City Council – Everett Leader Herald

Hanlon Suggest 5 Year Building Moratorium

“Something needs to happen,” says Costa

By Josh Resnek

Councilor John Hanlon sure knows how to get people thinking.

Halon has suggested a 5 year moratorium on building.

A 5 year moratorium on building – or anything for that matter – is a daunting prospect to behold.

The city council is taking up the matter in earnest.

The long road began Monday night at a council committee hearing and spilled over into Tuesday night’s council hearing.

As the oldest member of the council, Hanlon represents oldline families hanging on here, fighting against the winds of change, and wishing to have all the development stopped before everything about their lives disappears.

Councilor Darren Costa is new to the council game, but he brings to the council a vision that has been lacking and a lingua franca, a way of expressing himself, that is both concise and clear and delivered cleverly with earnestness.

Costa does not yet understand the power in his manner of presentation.

“The Ward 3 zoning ordinances are out of date. It is difficult to apply the logic of zoning to all of Everett,” he said at the committee meeting Monday night.

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Former Everett Firefighter Charged Again For Indecent Assault and Battery

Leader Herald Staff

A former Everett firefighter who is on the state’s sexual offender list and who received an award from the Everett Fire Department while on the list was recently charged again with indecent assault and battery on a person over 14.

Albert Murphy, 58 of Salisbury, had his case continued without a finding for 18 months and was ordered to stay away and no contact with the victim after a hearing in the Newburyport Court, according to an article that appeared in the Newburyport Times.

Th hearing took place before Judge Mary McCabe and the case was dismissed at that time.

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When Residents Stand Up City Hall Must Listen

The above guest editorial reveals the strength of citizen participation in the goings on at city hall and throughout the neighborhoods.

The rising up of concerned citizens, concerned they are not being listened to or included in the decisions made by the city government has changed the political game played here for years and years.

The new awareness and the willingness to speak out in public despite the fear and likelihood of retaliation is a game changer in how business is done here.

For years and years, the mayor and his paid employees have given little about what the public thinks.

Like the true sneaks they are, they pretend to follow all the rules and laws in carrying out the mayor’s policies and they never speak out about racism, sexism, municipal corruption or what former Councilor Fred Capone calls, “fraud and theft.”

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Public speaking sessions demand more time, to expand to 30 minutes

Leader Herald Staff

The City Council is now discussing a change in procedure for the public speaking sessions before Council meetings which are having a tendency to turn politics here upside down.

The speaking period will be expanded to 30 minutes, and comments must be restricted to agenda items to be discussed at that meeting.

For those wishing to speak about non-agenda items, they will be given that opportunity at the end of the agenda portion of the Council meeting.

“This is more fair than any other city around us,” said

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The council rising up

We are witnessing right now the rising up of the City Council which finds itself suddenly empowered to act justly in confronting a great issue which the mayor has not been willing to address.

The overcrowded public school crisis, and the mayor’s desire to put affordable housing before providing for the city’s public school children has been check mated by a City Council apparently in favor to a person to use Pope John as a new public school facility.

It isn’t so much affordable housing that is the rub.

It is the mayor dragging his feet and putting a development proposal not supported by the neighborhood in front of efforts that have gathered widespread public support to put an end to the overcrowding in the city’s public schools.

The Council rising up in this instance and supporting the use of the former Pope John High School as a public school, reveals the extent to which the City Council has taken up the mantle of leadership during a crisis that the mayor has refused to acknowledge in any meaningful way.

The rising up of the City Council represents a new chapter in the evolving political history of the city.

Councilor Stephanie Smith’s passion and her stridency demanding change is notable.

Councilor Mike Marchese’s demands for action resonate.

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