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August 13, 2007
21 hopefuls in race for City Council
WELL, THE field has been set.
There are 21 candidates in the race for Lowell City Council, including eight incumbents and a number of well-known challengers, such as, Alan Kazanjian, Jo-Ann Keegan, Curtis LeMay, Michael Lenzi, Robert McMahon, Kristin Ross-Sitcawich, Mehmed Ali and Louis Stylos.
Such a solid crop of challengers should make an interesting election season.
There is technically only one open seat -- that of Councilor Eileen Donoghue -- who is foregoing a re-election bid on the council to focus on her campaign to replace former U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan in Congress. Councilor Joseph Mendonca has been in office since last month. He replaced former Councilor George Ramirez, who resigned to take a job in Gov. Deval Patrick's administration.
Mendonca, a former School Committee member, finished 10th in 2005.
While incumbency will give his 2007 council campaign a boost, his seat is not considered as secure as that of his new colleagues.
Other council challengers include perennial candidate David "7th time could be the charm" Laferriere, Darius Mitchell and newcomers David Koch and Patricia Stratton.
A PRELIMINARY election is required whenever there are 19 or more council candidates, but councilors can seek permission from the state Legislature to waive that mandate.
They will do just that on Tuesday.
Mayor Bill Martin and Councilors Kevin Broderick and Rita Mercier all have motions on that night's meeting agenda seeking to cancel the Sept. 25 preliminary. It should pass easily.
If the Legislature approves Lowell's request -- a high probability -- the city election will be on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
ELIMINATING THE preliminary might not be such an easy call if there were 22 candidates instead of 21.
Councilors narrowly avoided that dilemma last Tuesday when Curtis Freeman appeared at the election office with his 50 nomination signatures at 5:04 p.m. -- four minutes past the deadline.
The 28-year-old Freeman, a constable and armored-truck driver, would have presented councilors with a thorny situation. They still likely would have pressed to waive the preliminary, but doing so could have a raised a few more state lawmakers' eyebrows.
Freeman said his next plan is to start a peer-run nonprofit agency called Teen Unite, which he intends to use to teach Lowell youngsters about the film and music industries, and video and computer technology.
"Even though it's kind of a bummer that I didn't get to do this, I've been given this opportunity to open up this nonprofit company for the youth."
MEANWHILE, THERE'S the issue of Kazanjian's appointment to the city Zoning Board of Appeals. His term expired July 28.
The board chairman and a member since 1992, Kazanjian had requested City Manager Bernie Lynch reappoint him to another five-year term though he could not serve on both the ZBA and council.
On Friday, Lynch opted to appoint William Bailey, a member of the city Board of Health, to take Kazanjian's position.
From nearly his first day in City Hall, Lynch has said he would not pick board or commission members whose service to the city could conflict with their business interests. Kazanjian is a developer who owns several businesses and real-estate properties across Lowell.
Recently, his vote on a Dunkin' Donuts project that received unanimous approval by the ZBA raised conflict concerns because Kazanjian owned property near the site. The manager also has replaced two people with ties to Kazanjian: former employee Daniel Squeglia, vice chairman of the ZBA, and former Historic Board member David Gray, Kazanjian Enterprises's finance guru.
EXPECT COUNCILORS and Lynch himself to have their ears pinned to local radio station WCAP tomorrow when John Cox, Lowell's former city manager, serves as co-host on the morning show. Cox has uttered nary a public word since leaving City Hall in August 2006.
Back from a two-week Hawaiian vacation, Cox is expected to light up the phone lines.
THERE AREN'T nearly as many interesting subplots in the Lowell School Committee race.
Incumbent School Committee members Jackie Doherty, Regina Faticanti, John Leahy, Jim Leary, Connie Martin and Kevin McHugh all are seeking re-election.
Challengers this year include retired Lowell High School English teacher Dennis Canney and LHS housemaster Dave Conway.
Conway enjoys the support of state Sen. Steven Panagiotakos, who started his political career with election to the School Committee in 1989.
Should Conway win a seat on the School Committee -- a distinct possibility -- it could spell bad news for Superintendent of Schools Karla Brooks Baehr.
Conway isn't campaigning as an anti-superintendent candidate (yet), but he has been sharply critical of the superintendent on several counts, particularly her alleged preference for out-of-district applicants for principal jobs.
