Everett Supply put under the microscope
By Josh Resnek
The cozy relationship shared by the Lattanzi Family with the mayor was described fully and in revealing detail with unsurpassable simplicity the Boston Globe reported Sunday.
Al Lattanzi is a councilor and the owner of the hardware store on Main Street near the Malden line – a very popular hardware store that did more than $147,000 of business with the city last year, according to the Globe report.
Lattanzi’s wife, Dolores, is absolutely devoted to the mayor and is on his city hall payroll as his scheduler. She oversees a great deal of the donations that are made to his political campaigns. She works at city hall and she works out of the hardware store. How much scheduling the mayor requires is unknown to most and is shared between them.
Had the Globe gone back, say eight years, the reporter would have needed an adding machine to settle the bloated totals.
As it is, the Globe found, in one instance, that Lattanzi charged food trucks supplying Everett’s food shelters, $595.00 a day. The hardware store rents U-Haul trucks, a side attraction of sorts to selling hammers, shovels and everything else.
The per day charge is incredible but the Globe left that to our own thoughts.
Lattanzi’s son, Attorney Matt Lattanzi, has had a sure but swift rise at city hall since joining the city as an assistant city solicitor.
Young Matt is a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed BC Triple Eagle.
The Globe quoted him as saying he likes taking on new responsibilities and challenges.
Indeed. He morphed from the city solicitor’s office to the Everett Public Library where he served as the chief of the library without the benefit of librarian qualifications.
Now is the city’s director of planning and development.
His salary has gone from $70,000 to $90,000. His mother receives approximately $60,000. His father is paid $27,000 as a city councilor and toss in the business done with the hardware store last year, and that total goes up by almost $150,000.
Councilor Lattanzi has told the Leader Herald there isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for the mayor – that’s how tight they are and how much he believes in him.
The Globe also reported, as the Leader Herald has reported that Councilor Lattanzi is now planning to build a 16 unit property on the hardware store site. He has apparently received Zoning and Planning board permission to put that deal together.
That is very likely a $3-$4M property deal.
Some people claim there might be a conflict of interest as the hardware store does so much city business and Lattanzi is a councilor and his kid is a city lawyer and his wife works directly for the mayor.
In Everett, however, the Globe reported as the Leader Herald has repeatedly reported for the past five years that such behavior is a way of life in Everett.
Councilor Lattanzi did not answer the Globe’s request for an interview.
Councilor Lattanzi did not wish to comment to the Leader Herald.