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December 10, 2007
Billerica board's battle brewing for a while
THE BILLERICA volcano that erupted on Monday night has been smoldering for months.
Selectmen Bob Correnti and Jim O'Donnell stormed out of the meeting after Chairman Mike Rosa refused to add their evaluations of Town Manager Rocco Longo to the board's composite score, because each missed Rosa's deadline significantly.
"The deadline is Nov. 2," Rosa told Correnti and O'Donnell. "How do you not understand that? That was pretty simple."
"Hope you have a quorum. Good night," O'Donnell said, as he and Correnti left the room, leaving a surprised Rosa and Selectman Marc Lombardo no choice but to end the meeting with no quorum.
Ultimately, everyone ended up looking bad. Correnti and O'Donnell never told Rosa they would be late; Rosa never asked why, nor said he would move ahead without them.
The Rosa-Lombardo-Kathy Matos composite gives Longo an average 4.2 out of 5. Correnti and O'Donnell are not big fans of the manager, and their grades could have dragged down the final score. Longo's contract expires in June, and a high score could be the basis for a long contract and significant raise.
CORRENTI RETURNED to the board following a two-year absence in April's election, after Ellen Rawlings decided not to seek re-election.
O'Donnell has been emboldened now that he has an ally. He and Rosa have had numerous pointed exchanges in recent months over the chairman's style.
He blasted Rosa for poor communication earlier this year when Town Counsel Donna Gorshel Cohen had changed her position on eliminating trash pickup at multifamily units -- which only Rosa and Longo knew.
"Are you going to tell us of this new opinion or is it a secret?" O'Donnell asked Rosa.
Monday, O'Donnell threw a promise Rosa made during election season back in his face.
"I thought there was a sense when you became chairman of bringing people together," O'Donnell huffed before his grand exit.
GEORGE GATZIMOS lost his seat on the Lowell Memorial Auditorium Board of Trustees in part because of the feud between Greek-American Legion Commander George Tzanetakos and Lowell Veterans Council Commander Robert Page.
Tzanetakos, who did not return a phone call, recently has been highly critical of the veterans council under Page.
The council, an umbrella group for the city's vets organizations, nominates three people to serve as the veterans' rep on the trustees board. The city manager chooses one of them.
Page said neither Tzanetakos nor Gatzimos has attended a veterans council meeting "in several months," including the nominating meeting in the fall. Gatzimos has served two terms on the board, but was not nominated this time.
"You can't be nominated if you're not there," Page said. "If he had been at the meeting, I'm sure somebody would have nominated him."
Gatzimos, the city's longtime former civil defense director, will be 84 in February. He normally gets a ride to the monthly council meetings from Tzanetakos, Page said.
Page added neither Gatzimos nor anyone else from the Greek American Legion contacted him "or anyone that I know of" to inform them that Gatzimos was still interested in serving.
"I thought they did the man a disservice by making such a foolish thing out of it," Page said of the Lowell City Council. "But the reality is we followed the rules that we live by, and that's what we do."
CITY MANAGER Bernie Lynch caught an earful for replacing Gatzimos without telling him.
Councilor Rita Mercier said Gatzimos was unaware he was out until he read about it in Monday's Sun. She then proceeded to lambaste Lynch for being insensitive.
Lynch said he called Gatzimos and apologized, after learning Gatzimos was interested in continuing to serve.
"I'm not a professional by any means, but I would have taken him to my office," Mercier said. "This is not the way to run government."
Even Councilors Kevin Broderick and Jim Milinazzo, both normally staunch Lynch allies, also said they were displeased.
Councilor Armand Mercier, who has been critical of Lynch in other council skirmishes, this time said any darts should be aimed at the veterans council, which left Gatzimos off its list.
LOWELL SCHOOL Committee member Regina Faticanti's parliamentary move to stall the search for a new superintendent means nothing substantive will happen for at least a month.
Mayor Bill Martin wanted the search started pronto. Faticanti voted against that, then changed her vote to "yes," allowing her to ask that the motion be reconsidered at the Dec. 19 meeting.
Robert's Rules of Order, the handbook under which the committee works, states that reconsideration freezes the motion until its next meeting. The majority wanted a special meeting next week to get rolling, but now the Jan. 9 meeting is the earliest the board can get to work.
Faticanti feels strongly that Dave Conway, the retiring Lowell High School housemaster who topped the ticket in November's election, and the new mayor, likely City Councilor Edward "Bud" Caulfield, should be involved in all aspects of the search.
