It's been a while since DBC opined to the ongoings at City Hall, but quite frankly, with one senseless action following another in such rapid fire, capturing any purpose behind the dealings has all the challenge of nailing Jell-O to a tree. We posited here earlier in the year that the Mayah's undoing would generally boil down to the debacle regarding Wood Waste and the budget hearings of 2008. The latter claim of course was quite general in description as it would hold all things, dollars and cents, and even lack of sense in some of the finer detail for scrutiny. Let's see if we can get somewhat of a capsuled update together here with maybe even a new revelation or two.
What the budget meetings revealed for us here at DBC is the one proven fact that AG Martha Coakley will need to add another department within its' Ethic Division to deal with all the questionable practices taking place under Hizzoner. He tried to make his Chief of Staff also the City Solicitor. It seems that move didn't fly. He has allowed the merger of the Budget Director and Purchasing Director again, without a clear green light on the ethics legality. We also have elected officials resigning or planning to resign office to take visible paid position(s) in the City's government despite clear language to the contrary prohibiting such practices under state ethics law. We wait with baited breath to see the names for the new firefighter's list.
Yet has the Mayor or one of the appointments in question ever produced any written proof that they have responsibly undertaken the moral and legal obligation to seek out such opinion from the State Ethics Commission? Of course not. The general public has relied on "the word"of the very people who benefitted on these moves hearing "The state said it was ok" or some such patronizing comeback rather than demanding to see a written opinion from the Attorney General's office and have it be publicly offered for viewing. Let's face it, the DeMaria administration has not made one high profile personnel decision that does not have an ethics cloud hanging over it. Of course, although it be only our opinion, we steadfastly maintain that we believe Hizzoner consistently acts first to satisfy his self serving needs and then, only then, in the best interest of others.
Simply put, Carlo DeMaria is doing what has been done for years in Everett's political patronage system only he has taken it to a whole new level. He has elevated political patronage to an art form. We hear tell through City Hall sources who shall remain anonymous that there is a much larger goal to all this orchestration and it is not solely confined to moving Wood Waste into a beneficial situation as we first suspected nor simply repaying the campaign assistance to one of the Mayor's chief supporters, William Thibeault, the owner of entities such as Wood Waste of Boston and New Ventures LLC. There is a much greater purpose at hand. As a reminder, the latest on New Ventures (and its' possible impact on Woodwaste and Everett) is set to take stage in court on July 14, 2008.
Hizzoner has adopted a rough idea left over from the Hanlon administration. He envisions one central government facility in Everett's future. He is considering a facility that will house all fire, police, school dept, city administrative functions, 911, and all other governmental operations in one area/building. You see dear Everett resident, that is why you don't hear much about the old Everett High School nor plans for its' sale. Our Mayor now holds plans of doing a few real estate sales on the side or so it would seem. Centralizing all the services would free up a great deal of city property (fire stations, police station, 911, etc) to be sold on the open market to private developers. One can only imagine the collusion that could take place in transfer of those several properties and the potential for corruption. We don't back away from the claim that Woodwaste and the connection with Thibeault is a disastrous one for Everett and that the situation certainly remains a major focus for the administration and a looming potential nightmare for the Everett resident. That certainly is a concern, but there appears to be a larger picture emerging as to just how far Mr. Mayah will go to achieve his own goals.
It just didn't make sense to us here at DBC that Hizzoner would be willing to take such heat on the Carlisle appointment merely to facilitate only the Wood Waste deal. We suspected there had to be more to the story and now it appears we were correct in our doubts. With Mr.Carlisle leaving his last employment with the town of Southbridge under not so good circumstances, we had to ask ourselves why the Mayah would go out on such a limb and take yet another beating on favorability points on this one controversial decision. We asked ourselves "Was all that needed just to get Wood Waste in play and did he really want us to believe that Clayton Carlisle was the best we could get from a statewide search to perform these "consolidated functions?" I guess the Mayah is justified in thinking we really are that gullible. After all, we put him in office once despite his lies and mediocre Aldermanic performance, so why shouldn't he believe we swallow yet another non answer of a whale story from him?
Now that we learn of this pipe dream the Mayah has for centralizing all government services in one building/location, we can see exactly why he needed such a person as Carlisle to take the lead and why it was important to merge the purchasing and budget director's position. The Mayah does not want merely to consolidate services, he also wants to consolidate power; his power; and the goodwill that can be bought by making certain city properties available to the right developers would be nothing short of a grand windfall for the Mayah's reelection campaign. And in our opinion his only shot, albeit a long shot at this stage, of even coming close in reelection. Goodwill (translation: political favors that translate to votes and campaign support) is a great thing to politicians, especially when the favor is owed to the elected official and it is during campaign season. And it is always campaign season in Everett.
