This entire episode concerning the removal or attempted removal of Licence Commissioner Walter Bayliss is Good Theater and gives WCAP, the Sun and the bloggers some end of summer material but it is plain foolishness.
The Manager was and is wrong in the way he handled the removal. For a “professional” Manager to not call someone in for a face to face meeting and ask for a resignation is inexcusable.
Chuck Carney covered up a theft and the Manager met with him to fire / demand his resignation. Walter Bayliss was entitled to that much respect for his years of service to the city.
Walter Bayliss has also handled the situation poorly. He claims it is about preserving his name and reputation but all he is doing is prolonging the inevitable and making himself look either pitiful by those who think “poor Walter” is getting shafted or think he is grandstanding and “being used as a puppet by the Boo birds.’
Either way it isn’t a favorable view of a dignified man who has done much for his city.
under Plan E the Manager is the appointing Authority and can remove a board member and when all this theater is said and done Mr. Bayliss will still be out only he will have spent good money and harmed his name more than done it any good.
You can’t hide from the records of television and when any hearing is held, Mr. Bayliss will be made by the Administration to look like Archie Bunker on his worse day. He may speak like your dad or uncle but that isn’t what is expected ,allowed or tolerated in today’s PC world. Watch some of the meetings and you have to admit that you cringe with some of his comments.
The Manager should meet 1 on 1 with Mr. Bayliss, air their difference, withdraw the call for his resignation and allow Mr. Bayliss to resign in the next three months on his term.
This is all foolishness that should have been avoided by the Manager. He should have known better and showed a lack of common sense in this process.
Finally speaking of foolishness, Tom Weirton and Mary Burns make themselves look like fools anytime they publicly criticize the Manager without stating that both lost their Health Insurance with the city do to this Manager and have hated him since and speak badly of him whenever possible.
Gerry, before you use my name in your so called blog, get the facts. This has nothing to do with me other than I, like hundreds of others in this city are tired of this guy. The only fool here is you for being hoodwinked by him. For once, put Lowell first, look around and see what we see. A city in decline, with no one trying to fix it. Read today’s Boston Globe about the heroin issue here, and then read The Sun about the prostitution issue in the highlands. The issues are greater than how a meeting is conducted. Remember Gerry, “fish rot from the head”, and this city is rotting away!
YOU of all people who ignore facts try with a straight face to criticize me on Fact? I Pledge I have the facts and follow through to show them. How are you doing on filling pledges you made? You went ranting to the paper I just responded to a public post you made.
Look at the FACT of the FINACIAL shape of this City Mary, it didn’t happen under COX did it? Last years and this year almost ZERO property tax increase while multiple cities around this state raise 2.5 and cut cut cut.
I said he handled this badly but he sure beats the last Manager who had this city on the verge of a state take-over and speaking of reading have you read how Lowell is a model city for the State in Data Analysis?
BS it isn’t personal and everyone knows it. If YOU read the BLOG you know I am one of the only bloggers who from time to time disagrees with the Manager and says so.
You should know that it is really fascinating, entertaining and downright fun to see how the blog gaggle is spun out. Most entertaining, using their example is how the Yes-man Bobbleheads, also truly Bubbleheads, react every time someone has the nerve to question The King. No corruption in every department, no inspected forces collapsing, no lack of building permits, stolen gas, stolen water, million dollar deficits in every enterprise fund account, or pretense of infallibility can stop the Bobbleheads from yessing it all away, fresh from the “everything is wonderful” school of delusion. This is a violent city and getting worse. The King and the Bubbleheads actually believe that the violence will go away downtown by making sure eveyone gets out at the same time an hour earlier, oblivious to the reality that everyone getting out at the same time is the problem.
We are”Boo-Birds”! The Bubblehead and Bobbleheads call us “Boo-Birds”
I love it !
Thank God for people like Walter Bayliss who have been around a lot longer than most of the Bubbleheads and who stand tall in the face of an utter non solution. Bernard Rex my enjoy take-away in the newspaper, but he is messing with the wrong dude this time. Yes, history repeats itself while the Bobbleheads and Bubbleheads nod their approval. On September 30,2006 I got to read that Bernard Rex had taken aways my health insurance with the outright libel and slander that it was “illegal”. First, our Royal Non- Lawyer had failed to read the lastt line of the statute. Second was the outright lie that we were not paid a stipend, as I sit here with the paystubs and the city of Lowell Retirement pittance that I have had all these years. All the while with the Department of Justice all over me, based on events happening in Springfield. Wally knew a “loophole ?”…Wally stopped him dead in his tracks.
