The Blue Suit — “The mayor disappoints me from time to time very badly.”
By JOSH RESNEK
It is an exceedingly strange sensation for the mayor’s favorite blue suit to speak with me as often as he does. He told me so.
I’ve come to know the Blue Suit as a close friend. He’s confessed to me about being off the rack and a bit worn and so tired from being abused by the mayor.
“Josh, speaking with you about what the mayor does when no one but me is looking gives me a major rush. You know why? Because he mistreats me. Talking to you about him, sharing with you his secrets, and you revealing them to your readership is pay back.
“He hurts me all the time. Why shouldn’t I take pleasure in causing him pain?” the Blue Suit said to me.
“Every Wednesday is a like the Battle of the Bulge for me. I face great odds and a huge weight difference. The mayor leaves himself open to attack. He talks a big game about fighting but there’s not much fight in him. All he cares about is money and himself, mostly himself,” he repeated for emphasis.
“Last week, when the Leader came out he got his copy as he does moments after the paper is delivered. Hiding it from sight, he sneaks away to read The EYE where no one can see him, so no one will know. He reads every word – and then he goes nuts. When people ask if he saw the Leader, he always replies: “No I never read it. It’s a rag. I pay no attention to it,” he said, the Blue Suit told me.
“That’s when the calls start,” the Blue Suit told me.
“Jerry Navarra is usually the first one to call. As much as he loves Jerry, he is driven crazy by him. He has sometimes talked about letting him go. He could never do that,” the Blue Suit said to me.
‘Why?” I responded.
“He knows too much about the mayor,” the Blue Suit said.
“Did you read what was in the Leader today?” Jerry asked the mayor last week on the cell phone, the Blue Suit told me.
“I thought the mayor was going to have a heart attack,” the Blue Suit said to me. “What the mayor doesn’t know is that Jerry and I are buddies. When he says stuff like that to the mayor, he knows how it gets under his skin. He enjoys that!” the Blue Suit added.
“I heard the mayor cry out to him that’s how upset he got.”
“Jerry, do you have to do this to me every week. Jeez. Stop it Jerry, will you?” the mayor said back to him, the Blue Suit reported.
“Of course I read it. How does he know this stuff about me? How does Resnek know all of this?” the mayor asked Navarra, the city’s Health Department chief.
“Is Resnek clairvoyant?” the mayor asked him.
“What does clairvoyant mean?” Navarra replied.
“Look it up, Jerry. Don’t bother me!” the mayor said.
“You talking to me like that, Carlo?’ Jerry shot back.
“I hold all your secrets and you think you can speak t me that way. What’s up with that?” “I don’t like being yelled at,” he added.
“Leave me alone, Jerry. Please. Don’t you have anything to do at the Health Department? There’s an epidemic going on in case you haven’t noticed,” the mayor said derisively. “Wow!” Navarra said with amazement.
“You think you’re better than me cause you know the meaning of that word? You really believe you’re better than I am – well you aren’t, Carlo,” Navarra told him.
“Because of you, I’m known as the Paper Boy – the guy who steals the Leader for you, Carlo!!! That ought to be worth something.”
“Yeah, Jerry. You’re the Paper Boy. I’m Kickback Carlo on account of you and every one around me having a big mouth.
“Check your salary, Jerry, and then get back to me. If I were you, I wouldn’t complain. Just do as you’re told and you’ll be alright.”
“Enough,” I said to the Blue Suit. “Have you got anything to tell me this week?” I asked him.
“Yeah. I heard the mayor talking with one of his partners in the project on Corey Street. He said he had been turned down at several banks for loans because he is overleveraged right now. “He said yet another partner had agreed to put up the money needed to maximize the investment. From what I can tell there are three partners and maybe a fourth. The guy that gave them the down money, the new investor, and the mayor and a city official who bought the property,” the Blue Suit told me
“Is that proper for the mayor to be doing?”
The Blue Suit laughed heartily.
“You do have a sense of humor, Josh!”
“Can you give me some names, please?” I asked.
“Come on, Josh. You know the names. You know the mayor’s name can’t be found anywhere but its his project, at least that’s what I heard him say,” the Blue Suit told me.
“Anything else?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“Yeah. Me and the mayor were at one of those food giveaways on a photo op to take an action photo of him giving away a basket of food to a needy driver at the head of a long line.
“You know what Carlo said to the guy in charge after the picture was taken?” he told me.
“He said: ‘If Marchese, Martins, Lee, Capone or McLaughlin show up to help out, tell them you don’t need anymore volunteers, to go away. I don’t want them to have their pictures taken and get credit for this,’ the Blue Suit old me the mayor said. The guy running the thing said: “OK boss. Whatever you want.”
“And with that being said, the mayor got out of there as fast as he could. Can you imagine? He gave out one food basket and wanted all the credit. That’s my Carlo. That’s our Carlo. That’s who’s in charge of the city.
“Nice, huh?” the Blue Suit asked.