The Mayah will need these commercial supporters added on because he is quickly alienating most all other sectors that helped get him elected or could possibly help in the next election, save the businesses he is courting. We suspect that the forthcoming tax rate will contain a nice increase for the property owners in Everett. At this point and without a large cash infusion from elsewhere, it seems inevitable that the Everett homeowner will get hit yet once again come time to get the bill. He can kiss the homeowner vote Ga'bye if that happens. Just ask John Hanlon. Add in the rank and file of the city worker being hit in the pocketbook over promised raises being taken back; the ongoing ethical questions surrounding city jobs and appointments; changing ordinances to achieve some greater mystery; mix in a little noxious odor from Woodwaste and you have quite a package on your hands Mr. Mayah. Good luck.
Hizzoner put all these high price decisions into play and doesn't have the means to pay for them until he can attract more business to the tax base. Does the term "cart before the horse" mean anything? He thought he could just slide all this right through without a whisper of objection. And he was almost right. Ask yourself this Mr. and Mrs. voter? "What concrete and detailed plans have I heard from the Mayor about moving this city forward?" When you examine the question closely you'll see he has detailed very little for you and there is a reason for such vagueness. In our best opinion the Mayah and company realizes that enemy number one is the informed voter and their (the DeMaria administration) actions are testimony to that very fact.
Hint: Pay close attention to the Board of Alderman composition in the event Mr. Nuzzo takes a city paid position as is the rumored plan and needs to be replaced. If Mr. Mayah does not get the right player seated on the board his grand design becomes an even greater longshot in our opinion. The reasons for all of the above mentioned orchestrations will then become increasingly clear to most voters in the next several months. Don't rely on the rags for your true insight. They are bought and paid for through advertising dollars provided by City Hall and would never bite the hand the feeds them by telling you the whole truth. All you'll find there is outright lies and half truths at best.
The handwriting has been on the wall and getting larger by the day. Be suspect of every innocuous request these days because nothing emanating from the corner office can ever again be taken at face value. Keep your eye on the man behind the curtain.
But on the bright side............ we love the flowers!
Your friend,
The Rolling Pin
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This post is used by permission of its' author "Billydee" and originally was posted on Everett's original blog "The Everett Average Citizen." We are using this post to emphasize the claims contained in the latest Opinion offering of "Pretty Flowers and Yellow Brick Roads."
URL: http://bbeverettma.forumco.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=777&whichpage=12
Tetris,
This is a delayed response to your post to me regardng Ms. Deveney. It took a while to talk to my insiders at City Hall. It does appear that Ms. Deveny will remain the Chief of Staff. I was told that the Mayor has already indicated to members of the BOA that Ms. Mejia will be the City Solicitor. I asked my insiders how Ms. Deveney and Ms. Mejia are getting along in light of this development. They said "fine for now" but they tell me that Ms. Mejia has always been frustrated with Ms. Deveney failuure to act in a timely fashion. Rather than grease the wheels of the Administration, Ms. Deveney clogs it up with her standard delays and failures to take action. I also heard another rumor this week. The rumor is that Ms. Deveney has been offered a high ranking position with the Registry of Motor Vehicles where she used to work. My insiders only know that she was offered the job, not that she is taking it.
I've been thinking about your "can of worms" statement should Ms. Deveney not remain as Chief of Staff. After reading the Leader Herald's commentary about Mayor DeMaria's first six months, I found it surprising that the Leader Herald critiqued the Budget Director but not the Chief of Staff. I was told that Carole Ragucci (once a legal secretary) was Mayor Ragucci's Chief of Staff. My friends at City Hall said that "she got the job done." I find it ironic that a lawyer (Ms. Deveney) really can't light a candle to a legal secretary (Ms. Ragucci) in terms of "getting the job done." There would be no loss to Mayor DeMaria or the City if Ms. Deveny resigned the Chief of Staff post. Mayor Mayor may have gotten the City Council votes for his deficient albeit first budget. However, let us not forget that Hanlon got the votes for his budget in his first six months in office too. The City Council cuts in Hanlon's first budget two year's ago ($4,500) was far less than its cuts to Mayor DeMaria's budget ($272,000). This is really not a good sign for the new Mayor, because we all know what happened to Hanlon a year later. The Council Council had major difficulties with Hanlon and it attempted to cut nearly $3 to 4 million dollars from Hanlon's budget in 2007 before arriving at the $2.5 million in cuts before Hanlon got his budget by fiat.
