Left In Lowell

According to the City Council agenda, CC Jim Milinazzo has filed a “motion of reconsideration” on the motion filed by CC A. Kazanjian to reduce/eliminate the position of Assistant to the City Manager. I do not know if there are enough votes to reconsider this motion and overturn it. It would mean that two of the six Councilors who voted for this motion would have to change their vote. I think all this talk of “laughter” during the layoff is some people’s attempt to divert the discussion.

I did have a spirited discussion with CC R. Elliott when we saw each other at CC K. Broderick’s kick-off campaign party last week. I am going to give Rodney the benefit of a doubt. During our talk, he reminded me that he has every year presented cuts in the budget and received little or no support. Perhaps he thought this cut was one of many to come. But if he and other Councilors did not know what Andy Sheehan’s responsibilities were, they should have mentioned it before; especially when they made a big issue of the manager’s communication style back in January when they passed a motion to that effect.

I am pessimistic about tomorrow night’s vote. I do not think it will be reversed but I do believe that a change is coming this fall. There are a number of factors that give me this sense of optimism. (more…)

To those of us who follow the antics of the editor of the Sun were not surprised with some of the comments that appeared in today’s the Column. And how do I know which paragraphs were his, well he was on Warren Shaw’s Saturday radio show on WCAP and basically said the same thing, word for word. “Connect the dots…blah, blah, blah.”

I wish the stations’ web site had a section of archived podcasts so those of you who missed it, could get the full impact. The man is delusional.

Some of my favorite comments were his joking about not receiving a check from the station’s ownership for his appearances. He should be the one paying them. And how hypocritical; the only time the paper has ever mentioned the station was questioning its ratings. But he has no problems getting on the air to continue his brand of ethically-challenged journalism.

While discussing lay-offs and budget cuts, her referred to the School Superintendent as a “clear thinker”; as for the City Manager, well he is a “poor communicator.” You see, if you do not run to the editor and seeks his advice, you are a poor communicator and if you do, well you are a clear thinker.

During the conversation with the co-hosts, the editor mentioned a rumor that he heard about the behavior of Andy Sheehan. So do you think this journalist would have picked up the phone and call Sheehan to get his view, no. He just repeated the unsubstantiated rumor.

My favorite comments were the ones about negative atmosphere at City Hall. I cracked up laughing. Yes, at the Sun, they have group hugs, peace and love dominates the atmosphere. This editor is the last person to lecture anyone about creating a positive work environment.

And for those of you who are wondering why I listened, well I did eventually shut the radio off. For the most part, I like listening to Warren and Shawn, but my days of listening when the editor is on are over. Life is too short to listening to his spin. The man thinks he is the alpha dog of Lowell but to me he is the omega weasel.

Buried under with work here, so I give you this fresh open thread for discussing the week’s news, of which there is plenty!

Dick has an interesting analysis of the Choice Voting movement underway (I also attended the meeting he mentions) if you haven’t seen it. Especially illuminating is the comments.

Have at.

It’s June, folks. If you’re sick of the current crop of City Council incumbents (you all know I am - only three people on there pass muster for me right now…you can guess which ones) you are in luck. Because you will have some choice at least.

I have heard but hadn’t read about the candidates cropping up to run. The New Englander beat me to posting about it.

Ray Weicker (Facebook page), an Iraq vet and attorney, has declared his candidacy.

As has local small business owner Franky Descoteaux (of Mambo Grill, Humanity, and Monkeys) - so far as I know, the only female challenger. There is also Ryan Berard (website, Facebook) Joe Mendonca (website, Facebook), and Paul Belley of the Pawtucketville Citizens’ Council (TNE wrote about it at the bottom of this post).

Now, this is all well and fabulous. Hurray for democracy. Here’s my problem. These people can’t win all alone.

SO, this is your summer homework. No grousing. It’s due by the end of summer, and when you turn it in, I expect at least a few hour’s work on this, minimum. Extra credit to anyone who spends a whole day, or a total week, or more.

I want you to meet some of these candidates somewhere, anywhere, host a thing. Whatever. Find out who you might just want to support in the upcoming election. But the homework doesn’t stop there. I want you to then reach into your life, and pull out some volunteer hours. Phone banking. Hitting the streets. Whatever your candidate(s) need. Donate some money if you have the means. Host a house party meet and greet for your neighbors. I don’t care how busy you are. Just voting isn’t going to cut it, not any more.

If that’s not enough, I want you to consider something else on the ballot this November, if enough signatures are collected (and more signature gatherers are needed). That of a more fair voting system in Lowell. Yes, we could have Choice Voting in Lowell if we can get this initiative on the ballot, and it passes and reaches the basic threshold number of 33% voter turnout. Volunteer to help get out the vote on Choice Voting.

Choice voting, by the way, was the way Lowell did in back in the day (before the 50s). More information to come on Fair Vote Lowell in the upcoming weeks.

I plan on hosting a House Party on this issue very soon, details to be announced.

