The City Council has dropped the ball, and badly, with its steadfast refusal to condemn Councilor DiPierro’s racism and to ask him to save the council from from humiliation and derision by resigning.
The shameful behavior of the city council does not go unnoticed by the good people of Everett, most of whom expect their elected public officials to act when one of their members has brought darkness on the council.
DiPierro’s actions with racist memes and messaging is a racial crime against the majority of Everett’s residents quite like no other.
For the council to turn a blind eye to this, is a crime.
Doing nothing is the crime.
Allowing Councilor Stephanie Martins to play the standout role in attacking racism is a humiliation on top of a humiliation.
As the girlfriend of Councilor DiPierro, she should not be allowed to take part in, much less to lead the council in any way when confronting DiPierro’s sins and the sin of racism.
Martins should know this – but she doesn’t – or she does but she can’t get herself to understand how foolish it looks for her to be advocating against racism and at the same time aiding her boyfriend councilor out of his problem.
She must recuse herself.
Someone, anyone on the council must ask her to do so and then the council must vote to make this happen.
To do any less is to mark the council as a ridiculous government group of do-nothings. In fact, it is the mayor who should be addressing the council about its inaction regarding DiPierro’s racism.
But how can the mayor be expected to do that?
After all, DiPierro is his cousin and campaign manager and he has allowed his communications chief to remain instead of firing her for her connection to DiPierro’s racist acts.
The council must act.
To date, only Councilor Mike Marchese has asked for DiPierro’s resignation.
We were expecting more from newcomers to the council Stephanie Smith and Vivien Nguyen than to be inveigled into a Martins scheme to save DiPierro.
At risk for the council is its position with the city’s more than 80% population of Blacks, Browns, Spanish speaking and numerous immigrant groups.
If you can’t trust the mayor and you can’t trust the council, who then can you trust.
Good question for Everett’s residents, isn’t it.