Left In Lowell

Go to 1:14:50, please.

I’m not sure what the hell C.Kennedy thinks he is doing? Does he fancy himself an extraordinary Parlimentarian? Or, is he just being a gremlin, determined to muck up the proceedings?

Clearly,
- The vote was on C. Lorrey’s original motion. C.Mercier called for a Roll Call vote. She even clarifies it prior to the vote, then seeks to suspend the rules after.
- When C.Kennedy calls for a Point of Order, the Chair tells him the vote was on the original motion. Undeterred, Kennedy snorts back that he seconded Mercier’s amendment.

That did not happen! As soon as Mercier stops stumbling through her suggested amendment, C.Lorrey objected, then he proceeded to explain why he worded his motion in the way that he did. At no point did the Chair recognize a second to Mercier’s motion.

Yet, in the heat of the moment, C.Kennedy railroads the Council into accepting his version of reality.

The Council moved on in the agenda, but C. Mendonca pulled it back, seeking to change his vote to “Nay” because he didn’t want to approve of something he didn’t know the cost of. C.Elliott jumps back in to quibble with the CM. At 1:23:30, C. Kennedy calls another Point of Order, playing ad hoc Chair from the floor.

Councilor Kennedy needs to be checked, put in his place. He is pushing the envelope with his attempts to Chair the meetings from the floor. This is the second time, recently, that an angry vote was taken and the Council was confused as to what they just did. The vote on C.Elliott’s motion to tie the CM’s hands on revenue was a mess, as well. The Mayor and the Clerk need to get a handle on this, ASAP.
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The most interesting Lynch appearances on WCAP always follow the more interesting City Council meetings. Of course, lately, even the most mild-mannered meetings are turning into pitched-battle scrappers…

Anyway, this Wednesday AM WCAP appearance is well worth the listen. I only caught the tail end on the way into work so I pulled it up on my computer once I got there. PS - I can’t express enough how glad I am that WCAP now posts their interviews online!

Anyway, Lynch really gets into the details about the Council meeting brouhaha last night over the sewer hookup for the Lowell Youth Soccer Facility. If you missed it, please go back and watch it once it’s up on LTC. You get to see a huge potty meltdown (three guesses as to who), which at a minimum is entertaining, even while it’s frustrating to have to sit through it.

It’s so nice to have at least one party in this be reasonable, equitable, and who is putting out facts not crazytalk…If you listen to Bernie here, and you listen to the whining childish bitchfest by said Councilor last night, and compare the two, it’s pretty clear who’s full of hot air (putting it mildly).

I find myself really proud of my city and its accomplishments these last few years, but at the same time totally embarrassed when watching the meetings. Is Elliot really that tone deaf?? HE should watch the meeting, see himself on TV, maybe then he’d finally grok just how childish and petulant he sounds. Ugh.

I want to smack the Council, like Moe slapping across the stupid faces of Larry & Curly. That Chamber is a sanctum. Cut the shit, now!

Update: I’m just pasting this in for now. I’ll watch it,again, later tonight and point out some time stamps that highlight what caused my frustration. So far, commentors have focused on C.Elliott. I think Elliott is a big part of the general breakdown, but he is not alone in that room.

My man, Campi. The editorial ponders:

Is the Obama administration pushing for a crestgate system at the Pawtucket Dam to increase hydropower on the Merrimack River?

The illuminaries at the Blog of Record have stumbled upon a report. Maybe Bob LaRochelle FEDEX’d it over? Who knows? Anywho. This report, MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING FOR HYDROPOWER, is relevant to the matter regarding Enel’s proposed desecration of our City’s history. Unfortunately, the Blogger in Chief, over there, missed the boat.

The editorial opted to lift a line or two directly from an online press release about the 41 page document. The editorial cherry picked from here:

“Through collaboration and partnerships among federal agencies, the hydropower industry, the research community, and numerous stakeholders, we are succeeding in advancing the development of hydropower as a clean, reliable, cost-effective and sustainable energy source,” Castle told NHA conferees. “From assessing opportunities for new generation on existing Federal facilities to developing tools to get more energy from the same amount of water, we are working on many fronts to increase the potential of the largest source of renewable energy in the country.”

Now, whether the brain trust behind this editorial was too busy, or just had enough to sling some partisan arrows with, they negated to include some pertinent lines from the MOU:

Page 4

7. Promote an environmentally responsible approach to enhancing hydropower development that recognizes the need to preserve biological diversity, ecosystem function, our natural and cultural heritage, and recreational opportunities, and also recognizes that some geographic locations are not appropriate for new hydropower development.

*Wiki-Note: Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts (cultural property) and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. Cultural heritage includes tangible culture (such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artifacts), intangible culture (such as folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge), and natural heritage (including culturally-significant landscapes, and biodiversity).

