City councilor Rodney Elliot called into WCAP this morning defending his accusations against the CFO of the city and stating his belief that all he was doing was asking a question not interfering in the appointment of a Manager Hire. He truly believes that he didn’t violate the Plan E Charter. Hopefully time will tell and someone makes a formal complaint and lets the state decide.

Rodney either blacked out his memory of the attack against the character of Mr. Moses or chooses to forget he ever did it. In his mind it boils down to getting resumes released which in this election year has been one of Rodney’s big issues.

The fact he has been on the Council for 13 years and never before requested these resumes be released, well he would like everyone to forget that also.

Pay no attention to the fact that the CITY Council hires the Auditor and our current Auditor Sheryl Wright worked with the City Manager in Chelmsford. The Councilors were all aware of that and yet he expressed no reservation or issues and The Council including Rodney voted for her 9-0 and AT NO TIME DID RODNEY ASK FOR OR OFFER THE RELEASE OF RESUMES. Being the Primary body that did the hiring, why was Rodney NOT concerned then about “transparency” and about releasing names then?

It is somehow wrong for the Manager to hire someone Mr. Moses is friendly with in the 2011 Election Season but okay for the City Council to hire an Auditor that the Manager was friendly with in a non-election year. WHY?

Ralph Snow DPW hired in 2010, No request by Rodney to release resumes, Kenra Amaral Inspectional Service Dept. hired without Rodney asking for the release of names. Was transparency not important to Rodney last year?

Election Year 2011 we MUST release names!! He’s very transparent, it’s about saving his seat and getting headlines and his name in the SUN!

Does he really think the voters of Lowell are so stupid they will not see thru this and that they will forget that for 13 years this supposed Fiscal Watchdog had no idea what was going on in the Clerks Office (which is under Council Oversite) or that for over 10 years the books in the Treasurer’s Office haven’t balanced and he the supposed Fiscal Expert did nothing about it.

Rodney’s attack on Tom Moses is just the latest in a series of desperate moves to appeal to the anti-Administration / Anti-Gov’t crowd and try to hang on to his council seat which he manages to do in 2009 by 210 votes in a weak field.

This year we have many strong challengers so Rodney is desperate. He needs to fool the voters into thinking that he is the transparency candidate. What is transparent is his attempt at trying to fool the voters and attack the Manager and the Administration.

Laughingly at the City Council Forum on Monday he said he supported the Manager.

I’d have to say by his actions, he’s real transparent! (It’s all about HIM and getting re-elected)

The following is the full statement issued to myself and the Lowell Sun by the City Manager regarding last evening’s allegations by Councilor Elliot.

In response to comments made this evening by Councilor Elliott, I issue the following statement:

The City of Lowell publicly sought applications for the open position of City Treasurer. In response to our request, the City received approximately 16 resumes. Of those, six candidates were interviewed by Chief Financial Officer Thomas Moses. After the initial interviews, the CFO forwarded Greg Labrecque for my consideration. Labrecque, the candidate I ultimately selected, comes to the City of Lowell with over 25 years of Massachusetts government experience, 8 years as treasurer and finance director with the Town of Groveland, and 17 years with the State Auditor’s Office. While there, Mr. Labrecque rose to the level of an audit supervisor. He holds a BA in business administration and is also a certified municipal treasurer in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Tom has known Mr. Labrecque on a professional basis for over 10 years, initially as a result of Mr. Labrecque’s work on the Groveland Finance Committee and more frequently, through various municipal finance professional organizations. Tom has also participated in an out of-state group golf outing that Mr. Labrecque also attended. Over this 10 year period, this has occurred 3 times, most recently, this past month. Both Tom’s professional association and familiarity with this candidate was disclosed prior to my selection of Mr. Labrecque. I also relied on independent references from my own network of municipal managers and finance officials, including our current financial and bond advisors. Among these references was our external auditor who highly recommended Mr. Labrecque as someone who possessed the ability and personality to address many outstanding issues in this office.

Mr. Labrecque was not the only candidate for this position who has enjoyed a long term professional association, as well as limited social interaction with, Mr. Moses.

Despite the reckless accusations of Councilor Elliott, Mr. Labrecque is not a close personal friend of Tom’s. He is a fellow professional and certified municipal treasurer who has, over the years, very limited social interaction with Tom. For example, they have never even been to each other’s homes.

In fact, one of the benefits that Tom has brought to the City of Lowell is a solid network of state and municipal financial contacts.

I believe that tonight’s actions by Councilor Elliott crossed a clear line set forth in Section 107 of the City’s Charter. Section 107 prohibits Council interference with the City Manager’s municipal appointments and is designed to keep politics out of the hiring process.

My commitment to the City of Lowell has been to bring the most qualified individuals to service in the City. Tom Moses has proved to be an outstanding CFO and I am confident that Mr. Labrecque will prove to be a successful treasurer that the citizens of Lowell will be fortunate to have working on their behalf.

I look forward to Mr. Labrecque joining our financial team on November 7th.