Traffic on 495 at 6:30 this morning was almost as full as any other day…guess there are many more essential private sector employees than non-essential city,state employees.
If Dan Lahiff, the Water Dept. Director hasn’t taken home (or sent one of his employees ahead with it) a city owned generator yet,can I put dibs in on one? Along with the worker and gas to run it also, please.
With a $22.5 million dollar budget that includes $700,000 in Overtime and a just announced grant of $900,000, a City Manager “Contingency” Account of $300,000 and being only 4 months into the budget cycle one has to wonder what made Marty Lorrey and Rita Mercier cave after voting to cut $100,000 from Police Overtime to approve restoring $87,000 to the budget that they first cut? Maybe bullying by the Mayor on his Aides Website helped after all? Joe Mendonca and others showed common sense in stating that the money should have been found in the already approved budget or the request brought back later in the fiscal year. The BS that it in anyway “handcuffed” the Superintendent is nothing but Political Spin.
Give the Manager credit, he wanted $800,000 in Police overtime and he comes real close to it with this additional $87,000…how much money does safety cost? At what point do we say work with what you have?
Bernie Lynch no doubt is a tremendous Manager when it comes to finances. However when it comes to running the various departments you have to say that he falls short. Between the Parking dept, Water dept and library the lack of proper supervision and attention shows. Why don’t we have Ralph Snow or Adam Baacke has the Asst. City Manager for Operations and have one person in charge dealing with all these dept. heads. In the past it seemed to work.
Even if Liz Warren loses in Lowell, if the loss is less than what Martha Coakley lost by, the spin will be the Mayor and Councilor Nuon have shown the ability to get people out to vote for who they support. It won’t be that Councilor Mercier or State Rep. Nangle had any impact.
I’m still betting on Brown to win Lowell and by more than what he beat Martha Coakley by. Jack Mitchell and I have a Lunch wager on this one.
My post on Erik Gitschier deserving and outside review certainly has drawn a lot of responses that reflect the infighting and poor morale that plague that school. If the Mayor and combined boards are set to go along with the Dog and Pony show questioning candidates, I hope someone has the sense to ask, What will you do to improve the communication and the overall morale at the school?
As Jack Nicholson said in the Batman Movie “This place needs an enema” and in my humble opinion it has reached that point at the Tech. Not only does the Superintendent need to go but the Dean of Discipline and a few other Dept. Chairs along with the existing Union leadership all need to go and a new team put in place. Otherwise NOTHING will change! Keeping one over the other will just make a bigger, meaner (if that is possible) divide.
If you don’t subscribe to the e-edition of the SUN, you should. Not only can you read it wherever through their mobile device appts. but from a pure technology point their ability to translate to 13 languages (and they are working on adding both Khmer and Cambodian translations) is pretty impressive. You also get to email any story, create a pdf of any story and share these as well.
All Carriers have cancelled pick up so closing the shop at 2:00 and headed back to Lowell. I’m fortunate I can work from home so there I’ll be!
Be Safe!
Listening to my scanner and so far so good, I heard nothing major. They are running 2 man cruisers and its sounds like they have the portables in the cruisers. There are scattered reports of wires down and tree branches . They have had multiple fire alarms go off all over the city – so they are sending out on one firetruck per call unless something happens. The worst is yet to come.
As for the other musings. ALL Councilors should have voted to find the over time money elsewhere – barring dire situations.
I agree with you on the Manager’s handling of employee issues. His financial acumen is great – but he cannot seem to get a handle on the departments you mentioned. He really should have weekly department head meetings. He does not appear to even know when his department heads are misleading him..
My personal opinion is that he should meet with the underlings in those departments and really pay attention to them, rather then indirectly threaten their jobs.
And by the way Gerry – I have no mobile device apps.
Adding to the police O/T budget was the right thing to do, as opposed to kicking the can down the road until the money runs out in the Spring. It would be irresponsible for the Chief to spend now based on a promise to fund later.
The CM could have transferred that money from other line items, such as his reserve. But there are certainly other alternatives available to the council. For one, you can expect a significant amount of “free cash” to be available from the FY 2012 closeout as soon as the State certifies that. The $87,000 can be transferred from that when it has been certified. And another portion of that free cash can be used to reduce the tax rate, with the remainder transferred to the stabilization fund. Of course, there is the Capital Plan to be considered, although it is unlikely that much debt service for any items adopted now will hit during FY 2013.
And it may be time to get a peek under the tent of the health care closeout from FY 2012. Although the CM put this on the back burner since it may take many months for it to close, there should be a reasonably good expectation at this time of how much excess funds will be available.
