By JOSH RESNEK
The mayor will do much to defend his position in the coming months.
Everything his paid city hall staff is doing is exquisitely designed to promote the mayor as the city’s boss and king.
He can point to new parks and several which have been redone twice.
The painted bicycle and bus lanes adorning the street give the city a modern look and feel.
He can take pride in being a transportation wonk. He wants Everett’s new thousands of residents to take buses or to ride bicycles rather than to own cars and try to park them.
The many can point to many, many things he has accomplished.
The casino would be number one among them if it were not for persistent remnants of the licensing process floating about in political circles indicating strongly that the mayor may have charged a fee to get Wynn the former Monsanto land and the license.
Such a rumor, or if it is, in fact, a truth as asserted in court documents, is a black eye for the mayor.
Another black eye is the fact he cooperated with the FBI and the US Attorney’s office in Boston to keep himself out of hot water with the government over the land deal for the casino.
He signed a proffer.
A proffer is not a badge of honor.
It is a sign of collusion with the FBI and the US Attorney’s office to keep himself out of jail should the government try to indict him.
Many local people familiar with the mayor’s private dealings understand how serious it is when the FBI is after you – and for quite a while – the FBI was after the mayor.
It still may be after the mayor.
It remains difficult for the mayor to remain silent about paying a criminal lawyer at a high-priced law firm in Boston something like $10,000 a month to represent him.
For what? This is what we are left to wonder.
There must be a problem or the potential of a problem and most likely a rather nasty one at that.
The mayor’s basic integrity is questioned by many people in the city – even those who know him best.
To know him is not to love him.
He’s got an evil, jealous, ignorant, angry other side to the flaccid, humorless, empty face he puts forward on Facebook.
His employees work hard at posturing his reputation as that of the hard-working mayor who has transformed Everett.
The mayor is facing a reckoning this time around. It is a reckoning his staff will not be able to cover up or sanitize or cause to disappear.
The mayor’s reputation as a man who treats women with respect is in tatters.
It has been this way for quite some time.
There is no statute of limitations on bad behavior.
The mayor’s bad behavior will be explored thoroughly in this upcoming election.
If Fred Capone defers to bringing up such things about the mayor’s behavior with women over the years and how that behavior is incompatible with a man being the mayor of Everett, let alone anywhere else, then Gerly Adrien is sure to do it.
This is why the mayor fears Adrien.
Adrien’s backers are powerful women, successful women, women of color, women who organize voters, who know how to win elections, who write for the Boston Globe and the New York Times.
Chief among them is Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.
If Adrien runs, Pressley is behind her. The mayor will not escape from the public glare of his past sexual harassment incidents as detailed by court appearances, settlements, Boston Globe published reports, and court files that have been sealed.
Adrien’s backers look harshly on men, and especially men like the mayor, whose political life is littered with allegations of sexual harassment and impropriety with women.
A full look at all the allegations that have been lodged against the mayor during his time in office in the weeks and months to come, will bring the full fury of the # ME TOO folks.
He can run.
But he can’t hide.
What has not brought him down in the past, miraculously, is more likely to bring him down this time around.
Fully half the voting population here is women.
Women are empowered these days.
The mayor’s sexual harassment run-ins may be pooh-poohed by his male friends.
Women will find them repugnant.
The powerful voices of women will be heard in this election. The mayor will be vilified. What remains of his reputation will be ruined.
New revelations might force him to resign to save himself from prosecution.
At the very least, he will find it more difficult to get himself re-elected this time.
You can take this to the bank.