The election of Councilor Anthony DiPierro as acting president of the Everett City Council is a positive move for the council.
DiPierro is a softly spoken, intelligent, reasonable younger man, with all the right connections in the city to move the council along.
Here at the Leader Herald, we enjoy his calm and even manner and the discipline he shows when running meetings.
He can even be deliberative and thoughtful.
Whether or not he can be fair and just about what he does is another matter.
As pointed out by Councilor Gerly Adrien, DiPierro is the mayor’s cousin.
He tends to do the mayor’s bidding quite effectively with the council.
This is fact not fiction, fact not fantasy. He never goes against his cousin the mayor.
There is no crime in doing so.
Politics allows for such behavior.
He is a strong and close ally of the mayor, always – and why not?
Blood is thicker than water.
Adrien is right about DiPierro now being second in line to be acting mayor if the mayor should leave for some unexpected reason.
Councilor Fred Capone did not vote for DiPierro because he thought naming him president pro tempore before knowing Council President Wayne Matewsky’s medical condition and
when he’d be coming back, was a slap in the face to Matewsky and a rush job with regard to the process.
Capone didn’t say it exactly that way but that’s what he implied.
Former mayor and councilor John Hanlon said that no one person controls the council and that the mayor certainly doesn’t control the council.
Meaning no disrespect to Hanlon, the council is indeed a rubber stamp for the mayor and has been for about 12 years.
Unless and until this situation changes, the mayor’s control of the council will remain unfettered.
With his cousin Anthony DiPierro now president, his absolute rule of the council has been accomplished.