Marchese Spars With Clueless Demas Playing Dumb Protecting The Guilty

By Josh Resnek

Councilor at large Michael Marchese.

Councilor Mike Marchese (right) and Eric Demas, the city’s Chief Financial officer went back and forth for about 15 minutes as Marchese tried to find out how a $2,500 a year payment to Mayor Carlo DeMaria could have risen to $40,000 without anyone in a position of responsibility asking questions about it.

“How does $2,500 a year rise to $40,000 a year,” Marchese asked Demas.

“How is it that the mayor got this money out of the budget without the line item including his name on it,” Marchese asked.

Demas, who designs the budget and who is liable for its final configuration answered with an array of double-talk vignettes designed to throw off Marchese.

“Come on tell me. How does this happen? Who did this? Who is responsible? I’d like to know,” Marchese asked the poker faced Demas.

The humorless Demas responded that he isn’t a lawyer and is not qualified to give such an answer.

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Two Peas in a Pod

The city’s Chief Financial Officer Eric Demas and City Solicitor Colleen Mejia should both be called before the city council and questioned aggressively about the $180,000 the mayor received under the disguise of a longevity payment that was not included in public editions of the city’s award winning budget.

In other words, the payment of $40,000 a year to the mayor was a sneak payment that might have gone on for quite some time had not former Councilor at Large Gerly Adrien revealed it during last year’s mayoral election.

Award winning budgets do not include hidden $40,000 yearly longevity payments that should have been $2,500 yearly.

When asked about them, the city solicitor not only told the council it was legal and just but that the city was required to make such a payment.

Such tainted and flawed legal reasoning from a member of the bar is frankly incomprehensible given the reality of the situation.

We wonder what the Board of Bar Overseers would ask Mejia if she was made to appear before them?

We wonder if they might ask her if she understands the difference between $2,500 a year and $40,000 a year, and then they might ask her if she was concerned it wasn’t listed in the city budget – a small matter for Everett’s city solicitor.

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Mayor, CFO must come clean about longevity

Mayor Carlo DeMaria and Chief Financial Officer Eric Demas are steps away from difficulties they will not ultimately be able to squirm out of if they don’t fix the longevity scam that has been hidden from the taxpayers.

Throw into this mix of longevity architects the city council, which has shown not an ounce of leadership regarding the $40,000 yearly payment to the mayor – a so-called bonus that he has received and which his acolytes claim her had nothing to do with.

City Solicitor Colleen Mejia is taking things to the edge by making rather empty and vacuous claims that the longevity payment to the mayor, which cannot be found in the city budget unless you understand the secret of where it can be found, is perfectly, gloriously, wondrously legal and right.

The mayor’s yes men and women all agreeing the longevity payment has nothing whatsoever to do with them, reveals the unreality of the situation.

That the mayor makes more than the mayor of Boston is ludicrous, despite discrepant voices making that claim and endorsing it.

Maybe the case could be made that the mayor deserves a salary larger than the governor’s and the president’s.

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Get well Eric Demas

A week ago Monday, at a council meeting at city hall, Chief Financial Officer Eric Demas was called to make testimony about something or other.

Like a good soldier, Demas appeared.

For many of us watching the live proceedings on ECTV, we were shocked when Demas tried to speak.

He came wearing a mask. He took off the mask to speak.

He appeared to be fighting a very bad cold.

He was sneezing, coughing, sniffling, wheezing, and in general, he never should have appeared at that meeting.

In fact, we were quite surprised not one councilor made a mention that Demas should have stayed home and taken care of himself.

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