Marcus with open mike gaffe makes harsh comment about public speaker

By Josh Resnek

School Committeeman Jason Marcus referred to public speaker Paula Steriti with a pejorative word during last Wednesday’s School Department meeting.

School Committeeman Jason Marcus

The remark has set off a firestorm of indignation and outrage among Steriti’s friends and associates.

For his part, Marcus has apologized to Steriti.

“I am very sorry for what I said. It is out of character for me to speak that way. I hope Paula Steriti can forgive me. I have reached out to Paula to apologize,” he added.

Several public speakers asked for Marcus to resign at Monday night’s school committee meeting.

Marcus said he won’t resign.

Other than that, the School Committee meeting last week was tepid.

This week’s meeting didn’t include a raise in temperature.

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Hidden Longevity Payment For Mayor DeMaria Revealed After Investigation

By Paula Steriti and Josh Resnek

Mayor DeMaria was allowed to cash in sick days and vacation days twice and received $20,000 “buy-back”payments twice on separate dates and then was issued a $40,000 longevity payment from a Human Resources money account without the payment being noted in the city budget.

Mayor DeMaria

A Leader Herald investigation reveals that the two $20,000 “buy-back” payments were credited to the mayor.

The first $20,000 payment was credited to the mayor on January 21, 2021.

The second $20,000 payment was credited to the mayor on January April 29, 2021

An investigation into how and why the payment was made began with a search of the city budget.

The payment did not show up in the mayor’s office budget section.

Following a public information request, the payment was shown to have been made from a Human Resources account – not with a $40,000 entry, rather, with two $20,000 entries, and there was no name attached to the payments, according to official spread sheets provided by the city of Everett.

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