Eye on Everett – Everett Leader Herald

— Eye on Everett —

“Everett Matters”

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By JOSH RESNEK

“He wore me for the lead photograph in his new publication, Everett Matters,” the Blue Suit started out. The Blue Suit was glum.

“I don’t like being made a fool of,” the Blue Suit added with dismay.

“What’s wrong buddy? What’s so embarrassing. I think you look pretty good in the photograph,” I said to him.

“Yeah. I know that. Luckily Carlo didn’t sit down or eat a meal during the shoot.”

“I didn’t think about it that way,” I replied.

“Of course not. He’s not wearing you. He’s wearing me… and it hurts. When he drops into a chair I feel as though I am being suffocated. I can’t really catch my breath. If it’s the summertime and he’s sweating it makes everything worse. At least he wears an overcoat during the colder weather,” the Blue Suit added.

“Can you make it possible for me to talk with his overcoat?” I asked.

“No way. The overcoat talks with no one. Besides, I know more about Carlo than his overcoat. You can bet on that, Josh.”

The Blue Suit seemed troubled, as though his sleeve might have caught on a wire or part of the meal the mayor ate had fallen onto his pants.

The mayor’s Blue Suit on the cover of the
recent edition of the “Everett Matters” pamphlet.

— Eye on Everett —

“These people aren’t playing the right way in my sandbox. They’ll pay the price” – The mayor, as quoted to Josh Resnek by the Blue Suit

By JOSH RESNEK

‘What did the mayor think about the protest for Gerly Adrien held out in front of city hall Monday night?” I asked the Blue Suit.

“You can’t be serious? It drove him crazy. He was out of
his mind they didn’t want him to speak. He knew he had to be there but he really didn’t want to be seen or to mix it up. In any other city in the entire Northeast, the mayor would have thought a protest for equality and against racism would have brought the mayor to the protest to spread himself around,
to meet and greet and to act like the leader of the city and to prove mainly that he is not a racist. Not Carlo. You know what he did?”

“Yeah. I saw him wearing you, hiding out in the shadows like a doorman to the side of city hall’s front entrance. Senator Sal stood by his side. He didn’t make an effort to engage, either – but I know they are two different people – very different,” I answered. “Sal has no problem with racism because he’s not a racist. Sal was trying to lend support, a bit like the president’s friends assuring Trump that he didn’t lose the election – even though he knows the election has been lost.”

“Boy. You’re right about that, Josh,” the Blue Suit said to me.

“This racism stuff against Gerly really gets me down,” the Blue Suit added thoughtfully. “Can you imagine? The mayor had not a word to say about Gerly being attacked by the City Councilors. I always believed he was bigger than that…but I know he isn’t.”

— Eye on Everett —

“The ride home from the school committee meeting was terrifying” – The mayor’s Blue Suit to Josh Resnek this morning

By JOSH RESNEK

“From the moment the school superintendent said she disagreed with having the mayor as a voting member of the school committee, Carlo kind of lost it. I could feel him sweating and shaking just a bit. He was having difficulty controlling himself,” the Blue Suit told me Tuesday morning.

“And you don’t want to be as close I get to him when he’s like that!” he exclaimed.

He referred to the five-hour meeting the night before, when Priya Tahiliani, put her superintendent’s job on the line by publicly defying the mayor’s wish to serve as a voting member of the SC, something he is working on. He’s rounding up votes on the city council to schedule a Charter change so he can take control of the SC and the 1,000 employees of the School Department.

“He never expected that,” the Blue Suit revealed. “It was like a punch to his stomach followed by a kick to his head. I heard him say he’d never let a woman like Tahiliani control him. ‘I’ll show her a thing or two about how business is conducted around here. No one gets away with insulting my honor in public,’” the mayor said, the Blue Suit told me. “No woman can do that to me. Never,” the mayor added.

The mayor cleared his throat. He started in again.

— Eye on Everett —

I’ve witnessed some very poor behavior.” – The mayor’s Blue Suit to Josh Resnek

By JOSH RESNEK

“We have to stop meeting like this,” The Blue Suit said to me. He was concerned, looking from side to side to make sure the mayor wasn’t going to catch him talking to me.

“He’s going to slice me up, tear me apart, and toss me into the trash. I know he is,” the Blue Suit said.

“How do you know?” I asked.

‘I can tell by the way he looks at me, and tugs at me, and stretches me. He’s guaranteed pissed off at me,” said the Blue Suit.

“Look. You don’t want to risk him getting really angry because I know what the mayor is capable of,” I answered.

“I’m the one who knows what he’s capable of,” the Blue Suit insisted. “After all these years of being abused by him, I’d like out of his world. It is a dark world. Plus, I’m tired of being broke.”

“Is the mayor broke?” I asked.

“He never has cash reserves. He lives from week to week off his salary – and other things.”

“I can’t believe he’s broke. What other things?” I asked.

“You know, other things I can’t talk about in specific. I don’t want to get myself arrested or in the crosshairs of the FBI. Take it from me, there are other things that produce a steady round of income for the mayor.”

You mean he gets payoffs?” I asked. “Is that what you mean. I can’t believe that,” I answered. “Or should I believe that?”

— Eye on Everett —

“Iv’e got a tip for you, Josh” – The Blue Suit

By JOSH RESNEK

“Did you hear who’s leaving city service to go elsewhere?” the Blue Suit asked me during a discussion earlier this week.

“Not really,” I answered. “There’s almost nothing you can tell me about what’s going on that I already know.”

“You seem pretty confident about that, Josh,” the Blue Suit said to me.

“How can you know everything when no one talks with you?” the Blue Suit asked me.

“The mayor orders everyone not to speak with you, not to tell you anything, not to communicate with you. I know this. I hear him tell people not to return your calls or to tell you anything,” the Blue Suit added.

“Yeah, you’ve got that right. He thinks by ordering people not to speak with me that they will do as he demands. Guess what? That strategy doesn’t work. In fact, people are more willing to speak with me just knowing it pisses the mayor off as long as I promise not to say anything or to reveal my source,” I said.

“Then the mayor comes back with his lackeys claiming I write articles without sourcing them. That’s a joke,” I said.

“Everyone paying close attention to the Leader Herald knows I’m right on the mark about what I have to reveal about the mayor and his cronies.”

“I know it,” the Blue Suit replied. “That doesn’t stop the mayor and his pals from warning everyone that you’re the enemy and that the Leader Herald is the enemy,” he added.

“Enemy of what?” I asked. “What is the Leader Herald to be considered an enemy about?”