This morning on City Life the Mayor, John & George were talking about the ad and the dam and John pointed out that when he tried to email Enel on the given email it bounced back. I tried and also received this message: Delivery has failed to these recipients or distribution lists:

‘boottcrestgate@enel.com’
The recipient’s e-mail address was not found in the recipient’s e-mail system. Microsoft Exchange will not try to redeliver this message for you. Please check the e-mail address and try resending this message, or provide the following diagnostic text to your system administrator.

So at 7:20 am I left a voice mail at the telephone number listed. Just after 12:30 (as I started writing) I had not heard back and when I again called I got voice mail (I didn’t leave a message this time)

Victoria Fahlberg was also on City Life and she stated she thought the land was State Owned and wanted to know about a lease. In fact Enel / Boot Hydro not only owns the Land outright but took some land from U Lowell (the State) by eminent domain rights they posses when they needed to expand. No Lease and no expiration. But the ability to expand if needed.

Let us also remember they are I believe the largest or one of the largest taxpayers in the City and they City needs them for easements on a couple upcoming major projects. We need to work with them and they need to work with us.

As far has safety being an issue, YES it is dangerous to be on a barge to change the boards, and yes workers have been injured (My brother used to work there and injured his foot changing a board in the winter) Thankfully none seriously YET.

Enel needs to be a better neighbor and they need to work with the city more. They needs to beef up their community outreach. They need a point person to work with the city, ULowell and the neighborhood groups. Thier attempt at PR failed miserably since they gave out bad information and do not return emails and calls. The Ad was eye catching and made me want to find out more but if you run an ad and then don’t have the email or phone set up to answer questions what good is it?

Up first is a story involving another Chris Doherty Flyer. This one has my former Centraville neighbor and well know Dalton family member Joyce Dalton Moriarty on the Flyer. It talks about how Chris has made it easier for women to get restraining orders protecting them from abusers and says for that reason alone he has my vote.

Only issue is Joyce lives in Chelmsford and not in the district. oops..Joyce is from a well known Lowell family and has been involved in many Lowell races and she has many Lowell friends so it was smart to use her but they probably could have worded the flyer better.

Speaking of flyers it was noted in yesterday’s Sun that Barry Finegold had 2 more issues with flyers containing names of of town or state employees that should not have been on the list. Again Barry just shrugs and says ah gee “we are working with the (state Office of Campaigns and Political Finance) to address the situation.” He even tries to downplay it by saying “a women’s event invitation in Andover, which had over 100 names on it, contained three names that we know of who either worked for the town or the state: Only 3 out of 100 but a total this year (so far) of 3 incidents. If a campaign can’t get something as clear as names on a flyer printed correctly what else will they overlook. He continue’s to implode his chances at winning the democratic primary.

The Sun recaps the 2 Council issues that I mentioned early this week. The Mayor/Caulfield shots and the Mercier involvement of passing out a letter by Lowell Officer Crowley and doing so without the Manager knowing. Nothing new there in either case except the Sun (not surprisingly) semi-defending Caulfield stating that he fills in for the Mayor and Vice-Mayor on many occasion. The fact he is retired and time on his hands while the Mayor and Vice Mayor have full time jobs might be the real reason Bud “fills in”.

There is quite the discussion about councilor Rita Mercier “coming around” to be a Lynch supporter from her original position of being against him end voting to get rid of his asst. Andy Sheehan. To her credit Councilor Mercier states that the Manager has been very responsive and has worked on building relationships in the community and applauds him for it. Rita has always been the voice for the neighborhood communities and Manager Lynch has worked very well with all the neighborhood groups.

It also mentions that the Garage issue involving the letter and the police support of the Meadowcraft St. property might be more then just the building being in better shape. It seems one of their own’s brother In-Law owns the property and maybe they wanted to help him out.

The Column also features a COMPARE AND CONTRAST item about two votes this pass week in Dracut.
On Tuesday, Dracut Selectman Bob Cox appeared to buck state ethics laws when he approved a liquor license for a private club where he sits on the board of directors. State law prohibits selectmen from taking any official action on matters involving organizations for which a selectman serves as an “officer, director, partner, employee or trustee.” While Later at the same meeting, Selectman John Zimini abstained from voting on accepting a total of $8,000 to the Board of Appeals to pay for a financial peer review and traffic study peer review at Allard’s Grove, an affordable-housing plan for Nashua Road. Zimini regularly abstains from voting on 40B projects that come before the board because any action he takes as a public official could be considered a conflict of interest with his day job working at MassHousing, a quasi-public agency that bills itself as the state’s affordable housing bank.