Unlike the Bobbleheads and Bubbleheads, I was in his face the next Tuesday Night, and fully understand Wally’s mindset now. Bobble all you want, but for 35 years I have performed miracles with nothing responsible for hundreds of years of People’s freedom.
Wally has served his City, deserved far better than I got, and takes care of the living and the dead during their most difficult hours.
Some nitwit, eh?
Thomas A. Wirtanen
Thomas, He’s not a nitwit at all, just a poor liquor commissioner and apparently a junk yard dog- which you know being an atty have since stooped using for fear of liability. The issue is not in their drunken mass exit, its in their drunkenness. That lies wholly upon the bar owners, commissioners failure to recognize that fact and the granting of too many dwntwn liq licenses. I’m a fan of yours, but you of all people should know its people outside the bubble paying the price of regime changes. I’m no boo, blow or bubble guy. Ive been here nearly 43 years and been vocal more than once, displeased and down right pissy with “some” admin actions… but I am honest enough say if Wally is Old Lowell’s poster guy… your freaking me out… ya showing great loyalty but poor concern for everyone else who wanted something you guys didn’t.
One cannot argues the point that Mr. Bayliss has served his city well in the past. I do not necessarily agree with the way he is being removed- but I do agree with his removal. I have watched the License Commision for ages and used to think he was funny and folksy . This year I developed a whole new mindset after several comments that I thought were inapropriate. One was when a woman showed up to complain about Ivy Hall and Bayliss asked where the other people she claimed to represent were and she stated they were working and that she had to get out of work for the meeting. He said something about that if they really cared they would get out of work and show up. Considering that a couple of the Commissioners had been delayed from time to time with “work” , how does one tell ones boss that they have to go to a meeting about a noisy bar. Can they afford to lose their afternoon’s pay? Then there were remarks about bar owners paying taxes. So does that mean the other business owners and residents do not pay taxes , or have a right to complain. There were also remarks about not enough or too many officers showing up for hearings and were they getting overtime? He showed little or no concern about complaints of vomit and urine in doorways. And then there was that meeting where they should have voted on proposed new regs and simply dug in their heels and refused to even discuss compromises after people put in hours of work trying to come up with something acceptable to all. I do believe that was the final straw with the Manager. something does need to be done and what could have been passed could have been tweaked later. Sorry to say Mr. Bayliss brought this on himself , which is sad but…….
Elizabeth, assume that everything you say is true. If the King had the good sense and common decency to sit down with Mr. Bayliss one-on-one and eyeball to eyeball, express his concerns and request his resignation, do you seriously think it would ever have come to this ? Remember, I was the first to be on the receiving end of take-awayvia the newspaper, and the King simply does not grasp his lack of respect and inability to deal with people.
Both have put themselves where they find themselves and I am not alone in thanking God for Walter Bayliss.
Thomas A. Wirtanen
Corey, the problem is much deeper than simply overserving,as it is compunded severely by the huge opiod and prescription drug addiction that finds itself intertwined with alcohol and violence. While not a word is spoken of the two women who began the altercation, or the status of those involved in the fracas, the simple fact is that the combined consensus produced a non-solution that would solve nothing but putting responsible bars out of business.
A place to start is to let all responsible licensees who have no prior complaints TO CHOOSE THEIR OWN CLOSING TIMES ACCORDING TO THE FLOW OF BUSINESS AND TO ENCOURAGE THOSE WITH FOOD LICENSES TO CONSIDER A COFFEE AND BREAKFAST MENU.
I am the one considered a Nitwit, but respectfully suggest that this is a thinking man’s solution to a very difficult problem. It will have to be combined with a serious approach to opiod and prescription drug addiction remediation.
Then, and only then will you see safety and success downtown.
The term “business- friendly environment”, after abolition of the pernicious sales and meals taxes, will no longer be an oxymoron in Lowell
Thomas A. Wirtanen