The Monday evening meeting of the City Council on October 13 is a rendezvous with destiny.
What does that mean?
The city council by and large, from week to week, year to year for the past 12 years has been controlled, lock stock and barrel by Mayor Carlo DeMaria.
The council does whatever he asks or demands, with only the rarest exceptions.
The mayor is not empowered by the City Charter to control the city council.
The city council is empowered to act on its own, separate from the mayor, to assure residents and voters that the sanctity of city governing rules and regulations are being followed.
On October 13, the city council must act with courage and specificity to remove or to substantially reduce the mayor’s outrageous longevity payment of $40,000 a year.
The city council should also demand that the mayor pay back the $160,000+ that he has received and which is not itemized properly in the year to year city budget.
The $40,000 payment is wrong. CFO Eric Demas knows it’s wrong. The mayor knows it’s wrong.
It is a rip-off of the taxpayers.
It proves the meaninglessness of the city council if it is allowed to go on and on.
Will the city council act?
We hope so but we find the prospect highly unlikely. Councilors Fred Capone, Gerly Adrien, Mike Marchese and John Hanlon all stand publicly on the other side of this yearly $40,000 bonus paid to the mayor when it should be $2500 a year according to the City Charter.
Those councilors who choose to say nothing to acknowledge the rip-off should be ashamed of themselves.
This includes the mayor’s cousin, Councilor Anthony DiPierro.
DiPierro had the audacity to suggest that the city council can do nothing for four more years about the issue.
If you can believe that, then you can believe anything.
We look to “moderates” like Councilors Stephanie Martins and Jimmy Tri Le to stand up and to be counted – not so much against the mayor but rather, against the money giveaway at taxpayer’s expense.
Councilor Mike McLaughlin, we would expect, should do the same.
The longevity payment of $40,000 yearly to the mayor is a joke.
It makes a mockery out of city government in Everett.
The city council doing nothing about this causes itself to be covered with a taint, a stain, if you will.
The city council must act – not only for its own reputation – but to protect taxpayers and residents from an unforgiveable giveaway.
This isn’t just about Carlo DeMaria.
No mayor of Everett should receive such a yearly bonus.