Mayor Allegedly Said City Hall Employees Must Do as He Says or Face Repercussions
By Josh Resnek
During the last 30 days before the 2013 citywide referendum was held on allowing casino gambling in Everett, the mayor apparently offered up high school aged students, graduates, and members of the National Honor Society, to participate in a citywide canvassing scheme to aid in assuring Wynn officials a victory when all the votes were counted, according to information received by the Leader Herald.
The mayor expressed enthusiasm for hiring the high school aged kids to canvas for the gambling referendum for city hall so he could gather information about how voters were tending to think and to gauge how they might vote.
“Hire 20 kids, top kids, National Honor Society kids, football kids, all going to college,” the mayor is alleged to have said.
“Sit down with them, give them the pro’s and con’s on the referendum…send them out… give them an hourly wage,” the mayor urged the Wynn official.
Also, in the same conversation with a Wynn official, the mayor allegedly told him that he was guaranteeing a gambling referendum victory and that he would do whatever is necessary to gain it.
“The support is crazy,” he is reported to have told the official, according to
information received by the Leader Herald.
The official remained skeptical.
“High school kids and casinos – you can be attacked for that,” the official complained to the mayor, according to information received by the Leader Herald.
Also, the mayor implied during the strategy conversation that city employees were under an unwritten obligation to advocate for whatever he wanted if ordered to do so.
“City hall employees all need their jobs,” the mayor told the Wynn official, according to information received by the Leader Herald.
The mayor put it succinctly about city employees.
“They need their jobs (those working for me at city hall). Getting me in office is about them keeping me in office(and keeping their jobs),” he added.