THE BLUE SUIT
The mayor’s Blue Suit and Leader Herald publisher and editor Josh Resnek’s private discussions about everything Everett and about the Blue Suit’s owner and boss, the mayor are written below. We hope you enjoy the Blue Suit’s revelations. There is no one in Everett quite like Carlo DeMaria’s Blue Suit.
“Hey Josh. How are you doing? Rough week? How’d it go for you?” the Blue Suit asked me after he got into my car and fell into the passenger seat. If my car was a human being it would have groaned at so great a weight plunking itself down on the seat. If the seat was a pumpkin it would have exploded.
“My week was pretty good. I have ups and downs like nearly everyone has ups and downs,” I answered my good friend, the Blue Suit.
“I understand. I’ve heard a bit of talk about me,” the Blue Suit said about himself.
“What are you hearing?”
“Some people are saying I don’t know what I’m talking about when I discuss Carlo with you,” he said to me.
“You’ve got to be kidding. Who knows Carlo better than you do?”
“No one,” the Blue Suit said emphatically.
We headed to Mike’s Roast beef cruising down Broadway on an unbelievably gorgeous summer day Tuesday afternoon.
As we passed through Everett Square, several people on the sidewalk standing together noticed the Blue Suit in the passenger seat. “Yo. That’s the Blue Suit!” we heard one of them shout to his friends.
The Blue Suit raised a clenched fist into the air through the open window.
The kids returned his clenched fist by sharing high fives and shouting, “That’s the Blue Suit. Wow!”
“Everyone knows me, don’t they?” the Blue Suit asked me. He said that with pride.
“Yeah. You’re a celebrity. It’s amazing how many people know you. It’s even more amazing how many people think you’re real.” “Hey, Josh. That’s hitting below the belt,” he said to me.
“Well, are you real or are you not real?” I asked the Blue Suit. “I’m as real as you are, Josh. In fact, I’m more real than you. I know more than you do about what’s going on inside Carlo’s world.”
“OK, then. For the record, you are telling you are real?”
“Yes, Josh. That’s right.”
“Well, who are these people you say are making up stories that you are not real, that you don’t know what you’re talking about, and that in reality, all you are is a figment of my imagination.”
“I want you to take that all back right now and to apologize or I’m getting out of the car.”
I jammed on the brakes. The Blue Suit opened the passenger side door.
“Hey man. Get serious. Don’t get out of the car. Besides, we’re almost at Mike’s.”
The Blue Suit slammed the door shut.
He put a pus on. He looked glum and seemed angry.
“Whether you know it or not, Josh. I tell the truth. I know the truth. I know the mayor’s secrets. I know him like a brother – the way Sergio used to enjoy his company.”
“How are they now?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“I think they hate each other. It is an all out war between them,” the Blue Suit added.
“What did you think of Monday night’s vote of the city council. They gave Sergio another five years. That had to drive the mayor nuts,” I said.
“You’ve got that right, Josh. The mayor was out of his mind. He couldn’t believe Richie Dell Isola deserted him. That 7-3 vote hurt him. I know it did,” the Blue Suit told me.
“What do you think will happen at the School Committee?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“Will the mayor succeed in getting rid of the superintendent?”
‘Will the mayor be deserted by Millie Cardello, Joe Lamonica or Jason Marcus?” I asked.
“You wouldn’t want to bet on them changing their votes,” the Blue Suit replied.
“What’s with LaMonica?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“He’s always been respectful to me. He seems like a good guy. Why is he married to the mayor?” I asked.
“You’ll have to ask him,” the Blue Suit replied.
“How long do you think Mike McLaughlin will last being used as a door mat by the mayor on the School Committee? Could Mike ever change his vote?”
“Are you kidding? Of course McLaughlin might change his vote. The mayor already knows McLaughlin can’t be depended on. But what might cause such a change?” I asked.
“McLaughlin has had many iterations,” the Blue Suit said to me. “You know what an iteration is, Josh?”
“Yeah – it means repetition,” I said.
The Blue Suit went on and on about McLaughlin.
“McLaughlin these days is tending to be a fence sitter – with the mayor one moment, then falling off the fence and being for himself in another moment. He hasn’t produced on the School Committee for the mayor. Most of the time the mayor wants nothing to do with him. The mayor is sometimes done with him. McLaughlin won’t get this until the mayor tosses him under the bus. Only then will he figure it out,” the Blue Suit said.
“I think Mike is smarter than that,” I said to the Blue Suit.
The Blue Suit shook his head.
“If you’re counting votes on the School Committee, you have to realize that as of December , 2021, the mayor could count on an 8-2 vote to get rid of the superintendent Priya Tahiliani. Six months have passed. Carlo can muster a 5-5 tie the way things are stacking up. The School Committee hasn’t reached the point where it will act on its own the way the city council voted for Sergio’s contract to be extended another five years Monday night.”
“Why not?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“Because the School Committee hasn’t yet figured out how to vote its own mind. Five school committee members want to do the mayor’s business for him and one of those five is the mayor. They don’t think on their own. Carlo thinks for them. But I believe all of this is changing,” the Blue Suit said.
“Even the councilors are now coming to understand that there could be big problems as a result of the US Attorney’s investigation. It is nothing to make light of or to dismiss as Carlo does,” the Blue Suit added.
“Does Carlo make light of the Federal probe?” I asked.
“You bet he does, Josh. He told me this just the other day after watching the US Attorney on television talk about the Everett probe.”
Carlo said to me: “Rollins can’t touch me. The FBI can’t touch me. I’m going to be the mayor forever – and don’t you forget it!”