January 8, 2023

Tuesday’s City Council meeting was brief, perhaps the briefest one of this term. It began at 6:30 pm and ended at 7:44 pm. It didn’t seem like much of substance was addressed although that’s sometimes hard to determine by just watching the meeting. Nothing got councilors especially agitated, but that’s not a reliable measuring tool either since there’s not always a correlation between what gets councilors excited and what’s important in the city’s big picture.

The circumstances and timing of the meeting certainly contributed to its brevity. The day before the meeting (Monday, January 2) was a state holiday and the week before was Christmas, so it’s understandable that there would be a light agenda.

Still, this council reminds me of a runner in a road race who starts at a rapid pace but then fades midway through the course. A year ago in one of my first newsletters, I commented on the historically high volume of motions being filed by the new council, saying that most new councilors refrained from making too many motions too quickly. When the Lowell Sun repeated my observation, some councilors took umbrage, but I stand by my comments. Filing a flurry of motions sucks up the time of those who have to answer the motions. Since those same people are the ones who would otherwise be managing the city and trying to resolve the problems complained of, too many motions leave no time to address the problems. Despite all the motions, not much has changed.

However, one big change has been in the leadership at City Hall. Perhaps the early burst of motions was part of a conscious strategy to replace City Manager Eileen Donoghue, a strategy that succeeded early in the term. Although it didn’t happen immediately, the volume of motions tailed off after the new council installed Tom Golden as City Manager. Donoghue was joined in leaving City Hall by a historic number of senior leaders including Assistant City Manager Kara Keefe-Mullin; DPW Commissioner Christine Clancy; DPD Director Christine McCall; City Solicitor Christine O’Connor; and DEI Officer Ferduci Faruque. It’s probably just a coincidence that in almost every case, a woman has been replaced by a man.   

Back to Tuesday night: Mayor Sokhary Chau did not attend this meeting so it was chaired by Vice Chair Erik Gitschier. Councilor Paul Yem participated via Zoom. The other nine councilors were all present in the chambers.  

Several items did receive more than cursory discussion. A response to a Councilor Vesna Nuon motion asking for an update on the membership and accomplishments of the police department’s Citizens’ Advisory Committee mentioned some things that Committee has done such as discussing the implementation of “body worn cameras” by police officers and the need to make the complaint forms now on the city’s website available in multiple languages. But when Councilor Nuon questioned Police Superintendent Barry Golner about the Committee, the main thing discussed was the difficulty in finding people to serve on this board. Between Covid isolation and the lack of active members, the Board has not had the membership needed to get much done. One difficulty identified was that the ordinance creating this Board requires members to be residents of Lowell, but some who have been identified as potential and willing recruits live elsewhere so they cannot serve.

A response to a Councilor Corey Robinson motion about the replacement of damaged trash and recycling bins described a process that seems cumbersome and not particularly efficient. The report said the preferred method of reporting problems with your bin is via the city’s website, however, DPD gets many requests by other means. Quite a few of them lack the information needed to act on them, so considerable time is spent searching for that info. But even when submitted via the website, it seems that the forms are printed on paper and then some kind of triage is conducted to determine whether the bin can be repaired or whether it must be replaced. In one section, the report says they hope to resolve issues within 24 hours but in another it says it takes three weeks. In any case, Councilor Robinson was critical of the system and how it is implemented, particularly that it’s paper-based. He also cited instances of residents having bins damaged by the truck doing the pickup but then getting a bill for the damage to the container. DPD Director Paul St. Cyr wasn’t present at this meeting – Manager Golden said he was detained elsewhere on urgent city business – but even if he had been there, it seems unlikely that the concerns could be easily resolved.

There was a public hearing on a change to the city’s Code of Ordinances to create the new position of ARPA Project Construction Manager with a salary of $74,541 to $87,494. The position would be within the Finance Department and will be contingent on funding. No one spoke in favor or in opposition and I don’t recall any councilors commenting on it before it passed by a unanimous roll call vote.

