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November 19, 2007
The votes tell story: It's Mayor Caulfield
The 2008-2009 City Council will make its first act the selection of Councilor Edward "Bud" Caulfield as mayor on Jan. 7.
Caulfield served as mayor during the 1996-97 term. His competition this time is Councilor Rodney Elliott, who never has been mayor.
Caulfield said last week he has commitments from Councilors Armand Mercier and Rita Mercier and Councilors-elect Alan Kazanjian and Michael Lenzi. Elliott was able to garner support from Councilors Kevin Broderick, Bill Martin (the current mayor) and Jim Milinazzo. Including himself in the tally left Elliott one vote shy.
"It's not like I'm winning something and Rodney's losing something," Caulfield said. "To be honest, people want me to be the mayor, and they want me to bring everyone together. I'll work tirelessly to make that happen. We all have our work cut out for us over the next two years. It's not going to be a 5-4 council, a 6-3 council. It's going to be a council of the people,
and the people expect it and they deserve it."
Armand Mercier proved to be a key vote. He and Caulfield have been political allies in recent years, but Mercier's personal feelings toward the ever-theatrical Caulfield are less than warm.
But Mercier said he considered the retired Caulfield's previous experience and his willingness to devote free time as deciding factors in his vote.
"He'll bring that calming effect to the council," Mercier said. "It's a very time-consuming job. He's got plenty of time. He's done it before."
No candidates have been discussed for the vice mayor's position, now held by Milinazzo.
REP. DAVID Nangle of Lowell will have a lot to be thankful for this week, as the job he's expected to take, sergeant at arms in the Legislature, comes together nicely in terms of responsibilities and salary.
Word out of the Statehouse is that House leaders plan to fill Nangle's seat, as well as several others, on the day of the expected presidential primary, Feb. 5.
Several other reps from across the state have recently resigned to take other jobs. One of them is Sen. Robert Havern, who left for a lucrative lobbyist position. Rep. James Marzilli of Arlington won the Democratic primary last week and will face Billerica Republican Brion Cangiamila, a former Billerica selectman and state rep, in the Dec. 11 general election.
Havern's district includes Billerica and Burlington.
COULD ANOTHER state rep's seat from Lowell be opening up?
Rep. Kevin Murphy, who represents the Highlands and the Acre, said he'd be interested in becoming city manager "someday, if it's open, sure, but timing is everything."
Here's the skinny. Now that the City Council tide has shifted against City Manager Bernie Lynch following municipal elections earlier this month -- on paper anyway -- Murphy's name is the one circulating as a potential replacement.
Even Murphy has acknowledged the fact, as he's said folks have asked him.
"But I don't know why people are bantering it about because I'm not interested in it," Murphy said. "I want to work with the city manager. I don't want to be perceived as undermining him."
IT'S HARD to imagine state Rep. Tom Golden without a McGovern by his side.
But the veteran rep is indeed McGovern-less following the recent departure of his trusted and friendly chief of staff for the last nine years, Nancy McGovern, for greener pastures. McGovern snagged a job working as political director for the Boston office of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers.
Before McGovern, chief-of-staff duties were handled by her brother, Mike McGovern, now the friendly chief schmoozer at Greater Lowell Technical High School.
ONE THING to watch with the new council is how it handles Armand Mercier's proposal -- now tabled -- to explore the feasibility of giving the city-owned, money-hemorrhaging Tsongas Arena to UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan.
It has never been clear if Mercier's proposal could pass muster with the current council, particularly because Councilor Eileen Donoghue isn't a fan.
But Donoghue is retiring, and with Kazanjian and Lenzi's election, the balance of power may change in favor of Mercier's motion, which now is pending before the council's city-university partnership subcommittee, whose members for the next council term would be selected by a Mayor Caulfield.
Last week, Mercier said the measure likely would have to wait until after the start of the new year.
"We've only got four meetings left this year," he said. "We've got a full plate."
The city would have to eat some debt-service money were it to transfer the facility to UMass Lowell, and it's far from clear whether Meehan would even want anything to do with the measure.
But the former congressman has sounded in the past like he would entertain a deal. That would put the deficit-ridden facility off the city's books and onto those of the state, which could more easily afford the capital improvements Meehan has argued the arena needs. The idea might be popular with the new council.
