This & That
By Josh Resnek
What a coincidence.
Or is it ironic?
No sooner had Parlin Chief Librarian Stacy DeBole been badgered into resigning by the administration, and the way the library is managed totally restructured, the mayor appointed Assistant City Solicitor Matt Lattanzi to head the library or to lead its reorganization or both.
We aren’t exactly sure what experience Lattanzi has with libraries but he is a lawyer and running a library is not like running NASA the space agency or the CIA.
On the other hand, everyone in the library needs to know what their duties are and how to manage their own responsibilities.
Lattanzi has apparently reorganized the place, spiffed up the rules and regulations, and brought the library into line with what exactly the mayor wants – which is another department for him to hire people into.
Mrs. DeBole was and is and remains a real pro.
She is a lifelong trained librarian with an impressive curriculum vitae. Under her leadership, the Parlin operated efficiently.
She even took her cues from the mayor, something everyone in city government needs to do in order to keep their positions.
When the mayor told her to stop giving the Leader Herald vintage photographs for reproduction weekly in the newspaper at no charge with biographical information, that feature came to an end.
But that’s water over the dam.
The irony in Lattanzi replacing DeBoles is that Deboles was just sworn in by the governor himself as one of nine members of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
We had the photograph of the swearing in on the front page last week.
What a great honor for a Everett Librarian who basically thrown under the bus by the mayor.
We appreciate Lattanzi’s Triple Eagle status (BC High, BC, BC Law School) but we doubt very much we will find the governor anytime soon swearing him in as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
Hating out on the Campaign Trail
There is an old adage in the newspaper business that goes like this about things we hear.
If you hear something odd once there is not much to pay attention to.
If you hear something odd twice about the same thing, maybe you raise an eyebrow.
When you hear something three times about the same thing, a flag starts being hoisted up the emergency pole.
Beyond three times you intuitively understand that something is up.
Such is the case with stories we are hearing about the mayor campaigning side by side, going door to door, with his best friend in this world, Al Lattanzi, the Ward 6 council candidate, and about what the mayor has to say when meeting the public on their doorsteps.
The meet and greet with the mayor smiling and reaching out to shake hands with Lattanzi next to him is a good political ploy.
“Please give my friend Al Lattanzi a vote in November. He’s running for Ward 6 council,” the mayor says.
That’s OK.
What comes next is questionable.
“And don’t read the Leader Herald. Don’t believe anything in the Leader Herald,” the mayor adds, according to those who claim to know. “Don’t advertise with the Leader Herald,” he likes to say.
The mayor is a very predictable guy.
He hates with a special vigor and intensity.
He spews such hate talk at the Kiwanis Club and before the Chamber
of Commerce in front of large crowds. His hate talk about the Leader Herald is well known and he tries to hurt us all over the city.
Back to Mr. Lattanzi campaigning with the mayor when the mayor badmouths the newspaper.
Does Mr. Lattanzi think that’s the right thing to do?
Is this the way for him to get votes?
Is this the type of leader he wants to be, supporting rubbish talk coming out of the mayor’s mouth?
When I first had a long talk with him some months back Mr. Lattanzi promised, “I’m the most honest man you will ever know.”
What kind of honest man must he be to allow the mayor to badmouth the Leader Herald when they’re out campaigning together?
Is he as honest as he claims to be or are he and the mayor two peas in a pod?