…

10.Investigate ways to responsibly facilitate the permitting process for federal and non-federal hydropower generation and other renewable energy projects at federally owned and Indian tribe facilities by increasing coordination among the agencies that have jurisdiction and reducing unnecessary delay, while ensuring that environmental impacts are fully considered.

(emphasis mine)

I’d venture to say, the NPS and DOI are prepared to play the “cultural heritage” card. There is a crumb trail a mile long. Also, my understanding is that FERC has let Enel slide on the whole “environmental impacts” thingy. So, this MOU is hardly the coup-de-grace the BOR (pronounced bore) wishes it was.

Lastly, the audible dog whistle, “the reason you are going to get shafted by the bladder dam is because of the Democrats and their damn ‘green energy’ policies!” subtext to the BOR’s editorial? That is rather scumbaggy. Just sayin.’

On second thought, maybe this MOU isn’t ALL THAT relevant?

Jen Myers has an exceptionally tidy write up on Dept. of Interior’s invitation to some of the interested parties to kibbutz, Re: Enel’s proposed bladder dam.

“The applicant’s new proposal attempts to respond to many of the expressed concerns of the NPS and indicates there may be more flexibility n the design than NPS had previously believed,” Tittler wrote. “We feel strongly, as we have stated in the past, that a meeting in person, among as many consulting parties as possible, is the only way in which to move toward any resolution.”

The goals of the meeting, Tittler states are: “To gain a full and shared understanding of the effects of the applicant’s new proposal on the Pawtucket Dam; to discuss methods to further reduce the impact of crest gate installation; to see whether some version of a crest gate system is acceptable to all parties can be arrived at.”

The Blog of Record is also kind enough to host the PDF version of the DOI letter on their server.

To me, this looks like “seconds” are being dispatched to define the terms prior to the duelists meeting on the “field of honour.” Without question, one rule is mutually agreed upon, the coming events will not be “a la outrance.”

.
Do what these folks did:

I’ve heard a few “important” Lowellians opine that the desecration of the Pawtucket Falls Dam is a done deal. Really? Well, for sure, if Lowellians roll over.
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Update: As Joe S. says, Conflicts of interest abound!

(Link to Monty Python Sketch)
DEAD PERSON: I’m not dead!
CART-MASTER: ‘Ere. He says he’s not dead! CUSTOMER: Yes he is.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not!
CART-MASTER: He isn’t? CUSTOMER: Well, he will be soon. He’s very ill.

DEAD PERSON: I’m getting better!

“The organization is essentially defunct,” City Manager Bernie Lynch said to the City Council Tuesday night. “It has been for a period of time.”

Lynch, who is an ex-officio member of the council’s board, made his comments during a discussion of a controversial letter the council sent in 2010 to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in support of the crest-gate system proposed for the Pawtucket Dam.
…

When told it was Lynch who called his group defunct, Tibbetts said: “It is appalling Bernie said that because Bernie should have got an email reminder this week for the annual meeting in May at UMass Lowell’s Inn and Conference.”

“I guess we will be reaching out to the city manager and letting him know we are not defunct.”

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So, at some point during the discussion about taxes, at the City Council meeting last Tuesday, C.Broderick noted that some of the City workers had no raises for two years. He insisted that he could not “take a blind vote,” as handcuffing the City Manager, via Elliott’s motion, could mean passing over some City workers again.

Broderick’s point was made subtly, but he ensured to include it in his stream of logic that opposed Elliott’s blatant political move.

He said, without hype, this could hurt our City workers. (Point #1)
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If you read this blog, you have seen this graph before. I didn’t make it. It came from here: City Manager’s FY 12 Budget Presentation to Neighborhood Groups

I’m not going to explain all that this graph says. Hopefully, you click in to get the CM’s rundown. Suffice to say, “Free Cash (Blue)” is good to have and “Chapter 17 (Yellow)” is required by law to have.

Note how, from 2001 to 2006, those elements were depleted.

I’ve cut the graph in half to accentuate the negative. Why? Because THIS is what Councilor Elliott is trying to “instruct” the City Manager to return to.

Look at it good, please.

I know it’s old news now, but I wanted to front page my congratulations to city data analyst Michael Herbert and his leadership, which landed Lowell, alongside four other communities, a Community Innovation Challenge grant to take performance management to the next level. That is some amazing feat! I’m sure that there was a lot of competition for the grant, but data nerds rejoice!

With Lowell serving as the lead community, the five cities will use the money to help develop a “performance management’’ system that all Massachusetts municipalities can use.

Lowell enlisted the four other communities in the grant effort because all five have taken an interest in performance management, which refers to efforts to operate efficiently, according to Michael Herbert, Lowell’s data management analyst.

Lowell in the lead. It has a nice ring to it. It only happens when we have professional city management and staff. You can bet that we are going places. Learn from us, Commonwealth!

PS: The CM’s blog has more, here.