Left In Lowell

Open Thread

6 Responses to “Open Thread”

1. James Says:
   September 14th, 2005 at 2:42 pm

   Awesome, I will definitely put some flyers up at UMass-Lowell. I feel so out of the loop between work and school now, and I didn’t even know that you had gone ahead and decided to host a chapter of Drinking Liberally.

2. GOLDIE Says:
   September 14th, 2005 at 6:30 pm

   My apologies folks! The reappointment for the Planning Brd. Chairman is in 2006…But in regards to laste venings, CC mtg..I have to say that Howe did get piled on for sure..perhaps to take the focus off of themselves and their own lack of spine..except of course for Millinazzo.
   I think that Howe’s suggestion had Merit in regards to the No consumption of alcohol when using city vehicles.
   Cox is “hoping” that people use commonsense.
   As we all know, this is not always the case..I am very sure that the mgr. routinely meets in restaurants and has a few..
   So, technically, if a city employee was caught driving his vehicle having consumed an excessive amount of alcohol and say for hypothesis sake…the city moves to fire him and then that person turns around and by all rights could say…No you can’t, according to “XYZ” Employee Handbook, I haven’t violated any standards.
   OR WORSE:
   This employee throws back a few too many & kills someone…well then the vistims family could conceivably turn around & sue the city blind, because the city had nothing in its regs about this…
   Boy I think too much sometimes! : )
   Ouch, my brain hurts.

3. GOLDIE Says:
   September 14th, 2005 at 9:57 pm

   I apologize for the misspellings…my spell checker does not work on my PC and I did write very rapidly. My mind is too fast for my fingers!

4. Lynne Says:
   September 15th, 2005 at 12:56 pm

   Thanks James, I have no time at all for postering, I’ve been flying all over the place so I probably forgot to send you a direct email with the info! Glad you caught it.

   I don’t know the legal aspects of needing such a policy, but it couldn’t hurt, that’s for sure. Like I said, it’s easy to dismiss Howe as crazy old man, but I do fear that when he’s gone that’ll be it - the only thing that will remove Cox is changing the charter, which is a hard task though not impossible.

5. No one you know Says:
   September 15th, 2005 at 8:33 pm

   So, why is the policy regarding drinking and the use of city vehicles a bad idea?

   John Cox has a home at Hampton Beach.

   I was not aware of this until I actually got behind him in traffic headed to the beach. Cox was driving his city owned black Crown Vic with police license plates!

   When I went past his house, the city owned vehcile was the only one in the driveway.

   Lynne’s report on the city council meeting indicated that the council and Cox said there were not many people who had a city vehicle at their disposal, perhaps that is true on a 24/7 basis, however every city employee that drives a car or truck as part of their job…well, I guess they don’t count. (Certainly the city manager doesn’t count!)

   Wanna bet that if one of the lower eschelon folks is caught with alchohol in their vehcile they’d be excused or fired?

   Wanna bet the “report” doesn’t see the light of day?

6. Narey Says:
   September 16th, 2005 at 12:39 pm

   I do agree with Goldie that now the spineless Councilors are piling on Howe. They are trying to take the attention away from their collective failure to lead this city and be responsive to all the people’s needs, not just those “connected.” They have abdicated to Cox for various reasons - from personal gains to political ambitions.

   I do not know if Millinazzo will emerge as a the one to keep the Administration in check. I do not see anyone else on the present Council. Our hopes is to make one or two changes in that Council in the fall.

   A Charter change is nearly impossible.

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