Left In Lowell

The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals: it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, …

Update (11/29/11): Good stuff going on over at Gerry Nutter’s Blog. Check it out.

Here is a snippet from a commentor, Doubting Thomas:

Voters don’t see the City Council as being important enough to vote for because it doesn’t do anything independent of the City Manager. If the council is just going to play the role of ‘rubber stamp’ then who cares what names are on the nameplates? If the Council is just going to bash the manager that they hired, then why vote? Basically, unless the Council starts to act like an independent body with intelligent discussion and debate, people are not going to be concerned with it. What is most disappointing is that there is one segment that is pro City Manager and one segment anti City Manager, and everyone acts as if having intelligent discussion, either way, is a sign of changing sides.

Please covenant on this Open Thread.

Or Turducken Day, or Lobster Day, or whatever formerly-living animal you prefer to roast.

Consider this your open thread for the holiday. What are you thankful for?

I really enjoy watching, calling in and being a guest on City Life. If you can get past the banter, an acquired taste, you can definately gleen some top notch political intel from the many guests and hosts that hash it out everyday on LTC 8 at 6-8 am or LTC 95 at 4-6pm. Yes, sometimes the technical issues make viewing a hassle, but that is being ironed out.

Or, you can trust me to pick out the best parts. (I suggest you watch on your own. Not every Lowellian will vouch for me. Go figure. )

This is hardcore politics being discussed. Anthes, and he is being frank, states Rep. Murphy’s path to election is ‘divide & conquer.’ Don’t judge George, please. This is how politico’s talk over beers. So, now you know, baby.

City Life: Kevin Murphy vs Rithy Uong

Watch live video from jackmitchell01850 on Justin.tv
2:22 minutes - The crew speculates how Rep. Murphy can win in 2012 by driving a wedge in the Cambodian community.

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Um, …
Er, …

Judge for yourself.

Santa, it seems, is making his list and checking it twice.

Please be merry on this Open Thread.

Yesterday, I was talking with Corey Sciuto about the potential for the music industry to create pinnacle artists, like The Beatles or Elvis. The question hinged on the music moguls shattered hegemony of music consumers. That the intertubes had diffracted marketing and delivery of music, making the base wider of “the next big thing,” but the peak lower.

Over to politics, if you will.
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For those of you that are wondering what the HELL I’m talking about, there is a rumor circulating in some segments of “the bubble” that Joe Mendonca would resign prior to the 2012 Inaugration of the new Council.

I figured it was hogwash, so I went right to Joe with the rumor.

Joe’s response:

Jack,
Where would anyone get such an idea –not from me. It never crossed my mind. If I did not want to serve, I would not have run in the first place.
-Joe

You can never know where these things originate. But, you might figure that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Definition of MICROMANAGE: to manage especially with excessive control or attention to details

From The Blog of Record:

Elliott, chairman of the council’s finance subcommittee, said yesterday he would recommend the search for a new treasurer be conducted in a much different fashion this time around.

He suggested Lynch assemble a three-member panel made up of Moses, Auditor Sheryl Wright and a human-relations representative to screen and interview applicants. The panel then would recommend three to five candidates to Lynch.

Lynch should interview the candidates before making his final choice, Elliott said.
-snip

Councilor Joe Mendonca also said he did not want to comment about the specifics of how he believes the hiring process should be conducted because hiring of the treasurer is the responsibility of the manager under the Plan E Charter.

“I hope everything is done above board and in the proper fashion, but it is up to the city manager,” Mendonca said

“Joe from Lowell” has been cheating on LiL, and posting on Dailykos, and via this front-page Markos diary about municipalities moving from TBTF (Too Big To Fail) banks like B of A, to local ones, I found Joe’s link to his own diary about Lowell doing just that.

Lowell jumped on this bandwagon before there was ever a bandwagon, it seems.

I assume everyone here is familiar with the Move Your Money Project, an effort to convince people to close their accounts with big, national banks and switch their banking to local banks and credit unions. The Move Your Money web site includes a great tool for finding such institutions in your home town. It’s a great idea, which helps to take down the Too Big To Fail banks a notch, and steer funds towards local institutions that are more responsible with their loans and services. But let’s not forget, individuals are not the only ones who use banking services. So does your local government, and chances are, they have a lot more money in the bank than you do.

Below [the fold] find a story about how the City of Lowell, Massachusetts is doing exactly that.

Here’s what the Lowell Sun has to say:

LOWELL — The city is gearing up to launch a program designed to boost the amount of money it places in local banks by millions of dollars in hopes of spurring small-business growth.

Devised by Lowell’s chief financial officer, Tom Moses, the Lowell Economic Advancement Program, or LEAP, would shift up to $2 million in city deposits to each local financial institution headquartered in Lowell that agrees to lend the city money to Lowell-based small businesses. The money would be diverted from funds currently in nonlocal banks.

The initiative is modeled after a similar effort launched by state Treasurer Steve Grossman to transfer $100 million of state deposits in larger banks to local banks, with the goal of boosting small-business lending.

There’s a lot more details in Joe’s post about the program, which has in place ways for the city to entice that small-business loaning. So it’s not just moving the money, but also asking those local banks to use the added revenues to help the local economy. Nice catch, Joe!

Now, the rest of us should consider moving our money! I would, but I already have for the most part.

Note: the whole “cheating on us” thing was totally tongue in cheek!

The ripples will quickly run outward, heavily diffracted.

Pangy? Murphy? Martin a sell-out? Stop the silliness, Please!

Since last Wednesday and increasing after the announced fight for Mayor, the Bernie Bashers, Boo Birds and even some Bernie Supporters have been chirping loudly in the political under currents that swirl around this city and they suggest that the long-term prognosis for Bernie Lynch lasting another 2 full years as the City Manager rest with Councilor Bill Martin and his mayoral vote.

Those in the circle of Lowell insider-political gossip are suggesting that former State Sen. Panagiotakos is one of the main people behind the scene, pushing to get rid of the Manager and the issue is always who they get to replace him. Rumors say he will persuade Martin to vote for Elliot and make it worth his while.
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Two things prompted me to write this diary. First there was this by one of The Sun’s newly minted “bloggers”, Chris Scott:

No one will ever know if he was the most qualified candidate because Lynch will not release the resumes of the finalists.

That reminded me of an excellent post by Dick Howe, Jr., Taking the “paper” out of “newspaper”

There is this thing that keeps grinding me about The Sun. How it is getting thinner and thinner. Oh, and the editorial slant. Yikes!!! When you take the “News” out of the newspaper, you are left with a paperblog. Maybe, “The Blog of Record?” (more…)