get the job and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. I read this job description three times and I really don’t understand the need to pay someone 80K-95K to do what others are doing. Mayor Rivera wouldn’t this money be better off in the budget of existing organization doing the work and let’s save the benefit and pension money? Grant eighty thousand to the YWCA, Delamano, Fina House and others doing this work and let’s not try again with a novice on the job like you had done in the last four years.
This position was posted by sending it to several non-profit organizations, State employment agencies and Twitter. The interviews are this Friday, February 23 but we know who’s going to be selected: a campaign worker and contributor to the mayor.
