Some councilors are hoping to see Murphy appoint McMahon, who had served on the LHA for five years, and has acknowledged applying. He was chairman for a time.
But Murphy has sent out word he will not appoint McMahon. A primary reason is that he wants unanimous support for his pick, and that Milinazzo would definitely not vote for McMahon.
McMahon says he does not think Milinazzo should vote on any LHA appointments because it is a conflict, pointing to Milinazzo 's family ties to LHA Assistant Executive Director Maryann Maciejewski.
Milinazzo said Maciejewski is his wife's first cousin and a friend, and there is no reason for him not to vote on LHA appointments. He recommended McMahon read the state ethics laws.
With some lobbying on Paton 's behalf, Milinazzo was convinced to back Paton 's candidacy.Hmmm. Seems Jim Milinazzo has a track record of not sweating the small shit. (Remember, also, he voted for Elliott to be mayor.) How is it that the Enterprise Editor didn't advise the cub reporter? Maybe, Campi interceded to get a better spin?
Paton , a Democrat and a Billerica school teacher, came to the Housing Authority about seven years ago, courtesy of an appointment from a Republican governor.
About two years ago, he was replaced by James Hall Jr., a Republican.
But before being ousted, he was part of the movement that ousted Milinazzo as LHA executive director a few years back after a successful decade at the helm.
Milinazzo made mention of that last night, saying Paton "was part of a group that ended my career at the LHA -- and I did love that job."
But Milinazzo said that during most of Paton 's tenure, he showed a passion for LHA residents, and the job, that stood out.
"For those reasons, I will put my personal differences with Mark aside and vote to support his appointment," Milinazzo said.
-snip
... Paton displaced Robert McMahon, who many years ago was an LHA client himself, living at the former Julian D. Steele complex on Gorham Street. It's a fact that McMahon, a unionized "liquor salesman," always thought made him uniquely qualified to serve on the board.
But that wasn't enough, and neither were supportive words that came his way from two city councilors, Rita Mercier and Edward "Bud" Caulfield. His biggest proponent on the council, Armand Mercier, couldn't participate in the discussion or vote because his son, Dennis, is employed by the LHA as a property manager.
Rita Mercier, who voted "present" (the final vote was 7-0), implied strongly that she finds it troubling that anyone could be removed from a post he enjoyed -- and by most accounts did a solid job at -- for political reasons.
But it's precisely what her guy, former City Manager John Cox, did to McMahon's predecessor, Thomas Haran, to appoint McMahon, with whom he is close.
In arguing for McMahon, Caulfield and Mercier probably forgot that McMahon played a ringleader's role in last summer's downtown rally for Cox about the time six city councilors hastened his resignation as city manager.
But those six city councilors -- Kevin Broderick, Eileen Donoghue, Rodney Elliott, Mayor Bill Martin, James Milinazzo and George Ramirez -- certainly didn't.
A newspaper of record is a major newspaper that has a large circulation and whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered professional and typically authoritative. A newspaper of record may also be a publicly available newspaper that has been authorized or maintained by a government to publish public or legal notices, and therefore serves as a "newspaper of public record."As for "The Blog .." part, readers of The Sun will get it, especially those that have read it for decades, watching it's rather abrupt decline since Jim Camapanini took the helm. For those of you who are new to The Sun, or just minimize touching "dead tree" print products, I'll redirect you to a diary I did in October 2013, A Blogger's Sin (Link). The short of it is, in my opinion, our local newspaper is in its death throes. Instead of going out with some dignity, they have opted to go kicking and screaming, foregoing principles of journalism, while embracing a modern brand of "Yellow Journalism" that employs a reckless type of "political pornography" to boost circulation.
(bold mine)
So instead of going with the status quo (Link), he viewed this not as the school district's problem, but as an opportunity. He not only trimmed the $950,055 excess to bring the budget into balance, but in the process put four more teachers in the classroom.
He accomplished this by eliminating 14 positions through a combination of attrition, layoffs, and other efficiencies.
The bottom line: There are four new teaching positions for history, special education and math, and at the same time, the superintendent and school principal will assume the duties of two retiring administrators.
Doing more with less is the essence of sound management in the private sector, but it's still rare in the public domain. But that's exactly what Bourgeois did.My bowels are growling!
City Solicitor Christine O'Connor recommended the private session as a best practice for a board in the midst of contract negotiations, and said public discussion could have had a detrimental affect on the city's position.
The Sun publicly registered its objection to the closed-door session based on the belief that the stated purpose for the session did not meet one of 10 purposes of an executive session outlined by the state's Open Meeting Law.
David Daly (Link), the CEO of PrideSTAR EMS, also questioned whether the executive session was proper under the Open Meeting Law and said he was pleased with the board's previous "transparency."
O'Connor said later that a draft contract is not public record and discussing it publicly would then make it a public record, which is not advantageous to the city's position.