Conway could exploit differences among school incumbents. It is expected that Baehr's annual review, which includes a $5,000 performance bonus, will be taken up by the board prior to the election. Two board members are saying privately that the bonus has been treated like an entitlement, but this year it will be different. They said they won't be granting any bonus to Baehr unless certain education targets have been met.
Conway has said the bonus should be paid only when strategic goals are achieved.
JIM OGONOWSKI'S campaign staff swore up and down this week that their man is not looking past challenger Tom Tierney in the Republican run-off for 5th District in Congress.
But look no farther than Ogonowski's blog, Blogonowski.
At the top of his blog in large block letters, Ogonowski urges people to "Vote October 16."
Isn't he forgetting something? Like, the primary election on Sept. 4? The only debates that Ogonowski has agreed to are high-profile events that are sure to get lots of media attention and television face time.
Tierney will appear on Thursday night on NewsTalk Live with Sun Editor Jim Campanini. An invitation was extended to Ogonowski, but his press secretary, Barney Keller, said the candidate has a conflict with an appearance on a local cable TV show.
IT'LL BE Manager Panagiotakos vs. Manager Campanini.
Lowell's politicians from the Statehouse delegation have challenged the Mass Media Madmen (and women) at The Sun to a charity softball game in September. Negotiations got under way last week with Campanini demanding that his team be allowed to have 13 defensive players in the field at all times.
His reasoning? Politicians are experts at finding loopholes, so "we don't want them getting away with any cheap hits." Pangy countered that the pols want four outs per inning. "It's like a rainy-day fund," he said. Stay tuned for more details.
POLITICIANS ARE notorious for inflating their credentials. But sometimes it pays to know your audience.
In a fundraising letter mailed recently by state Rep. Jim Miceli to lobbyists, he offers this sales pitch: "I have had the pleasure of working with you when I served on the Ways and Means Committee or in my current capacity as Chairman."
Of Ways and Means? Not so fast.
Though Miceli did at one point in his 31-year-career on Beacon Hill serve on Ways and Means, he was never the chairman. He is currently the chairman of the Committee on Personnel and Administration -- a fact he mentions elsewhere in the letter.
The chances are also pretty good that Massachusetts lobbyists are well aware that Rep. Robert DeLeo, of Revere, is the chairman of the powerful budget-writing Ways and Means Committee.
Miceli goes on to explain that he is trying to raise $100,000 in the closing weeks of his Congressional campaign.
Miceli raised about $15,000 in the first two fundraising quarters of the year.
NOT EVERYONE buys the idea that Meehan is staying neutral in the race to find his successor in Congress, despite assurances from Meehan that he's not involved.
Consider that Meehan's wife, Ellen Murphy Meehan, is the chairwoman of Niki Tsongas' campaign, Meehan's former district director Roger Lau is managing Tsongas' campaign, and at least three recent Meehan staffers in Lowell are working for the Tsongas campaign.
So it was no surprise Thursday night that Tsongas drew a few off-camera smiles and chuckles from those watching the NECN debate in studio with her response to a question from moderator Chet Curtis about whether Meehan should use his war chest to help the Democrats win in October.
"It would be nice if he could find some way to support the Democratic nominee," Tsongas said.
In fairness, two former Meehan lieutenants, Bob Larochelle and Lori Loureiro, are working with the campaign to elect City Councilor Eileen Donoghue to Congress.
WHY HAVE Lowell city councilors fallen all over themselves to order Lynch to indemnify Lowell police officer John Boutselis? It's an election year, of course, and Boutselis is president of the Lowell police patrolmen's union.
All nine councilors, crossing all partisan divides, last month told Lynch to pay Boutselis' $180,000 legal tab.
It was Mendonca's first meeting as a city councilor, but he had learned enough about the situation to vote in favor with the majority.
Donoghue, one of the council's foremost opponents to the police union's controversial 2005 attempt to get a four-day work week, wasn't about to buck the trend, either.
Arguing that "sometimes juries get it wrong," Donoghue said the city should financially back any officer cleared by internal affairs investigators, who are not exactly renowned for finding fellow cops at fault. Donoghue may not be running for council this year, but she is running for Congress, and she needs all the union endorsements she can get.
Boutselis is well-respected around the city, and by all accounts could very well have gotten a bum deal with the 2002 federal jury verdict in his excessive force case. Lowell picks up the legal tab for city employees in many, many cases. The rub here is state law seems to specifically prohibit Boutselis' reimbursement. (It has to do with the jury's award of punitive damages in his case.) Now Lynch finds himself in a tough spot.
