Mayor a hoop star; “I’ll take both of them,” the mayor said ‒ The Blue Suit
BY JOSH RESNEK
The mayor’s Blue Suit revealed to me what he thought ‘is a real story.’
I have rewritten all the details below of our conversation as the Blue Suit gave them to me. Exactly. No affect. No lies. Just the details the Blue Suit gave to me.
The mayor can complain all he wants. The story comes exclusively from the Blue Suit.
He ought to know. He and the mayor are inseparable.
The Blue Suit tells me what the mayor is doing, his every move – and he makes sure to let me know most of his secrets – not all of them – enough of them to make the story whole.
The mayor is greedy and vindictive. He’s a bit of a sneak. The Blue Suit has told me so.
I was skeptical at first about this story. Check it out.
The Blue Suit spared no detail.
“Three weeks ago, two huge professional basketball style movable backboards with rims were delivered to the mayor’s house, to the driveway on Abbott Street,” the Blue Suit started out.
“From what I heard him say it cost or would have cost about $4,000 to deliver from where they came from,” he added.
“And where was that?” I asked.
“They were shipped by crane truck from Catholic Memorial High School and placed at opposite ends of the mayor’s driveway, as though the driveway were a basketball court. There they stayed.”
“What’s the big deal about that?” I asked the Blue Suit. “There are several big deals,” offered the Blue Suit.
“Those two basketball pieces cost about $12,000 each when they are new and perhaps $10,000 each as the mayor received them at the house, his house.”
“Do you think the mayor bought them?” I asked.
The Blue Suit coughed and laughed at the same time. “Are you serious? ” the Blue Suit answered. “He pays for nothing.”
“OK. You’re telling me they came from Catholic Memorial.
Well, I’ve talked with a groundskeeper there who told me the basketball backboards were first donated to Catholic Memorial. They had no use for them. Jerry Navarra apparently set up the exchange. He said the baskets would be donated to the city of Everett – at least that’s what the groundskeeper told me about the deal. Mind you, these weren’t given to the may- or for his personal use. He would have to have reported such a donation to the Ethic’s Commission. Under the law, a mayor has to report every present he receives that has a value over $50. You don’t do that, and you’ve broken the law.”
The Blue Suit thought for a moment.
“I don’t think the mayor did that. That’s why I reached out to you, Josh. They were given to him to give to the city. I don’t know if he is following through on that.”
“Thanks buddy. I appreciate it. What’s got you so concerned?”
‘One of the basketball backstops disappeared from his park- ing area about ten days ago. I heard him talking on his cell about it. I couldn’t hear him clearly. He was saying something like…’yeah. You can have it for $5,000. It’s worth ten.”
“Again,” the Blue Suit said clearly, “I’m not sure I heard him right, but I thought that’s what I heard the mayor say. Maybe he sent the other basket to a city park the way he was supposed to, maybe not. I don’t know.”
“You understand the mayor is breaking the law if he hasn’t reported receiving these two pieces of equipment for free?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“Do you think I’m an idiot?” The Blue Suit shot back.
“If he accepted the basketball equipment and took it personally as his own, I’d consider that disgusting.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Because the guy at Catholic Memorial gave him the pieces with the specific instructions to use them at the Wellness Center or at a local park or for the kids at one of the city’s schools. They weren’t given to him. They were given to the city,” said the Blue Suit.
“When I saw one of them was missing, I had the paranoid feeling that the mayor sold it and pocketed the money,” the Blue Suit said to me.
“Come on now. You can’t really believe that, can you?” “It seems likely, Josh. More likely than not.”
“Maybe he’s done the right thing, reported them as gifts to the city and is having the first one placed at a youth center or where kids can use it?”
“If you want to believe that, Josh, you can believe anything.”
“What do you think he’ll do when he reads this?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“If he’s taken these basketball nets for himself and he’s sold one, well, he’ll be out of his mind that he’s been revealed,” the Blue Suit answered.
‘What will he do?” I asked. Really what does one do to cover up a mistake or to repair a wound by making the donation as it was supposed to be made.
“He’ll break out in a full sweat. His life will pass before him like a filmstrip, and in or within ten minutes he will be experiencing what experts would call a deep round of paranoia. Then he will come around, pull himself back together and figure out what to do,” the Blue Suit said. “He under- stands the mayor like a brother – even closer.”
The Blue Suit knows the mayor like a prisoner comes to know his cell mate.
“He’ll make up a story as fast as he can. He’ll have that other basketball back board removed as soon as possible from his driveway. Then he’ll threaten the Leader Herald for publishing lies. That’s what he’ll do,” the Blue Suit said to me.
“What if he has papers that show the donation to the city of the basketball backs? “I asked.
“What if he’s on the up and up about these basketball backs?”
The Blue Suit thought for a moment and then he replied. “Well, if getting those basketball backs as a gift for the
city as it was intended to be is the case with him, then I was told a bad story – but then – I don’t want to be put in a position to certify this story if it’s a gaffe. Everyone in politics in this city speaks in riddles. Carlo is the Riddler!”
“Is this story true or false?” I asked the Blue Suit. “I don’t think it’s a gaffe,” he added.