Gerry great minds must think alike . I couldn’t sleep well last night and I also was wondering if Dan Lahiff was going to use the taxpayer owned generators again. Or maybe he finally reached into his wallet and after the moths flew out he decided to finally purchase his own generator. We’ll have to see about the gas to power it though.
Gees Gerry: I remember that it wasn’t all that long ago that all of the organizational unrest was being blamed on the teachers not having a contract. That contract has long been settled but the unrest hasn’t been. It seems that the truth of the matters kept bubbling to the surface of the BS pool. When are the outside “morale adjustment”consultants getting in there? Its pretty strange that no previous “administration team”, ever needed that type rescue.
Wow, it sure took you long enough to realize the depth of the problems at GLTech. Many people have been calling for a complete “cleaning of the house” for quite sometime. I pose the following questions to the prospective candidates:
1. Will you support an extension of the Superintendent’s contract????? If your answer is yes, thank you for applying.
2. Will you support a true nationwide search for the next opening for a new Superintendent?????? If your answer is no, thank you for applying.
3. Are you willing to clean house of all “unqualified” personnel who have contributed greatly to the low morale in the building???? If your answer is no, thank you for applying.
Maybe someone like yourself could submit these questions to members of the City Council andSchool Committee as the Lowell Sun has a problem with individuals contacting them on behalf of any of the present candidates.
Cambodian and Khmer are the same language. “Cambodian” is the English word for it (just like ‘French’ and ‘francais’…same idea)
Dear Jerry: The appropriate analogy finally arrived yesterday… while King Bernie certainly mans the helm, he is not the Captain of the ship, nor is he conversant with the ship’s compartments.
Why Lahiff is still in charge at Water is a complete mystery, as even the most ardent bobbleheads would likely agree that it is time to clean house from top to bottom. As Roland Millard predicted, the crucifiction of Ron Mercier has brought about the downfall of the entire department, which is totally out of control.
Thomas A. Wirtanen
Mr. Wirtanen, Just got done watching this mornings episode of City Life. George Anthes asked Councillor Lorrey what he thought about what is going on in various City Departments. His reply . How long has it been going on? He also suggested that people who work in these departments should mind their own business. How about that for a reply? Councillor Lorrey seems more interested in promoting UMass Lowell than he does the taxpayers getting ripped off.
Odd. I was sitting next to Lorrey on City Life and didn’t come away with that impression, at all. Lorrey is on a S/C that deals with UML. As far as City Depts go, Lorrey seemed inert to the media flailings, histrionics and sensationalism.
I think that since the September Surprise, Councillor Lorrey and most of the remainder are getting an idea just how deep the problems are, and the corruption and misconduct pervading the various departments. Last night, the debate on Water and the various positions asserted were all too predictable, with each actor playing their presumed role. While I appreciate that there is an ongoing police investigation, Rodney and Kennedy are correct in speaking out that the investigation is ever expanding, and the misconduct continues. The obvious contradiction they face is that the administration is all too willing to say that the latest alleged offender was suspended without pay, once pressed on the point they are told that these are personnel matters that cannot be discussed in public. It actually seems to depend on whose ox is being gored.
I note, Leaving Lowell, that it would be instructive to know how many of you are of a similar mind. It was actually stated that water has won awards, oblivious to the fact that it is out of control from top to bottom. Leadership is not investigating what caused the pinhole leak in the dam, it is repairing or replacing the dam before it collapses.
Like it or not, He is at the helm and is not the Captain of the ship. Until the Captains start acting like Captains as a cohesive majority, and be the bosses that they are, you will continue to see the problems in the departmens, with Water being just he latest disaster.
Thomas A. Wirtanen
Dear Sempai Jack: It would seem that what is going at Water is serious enough to merit attention and a house cleaning from top to bottom. Are we running a Water Utility or pillageing same at every level and opportunity?
ichi-go ichi-e
Sensei Tom
Suze Bates
Seems you have all the answers why didn’t you put your name in for the open seat I love the people who bitch and moan about everyone and everything , but never do anything themselves about the problem. It is easy to be a Monday morning quarter back. If they look into the problem I think they will find that one disgruntled person is behind this whole problem and trust me it is not the Superintendent
just goes to show what u know Mike. take it from an insider. Lahiff is so incompetent. his biggest issues at the utility are whether the rugs are vacuumed and boilimg his eggs amd chicken. His consulting engineers and support staff do it all. he gets the credit.
manitoba I think you wanted to reply to Jack Mitchell. Mike Hayden was talking about the Grerater Lowell Vocational School. I have to agree with you about Lahiff. The Counsultants Woodward and Curran do all the work up at the LRWU If their Contract expired Lahiff would be up the creek that flows into the Wastewater Facility.
