By Josh Resnek
The city of Everett has paid the Everett True Value and Hardware Store about $150,000 since 2014 up to the present for purchases of hardware goods, tools, nails, wire, flashlights and a wide variety of items used mainly by the Department of Public Works, according to records sought by the Leader Herald and released by the Purchasing Department.
The five year average amounts to about $30,000 a year in sales to the city – with sales to the Fire Department and the Everett School Department amounting to more than several thousand dollars during this time period.
The $150,000 was for city business only.
The vendor invoices paid and the history of checks issued details with clarity and specificity everything that was purchased, what was charged and what the city ended up paying.
Everett True Value and Hardware is owned by Al Lattanzi, a close friend and confidante of the mayor, whose wife and son are also employed by the city.
The store is located at 403-405 Main Street.
The popular supply shop also has a substantial U-Haul business from the premises.
A survey of the documents provided to the Leader Herald revealed no rentals of U-Haul vehicles by the city during the time frame requested. Lattanzi recently lost a political battle to unseat Councilor Mike McLaughlin.
His wife Dolores is the mayor’s scheduling representative. She is believed to make about $70,000 a year.
Mrs. Lattanzi is also reported to take a keen interest in the mayor’s political money raising efforts.
Attorney Matt Lattanzi, now part of the mayor’s inner circle, is an assistant city solicitor, and he oversees the management of the Parlin Library.
He is paid about $81,000 a year at the present time.
The Lattanzi’s have aided the mayor in all his runs for public office over the years.
The mayor has said he considers Mr. Lattanzi “like a second father.” A perusal of prices paid by the city for the materials it bought from
Mr. Lattanzi’s hardware stores reveals pricing only slightly higher than purchases of the same items would have cost at Home Depot.
2019 was the Hardware Store’s biggest grossing year doing business with the city.
Records indicate almost $44,000 in sales made by the business to the city, according to city records reviewed by the Leader Herald.
Sample lists of goods purchased included: trash grabbers ($26.95), lag screws(.50 each – $5.00 for ten), screw eye($1.49), box of latex gloves($16.95), padlocks($14.95 – $29.90 for two), hasp($5.95), hex bolts($12.50), canister drain snake($24.95), rubber work gloves($9.95), keys duplicated, et cetera.
Three keys cost the city $7.50 or $2.50 each.