At the last Council meeting we saw (again) tempers flare and the bad blood and animosity that exist between the City Manager and Councilor Elliot spill onto the floor of the council for all to witness. Both men took their shots and both made the meeting more of a circus than it needed to be.
Councilor Noun summed it up pretty well when he stated if the children were watching, the adults (Council / Manager) were behaving badly and pointing fingers and it looked bad and sent a bad message.
On one hand I wish that Councilor Elliot had NOT spoken, especially when it was clear that the motion for the sewer line was going to overwhelmingly pass. I would have liked to see him let the motion pass and be happy with the outpouring of support from his fellow councilors. He should have taken the victory for the LYSA and moved on.
On the other hand I can understand his frustration with this situation and how the City handled or mishandled it.
Did you notice at the meeting the Manager stated he didn’t think this was a big deal up until two weeks ago but then he referred to a February Letter and stated HE ASKED for a price for the city to do the tie in because he had a feeling it might come up?.
Sorry Mr. Manager when you reference a February letter that you were aware of and also state you asked for and received an estimated cost in FEBRUARY of $27,000,it appears you knew this was important, otherwise why did you ask for a cost?
You indicated on WCAP that you “wished” the letter to the Editor was instead sent to you or another department head and then again you state that Asst. Manager Baacke did respond to a letter in February that you were aware of and you stated City Engineer Lisa DeMeo at some point was also aware that the Lowell Youth Soccer thought this was important. So you were aware of this and its importance more than 2 weeks ago.
I have to ask – Why didn’t YOU pick up the phone and call the President of the League in February? Had it been any other Councilor or Youth Leader I’d bet you might have made that call. Especially after receiving an email and informing someone a tie-in wasn’t taking place.
Why did you indicate at the council meeting you were instead waiting to see how big an issue it was?
Why wait? Especially if as you said at the Council meeting and on WCAP – YOU wanted to get it done ! YOU got a price in February! What exactly is it you were waiting for?
I’m sorry, I usually agree with you and with the way you run the city and usually disagree with Councilor Elliot and his behavior and antics and have said so on many occasions but no matter how you spin this issue and try to paint yourself as the slighted party, you are not.
No matter how much you try to accuse Councilor Elliot of trying to make this political, he hasn’t.
If anyone has it is ME and YOU! I’m the one who mentioned on WCAP and my BLOG that this appeared to me to be political payback. I have NOT heard Councilor Elliot once say anything close to that.
Councilor Elliot’s letter does not once mention you at all. Read it, the word City Manager never appears nor does it state the city hasn’t been a supporter of Lowell Youth Soccer.
You however in your statements at the Council meeting and on WCAP are the one trying to spin it that you and your administration are the political victims here and are and have been supporters of LYSA. No one to my knowledge has said you are not, except you!
You are also the one who went out of your way to state to the public on both occasions exactly how many times a year the tanks get emptied, point out that a Action King Sewer empties it at no cost and also point out “the city doesn’t charge” for the disposal nor should they. You tell us how the city helped fixed the stand and spent money on irrigation.
You are being overly defensive and have driven me to the point of defending Councilor Elliot after so many post blasting him. That alone should indicate that in this particular case MAYBE just MAYBE you did not react / respond in a timely or proper manner.
Communication is a two way street and in this case because of who the president of Lowell Youth Soccer is, you and your administration it appears to me chose NOT to have the developer include this tie in and instead chose other items that you felt where more important. You even stated on WCAP that the Developer stated he couldn’t do everything and the city wanted other priorities.
It looks to me that YOU wanted Councilor Elliot to call YOU! YOU wanted him to be the one to approach you, you say that in the WCAP interview. I wish he had contacted my office, I wish he had communicated with me.
Mr. Manager it takes two to communicate.
Yes he in his Councilor role has been a royal pain in the butt! He has been disrespectful to you and to Tom Moses and others. No argument from me and I have posted about that many times and beaten him up on it many times.
You also probably knew that he would not call you because he doesn’t want to be indebted to you. So not forcing the Developer to do the tie in or bringing it forward yourself was a way to extract some political payback on someone who was been your chief antagonist.
I’m sorry Mr. Manager I know you, Adam, the Mayor, Jack and others will be upset that I am laying 75% of the Blame for this on you but as an impartial observer who comments on what I see, this whole thing still appears to me and I am sure others as nothing more than political payback that has blown up on you and you are now trying to make Councilor Elliot the bad guy (and he helped you do that at the meeting by letting his personal feelings get in the way of his role as LYSA President and lose his temper). He made himself look bad because he was angry that you were trying to shift the blame on him and the LYSA.
He is partially to blame for not contacting your office directly when he received the February letter to see if something could be worked out. At the very least he should have asked the VP or another board member to step in and contact you. He did not and bears the responsibility for that.
But YOU bear a larger responsibility by letting politics get in the way of common sense and the better good of the city by making the tie in happen before the road was paved so that the bathrooms could be opened during the week.
I’ll be accused of turning on the Manager or sucking up to Rodney and Campy or “old Lowell” but here in the cheap seats,the view I see is this fiasco largely falls on the Manager and his Administration and NOT Councilor Elliot.
This is all malarky. BUT!
The estimate from February does indicate this was on the Admin’s radar. Though, if I recall and maybe C.Kennedy will back me on this, the Council is in the driver’s seat.