As to choosing your candidates, I have some very interesting ideas how LiL is going to contribute. More on that as the time grows closer. Just suffice to say, it’s more than a simple paper questionnaire.

The Lowell Sun has their article up detailing the insanity that was last night’s single budget cut - the defunding of the assistant to the city manager’s position. It includes a post-meeting video interview with CM Lynch.

C. Martin’s take says a lot (bold mine):

“A number of these initiatives (that Sheehan is involved in) will save money far in excess of what this position pays and free the manager up to do other things,” he said, adding that even when the state was brought in to oversee the city’s operations in the early 1990s, the city manager had an assistant. “It is penny-wise and pound-foolish and will cost us money down the road.”

Elliot’s very poor excuse:

Elliott denied that the move was personal, saying that “I didn’t really know what he did until tonight.”

Then why didn’t you hold off VOTING FOR IT until you KNEW? God. Pathetic. I hope people don’t fall for this. This was a politically motivated vote - or else, why not call for further cuts than this one position, if you’re so worried about the budget? Or call for more research as it whether or not this position should be cut? You call this responsible governing??

Thank you, C. Milinazzo:

At the end of the nearly six-hour budget hearing, Milinazzo changed his vote to “yes,” which will allow him to call for a reconsideration of the vote within 24 hours.

“I want to believe it wasn’t personal, but we moved through the entire budget and only eliminated one position,” he said.

Please, for the love of little green apples, can sanity reign upon reconsideration, and will at least two of the city councilors change their vote? Again, I encourage all of you to call, write, or email them (well, not that most of them do email, but it will get to them one way or other) before the next meeting to demand they change their vote!

By now you’ve probably read about last night’s meeting, where the head-in-the-sand majority decided they are now the city manager instead of Mr. Lynch and get to dictate the smallest details of managing the city. This so utterly ridiculous, it deserves two front page posts in a row.

Point of fact: said majority would make terrible managers. For one thing, they arbitrarily fire the very people that are heavily relied upon. Like, say, THE assistant to the city manager.

Sigh.

I am ashamed to see that Rodney Elliot has given up all hope of being a reality-based person in favor of garnering favor from the GOB brigade. As Mimi pointed out, the vote was 6 to 3 on C. Kazanjian’s (oh, there’s a surprise) motion. Elliot has lost my vote for sure now, though it was headed in that direction anyway. I am ashamed for Elliot. Lord, what fools these mortals be…

In case you actually care what the Assistant to the City Manager does, it’s not filing and copying. It’s not running out for coffee. It’s integral to the operation of the City Manager’s office. The CM is just the guy who, you know, is in charge of pretty much everything in city government (other than schools). Nothing important or anything. He can do it all on his own, with no assistants. Right.

I got in touch with the CM’s office to find out what Mr. Sheehan actually does with his time. You can read the full three and a half page list in this PDF here; let’s visit some highlights, shall we?

Attend all meetings and majority of Council subcommittee meetings; prepare follow-up; ensure follow-up items are timely completed.

Anyone think this isn’t a pretty big ongoing task? No?

Municipal Benchmarking: related to Department Reorganizations, studied and applied findings in the Municipal Benchmarking study that compares Lowell with similar communities.

So part of his job is to find efficiencies and apply them? Yeah, let’s fire this guy!

Collective Bargaining/Labor Management: member of management team negotiating collective bargaining agreements with unions, addressing grievances, etc.

We don’t need no stinkin’ help with collective bargaining! It’s so easy to do! Lynch should be able to do this on his own with his hands tied behind his back, right?

FY09[/10] Budget: with management team, participated in preparation of [FY09, FY10] operating budget. [Under FY10: “identifying revenue enhancements and expenditure savings”]

What, you thought those spreadsheets, line items, and clear concise budget layouts created themselves?

Foreclosures: worked with Foreclosure Task Force and City departments to devise strategies to minimize the impact of foreclosures in the City [and neighborhoods]; ISD evaluated foreclosed properties to determine whether buildings were vacant or inhabited. [Under Status: “Drafted vacant and foreclosing property ordinance and revolving fund order that were adopted by Council; Overseeing Inspectional Services process of registering vacant and foreclosed properties; Working with DPD and others to develop additional strategies and uses for federal neighborhood stabilization fund.”]

We don’t have a foreclosure problem here, so why do we need all this? Oh yeah, right. Because we do.

So, those are just five of the items in the list. All major parts of running a city this size. Then there’s all the projects both completed and ongoing in the list; things that often have a lot to do with reorganizing, streamlining, and improving services. Things that save a city money, or deliver more with the same cost.

It seems to me that the Assistant to the City Manager position is no middle management job; instead, it doubles the capacity of the CM to do things there is no way a single person can do. High level research and decision making things. Mark my words, if this City Council does not reverse its completely moronic decision at the next meeting, we in the city will regret it. (Give the six micromanagers a call and tell them so!!) Tell them you’ll remember this, next election day.