If he abides by opinions from his legal department and outside counsel, he risks alienating his council bosses.
Should the manager fork over the money to cover the union boss's legal bills, he risks setting a dangerous precedent.
Lynch is expected to unveil his decision during a public safety subcommittee meeting on Tuesday.
JUST WONDERING. Why did no Dracut selectmen attend the Second Annual Jack DiTillio Memorial Golf Tournament last Monday?
CHELMSFORD FIRE Chief Jack Parow has made an interesting pledge on the Web site of the New England Division International Association of Fire Chiefs.
Parow has promised to resign as Chelmsford's fire chief in 2009 if he is elected as president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
Parow has worked in the fire service for 31 years, so we presume he would actually retire as Chelmsford's chief, securing his local pension, and then work as a full-time president of the New England organization. It will be interesting to see if yet another member of Chelmsford's management team leaves the community.
LOOKS LIKE former Councilor Ramirez might have a new boss less than one month into his job in the Patrick Administration.
Undersecretary of Economic Development Robert Coughlin has applied to become head of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, a job once held by former Speaker of the House Thomas Finneran.
The council fired Finneran earlier this year after he plead guilty to obstruction of justice for his role in redistricting in 2001.
Ramirez started working for Coughlin in a $100,000-a-year general council post last month.
State Sen. Jack Hart, D-Boston, is also angling for the biotech position, which paid Finneran more than $400,000 a year.
Word is, the job is Coughlin's for the taking.
ANYBODY SURPRISED by the way things went during Ayer Town Administrator Shaun Suhoski's performance evaluation this week? Selectmen Pauline Conley and Frank Maxant lambasted Suhoski, but they've been doing that since the night he was hired in January 2006.
It seemed odd, though, that Maxant didn't take part in the 3-1 vote awarding Suhoski an above-average grade of 4 on a scale of 0 to 5. He apparently wanted the evaluation based on an average of each selectman's scores but there wasn't precedent for that. So when Selectman Connie Sullivan motioned to give Suhoski a 4, Maxant couldn't object to the method of determining the grade and decided not to take part.
Maxant said his scorecard gave Suhoski scores as low as 0.
WHEN FORMER tenants of the former Julian D. Steele public-housing complex face off against the Lowell Housing Authority during their class-action trial in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston in November, they will be represented by counsel from the very large Boston firm of Foley, Hoag & Eliot LLP.
Foley Hoag has taken the case pro bono.
The former JDS tenants, who were gathered together by attorneys from the Boston-based Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and the Lawrence-based Neighborhood Legal Services, argue that the LHA relocated them to new neighborhoods with high minority concentrations after they were moved out to make way for Steele's demolition.
The city of Lowell and the state Department of Housing and Community Development are being sued as well.
MARK OCT. 22 on your calendars.
Former Lowell Police Superintendent Ed Davis, the current Boston police commissioner, will be feted by his friends, family and supporters at the Vesper Country Club in Tyngsboro.
The event will be a fundraiser for the D'Youville Manor Nursing Home in Lowell.
A key organizer is Davis booster Dick Viau, a member of the D1'Youville Board of Directors. Many years ago, Viau was also a key organizer in the fundraising drive to purchase the LPD's mobile communications van.
Plans for the event are still being worked out. Stay tuned for more details.
IT'S DOWN to the final four.
Littleton has four finalists for the town administrator position.
Two candidates are from Greater Lowell, one candidate is from the Cape, and the fourth candidate is from western Massachusetts.
"The search process has been slow and painful, but we finally have some great candidates," said Selectman Chairman Ken Eldridge.
The town received 42 applications for the position, including form Oregon, Kentucky, and Arizona.
At Monday's selectmen's meeting, the Town Administrator Search Committee will publicly announce the names of the finalists.
The board will interview finalists in public on Aug. 27.
Contributing to the Column this week were City Hall reporter Michael Lafleur, Statehouse reporter Matt Murphy, Statehouse Bureau Chief Hillary Chabot, Editorial Page Editor Sharon Flaherty, Ayer reporter Jack Minch, City Editor Christopher Scott, Littleton reporter Bridget Scrimenti and Dracut reporter Dennis Shaughnessey.
Posted by Admin at August 13, 2007 11:25 AM
