Napolitano seen as candidate to replace Ragucci as assistant city clerk
By JOSH RESNEK
City Councilor at Large Wayne Matewsky apparently has the support of most of his colleagues to be elected president of the council in January.
Matewsky told the Leader Herald that anything can happen, “and that it often does” but that he has the votes right now.
If elected, this would be the third time in 40 years of service on the Common Council and City Council that Matewsky has served as its president.
He served as president in 1999 and in 2005.
To date, Councilors Michael McLaughlin, John Hanlon, Mike Marchese, Ros DiFlorio, Stephanie Martins, and Anthony DiPierro, are believed to be supporting Matewsky’s bid for the position.
Matewsky has not yet asked Councilors Gerly Adrien, Fred Capone, or Peter Napolitano if they will be supporting him.
Napolitano may not be on the board when January arrives.
According to sources, Napolitano will be replacing former Mayor David Ragucci, who has recently announced that he is retiring from public service at the beginning of the year.
Quiet pledges of votes of support have been given by a number of councilors to Napolitano, according to several councilors who wished to remain unnamed.
One councilor said he had been approached several months back on the matter.
If Napolitano becomes the assistant city clerk, he will be forced to step down from his council seat.
In that eventuality, former councilor Richard Dell Isola, who finished just a few votes out of the money behind Napolitano last time around, would take Napolitano’s seat under the City Charter’s succession rule.
Ironically, at Monday evening’s ZOOM City Council meeting, an order on the agenda asked that steps be taken to locate a successor for Assistant Clerk Ragucci.
It appears a nationwide search for a qualified candidate will be unnecessary.
That being said, Napolitano would bring to the position decades of Everett city government experience.