You may ask, what does all this have to do with the Chief of Staff? Ms. Deveney did not even do as well as Hanlon's "Chief of Staff by default," Janice Vetrano, in her first six months on the job. City Hall folks and Councilpersons tell me Ms. Deveney has an annoying habit of not returning calls or not respondig to important emails. She takes copious notes in any meeting one has with her. She takes notes but she does not seem to know when action is required, even if she should act as an extension of the Mayor to save the Mayor from himself. This Mayor hardly shows up for work. John Hanlon, loved the Mayor's job. With the exception of his trips to Vegas, Fox Woods or his Mayoral Retreats, he was in the corner office nearly everyday. He also showed up for work right around 8. Sometimes the Mayor's Office is not even open at 8 o'clock under Carlo. He shows up by 11 AM or some time in the afternoon or not at all. If he does not show up 8 in the morning, then his Chief of Staff must show up at 8 in the morning. Who cares if Ms. Devney works until 10 or 11 at night, if she is not covering the Mayor's ass at 8 in the morning? My City Hall friends have been telling me these things for many months. Now I see how it ties into Carlo's C- performance after 6 months in office. Yes, the Everett streets are cleaner under Carlo. But Carlo acts more like the Executive Director of City Services than a Mayor. His Chief of Staff is ineffectual and his Budget Director is an idiot. Carlo tells people he eliminated the Personnel Director job because he really is the Personnel Director. If that's true, when the Mayor/Personnel Director hired Ms. Deveney as Chief of Staff and Carlisle as Budget Director, he obviously did not know what he was doing. Carlo should have deferred to human resource specialists in making these decisions. Now he must live with his apparent errors becaue he is "too sensitive" to take criticism (if you watched the last BOA meeting). He also has too much pride to admit he has made so many mistakes in such a short period of time. He simply wants to talk about clean streets and the beautiful flowers his wife is planting in Everett Square.
Because I voted for Carlo, I did some soul searching before arriving at these conclusions. But I was really voting against John Hanlon after my taxes went up and he lied about our Prop 2 and 1/2 problem last year. Now I wonder if I should have voted for Hanlon during the Primary. Hanlon at least showed up for work and had many more years of public service than Carlo. Carlo shows himself to be a lazy Mayor who relies too heavily on "an inner circle" where Everett outsiders are the only members (Thiebeault, Deveney, Carlisle and Zaniboni). Mr. Carlisle is an incoherent Budget Director and uncertified Procurement Officer. Ms. Deveney is a smart, well-spoken Chief of Staff who does not seem well suited for this position in City Hall in Everett. Her law talents had to be called into question because she essentially advised herself on the City Solicitor appointment. With Ms. Mejia's appointment to City Solicitor, we all know now how that backfired. A lawyer friend has been telling me for years that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. If there is any truth to the rumor that Ms. Deveney was offered a better job with the Registry, she should take it and take it soon. She is not Chief of Staff material, not in Everett and not under a lazy Mayor who relies too heavily on others rather than than simply learn the Mayor's job by showing up to do it. It is ironic to think that Carlo has become "an outsider" in his own City Hall, much like his "not-from-Everett" inner circle. City Hall is a "live" place and is much like a football game. You either play, watch or shut up. No one on the field wants people telling them how to play from the sidelines. This Mayor is not even playing because he tries to run City Hall from the sidelines. He is also float riding, still riding the float from the days when he was on the City Council. No, Carlo, we need a Mayor, not an Alderman or City Councilman.
With that said, I think that the Leader Herald commentary was overly generous to the Carlo DeMaria Administration. I voted for Mayor DeMaria and now regret that decision. His Budget was far worse than either of Hanlon's budgets. The Leader Herald "got it" right in an editorial several weeks ago about how the Mayor's Budget will be the first real test of leadership. Carlo failed that test miserably. He talked of "cost savings" when his budget increased by nearly $8 million dollars. Either "he does bad political spin" or "he believes his own hype." It is probably the latter because Carlo tells everyone that he is saving money by eliminating the Personnel Director position, even though there is no savings. "For heaven sakes, Carlo, if you're not the brightest bulb not be able to add numbers, then don't add laziness to your resume!" Carlo threw that budget together in less than 3 weeks, without even discussing budgets with Department Heads, all of whom worked in City Hall on a daily basis longer than he, his Chief of Staff or Budget Director. The truth is that he needed to cut the FY '09 Budget by at least the $2.5 million that the City Council attempted to cut a year ago. Instead, he eliminated "essential position" like the Personnel Director while adding "a Quality Assurance Specialist" positon for his cousin in the Budget Office. How smart and nepotistic is that? Carlo should have been doing the hard work of elminating several non-essential personnel positions or uncertified building inspectors who've had more time than Dick Dellisola under Ragucci to get their certification. Thanks to Hanlon and Carlo, the City is on a financial trajectory that will be force it to lay off all personnel (includibg Fire and Police) during the next couple of years. The City's finances are being improperly managed with Carlisle as the key financial point person. Carlo's Budget Director was thrown out of Stouthbridge because the town is in such bad financial shape. Carlo does not understand the City's finances. He does not listen to his Auditor. He listens to a baffoon for a Budget Director who only cares about his Everett salary after being kicked out of Southbridge.
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