I swear to god, I live in a city of fourth graders. Or at least, a majority of fourth graders. Sorry…that’s an insult to fourth graders. But this is one of those primal scream moments. If you’re anywhere near downtown today, you might just hear a muffled shriek or two.

I am travelling out of town on business so I learned of the CC Budget Meeting on the breaking news section of the Sun .

So out of a budget that comes close to $300 million, they decided the Assistant to the City Manager was the only position that was redudant. Oh, really! This was the only cut that could be made without impacting service. Oh, really!

So we can afford to subsidize the auditorium to the tune of $320,000; the Convention and Visitors Burea to the tune of another $320,000; we have dozens of “coordinators’ with offices at City Hall or at the DPD but the wise, impartial, concerned City Councilors thought the $87K plus benefits was what this City needed to save us from economic doom.

We all know what this is about. This is about the City Manager. I am not surprised on the vote 6-3; it stopped being 5-4 long time ago.

So folks we have an opportunity to elect officials that reflect our views this coming fall and not those of interest groups. Let’s not lose this opportunity. Let’s knock on doors; talk to our neighbors and friends and provide financial support for th0se City Councilors who want to keep Lowell moving forward.

And just in case, there is any question, I support City Manager Lynch and his administrations’ approach to municipal government. I think people have to decide what they want for this City and make it known. There will be no wavering.

We’ve had a rash of “new” anonymous commenters in the recent budget post by Mimi.

We’ve seen drive-by commenters before, making all sorts of anonymous accusations without much in the way of backing it up. Attacks were rampant on this blog, for instance, when the previous City Manager was…shall we say…on his way out. Those anonymous commenters were, of course, sticking up for their bud in a sort of raw, hurt way. As repulsive as some of those comments were at the time, they were actually pretty darn transparent in their motives.

We allow, and will always allow, some level of “anonymity” (of course, in this day and age of information, sometimes it’s easy to put two and two together, so there’s always risk for the anonymous writer on the web). That is not my issue.

But we’re in an election season, and we all know the lines which are drawn between the city’s “factions.” There are the people who like the current management situation, and there are people who would do anything they can to undermine it. Those city councilors claim otherwise of course…to outright state their opposition to the current CM would be a political death sentence, in my opinion. But actions speak louder than words, or rather, often their own words speak louder than their protestations to the contrary. We see over and over again the pouncing on Lynch in meetings, the aha! See! attitude every time they perceive an opening (whether or not there are facts to back them up). This has been the pattern since Lynch was hired.

That makes me wonder. Is this ambulance contract “issue,” “brought” to “light” by an anonymous commenter in that budget thread, an issue which appears to be made from whole cloth, a trial balloon for an election attack to rally around? Are they searching for the next “hasn’t moved forward on the Arena, see? see??” attack, as we saw in the last election (which, by the way, failed miserably). The Mercier(s)-Kazanjian-Caulfield-Lenzi wing of the City Council, while not monolithic in its disapproval of the CM in every case, certainly has a somewhat united agenda, if actions and words are to be believed. And they might have a majority, but they can’t seem to bring the CM down to the point of unpopularity and imminent removal. Not yet, at any case. So the war rages on.

I am all for bringing the hidden to light. I am all for questioning the City Council, the CM, the School Committee, and all government transactions; to err on the side of transparency, and to always remain vigilant of cronyism, even with those I support. What I don’t accept is the idea of making up a nonexistent issue, so that the GOB faction has something to run on.

If this is all you got, guys, it’s pretty damn lame.

I usually forget to do the plug for our weekly LeftAhead! podcast, but this one will be a lot of fun, and informative. We’ll be hosting MA Dem Chairman John Walsh, who has graciously allotted his time despite some of the recent criticism of the new Democratic platform. (Don’t worry John, we won’t totally burn your hide! Just tan it a little.)

We’ll also talk about the new, pretty cool initiative coming from the Democratic party…the Community Organizers’ Initiative. To find out what that is, you’ll have to listen tomorrow, June 9th, live at 2:30pm at BlogTalkRadio. Or else, you can catch the archive on LeftAhead! not too long afterwards.

Alert reader Paul@01852 sent me a link to a list of Massachusetts towns who have acquired military grade weapons.

Some 82 local police departments in Massachusetts, many of them hamlets with little or no violent crime and no known terrorist threats, have obtained 1,068 weapons under a federal program that distributes surplus guns from the US military, records show.

As Paul said, Lowell received more M14’s (25) than any other MA police departments except Boston, Worcester and the state police. Paul also asked,

What exactly are our locals planning to do with 25 *military* weapons? Who exactly is trained in their use and what are the criteria for deploying them? Who makes the decision and when? Street sergeants? Shift commanders? Senior staff? The Super? Or worse yet are they already deployed in sector cruisers to be sued at the discretion of individual patrolmen?

I don’t like *any* of the questions never mind possible answers!!

Indeed. Is this common practice, having this many high grade military weapons in our local police arsenal? Is it really necessary?