Kickback Style
By Josh Resnek
Here’s how an effort to subvert a decent idea because it isn’t his own is run by the mayor.
I have learned that Kickback Carlo ordered Paperboy Jerry Navarro to get on the phone and call everyone he can, mainly elderly and veterans, to come out for Monday night’s council meeting.
“Pack that hall,” Kickback Carlo ordered the Paperboy.
“You make sure its packed, or else,” he said.
“Marchese and McLaughlin can’t be allowed to talk about Pope John being used as a public school,” Kickback told the Paperboy. Of course the mayor is against such talk.
Why?
For several reasons. Councilor Mike Marchese has suggested the Pope John site be used for a public school.
Kickback is against this because its Marchese’s idea – and it is a solid idea to at least toss around.
In Kickback’s arcane world, where everything is about quid pro (many regard him as being just like President Trump), there is always the need for a reason for Kickback to move forward.
That reason is most always about money.
Kickback has been getting some blowback on his proposed purchase of the empty Pope John facility for $10.5 million to be used for veterans and the elderly, a pretty hefty price tag for the property if you think about it.
Most important to the mayor is giving out the contracts for everything having to do with the purchase as well as the future redevelopment of the site.
It would be easy to estimate the city spending $10.5 million for acquisition and $25-$30 million for a favored contractor to build the units.
Why is Kickback so afraid of Marchese having an impact?
Because Kickback’s veneer of impregnability has been pierced by of the outcome of the November municipal election. Kickback’s candidates were like oxes who got bored.
They all lost miserably while Fred Capone scored the biggest citywide vote without a candidate!
Capone is believed to be preparing for a run against Kickback.
Kickback is quite naturally worried about everything – his faraway past, his near past, the deals he’s had to make, and the rumors of wrongdoing that nag him wherever he goes.
Whatever he does, his friends claim, he needs more money.
H has an insatiable need for money.
He is worried most, they say, about his popularity and his electability. Will Kickback be the mayor forever?
Maybe.
Maybe not – with more maybe nots than maybes being heard
Last year at this time there were no maybes being uttered by anyone
as they are being uttered these days in political circles here.
What a difference a year makes in a person’s political life. Kickback can’t evade the pitfalls that come all too naturally from
being around for so long.
Kickback doesn’t really care about city employees except when they
are contributing money to him. He doesn’t help developers who don’t contribute.
If you are a janitor, a police officer, a firefighter, a pizza store owner, if you own ambulances or trash trucks, if you develop real estate you take out your checkbook and you write Kickback a nice check or you won’t get to go on with your gig.
Who’s counting, you ask?
Kickback is counting.
I understand the Paperboy is so busy on his telephone for Kickback that he doesn’t have time to steal the Leader Herald and then to throw it out, something he does from time to time with great fanfare.
I don’t have to worry about the Paperboy thinking or reasoning. He is totally predictable.
He does as he’s told.
Not everyone is doing as they are told anymore at Everett City Hall. It is a new world out there.
Very few city employees love Kickback. Mostly, they love their jobs, their spouses, their kids, their cars, their flat screens and their lives.
Mostly, they want to be left alone.
They’d prefer not having to attend, much less to contribute to Kickback’s fundraisers.
Having to live in fear everyday of Kickback taking their jobs from them in a greedy fit of madness and rage is not a good life.
Making sure the Paperboy packs the council chamber with angry elderly and veterans to shout down Marchese and others is bad politics.
The city already needs another public school, and rather badly.
Can the city afford to purchase and to build dozens of units of new housing for the elderly and veterans on the Pope John site?
Will the city be forced into a costly corner by having to build another new school?
These are normal questions that need to be discussed before deciding what to do.