PS. Is the road paved with the finish surface or just topped with binder to make the road less dusty and more stable. The binder can be cut & patched and it won’t effect the final finish surface.
I believe just the binder so far..It’s all Malarky Jack !
but in this case kicking the crap out of Rodney isn’t the correct thing.
The whole Walgreen’s business started 2 years ago folks. There have been numerous meetings with Walgreen’s people, the developers and the concerned residents , as well as public hearings. Coffman made a lot of promises, several of which have already already been broken. The DPD usually meets with big developers and helps them with the process. They were also at many of the meetings I attended-so there is NO WAY they did not know about the mentions of sewer tie-ins. That puts it back way before February. I am sure the DPD is well aware of how popular the soccer complex is, some of them may even have kids in the league. I cannot believe that at some point before February, the DPD did not bring forward to the Manager the sewer tie-in issue. If they didn’t – shame on them; but I have trouble believing that they are that incompetent over there. By not dealing with a known issue, someone has made it look like political payback and the Manager’s denial Tuesday night does not sit well with me.
All this should of been taking care of..I would think sewer tie ins….when walgreen ready to sewer tie in.its make common sense to start ready for the soccer complex.all in the same location….this is a no brain issue…Now we have to pay the cost,of someone or dept .for not being aware of… …this does not sit well with me…
Im happy the kids are getting the sewer tie in they deserve, it should be done, period. Rodney Elliot is no hero here, he acted like a 2 year old at the council meeting tuesday night, there was full support for the tie in by the council u could see that plain as day, but no, he could not let the discussion go with out ramping up the soccer moms, cheers to the manager for calling Elliot out as making the whole deal political as usual. As for percentages 50 % to 50 % and im being generous to the councilor.
Agree. Once it was obvious that Walgreens (or Coffman) was not going to pony up for the sewer tie-in, the City should have stepped up. Since “stepping up” would require funding which can only be approved by the city council, it seems like councilor Elliot as the prime proponent should have made the request. He didn’t – it wasn’t until councilor Lorrey made the request that any action was taken. Maybe it was because councilor Elliot was too focused on the no tax increase issue that he didn’t want look hypocritical in making the request. No profiles-in-courage award, but maybe whiner-of-year would be appropriate.
Why didn’t CC Elliott make a motion to do the work a few months ago since it was on his radar? It would have most likely been approved and he would have looked like a savior to the soccer moms instead of a whiny little buffoon?
Because then he COULD have been accused of being in Conflict of Interest. Even though his position is unpaid and he gains NOTHING financially the fact that he serves as a Councilor could open him up to a charge of being in conflict because he was using his position to aid the Lowell Youth Soccer.
It seems to me he has gone out of his way to NOT be in conflict and didn’t bring it before the Council himself at all. I know for a fact HE did NOT ask Councilor Lorrey to bring it forward.
I see your point BUT he could have asked another councilor to do it for him.
Then I wouldn’t have anything to do….
This blog stated facts, They are facts and they are documented. The City is a corporation and the management under the corporation has cost the City money
It’s nice to see the restrooms at the Soccer field will be tied into City sewer. It will cost a little more now that the binder is down. Most Cities and Towns will require the contractor to use flowable fill when backfilling an excavation on a road that has binder layed down because of settling.
Every adult should go into a corner, face the wall and count to ten. While so doing, let the kids who need bathrooms that work while they are practicing and playing on the weekend decide whether to hook up the restrooms to the sewer lines. My guess is their conversation will be far more mature than what’s been passing for City Council debate the last few weeks. Hook the damn things up already and stop everyone playing kids off against votes. It really is disturbing to watch and listen to and read about in what passes for a local and ‘objective’ newspaper.
What is disturbing is to say somehow this should be treated lightly. There are no corners to turn to. The amount of effort by parents to raise money and volunteer to help their kids and their neighbors kids is the issue. Anyone with a BS detector knows what happened and no spin in the world will make it look like it was a mistake even trying to act that everyone is above the issue and move on. If you do not know what happened and why it will be repeated. This was fundamental and the management we have is far above making these kinds of mistakes.
So, when can we get fully functioning bathrooms at Ventura Field? My kids play ball there. If you’re doing for one – you must do for all!
Is there a concession stand at ventura field?
No, there isn’t.
same with shedd park only two port-a-pottys for hundreds of people
It seems to me that people are playing into Councilor Elliot’s and the newspaper’s hands by believing this is a political issue. There are other fields in this city without fully functioning bathrooms (as noted by Southie Lowellie), and my kids have played soccer, baseball and soccer, at many fields in other communities that either have port-a-potties or no bathroom facilities at all. It is not viewed as a “health” issue by anyone. I don’t believe Councilor Elliot or the newspaper is concerned about the children. If they were, this issue would have been brought up many, many years ago. It’s about trying to score political points and make others look bad. I am not falling for their disgraceful games.
Actually Rodney has been involved with LYSA for many years and is now the president of the organization. He has coached (and still does) both his daughters and devotes so much time to all the kids in LYSA. He helped get that concession stand built and make the organization what it is today. It’s unfair you say he is not concerned about the children when he gives so much of his time to make LYSA a place where young children of Lowell can make life long friends and stay out of trouble.
I’m with Nonnie on this. I have a pile of questions and concerns about C.Elliott. His service to the kids and the LYSA community is NOT one of them.