Lynch's retirement was approved by the Lowell Retirement Board on March 21. He had 29 years, 8 months of total municipal service. His pension was not available as of Friday.Sorting through the nooks and crannies of PERAC (Link) is a daunting task. I dare you to rummage through M.G.L. Chapter 32 (Link) on come out with some easy answers.
meme noun \ˈmēm\
: an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture
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| Self reliance? Pfft.. Gimmie! Gimmie more! |
"That's the problem. There is no communication coming out of the city manager's office at all. Bernie is doing what he does best, circumvent everybody. He did it in Chelmsford, and he's doing it now," Nangle said.
-snip
Lynch added that regardless of who was invited where, "I'm sure (Nangle will) continue to do his job on the part of the city and I'll continue to do mine."
zing·er noun \ˈziŋ-ər\
1: something causing or meant to cause interest, surprise, or shock
2: a pointed witty remark or retort
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| Finally. I think I'm picking up what Tipa was laying down about our mayor. |
He previously said he selected people with municipal management experience. But The Column has discovered that Leahy voted for at least two candidates who have no such background.
On Monday, March 10, Leahy filed a disclosure under Section 23(b)(3) of the conflict law highlighting his ties to Ramirez and his belief he could be objective.
Such disclosures must be made prior to any official participation or action in a matter, though Leahy's was filed after he already submitted his list of the five candidates, including Ramirez , he wanted to secure interviews.
RITA MERCIER told The Column she didn't vote to eliminate the position, she voted to get rid of the person (Link).Houston, we have a problem!
So much for a nationwide search for city manager
The Sun (6/21/06)
Christopher Clark, Edward R. Clifford, Thaddeus J. Jankowski Jr., Odis Jones, Daniel Keyes, Monica Lamboy, Ronald Massey, Thomas Moses, David Owen, Scott Randall, Vincent Servello, Frederick Welch.
Ever heard of those people before? Didn't think so. They're all people who applied for the job of Lowell city manager and were passed over.
At first blush, they all appear to have the credentials and qualifications to at least merit an interview. A phone call? A Google, for God's sake?
It appears Lowell city councilors don't think so.
So much for nationwide searches, huh? Bet you didn't know Lowell is its own nation.
Councilors, searching for a new city manager to replace the departing John Cox, said they would search wide and high, and they received applications from places as wide and high as Washington, D.C. (the aforementioned Monica Lamboy), Auburn Hills, Mich. (Scott Randall), Corpus Christi, Texas (Ronald Massey).
What's missing from the resumes of the three applicants ? Apparently, a connection to Lowell.
Of the 37 resumes received, councilors picked five finalists, and here's what we learned: Boston is about as wide and high as councilors are willing to search. And then only if that person used to work in Lowell.
Heck, even Worcester, where applicant Thaddeus Jankowski is the assistant city manager , is too far away.
Here are the finalists and their connections to the city: Paul Cohen (grew up in Lowell), Frank Keefe (lives in Boston but is a former consultant on the Tsongas Arena project), Edward Kennedy (former Lowell city councilor), Bernie Lynch (current Chelmsford town manager, went to ULowell, gets his hair cut in Lowell) and Diana Prideaux-Brune (current vice chancellor at UMass Lowell, former chief planner in Lowell, former project manager for the Lowell Arena and Civic Stadium Commission).
There is something to be said for hiring a candidate who has a working knowledge of the city. That's always a good thing.
But so is having a working knowledge of our nation's capital, or of such cities as Auburn Hills and Corpus Christi. Former upper-level administrators from those three cities applied and were passed over. For Edward Kennedy.
One would think that those councilors with whom Cox fell out of favor -- Kevin Broderick, Eileen Donoghue, Rodney Elliott, Mayor Bill Martin, James Milinazzo and George Ramirez -- would want to stay away from the perception of their "nationwide search" ending in a quick gander through the good-ol'-boy (and good-ol'-girl) files.
But how else do you explain Kennedy and Keefe being finalists?
Next time you bump into a city councilor, ask them if they really think Kennedy or Keefe is more highly qualified for this job than Lamboy or some of the applicants who were passed over with nary a phone call.
Heck, if they're looking for a career administrator in small-town Massachusetts, they could just as easily have chosen David Owen (with experience in Needham, Burlington, Maynard and Salem, N.H.), Richard Agnew (Scituate, Needham, Marshfield), Thomas Moses (Gloucester), Andrew Vanni (Middleton, Bolton) and Frederick Welch (Seabrook, Pittsfield and Belmont, N.H.) as Lynch (Chelmsford) and Cohen (Harvard, Natick).
But none of those guys has buddies on the Lowell City Council.
Next time, they should just put that on the list of qualifications.
Dan Phelps' e-mail address is dphelps@lowellsun.com.
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| This paperboy always delivers |
