Left In Lowell

Yesterday morning, School Superintendent Chris Scott appeared on the local access cable program, City Life, produced by John McDonough. In addition to Dr. Scott, teachers’ union president Paul Georges was a guest along with Dracut Selectman, John Zimini.

Although, she declined to answer the questions posed by host George Anthes on her contract negotiations, she did speak on a number of issues, including the Murkland School consultant situation. Here is a 5 minute clip (it is preceded by a 20-second ad; that is how Justin tv rolls.)

Watch live video from mimip on Justin.tv
As you can hear and see, the Superintendent does not address the School Committees’ point of contention, that is these consultants were working without a contract.

After watching and listening to the one-hour discussion, I can see that the school administration and the leadership of the teachers’ union are on the same page and work well together, but I wonder if they forgot that there is a third partner. The Lowell School Committee who are elected to be the voice of the tax payers and residents of Lowell.

You can watch the entire show on the Justin tv website. Dr. Scott appears a hour into the program. Also this broadcast will be repeated on Sunday morning at 6:00 a.m. on Lowell Telecommunications Corporation, Channel 8.

First I want to commend City Councilor Bud Caulfield for making the announcement that he will not seek re-election as soon as he decided. He could have waited but he did not therefore allowing enough time for possible challengers to make plans to run for this open seat. I know all seats are open but in reality the incumbents have a distinct advantage. And as Dick reminded us this week, the election season in Lowell begins on St. Patrick’s Day. I will discuss his 24 years of public service at a later time.

And with this announcement on the Sun’s web site this morning, we finally see a Lowell rumor that is true. Word had begun to go around late last week but with all Lowell political rumors, you really need to wait.

It seems that less and less people want to run for elected office. And as much as certain people want to blame the scrutiny of new media (bloggers) or the coverage of old media (newspapers) for lack of challengers, the issue is much more complex.

First, the time and effort that a local official has to put into his position as a City Councilor is in effect a second job that often encroaches on your career. So, if you are not self-employed or a retired, it must be so difficult to balance a demanding career with your obligations as a City Councilor. And more importantly you have to perform your public duties while trying not to compromise your personal responsibilities to your family. In my opinion, those are the primary reasons why we do not get a flood of challengers these days. And let’s not forget that you need to raise money to run an election. Not an easy task.

Next Tuesday, March 8th, the Lowell City Council Rules Sub-Committee will meet to discuss motions that were introduced on the Council floor regarding municipal elections and increasing civic participation. There are a number of ideas being thrown around, including lowering the voting age for municipal elections, at large districts, changing the election calendar and increasing the stipend local elected officials receive. I think they all merit a healthy discussion.

I know there is a group of loosely affiliated individuals (I am not involved) who are pushing to have this discussion take place not so much because they are pushing this or that agenda but simply because they believe that greater civic participation brings about positive results to the community.