With a Charter Objection expressed by Council Member at-Large Brian DePeña, on the night of August 21st, 2018, ended the discussion to select the next City Attorney between Eileen Bernal and Brian Corrigan.
The next morning, August 22, Brian DePeña appeared on the radio program “El Cafecito de la Mañana”, produced by Mr. Santiago Matías on 1490 A.M. where he explained that he had made that decision since the mood was heated and it was best to bring before the council, not only Bernal and Corrigan, but also Raquel Ruano, who is, in his opinion, the most qualified to hold the position of City Attorney.
We share Mr. DePeña’s opinion about Mrs. Bernal, who was born and raised in Lawrence, that she is the ‘Poster Girl’ of the Residency Law, which was voted unanimously by the residents of Lawrence, which has not been implemented by order of her boss, Mayor Daniel Rivera, but in this case it does not make her the best.
During the session, both Bernal and Corrigan were called to answer the classic question: Why are you the ideal candidate to occupy the position of City Attorney. Mrs. Bernal read her story from a document. Born and raised in Lawrence, she has worked during several years doing real estate work in Barry Finegold’s office and in some board of directors, besides being a city councilor prior to becoming Mayor Rivera’s Chief of Staff.
In his participation, Corrigan spoke about the experience gained as an Assistant to the Lawyer of the City of Lawrence, since December 2015 where he took part in some 100 cases representing the city as well as in his private practice. In his improvisation, Corrigan showed openness despite being convinced that he is not the candidate of Mayor Rivera’s preference, since he has expressed his partiality for lawyer Eileen Bernal.
We hope that when the council meets again to discuss the issue of the City Attorney, the councilors unanimously decide bringing before the people, the three lawyers selected to hear from them directly and without secrecy their answers and thus be able to reach to a conclusion about the score that each of the candidates obtained.
The public is curious to know if the members of the Personnel Committee were prejudiced when it came to giving each candidate a score.
If Attorney Corrigan scored the highest (389) based on his experience and the way he answered the questions, then the numbers of each of the councilors should not be very different.
The same happened with Bernal (367) and Ruano (353). They raised or lowered the score during the interviews making their favorite shine in the total sum. Had they been fair, the differences would have been minimal.
The process was apparently simple. Each question carried a weight: 3 – Critical/Vital to success at work; 2 – Very important; 1 – Important.
Afterwards, they had to mark their preferential position for each one: 5 – Superior; 4 – Excellent; 3 – Good; 2 – Regular; 1 – Poor.
When Personnel Director Frank Bonet tabulated the individual results, it was obvious the game they had played. Everyone was pushing for their favorite.
Corrigan, however, was placed third by District E Councilor, David Abdoo, and placed Attorney Bernal first with a score lower than 367 and Ruano in second place with 353.
Also, Councilor for District C and President of the Council Kendrys Vásquez preferred Bernal with lower score placing Corrigan in second place and Ruano in third.
On the other hand Councilor at-Large Brian DePeña placed Raquel Ruano in first place, although he obtained only 353 points, placing Bernal and Corrigan in 2nd and 3rd place, respectively. During his appearance on the program “El Cafecito de la Mañana”, he said that in his opinion, Ruano, with 20 years of legal practice, is the only one who, during her 5 years working in the Legal Department, has experience in litigation in Federal and State courtrooms. In addition, the responsibility of Acting City Attorney fell on her shoulders with the departure of Attorney Charles Boddy who resigned his position last May and for several months when the mayor didn’t want to renew his contract, she took over the department.
The Councilwoman for District A, María de La Cruz, was the only one who placed the three candidates according to the score obtained: Corrigan, Bernal and Ruano by sheer coincidence since she was the only one to choose him in first place.
We know that Attorney Bernal has been in direct contact with the councilors, asking them for a vote of support. We know that Mayor Daniel Rivera, although legally cannot and should not interfere in the election of the City Attorney, has done so, ignoring how only he knows, the rules established in the City Charter.
