Mayor Carlo DeMaria – Everett Leader Herald

— Eye on Everett —

“I think I’ve been blocked from the mayor’s Facebook account. Can you imagine him taking that away from me?”

– Josh Resnek speaking with the mayor’s Blue Suit Tuesday

By JOSH RESNEK with THE BLUE SUIT

“Did he really do that to you, Josh. You know it takes a lot of guts to block someone from coming on to your Facebook site,” the Blue said. He couldn’t stop laughing at his own joke.

“Yeah. It’s a bit like landing at Normandy Beach on D-Day. Takes real guts,” I added.

“Why would the mayor do something like that?” I asked the Blue Suit.

“Maybe he doesn’t like you looking at his Facebook site. Did you ever think about that, Josh” the Blue Suit suggested. “He didn’t do it,” I said. “I suspect he doesn’t know how to block anyone from a Facebook site. You want to know, I don’t know how to do it either. Don’t forget, I’ve got about 3,000 friends on my Leader Herald Facebook site. We’ve never blocked anyone. Friends and foes alike are welcome on the Leader Herald Facebook site. You have something to say, you can write it on the Leader Herald site. You like Carlo, you can have your say. You don’t like Carlo, you can have your say. You support Carlo, go ahead, write your heart out. And on and on.”

“If Carlo didn’t block me, then who did?” I asked the Blue Suit.

“Probably his chief of staff or his media person did it. They are pretty good at strategizing that way.”

“I understand,” I answered. “But how do you think I feel not being able to access the mayor’s Facebook site? What a thing to do to a person. It just isn’t fair and it isn’t right. I used to go to his site every day to find all those valuable golden nuggets of information about all the good Carlo is doing for the people of the city.”

The Blue Suit yawned. He squashed nearly an entire piece of pizza in his mouth with a push of his fingers. What followed next is almost indescribable – the Blue Suit chewing that slice of pizza and devouring it the way a garbage disposal reduces whole food to bits and pieces before sloshing down the drain into oblivion.

— Eye on Everett —

The Blue Suit

“I was shocked when I heard the mayor talking on his cell with someone who told him not to take the longevity payment in January because it would lead to trouble.”

– The mayor’s Blue Suit speaking with Josh Resnek

By JOSH RESNEK with THE BLUE SUIT

“I couldn’t believe it. The mayor was told he can’t take the $40,000 longevity payment. I couldn’t believe it again when I watched ECTV’s broadcast of the city council meeting Monday night when the mayor informed the council he would not be taking the $40,000 yearly payment in January. I had to wonder why? Why won’t he be taking the $40,000? But then, I know the mayor so well. I know him like a son or a brother. I can look into his eyes and know exactly how he’s feeling. This I know. If there was any possible way for him to take that payment and put it into his bank account he would have done it. That’s a guarantee. He is not one to give up $40,000 without a fight. Whomever he was speaking with on the cell must have told him that to take the money was to put himself in a jam. Anything other than that wouldn’t have stopped him from taking the payment,” the Blue Suit told me.

“So what happens now?” I asked the Blue Suit.

“By backing away from taking the payment, there are many who will believe that that there was something wrong or fake or hidden, unethical or even illegal about taking it. Let’s face it,” I emphasized to the Blue Suit. “He’s in jam taking it. I think he’s in jam not taking it. And what did you think about Eric Demas’ three page letter to the council” I asked the Blue Suit.

We were again driving around the city checking out Everett inside my beaten up Honda Fit. After several weeks of not running in my backyard, I took it to my favorite mechanic – an old Everett guy and a class act – and he took care of it for me. Now that its running again, I felt that my life inside an old junker had come back to life. Some of us feel very comfortable in beaten up old automobiles like my red Honda I drive. I’m not like the mayor, who needs to be seen in a late model Mercedes. But getting back to Monday night, I was stunned by the mayor’s announcement. I was also stunned by several hundred Capone supporters who packed the council chamber to bid their man a final goodbye. There was no way the mayor was going to get himself involved in that scene. He was nowhere to be seen in the hall that night. Just as well, for him. After all, it didn’t go well for him Monday night.

