The $12,000 Fraud
By Josh Resnek
The mayor granting himself $12,000 for a car allowance at a budget cutting session two weeks ago is US Attorney material.
The council awarding him the $12,000, and the mayor accepting it after he berated the council, was an obscenity.
Did everyone in the council chamber interested in this matter, voting on it and accepting forget for a moment that this is bad government?
That it might be illegal government action?
I wonder what Andrew Lelling would think about this $12,000 car allowance?
US Attorney Lelling is the guy overlooking the more than 6 year ongoing investigation into municipal corruption in Everett.
The FBI has been all over the mayor and his friends.
There are wire taps, secret grand jury reports, law suits, allegations of every kind being made including that the mayor took a payment for his role in the casino land sale.
Many citizens come forward to remind us of the mayor’s alleged schemes to profit from his hard work here in Everett.
The mayor believes he should be paid for everything he does. That’s what he told the city council.
He complained they had hesitated about the $12,000 he asked for. He would punish them if they didn’t give him the $12,000.
So he got his $12,000.
Now what?
Does he return the free Mercedes he drives?
Does he refrain from being driven around the city by city employees in city cars?
How does he justify the $12,000 gift and does he have to account for it in any way?
Should he be made to account for the $12,000 and where it goes? Yes he should.
It was just another deal for the mayor to make with the council. The land sale kickback scheme of which the mayor is allegedly a part is detailed to perfection in a Federal civil RICO law suit.
Here is another allegation of a deal enriching the mayor.
We would remind all of you who speak with the mayor on telephone or cell phone that it is likely either he or the FBI are selectively recording your calls.
The mayor’s signed proffer, his signed agreement with the government to offer up information to the FBI is open ended. It doesn’t run out.
You should be careful talking with the mayor, especially if it is one on one.
The mayor stays away from that.
He prefers a witness if you are speaking with him in his office at city hall – something rarely done these days.
Only someone cooperating with the FBI could sidestep four major sexual harassment allegations made against him as well as the allegation that he accepted a 3% commission for the sale of the casino land.
How do you dodge four sexual harassment charges?
One allegation of sexual misconduct could happen to anyone. Two allegations, well, some questions begin to arise.
Three allegations, the red warning flag is flying.
Four allegations and you’ve hit the jack-pot.
Fair-minded people would agree; four women detailing horrific incidents of sexual harassment at the mayor’s hands could not all be lying?
Or could they?
Were they all paid to remain quiet? Did they all lie?
We understand one of the women received $400,000 to remain quiet. Could that possibly be true?
It was allegedly a corporate thing, with a corporation which the mayor does not own, making the agreement and payment.
The woman lives in Revere.
What if she came forward with her allegations today?
The mayor would be forced to resign.
Kickback says he is untouchable. He gets what he wants. He negotiates deals to make them advantageous to the city.
But I wonder about those deals and every deal he makes.
The deals the city makes with all its major vendors are all giant contracts these days.
They need to be looked at and scrutinized. Who brings the deal to the city, to the mayor
How is the deal negotiated?
Are there brokers?
Are there special payments made to secure deals in this city?
Kickback has said he wants to be paid for everything he does for the people of Everett.
He said this with vehemence most recently before the City Council as he ordered them to vote on the matter to give him the $12,000 or be punished by him. Yet he sounded and acted more like a small town gangster stealing from the city treasury to line his own pocket.
How he bullied the council to vote the $12,000 stipend for a car reveals the mayor’s greed and his contempt for the city council.
He will be making many deals with contractors of all kinds for a dozen different projects.
Can you imagine what he might do with the $40 million the city is going to receive from the casino this year?
Kickback Carlo DeMaria needs to be closely watched.
A Date to Remember
June 10 was a big day for me.
It was my mother’s birthday.
She has not yet been gone 1 year.
She would have been 98 on June 10.
This time last year I was visiting her daily in the nursing home.
We would kiss and hug. We held hands.
“I love you so much,” I would whisper in her ear each time I was in her presence.
She’d push me away.
“OK. Enough!” she’d say.
We had a birthday party for her at the nursing home.
She had a month left to live at that time.
Several times a week I’d take her from her wheelchair and put her in the passenger seat of my car.
We’d drive down to Revere Beach to Kelly’s for a lobster roll or a hot dog with French fries.
She’d be wearing sunglasses, and sporty clothing. She’d put on a bit of make-up. She was concerned about how long we would be out as there were activities she was inclined not to miss at the nursing home.
Maybe she was trying to make it look like she was busy to me.
She wasn’t.
She drove until she was 92. She was entirely on her own in her apartment until 96.
She hated being confined to a wheelchair. She hated the nursing home.
She was always fastidious. She had to be just so to go outside.
We were comfortable with one another. We enjoyed being with one another. We both understood how precious such a relationship could be.
It was always that way with us.
Last June about this time at 97, my mother still had it together.
I remember clearly sitting next to her in the small garden at the back of the nursing home.
With a warm wind caressing the soul on a hot sunny day with my
mother, well, what was better than this?
She was fading away in front of me. I didn’t want to notice this – and I didn’t.
And then she was gone.
Just like that. Like the snap of a finger.
I still can’t come to terms with this. There is an ironic twist.
June 10 is also my daughter Kate’s birthday. She turned 20.
She’s a junior at Boston University’s School of Communications.
What a great thing for her to share her grandmother’s birthday. She’s not said a word to me about how she’s dealing with “Granny’s” loss.
It is probably very hard for her to bear, too difficult to talk about.
It is all held inside with Kate.
In between deadline for the newspaper during the early afternoon Tuesday I attended the swearing in of my son, Joseph, as a lawyer at Faneul Hall.
A very great day for me.
A bigger day for Joseph.
He also shared a strong relationship with “Granny.”
It was a moment of celebration for my oldest son, Jacob (who shared a special and close relationship with “Granny”) and for his mother Carol, my ex-wife, and for my present wife, Carolyn (they were both “Granny” fans.)
It was a complicated, difficult day of soaring hope and deep despair that Mum wasn’t here to enjoy this milestone or to share my daughter’s birthday.
To all of you who have gotten this far reading this stuff about my life (about all our lives), please understand, it was mostly about dealing with the loss of my mother.
All the celebrations in the world don’t deaden the pain of her loss.
Mum is gone. A big part of my life is gone. I am occupied by a pervasive sense of emptiness. It does not want to go away.
To everyone who has lost a loved one recently, I share your pain. I get it.