I have pointed out that many people blamed Zimini for leaking that story instead of pointing out that Bobby Cox was wrong. Yesterday on his radio show Warren Shaw blamed the reporter who he claimed is “always negative about Dracut” or words to that effect and defended Bobby. Today Dracut Forum continue’s that defense with “Box Cox has a problem.. he wears his heart on his sleeve. When he believes something is right, he pursues it, sometimes going too far to fight the good fight(again, remember Louisburg Square and the millions we lost over that).

” While the same column states ” John Zimini has been careful to recuse himself since it became public knowledge that he works for Mass Housing. Thats good to hear. And it will probably help him some in his election in the spring, because the Louisburg Square issue will follow him there. Oh so because John didn’t agree with Bobby, Warren and many that the Louisburg Square project was a good one that will be held against him while Bobby was just wearing his heart on his sleeve violating a conflict of interest situation?

Friends of Booby need to admit Bobby screwed up (In a matter that is getting much more attention than it deserves. It is a stupid minor violation that doesn’t get Bobby anything on a personal level, but a violation none the less) and the fact that fellow board member Joe DiRocco had spoken to the town counsel prior to the meeting, and he had determined that there was not a problem with their voting on the liquor license means nothing. Joe D has a club member not an officer would not be in violation voting on it. It is NOT up to the Town council, Manager or anyone else to know and enforce the Conflict of Interest Law it is up to the Selectman, Councilor, State Rep or candidate.

If those so interested in defending and protecting their friend had let it drop instead of trying to blame a Selectman they dislike or the reporter who wrote the story the whole thing might have blown over instead of blowing up into a 3 ring circus. I don’t live in Dracut, I like Bobby Cox, I like John Zimini, I like Shawn Ashe and Warren Shaw but the extreme manner in which friends of Bob have gone out of their way to blame others to this observer is so transparent it is laughable.

One thing that is clear (at least to me) is that those that claim a ‘group” of like minded people or friends or whatever you want to call them don’t try to control the town is BS. If this had been John Zimini, Cathy Richardson, Brian Bond, Ken Cunha or Mae Paquette these people who are defending Bobby Cox and throwing Zimini and a reporter under the bus would be leading the fight calling one of these people out as being irresponsible and in violation of State law and not claiming John, Ken or Brian “wear his heart on his sleeve. At least 2 groups do exist and we are watching one group trying everything they can in any media they have at their disposal to defend and protect their friend.

The law prohibits selectmen from taking any official action on matters involving organizations for which a selectman serves as an “officer, director, partner, employee or trustee,” according to guidelines on the website for the state Ethics Commission.

Well if you read the exact verbage that I read on the State Conflict of interest Web Site

Chapter 268A of the General Laws governs your conduct as a public official or employee. Below are some of the general rules that you must follow. You could face civil and criminal penalties if you take a prohibited action. Many aspects of the law are complicated and there are often exemptions to the general rules. We encourage you to seek legal advice from the Commission or your agency’s legal counsel regarding how the law would apply to you in a particular situation.

In general:You may not take any official action affecting your own financial interest, or the financial interest of a business partner, private employer, or any organization for which you serve as an officer, director or trustee

and

Unless you make a proper, public disclosure in writing — including all the relevant facts — you may not take any action that could create an appearance of impropriety, or could cause an impartial observer to believe your official actions are tainted with bias or favoritism.

There is no doubt that he is. Granting a a liquor license to the Club does involve the financial interest of the club. They are making money selling the Beer, wine, etc.

I like Bobby Cox we grew up together in Centraville a street and a couple years apart and in the grand scheme of things for people to be upset over him voting to grant a temporary license for the club and not have them hire a detail officer isn’t a big deal. To file an official complaint over it is stupid. He doesn’t have any personal financial gain and the event is a family one at the club.

However I also know that the rules are the rules and if I expect Kevin Murphy, Barry Finegold and others to follow them and point out when they don’t then I have to criticize Bobby for taking this vote.