Mayor Carlo DeMaria – Everett Leader Herald

— Eye on Everett —

Coffee with The Blue Suit

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By JOSH RESNEK

You know he believes no one can beat him,” the mayor’s Blue Suit said to me earlier this week. “He is convinced that he is invincible, that no one can touch him – not the law, not the people, not Fred Capone, not any number of combinations of Fred Capone and others – no one,” the Blue Suit added.

We shared a coffee sitting outside watching the traffic pass by at an outside cafe. I had a small cappuccino. The Blue Suit drinks dark tea with a touch of honey.

“The mayor tells some of his buddies he is going to be the mayor forever, if you can imagine that. I want to tell him off when I hear that. No one should be the mayor forever. In fact, there ought to be term limits on how long a mayor can consecutively serve. I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut around him. He’s a dangerous guy to disagree with if you know what I mean.”

The Blue Suit and I shared a moment of silent thought.

“I know what you mean. Did I ever tell you how he came down to the Leader Herald office on Church Street and came into my back office to speak with me one afternoon almost four years ago?”

“No. What did he want?”

“The mayor warned me that I wasn’t writing the right kind of articles. He demanded that I write the right kind of articles. Just like that, he said that to me in my office. I looked at him in amazement,” I told the Blue Suit.

Mayor must answer

In neighboring Chelsea, since the inception of receivership when its last four mayors were arrested, indicted, tried and convicted of crimes as well as six police officers who met the same fate, the city government has sworn, “never again.”

Receivership ended in Chelsea many years ago but the city government has remained adamant – no member of the city council, the police and fire departments and city hall employ- ees can be convicted felons or those who are sexual offenders with their names on the state sex offenders list, can serve in public office or as a member of the city workforce.

In Everett, this rule does not reply. There is a different mindset here where the mayor employs a number of convicted felons who are working city jobs, who somehow are given the OK by the Human Resources Department.

City budget still a riddle

Everett City Hall. (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

10 weeks late, few have keys to unlock mysteries for how taxpayer’s money to be spent

By JOSH RESNEK

The veil of secrecy has finally been lifted.

The city’s 2021 budget has been uploaded to the city’s website.

Eric Demas, the city’s Chief Financial Officer, who doubles as the mayor’s Minister of Financial Propaganda, has finally posted the city’s budget to the City of Everett’s website.

Only ten weeks after the start of the fiscal year, Demas has produced what he would likely call, “a masterpiece.”

Like a mystery thriller novel, only he and the mayor have the keys to unlock its secrets to taxpayers.

Not bad for government work, that is, the convoluted budget ten weeks late.

The newly elected Mayor of Taunton managed to present her budget to the Taunton City Council on June 2, 2020, a little late, but well in advance of the July 1st start of the fiscal year.

It appears there are two Everett city budgets.

When we refer to the City of Everett Budget, we need to be very careful about what version of the budget we are talking about.

Is it the budget that was posted to the City of Everett website on or about September 9th?

To avoid that confusion, we will call it the September Final Budget.

Removing names once honored

At the last meeting of the School Committee, the mayor entered a motion to have a name stripped from a location inside the high school.

The motion was sent to a committee for study and or action or both.

The name of the man once honored being put up for removal comes before he has had his day in court.

Most of us who think reasonably would agree, removing a name because of allegations and charges before those allegations have been proven and the man found guilty, is a premature.

In this case, the mayor is acting as judge and jury. He is asking as well that the School Committee endorse his action.

For the mayor, especially, to enter this motion shows bad judgment.

More to the point, it shows his indifference to similar allegations made against him in the past as those made against the once honored name.

The mayor also shows his tendency toward vindictiveness by entering the motion for the removal of the name.

— Eye on Everett —

“I had a dream” – The Blue Suit

By JOSH RESNEK

The mayor’s Blue Suit let out his deepest thoughts to me this week when he told me: “I had a dream.”

“Tell me about the dream,” I asked him.

“You know dreams are all about our conscious lives, in part. That’s how Freud puts it in his famous study about our dream sequences,” I added.

“What do you mean?” the Blue Suit asked me.

I’ve read a lot of Freud although I don’t claim to be an expert.

I answered the Blue Suit.

“The things we do, the people we see, the places we go, the hassles we have, the triumphs we enjoy in our awake hours often become the subjects of our dreams. In other words, in our awake hours, our brain is absorbing everything about our lives – the weather, our homes, relationships with friends, discussions with parents. When we go to sleep, our dreams are caused by impulses in our brains related to what we did while awake,” I told the Blue Suit.

“Josh, I don’t need cheap psychotherapy from you.”

“I get it,” I responded.

“Tell me your dream.”

“I think it comes from me hearing the mayor talking with Anthony DiPierro, the mayor’s personal sign man in the rep race. Anthony held the same position for the mayor when McLaughlin ran against the mayor’s best friend last time out and lost,” the Blue Suit recalled.