Mayor: “I Won’t Accept Longevity in January.”

Capone to Mayor: “Pay Back $180,000. ”

By Josh Resnek

In a dramatic and unexpected back pedal, Mayor Carlo DeMaria issued an announcement to the city council Monday night that he will not be taking the $40,000 longevity payment he is set to receive in January.

**The mayor stunned the council informing the members he will not be accepting the $40,000 longevity payment in January.**

The move indicated to many of those disturbed by the questionable longevity payment that the law is on their side and not the mayor’s in this matter.

“I will not be taking the longevity payment…until such time as the city council has decided what to do,” the mayor informed the council.

Embattled Chief Financial Officer Eric Demas tried to gloss over the issue. He said nothing is illegal or hidden about the longevity.

“I have done nothing illegal. I have never been instructed by the mayor to do anything unlawful or deceitful.”

Demas made his thoughts known with a three page letter read to the city council by City Clerk Sergio Cornelio.

Demas insisted the questionable $40,000 a year longevity payment, which is not revealed as a line item in the city budget, was a reasonable interpretation by the administration.

The mayor’s unwillingness to take the January payment reveals otherwise.

Its Christmas but mayor’s $40K a year longevity issue not going away

Marchese leading the fight to right the wrong

By Josh Resnek

There is a great deal of Christmas cheer making the rounds of the city this year.

Christmas is about giving presents.

However, Councilor Mike Marchese is leading a fight to take a present away from the mayor.

The present? It is what Councilor Fred Capone has called a fraud – that is – the contrived payment of $40,000 a year to the mayor for a longevity payment that is questionable at the very least and a fraud, as Capone has labelled it, at the very worst.

“We’re going to reintroduce the issue of the $40,000 a year longevity payment in order to eliminate it,” Marchese told the Leader Herald Monday morning.

At the request of the council last week, the city clerk was ordered to ask the Attorney General for an opinion about the questionable longevity payment.

— Eye on Everett —

The Blue Suit

“Can you imagine. Carlo makes more than $191,000 a year in salary and gets another $40,000 a year as a bonus! Wow! Capone called that a fraud. What else could it be but that in Everett or anywhere!”

– The mayor’s Blue Suit speaking with Josh Resnek

By JOSH RESNEK with THE BLUE SUIT

The mayor of Everett or of any city for that matter, receiving a longevity bonus of $40,000 a year when the amount should be $2,500 a year, is committing a fraud. That’s what Councilor Fred Capone called it Monday night at the city council meeting where he tried to have the mayor’s longevity payment stripped from the books.

‘Even I know the payment is a fraud,” the Blue Suit said to me after the meeting. The Blue Suit called me on my cell. He was hiding inside Carlo’s closet inside Carlo’s mansion on Abbott Street. Carlo hadn’t yet arrived home.

“I watched the meeting on ECTV,” the Blue Suit whispered to me.

“Capone called it a fraud giving Carlo $40,000 a year when he should be getting $2,500 a year. Capone was ripped. Why wasn’t he like that during the campaign? He’s right though. The payment is a fraud. Carlo knows this. Carlo laughed all the way home. It was a $40,000 a year laugh. He was laughing so hard he couldn’t catch his breath at one point when he got inside the house.

“You know Carlo scripted the evening for Anthony and Mike. Capone met a solid wall of opposition from lawyers, the budget director and those who cannot allow themselves to vote against Carlo on the council, even if the vote would right a wrong if that meant giving Carlo less money,” the Blue Suit told me.

The Blue Suit told me that Carlo prepped Anthony and Mike before the city hall council meeting. He told me Carlo celebrated when the meeting was over, after nothing had been accomplished to deny him a payment of $40,000 which he should not be receiving.

“Carlo was delighted. Wouldn’t you be?” the Blue Suit asked me.