During the last search, in 1999-2000, the post-election lame-duck committee set up the process over a series of meetings before Connie Martin joined the board in January 2000.
Faticanti's maneuvering baffled member John Leahy, who was overheard saying 'Can she do that?'
WITH SUPERINTENDENT salaries skyrocketing like those of professional athletes, current Superintendent of Schools Karla Brooks Baehr soon may look like a bargain.
Baehr's base salary for leading the 14,000-student district is $148,745, with a $3,600 travel allowance, and a $5,000 performance bonus if she meets goals set up by herself and the committee. She did not earn a bonus this year.
But, let's compare. Donald Yeoman, Chelmsford's new schools leader, started in the fall at $165,000 for the 5,600-student system, with no perks. Long-time Tewksbury schools chief Christine McGrath received a 21 percent raise, boosting her base salary to $165,000 this year. An annuity, life-insurance premium and longevity bonus push her total compensation past $190,000. This year Tewksbury has about 4,700 students.
Lawrence Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy, who oversees a 12,000-student district, takes home a $189,397 base salary, which jumps to $209,360 when his $12,000 annuity and use of a Chevy Blazer are factored in.
Leahy said committee members "are going to be in for a big shock when we advertise for a new superintendent."
NEITHER FORMER Superintendent of Schools George Tsapatsaris, Lowell High School Headmaster William Samaras nor former Deputy Superintendent Ted Rurak will be walking through that door to keep the superintendent's seat warm as an interim.
School Committee member Jim Leary this week said the most likely interim, should one be needed, is current Deputy Superintendent Jean Franco.
WITH CONWAY set to retire at the end of the month, Samaras is tapping a familiar face to serve out the school year: David Moorehouse.
Moorehouse retired as housemaster a few years ago. It's also not the first time that he's pinch-hit in a time of need.
Speaking of hiring, Samaras said it's his hope that a permanent replacement for Conway, plus a replacement for Brian Martin, the former athletic director now working as district director for U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, are on board by next March.
Both positions pay about $85,000. The acting AD, Dennis Krysiak, will not be a candidate for the permanent job.
Another hot-button issue, whether to extend the contract of head football coach Al Pare after his inaugural, injury-riddled 2-9 season, will be decided soon. If Pare gets an extension, it would be for two years.
FRESH OFF managing Niki Tsongas' successful congressional campaign, Roger Lau has taken a new job as Massachusetts state director for Hillary Clinton.
Lau has made the rounds in Massachusetts politics, working for Sen. John Kerry, former U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan and Tsongas.
Though Massachusetts has tried to boost its stature by pushing up its presidential primary to Feb. 5 -- a.k.a. Super Duper Tuesday -- Lau and the Clinton campaign will focus for now on moving troops north to win in New Hampshire.
Barney Keller, former press secretary for Tsongas' unsuccessful Republican opponent, Jim Ogonowski, also has gone north.
After cutting his teeth during Ogonowski's formidable challenge to Tsongas, Keller has signed on for a year with the New Hampshire GOP.
Keller will focus on ousting first-term Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter and helping Sen. John Sununu, who faces a challenge from Democratic former Gov. Jean Shaheen. Shaheen lost to Sununu in 2002.
IT MIGHT not compare apples to apples, but state law is the same in the following two cases.
The state Ethics Commission recently fined Raymond Payson, chairman of North Attleboro's Planning Board, $5,000 for voting on a development on property abutting land he owned with his brother.
Payson, the Ethics Commission said, participated in approvals, decisions and inspections regarding a commercial development (garages and offices for local contractors) that would have "a reasonably foreseeable financial impact" on his property values.
During public meetings on the plan, Payson initially said he would not weigh in on related matters, but did so nonetheless.
Payson also wrote a letter to the developer on official planning board letterhead stating that utility work on the property was "at risk of not receiving planning board approval."
Now as far as we know, City Councilor-elect Alan Kazanjian didn't do that when, as chairman of Lowell's Zoning Board of Appeals, he voted a few months ago in favor of a new Dunkin' Donuts at 62 Western Ave., near where he owns nearly a dozen properties. The vote was unanimous.
City records show Kazanjian owns nine properties near or abutting the site of the Dutton Street car wash.
According to state law, a public employee "should not take any action in (their) official capacity on matters affecting property that is near or directly abuts" their own property.