CAULFIELD SAID he expects to re-appoint all existing councilors to their current subcommittees and chairmanships, including Elliott on finance and Milinazzo on economic development, two plum positions.
"I'm definitely going to keep them there," he said, "but Alan Kazanjian and Mike Lenzi are two successful businessmen. I'm going to tap into their expertise."
Martin also will have to be worked into the mix.
YOU WON'T find the magazine CommonWealth on local news stands -- but the quarterly published by the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth has some must reading for Lowell folks.
Beginning on page 75, there's a 13-page spread with the headline "TOP COP -- Ed Davis wants to rebuild trust between police and crime-weary Boston residents. But he'll be measured by whether he can lower the body count."
It's an in-depth, positive profile on the former Lowell superintendent who is now leading the Boston Police Department.
It quotes Meehan, who said the LPD rose to become a "national model" for community policing when Davis was chief.
Coincidentally, the story also quotes UMass Lowell's former provost who Meehan jettisoned, John Wooding. Wooding applauded Davis for bringing something to high-level law-enforcement jobs that aren't always linked to the local constabulary: an "intellectual" flair.
The story also touches on Davis' well-publicized battles with John Cox, Lowell's former city manager.
EVAN KATZ of Groton continues to make the rounds in Nashoba Valley municipal government.
The former Groton administrative assistant and selectman, Harvard's finance director and school business manager, is the new business manager for the public schools in Shirley.
NIKI TSONGAS is unlikely to find a beam of sunlight in her new D.C. digs.
First, the apartment is subterranean -- what Washingtonians optimistically call an "English basement."
Second, the sun shines not at night.
"I haven't seen it yet in the daytime, and I probably never will," Tsongas said.
She declined to reveal her rent, but a Washington one-bedroom costs on average $1,459, according to apartmentratings.com.
LYNCH WILL have to appoint a replacement for Tsongas on the city's Arena and Civic Stadium Commission.
Lynch said Tsongas tendered her resignation from the body on Oct. 17, the day after she beat Republican Jim Ogonowski to win Meehan's former congressional seat. Among other things, Tsongas' commission duties called for her to oversee the Tsongas Arena, named for her deceased husband, former U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas.
The city manager last week said he had a few ideas for Tsongas' replacement but had yet to make a final decision.
IT DOESN'T look like Mike Hayden and Fred Bahou are on each other's Christmas card list.
Hayden, a member of the Greater Lowell Technical High School board, and Bahou, who failed in his second consecutive bid for a seat on that board last Tuesday, have been waging a war of words in the Letters to the Editor section of The Sun.
During latest campaign, Bahou said he wanted to increase enrollment at the school and expand the nursing program. Hayden responded by saying Bahou's comments were an attempt at "political gain."
It would be interesting to see what Bahou, who garnered 5,100 votes in the Nov. 6 election, would do if, say, newly elected city councilor Lenzi decided to step down from his Greater Lowell Tech seat.
That's not going to happen, according to Lenzi, who was elected to a third term on the Greater Lowell Tech board.
"I said all along that I have no intentions of leaving the board," Lenzi said last week. "I told (Cassin) I'm in for the long haul. I enjoy it up there and that's why I ran."
DONOGHUE HAS asked Lynch to investigate reports of voting irregularities she received about the Nov. 6 city election.
The retiring councilor, who finished as runner-up to Tsongas in the Sept. 4 Democratic primary for the 5th Congressional District seat, raised the issue during last Tuesday's council meeting, and several of her colleagues said they had received complaints as well.
Donoghue said she heard from a woman who was forced to vote via absentee ballot after her name mysteriously disappeared from the registered-voter rolls at her longtime polling place, then was told that absentee ballots never made it to City Hall after the polls closed. She said she also was told about at least one instance in which a poll worker at the Masonic Temple explained the city ballot to a voter in an inappropriate way.
"It's just odd that I heard of three or four incidents that warranted checking out," she said. "I'm raising it because I wasn't on the ballot and I don't have an ax to grind about it. You want to be sure the people who are voting are the people who should be voting and you want to make sure if people do vote, there's a process that happens and everyone knows the process."
This week's Column was written by City Editor Christopher Scott, City Hall reporter Michael Lafleur, Washington, D.C. reporter Evan Lehman and Dracut reporter Dennis Shaughnessey
Posted by Admin at November 19, 2007 12:09 PM
