PROOF IS IN THE PROFFER
By Josh Resnek
Since we found out the mayor is inclined to speak to the FBI in a formal fashion many Everett people, friends of the mayor and foes alike, have asked us, “What has he done? What is this proffer he signed all about? What does it mean?”
The mayor has been, and very likely remains, an FBI informant – that’s what it means.
If you speak with the mayor, or have business deals with him or have done things that aren’t exactly by the book, it is very likely he could inform on you to the FBI to allow him to continue to operate inside city hall, in Aruba, or wherever he goes during the day.
If you play cards with him in the North End, if you bargain for a contract with him, if you do a deal with him, well, he could report all that.
The proffer he signed proves he’s done this and is doing this.
The proffer is not a commendation for bringing the casino here.
It is an indictment of sorts.
The deal he got into withe government signing the proffer does not have an ending. The deal remains a part of him for decades to come. If it is proven he lied to the FBI and the government when he signed the agreement, he could be immediately arrested and indicted for perjury.
For those of you who have been wondering if it is good or bad to be an informant for the FBI, well, it is usually good for the person doing the informing. In this case, that’s your mayor – an FBI informant.
If you’ve raised money for the mayor, accepted campaign contributions for the mayor, signed city contracts with the mayor, negotiated new developments and contracts with the mayor, bought electricity for the city for the mayor, all of you have a reason to think about whether or not he’s talked about you to the FBI. This not implying that everything is wrong all the time but it is written against the backdrop that the mayor is an informant who has given, and is likely still giving the FBI information when they ask.
Why, again, would he do this?
To save himself and to send the person he’s talking about to jail. That’s why people inform for the FBI.
Almost always, informants who sign what the mayor signed are under criminal investigation when they sign.
That is a fact.
When you begin informing, how long does the deal last? Forever, unless you are indicted, tried in court, convicted and sent to jail.
Even in jail you might have to inform to get out a bit earlier. Let’s not get carried away.
I don’t know what the extent of the mayor’s difficulties are with the law.
I’m just a reporter following up leads and telling a story and listening to others who tell me stories.
I found out the mayor had signed a deal with the government.
I wrote about it.
I printed the signed agreement!
Earlier last year I discovered the mayor has been paying criminal attorneys high sums of money – and for what – we all wondered? I wrote about that and provided the documentation.
I was amazed but then I am always amazed at what people do and how they get themselves in trouble.
Is the mayor in trouble?
I don’t know.
I only know what I have reported – that the mayor has been an informant or is continuing to be a government informant.That he has criminal attorneys on his payroll and then the allegation that he has accepted kickbacks.
Frankly, the parts of this moving puzzle seem to all fit together.
Two weeks ago, it was alleged the mayor took kickbacks in a lawsuit that has been filed against Steve Wynn and Wynn Resorts by sterling Suffolk Downs.
An informant who took kickbacks who has criminal attorneys on his payroll? Is this our mayor. Yes it is? No it isn’t.
Is this possible?
Is this something made-up?
No it isn’t.
It is fact reported as news and this editorial bit in the Leader Herald and the Boston Herald and on many internet news sites during the past two weeks.
Add to this the four or five allegations of sexual harassment attributed to the mayor.
Drop all of these bits of allegations about our mayor into a bowl and you’ve got quite a powerful punch, don’t you?
Friday night the mayor will be presiding at the Friendly Sons St. Patrick’s Day gala with the rep.
The mayor will mock and humiliate the Leader Herald. There is no doubt about it.
From where I sit here in my office on Church Street, that’s OK.
It is what I expect from him.
Please remember I am not an FBI informant and the FBI can’t tell us what to write.
We have no deals with the FBI or the government.
The bully will use his pulpit Friday night to mock and to humiliate me and the newspaper I am so proud to publish.
He will do this at a time meant to be about humor and fun.
It’s OK. He will mock me the same way he lunged at Mike McLaughlin at a public meeting two weeks ago during a moment of rage.
The simple fact of the matter is that the mayor mocking me and the Leader Herald is a government informant proudly parading around in disguise as a model citizen.
He’s done a lot of things to change the face of this city that are positive. The parks, the bicycle paths, the casino, and on and on.
Everything good he has done in a positive way does not have the cumulative destructive power of being an informant – informing on others to save his own skin.
Where I come from, that’s bad behavior.
In this life we ultimately reap what we sow.
I know this, the mayor will reap what he has sown.
In the eternal words of the common man – what goes around comes around.
Sergio Cornelio Wants a Lifetime Job; Anthony DiPierro is Right Behind Him
I am fascinated by the effrontery some people have who ought to be thanking the Lord for their good luck in this world.
One of those people is the city clerk Sergio Cornelio.
Three years ago he was delivering pizza. Today, he is being paid about $125,000 a year with various benefits that makes his income a great deal higher than that.
Many people like Sergio. His personality shines with friends.
Politically, he is an ally of the mayor who does the mayor’s bidding at the city council where he presides as the clerk.
This doesn’t make him a criminal. It makes him an unusual city clerk.
In 35 years of writing about the goings on at various city halls, I have never witnessed a more politicized city clerk.
Amazing, really.
He is such a bold faced water carrier for the mayor.
Now comes City Councilor Anthony DiPierro, Sergio’s close friend in government, and another of the mayor’s major water carriers – and a cousin as well.
Anthony isn’t looking for a lifetime tenure as a councilor.
First off, that can’t happen. Second, being a city councilor is a dead end for him.
Becoming the assistant city clerk, however, is Anthony’s real ambition right now.
At $90,000 a year with benefits, that’s a pretty good gig for a guy presently making a councilor’s salary and whatever else he does for work to augment it.
I wonder if he will be wanting a lifetime tenure like Sergio?
Is lifetime tenure better than a five year contract? Do assistant city clerks even get a contract? Who knows.
Here is how it is supposed to go for Anthony.
The present assistant city clerk David Ragucci is expected to leave in one or two years.
At that time, Anthony will make his way into that position with the help of the mayor and everyone on the council who will line up to vote for him.
There is catch, generally a councilor stepping down from his or her position is required to wait a year before he or she can take a city job. Anthony wants that changed to one month, so as to make his transition into his new position smooth and unfettered – seamless, so to speak. There is some certainty the council will change all that to please Anthony.
It must be so good to chart a future where your salary is a guarantee, your benefits are guaranteed, and literally your entire future is a guarantee.
The only caveat?
Anthony will have to be in that office at city hall everyday for the rest of his life – and frankly – that’s like prison to some of us.
In the meantime, the door has been opened for Sergio.
The door is now opening for Anthony.
Sergio will have to wait two weeks before everyone agrees his request for a lifetime tenure is sent to the state house where the rep and Senator Sal will offer legislation to the legislature. It will be perfunctorily approved and voila – we will have a lifetime tenured Sergio Cornelio.
That’s a whole lot of pizzas delivered for one man to equal that type of salary and security.
Maybe we could give Sergio two lifetime tenures instead of just one – and then he could give the second lifetime tenure to Anthony.
What could be better for them than that?