THE BLUE SUIT
Discussions about everything Everett with the mayor’s Blue Suit and Josh Resnek.
I’ve been wondering, as many of us have been wondering, why is the mayor so determined to stick to his guns about using the former Pope John high school for affordable housing instead of using the school to house more than 1,000 Everett public school students now being educated in overcrowded schools?
Even after the developer of the property pulled out, the mayor intensified the fight not to use Pope John as a school, but to rip it down and to make affordable housing.
What is so important about 140 units of affordable housing when compared with the educational needs of about 1,500 Everett public school students packed into overcrowded classrooms and closets used as classrooms and dismantled school libraries used as classrooms?
What is it about the mayor that doesn’t allow him to change his mind or to go with the flow, so to speak, when it would be to his advantage, and to Everett students’ advantage, if he came and out and said: “You know. I’ve changed my mind. The overcrowding is serious. I’m going to be a hero and do what is just and right.”
The Blue Suit had something to say about that.
“You reveal a lack of understanding about the mayor, Josh,” the Blue Suit said to me.
“He is, above all, single minded, stubborn, belligerent and unable to go into reverse once he has shifted into drive. He wanted affordable housing and that is what Pope John is going to be. Look, you don’t know about what commitments have been made, if any, for this development and how it fits in with other developments being planned for,” the Blue Suit said.
“Also, you are talking about the same guy who found it impossible for about two months to demand that his racist cousin, Anthony, resign from the city council to stop a revolution from taking place. Carlo feels imperious. It is his way or no way with public battles of this kind. There’s no consideration given to how it will effect his future political life, or that of the neighborhood where Pope John is located. It is him, Carlo, making a decision and sticking to it at all costs no matter what. He is really quite arrogant when you get down to it,” the Blue Suit added.
“I still don’t get it – and I know what Carlo is all about. He’s shown himself again by having Guerline Alcy deposed as part of a defamation lawsuit. Carlo’s lawyer ripped her apart. Guerline is said to be in a state of despair being run over by the law while law enforcement won’t listen to her claims that the mayor exposed himself to her and that he repeatedly sexually harassed her during her nine years of city service.
She claims the mayor discriminated against her and that the drubbing she took at a deposition last week was intended as warning to all those who wish to make claims about the mayor under oath. Oh yes. She was under oath at the deposition. She said things there, apparently, that she had already admitted to me in an article we printed in the Leader Herald almost two months ago. But I don’t know the full story as I haven’t yet seen the deposition. Others get to see the deposition and to publish bits and pieces of it moments after the hearing is over. I am made to wait. That’s OK even if it appears unfair. The mayor is fighting. In the case of Guerline, he is attempting to discredit her, to make her out a liar and on and on. Again, I haven’t read the deposition yet. I’ve only read snippets of it printed in a local paper.”
“What are you saying, Josh?”
“I’m saying that when I read the deposition, I bet there are shocking things she said to the mayor’s attorney under oath that have not yet been revealed. Want to bet about that?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“No thank you, Josh. I think I know where you’re going with this.”
‘What was done to Guerline and what was so far published from her deposition is about as low as you can go in response to a woman who has had the courage to reveal that the mayor exposed himself to her. I know her attorneys are duty bound to interrogate her. The law provides for this. The mayor’s lawyers are doing nothing wrong trying to discredit her and confuse her. Guerline is many things – a mother, a wife, a daughter, a cousin and friend to many, many people in the Everett Haitian community. Above all, she is respectful of people. She’s not a liar or a cheat. The mayor exposed himself to her and she finally had the courage to speak out about it. However, she is finding out, she is a woman alone in this city – standing entirely alone against the weight of powerful lawyers and the mayor, her former employer. She didn’t have a chance at that deposition. I hear she’s been depressed and feeling threatened and made to suffer mental- ly by the entire experience. Can you imagine a woman these days having the courage to detail how she was sexually harassed and mistreated by her boss – a Black woman no less – and she is made to stand alone in a place that has condoned similar behavior for many years? What is up with that?”
The Blue Suit cleared his throat.
“Do you think the mayor wins his battle for Pope John or he loses? Will it be affordable housing over reducing public school overcrowding?” the Blue Suit asked me.
“I’m terrible at gambling, as you know. I’m the kind of lost gambler who plays slot machines when I go to the casino. That kind of tells you where I’m at when it comes to making predictions about how the battle will come out. In answer to your question, I will not make a bet as to whether the mayor wins or loses. It is the kids who need to win, not the mayor. He’s already won for 15 years. I repeat, it’s the kids inside the stuffed Everett public schools who need to win – and they need classrooms inside of schools not trailers – I can tell you that.”