Left In Lowell

Back in 1995 2005 when I started to write on this blog, I would never have guessed in a million years that a Lowell City Councilor would be join the local blogsphere; granted five years have gone by and new media is now middle-age media but Lowell CC Rodney Elliott has joined the “family.”

For those of you who have not checked Rodney-Elliott.com, please do. It is more than just a blog, it is a good web site to use for a political race; city council or something on the state level.

CC Elliott is not the only Councilor who understands and utilizes social networking, he has a fb account, but he is certainly taking the lead.

I like to read his blog but I find too much of his comments are directed at criticism of the current Administration. If that trend continues, it will create an unnecessary negative atmosphere.

For example, in his May 7th blog, he writes about the LPD contract or I should say, non-contract:

To my knowledge there is no place-holder in the budget and no plan to cover the costs [of the police contract once the issue is resolved]. This is what is called a structural deficit.  A cost that you know is outstanding, with no funds to pay for it now or in future budgets.   I  believe the figure could be as high as $1,000,000  and to the best of my knowledge, no money has been put aside. Not a prudent financial move.

In November 2009, CM Bernie Lynch and CFO Tom Moses presented a memo to the City Council on necessary budget adjustments. Subsequently, the Finance Committee (Chair CC R. Elliott) had a meeting to discuss the memo which by the way, mentioned the issue of the funding of the police contract. Why wasn’t the question asked then?

The City Council Finance Committee has had three meetings this year: 1/26/10; 2/23/10 and 4/6/10. Why wasn’t the question asked then?

Back to CC Elliott’s blog, I wish him the best but regularly targeting the Administration may make for interesting reading but I am not sure if it is good politics.

Most of us may have been busy this weekend, but the leading story in Saturday’s Sun reminded all of us that the state’s Inspector General’s Office is still in town and still asking questions. As Jen Myers’ reported, both City Councilors Rita Mercier and Bud Caulfield were interviewed by the investigators.  

According to the Sun, CC Mercier “was questioned about ‘the gamut of everything that has been going on in the city’.” And CC Caulfield stated “They just wanted my take on everything.”

CC Mercier also told Myers that all City Councilors will be interviewed.  I am not sure if it is the sitting City Councilors or those who served in previous terms or both but at the time of the printing of the article, none of the sitting CCs were interviewed.  As t this rate, there isn’t going to be anyone left in Lowell who has not been questioned by these people.

Myers does a nice job to recap the whole “inspectional services investigation” story. However, those whose name are mentioned in  these stories do not agree.  Those of you who were listening to the Warren Shaw show on Saturday, heard an exchange between Jim Campanini, editor of the paper, who called in and co-host Tom Byrne, who was mentioned in the Sun story; and by the way he stated that he was also interviewed last week.

The problem is that the reporters have to “recap” the back story every time they write about something new that has been made public and those whose name appears, and reappears are saying “enough already.”  But is it the newspaper’s fault that the investigation is not completed and now seems to be growing? No, some of us complain when the paper doesn’t report on issues and others complain when they do.

On this one, I am with the Sun, it is a no-win situation. So, Jen keep on reporting.