I have to say, based on what I have witnessed first hand, Lahiff does a good job. In the context of dealing with the new water tower on Christian Hill, Lahiff has done well facilitating public engagement of the project.
I should also add, I don’t trust a damn thing I read by these commentors. Had Lynch fired Lahiff on Day 1 of this spectacle, most here would be screaming about how unfair it was and it was because Lahiff was a Cox guy.
That’s the game, Lynch is “damned if he do, damned if he don’t.” Classic Boo Birds!
No, I do not pretend to have the answers; I believe, however, I am asking the right questions. There has to be a complete cleansing of the Administrative Office. Then and only then, hopefully, the school can regain its reputation as the biggest and the best vocational school in the nation. At one time, there was one and only one Superintendent that could make that statement and it was true.
Michael you can’t be serious. You should ask a close friend for a copy of the School Climate Survey that Chairman Lenzi called for last Spring. The final report/document is scathing. One man didn’t fill out all of those suveys himself, 200 staff members did. That is obviously far beyond one, or a few disgruntled employees. What is obviously going on out there Michael is the Villagers are storming the gates! It looks like their tired of having 192,000 buckets of BS dumped on their lives. Put down the bucket Michael, your contribution has been duly noted, by the voters that is!
Mr. Wirtanen. Mr. Mitchell seems to think that new water tower up on Christian Hill is a jewel in the crown of Dan Lahiff. The Water Utility is a lot more than building towers. Being a life long Lowellian I can go back as far as the 1950′s when a Mr. Edward Tierney was in in charge of the Water Utility. Also, Mr. Mitchell do you know if Mr. Lahiff has an Engineering Degree? I could name you a few former Water Dept. employees who did have such degrees who applied for and got passed over for the Executive Director’s position so Mr. Cox’s Centerville friend could get the pomotion.
Dodge will never be cleaned up as long as Mr. Lynch is in charge and his 5 compadres allow him to do nothing. Two weeks from today I will no longer be a resident of Lowell. I was fortunate enough to sell my home and make a good profit. I really feel bad for others I have spoken to who also wish they could be Leaving Lowell but unfortunately a lot owe more than their homes are even worth. So instead of being able to be Leaving Lowell they will have to suffer being Left in Lowell.
May God Bless You and Your Family and extend every blessing to all in your new home.
Thomas A. Wirtanen
Leaving Lowell – BINGO
And now the CC #1 malcontent is demanding that the City Manager hurry up and clean up dodge … AGAIN.
Mr. Wirtanen. Thank You for your kind words. It will hard to lock the door and leave but sometimes you have to know when to say when. The Final straw for me came when A City Employee caught selling drugs on City Time in a City Owned Vehicle was allowed to keep his job. Then we have the City Manager at a press conference with the Health Director and the Police Chief etc. talking about how we have to get control of this Serious Drug Problem we have in the City of Lowell. Right then I said it is time to Stop the Insanity. Great lesson for my teenage grandkids to see and hear isn’t it? Talk about leading by example. Also, the Employee did plead guity to sufficient facts and was sentenced to a years probation while still keeping his City Position.
Notice how none of them have the fortitude or strength of character to ever admit they were wrong. living proof that the arrogant pretense of professionalism is no substitute for the real thing. They are accountable to nobody, and the utter hypocrisy is enough to make good people leave Lowell.
God Bless You and good luck!
Thomas A. Wirtanen
I find it truly amazing that someone like Mike Hayden is “counseling” people. In addition, if anyone can find the video of Tom Wirtanen going off the deep end at the LTC board meeting a couple of years ago, forward it to Mr. Hayden so he can “counsel” Mr. Wirtanen. The comments from both of them offer no value to the discussion.
Dear Mr. Straw: In view of the above comment, it is only appropriate to enlighten you Mr. Straw, as others to their admitted shame discovered way too late. You see, I was right at that February 22, 2007 meeting and was on to Haig a full nine months before people who had similar sources. As a member of ASCAP, the terrible Truth that was revealed as a result of the conumdrum could have shut down LTC for a long time, having nothing to do with the broadcast. My record on the Board: recovery of $21,000.00 stolen from LTC, on top of everything produced.
I had good reason to go off the deep end and had the foresight that everyone ele was lacking.
I wonder what basis you have for offering anything to the discussion.
Thomas A. Wirtanen