No one can predict whether a similar fate awaits Kazanjian. The Ethics Commission never talks about what cases it is looking into.
TEWKSBURY SELECTMAN Ed Dick has this message for naysayers who accuse him of being a "part-time" member of the board: Put it to rest.
The criticism first surfaced during Dick's special-election campaign this fall, when word circulated that he was planning to spend part of the winter in Florida and fly back for board meetings.
Critics pounced again when Dick turned down an offer by Selectmen Chairman Jerry Selissen last month to be the board's representative on the Town Meeting Review Committee.
Dick said this week that he wants a bit more time on the board before taking on the assignment.
Dick, who had served on the School Committee, said he was ready to accept a position on the Long Term School Space Committee on Tuesday. But he said he backed off because Selectman Anne Marie Stronach was interested in that group.
"All this has absolutely nothing to do with (Florida)," Dick said. "It's not an issue."
FORMER WESTFORD Selectman Bob McCusker and resident Kirk Ware are both eyeing a run for the Board of Selectmen next May.
McCusker says he's unhappy with the current situation in town.
"This isn't what Westford is all about," McCusker said. "We always had the foresight to take care of our town buildings and not let them fall apart."
Town Hall was declared unsafe for occupancy, after engineers found structural damage in the building's floor framing. This came after employees noticed the floor was sagging.
McCusker and Ware could be pulling papers in the Town Clerk's office -- now located in the police station.
"I'm in the hunt," Ware said, who has served as chairman of the East Boston Camps Master Plan Committee. "I just think we need to return a certain amount of civility to the deliberations of the Board of Selectmen."
The terms of Selectmen Chairman Valerie Wormell and Selectman Dini Healy-Coffin end in the spring.
"SNOW DAY" ISN'T in the Groton selectmen's vocabulary.
The selectmen started at the stroke of 7 on Monday night, despite the blustry weather outside. "The storm was over," Selectmen Chairman Fran Dillon said.
Plus, they couldn't afford to stay home from a "high-paid job," he joked. Groton's selectmen are paid less than $1,000 per year, and decided against giving themselves a raise last year.
POOR TIMING is the buzz in Pelham, as selectmen and the School Board push for a new fire station and high school simultaneously.
A month ago officials insisted that both projects could pass at Town Meeting, but now there's a growing sense that the two boards are being pitted against each other.
Several School Board members have said publicly that the $4.3 million fire station threatens their $44 million school project. School Board member Cindy Kyzer even complained that the school was supposed to be the town's top priority.
The school's chances could be hurt because one member, Linda Mahoney, voted against buying land. Selectmen are unanimous in the need for a new fire station.
MITT ROMNEY needed his highly anticipated speech addressing his faith Thursday to do many things.
Romney hoped to assure the public that he won't be controlled by his religion while underlining his belief in Christ to the evangelical Christians who will be vital at the Iowa caucus.
Most importantly, Romney is hoping for a John F. Kennedy-like turnaround in the polls. Many say Kennedy's landmark speech in 1960 helped pave the way to his victory.
But in a comparison of the two speeches, one Republican analyst says Romney missed the mark. When asked about similarities in the two speeches, Republican analyst Jim Nuzzo replied: "They both had great hair."
LONGTIME BEDFORD resident and former Sun section editor Mike Rosenberg has announced his candidacy for the Board of Selectmen.
He's letting folks know and lining up a campaign committee so he can successfully fill the seat being vacated by Gordon Feltman. The election is March 8.
"He's stepping down and it looked like a good opportunity for a newcomer," said Rosenberg, who spent 2 1/2 terms on the School Committee.
Rosenberg has lived in Bedford since 1973 and worked at The Sun from 1982-87. Since then, he has worked as director of community and alumni relations at the Maimonides School in Brookline.
Contributing to The Column this week are City Editor Christopher Scott, City Hall reporter Michael Lafleur, Billerica/Lowell schools reporter Jennifer Myers, Tewksbury reporter Alexandra Mayer-Hohdahl, Pelham reporter Chris Camire, Ayer reporter Jack Minch, Westford reporter Bridget Scrimenti, Groton reporter Hiroko Sato, Washington reporter Evan Lehman, Statehouse reporters Hillary Chabot and Matt Murphy, and Lifestyle reporter Nancye Tuttle
Posted by Admin at December 10, 2007 11:35 AM