A second public hearing was held on a proposed amendment to the Zoning Code that would reduce and in many cases eliminate the parking requirements that have always accompanied the conversion of downtown buildings to residences. This is potentially a big deal since the future of downtown (in my opinion) is as a residential neighborhood rather than a central business district and anything that helps make that happen is a good thing. Still, neither the council nor the city administration has shared much of a strategic “big picture” for the future of downtown. Instead, all effort seems devoted to extinguishing whatever problem breaks out of the pack whether it be homelessness, traffic, parking, rowdy bar patrons, and any number of other things. Until there’s a comprehensive strategy for downtown that everyone buys into, those problems will persist.

Finally, several members of the public spoke on a Councilor Wayne Jenness motion requesting an explanation of the process and a timeline to be used by organizations seeking ARPA funding. The speakers were all connected to an organization called Life Connection Center on Appleton Street that provides services to the homeless. They spoke mostly about the importance of their work and its need for adequate funding.  

The response to this motion, whenever it comes back to the council, will be interesting. Every organization in the city could use additional funds so devising an equitable method of allocating ARPA funds will be of utmost importance.

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Governor Maura Healey visited Lowell on Wednesday (when she was still Governor-Elect). Accompanied by Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll and State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, they visited Lowell High School to highlight the work of Catie’s Closet, a Dracut-based nonprofit that helps improve academic performance by providing in-school access to clothing and basic necessities to students in need. Now in 120 schools in the region, the organization was inspired by Catie Bisson, a 2008 graduate of Lowell High School who was fully active in school activities including the marching band but who passed away two years after graduation from a rare illness. Catie’s mother once said that her daughter would come home from Lowell High, express concern about all the challenges many of her classmates faced in obtaining the essentials of life, and try to help them however she could. When Catie passed away, her family created Catie’s Closet in tribute, and it has since grown from a single room in Lowell High to a regional operation that helps thousands of students each year.

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At about the same time that Governor-elect Healey was leaving Lowell High, current Governor Charlie Baker was preparing for the traditional “lone walk” out of the Statehouse, a tradition with Lowell roots.

The night before the new governor takes office, the outgoing governor leaves their office and proceeds down the main steps of the State House and out the door in the direction of the Boston Common. Traditionally this was done by the governor alone, but through the years spouses and others have joined in the walk with hundreds of staffers and well-wishers lining the red carpet that paves the way.

As for the Lowell connection, this practice began in 1884 when Lowell’s Ben Butler completed his term as governor. However, in Butler’s case (as the legend goes), he was so thoroughly disliked that no one would accompany him when he left the State House for the last time.

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In case you missed it, Lowell was featured in a couple of feel-good stories in the Boston Globe this week:

On Monday, there was “How one Afghan family is forging a new community in Lowell,” which told the story of a young man named Noori who worked for the US military for nearly a decade as an interpreter. When Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, he was one of the few who were able to escape the country, joined by his wife and their two young daughters. On November 18, 2021, they flew into the Manchester (NH) airport with three dozen other Afghani refugees, and were driven to an apartment in Lowell, where they have remade their lives.

On Tuesday, there was “This Lowell native has spent 15 years on a quest to become a McDonald’s ‘super collector’” which tells the story of Bobby Beauchesne, a 37-year old Lowell native now living in Texas who works in medical sales but who has spent much of his life collecting McDonald’s memorabilia and now has one of the most impressive collections of the restaurant chain’s placemats, advertisements, and Happy Meal containers in the country.

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Finally, much of the country this week has been riveted by events in Washington where the newly elected Congress finally elected a Speaker of the House after a historic 5-day, 15 ballot floor fight, something that hasn’t happened since the eve of the Civil War. Some of the best coverage has come from Catie Edmondson of the New York Times, who has covered Capitol Hill for several years.

Back in 2017 while working as a summer intern at the Boston Globe, Edmondson wrote a couple of very perceptive stories about Lowell. One, “After vote to move high school, Lowell faces lingering divisions” examined the lasting effects of the bitter fight over the location of Lowell High School. The other, “A tale of two cities, and both of them are Lowell,” looked at the inequitable distribution of political power in the city, a situation that ultimately led to the new method of electing city councilors and school committee members.

Although Edmondson has no connection to Lowell other than writing those two stories, any time I see her byline, I get a “local person does well on the big stage” feeling.