Mayor said to be seeking SC chairmanship
By Josh Resnek
It has been several weeks since the school committee requested the city council to urge the mayor to get the rehabilitation of the former Pope John facility going.
The hope was for a request for proposal (RFP) to be prepared by the mayor’s office and officially posted for public scrutiny by the city to attract qualified builders that will seek to become the contractor for the rehabilitation project.
That project is expected to cost at least $76 million, as requested by the mayor.
It was the mayor’s request of the school committee and the city council that the gold standard be used.
He said, at the time if this is what the school committee and city council were in favor of, if this was the will of these two elected government bodies, that he would follow through with the project.
In the meantime, nothing public has materialized with regard to the posting of an RFP. There have been no public communications between the mayor and the school committee an or the city council.
A request from the Leader Herald to the mayor for a comment on the matter went unanswered.
The mayor failed to attend the Monday evening school committee hearing.
His absence comes on the heels of private comments made by several school committee members who wished to remain unnamed that the mayor is apparently seeking to become the next chairman of the school committee.
This would ostensibly come in January when a new chair will be elected by the membership. By all appearances, the mayor has the votes
to become the next chair.