The mayor has not yet paid his home water bill.
That bill is more than $2,100.
He has not paid the bill in months.
It is the mayor’s responsibility to set the example.
Instead, he is the problem.
A water bill unpaid by any of us is no big deal.
A water bill unpaid by the mayor reveals a number of things about the mayor.
He does not care about setting the proper example that most leaders bend over backwards to achieve.
Maybe he does not have the money to pay the bill.
Or maybe he has been told not to pay the bill by CFO Eric Demas or City Solicitor Colleen Mejia, who might have confided to him secretly that he shouldn’t pay the bill, that free water is part of his salary, perhaps.
Who knows?
Right now, the mayor is on vacation. He has spent several weeks in Florida.
It is costly to go on vacation as much as the mayor does.
It is costly to vacation for weeks at a time in Florida.
He probably made a decision that his vacation time is more important than setting the right example by paying his water bill.
Maybe he just doesn’t care about how it looks that he has not paid his water bill, that such an oversight or free will act has no meaning in the greater realm of things for someone like him.
The mayor owes a second water bill in Everett for another property that he owns.
We understand the mayor owes for water in Revere, where he used to have a donut business before he closed it down almost two years ago.
Sources claim the mayor owes $10,000 to the city of Revere for water use he did not pay for that it now wants to collect.
If this is true, this shows a pattern of abuse and disinterest in doing what he demands that others do.
It was the mayor’s plan to have water use billed monthly to home owners and property owners.
Most Everett property owners and taxpayers go out of their way to pay their water bills expeditiously.
Why should homeowners and property owners pay their water bills if the mayor does not pay his?
The mayor should know better.
He should immediately pay his water bill.
The mayor not paying his Everett water bills is an embarrassment.