March 27, 2022

City Manager Selection Process

The deadline to apply to be Lowell’s next city manager was March 18, 2022. Last weekend the Lowell Sun reported that 14 had applied. Councilors reviewed the resumes and submitted their rank-ordered list of applicants to Mary Callery, the city’s director of Human Resources.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Callery informed councilors that one candidate was ranked first by all eleven councilors – that was State Representative Tom Golden - but that the most council votes any other applicant had received was four. Because no other candidates received anything close to a majority of council votes, councilors decided to interview Golden only.

If Golden’s interview is unsatisfactory – an outcome unthinkable given how this process has gone – only then would the council consider interviewing anyone else. In the unlikely event that occurs, councilors would presumably re-advertise the position. Because it has been obvious from the start that a majority of councilors have already settled on Golden as the next city manager, other credible candidates for the position would have refrained from applying. If the Golden scenario somehow falls apart, re-opening the process would likely yield a more competitive pool to choose from.

The council’s interview of Golden is scheduled for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

Council Rejects Manager’s Board of Parks Appointee

One of the most significant actions taken by the council last Tuesday had the political lethality and stealth of the precision guided munitions now being used in Ukraine. That was the rejection of the city manager’s re-appointment of Peter Finnegan to the city’s Board of Parks. Mayor Donoghue’s communication to the city council read as follows:

Pursuant to authority specified under Mass. G.L. Ch. 45, s. 2 and the Code of the City of Lowell, Article VI, s. 9-20, it is with pleasure that I am reappointing Peter Finnegan as a member of the Lowell Board of Parks.

This appointment shall be for five (5) years expiring March 22, 2027, or such time thereafter as a successor is appointed and qualified.

Confirmation by the City Council is required for this reappointment and is hereby requested.

I would be happy to answer any inquiry you may have concerning this reappointment.

Appointments like this typically are unanimously confirmed by the city council without comment. However, councilors do occasionally ask questions about an appointment during the public meeting. For instance, the item just before this on the agenda was another appointment to the Board of Parks, this one of Mayon Mitchell. When the Mitchell appointment was reached, Councilor Robinson spoke up and said people had told him that Mitchell no longer lived in Lowell and asked whether that would affect the appointment. Manager Donoghue said she was not aware of that but immediately withdrew the appointment, telling the council she would investigate Mr. Mitchell’s residency status and, if he no longer lived in Lowell, she would submit a new name to the council for its consideration.

Unlike the Mitchell appointment which was discussed in the open before any vote was taken, when the Finnegan appointment was called and Mayor Chau asked if anyone had any comments, no councilor spoke. Mayor Chau asked for a motion to approve which was made by Councilor Drinkwater and seconded by Councilor Leahy. City Clerk Michael Geary then called the roll for the vote.

The first name he called was Mayor Chau. “No,” the mayor responded. The next councilor to be called, John Drinkwater, voted “Yes” as did fellow councilors John Leahy, Wayne Jenness and Vesna Nuon.

But councilors Erik Gitschier, Rita Mercier, Corey Robinson, Dan Rourke, Kim Scott and Paul Ratha Yem all joined Mayor Chau in voting “No,” so Finnegan’s re-appointment was rejected by a 7 to 4 vote of the council.

Yet no one said a word. None of the councilors who voted “no” explained why they voted as they did. After the vote, no one even thanked Mr. Finnegan for his past service on the Board of Parks.

I don’t know Peter Finnegan. I have no memory of ever meeting him. However, I am familiar with his name but that’s only because of his past service on the Board of Parks.

Back in 2017 when the fight over the location of Lowell High School was raging, an early obstacle to using Cawley Stadium as the site of a new school was a land use restriction placed on the parcel under Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution.

The city sought a waiver of Article 97. One of the requirements for receiving a waiver was for the city’s Board of Parks to unanimously vote for it. But when the Board of Parks took that vote on March 7, 2017, Mr. Finnegan voted “no” and the waiver request was derailed but only temporarily since the city was ultimately able to get the waiver by other means.

In the aftermath of his vote “against” Cawley, Mr. Finnegan, according to a Lowell Sun story at the time, received threats that led police to increase patrols around his house. He also was the target of a complaint to the state board of ethics which was ultimately dismissed but not before he had to retain his owner lawyer to defend him against the claim.

Fast forward to Tuesday night. None of the councilors who voted against Mr. Finnegan’s appointment explained why they rejected an appointment of the type that is either routinely endorsed or occasionally withdrawn if any questions arise. Instead, we’re left to speculate on the reasons for the rejection since it wouldn’t be the first time councilors used the board appointment process to punish an opponent.  

Mayor Apologizes for Honoring Mike Tyson

Tuesday’s meeting opened with Mayor Chau requesting a point of personal privilege in which he issued a heartfelt and sincere apology for presenting former boxing champion Mike Tyson with a plaque and a key to the city at the Golden Gloves on March 10, 2022. Mayor Chau was subsequently criticized for honoring Tyson on behalf of the city just hours after hosting the annual White Ribbon Day Pledge ceremony at city hall.

As a Tweet from the Lowell Police Department inviting the public to the city hall ceremony explained, “The White Ribbon Day Campaign is a call to action for men and boys to take the pledge and be part of the solution in ending male violence against women and girls.”

For those of you asking, “Mike Who?” here’s what author Chuck Klosterman writes about Mike Tyson in his new book, The Nineties, which is a social, political, and cultural history of that decade:

In the third round of the decade’s most anticipated heavyweight fight, Mike Tyson – desperate, infuriated, and realizing he was going to lose – leaned into Evander Holyfield during a clinch and bit off a chunk of Holyfield’s right ear . . .

The nineties were a terrible time for Mike Tyson . . . His media perception in 1989 was akin to that of Tiger Woods in 1999: It seemed indisputable that this person would eventually become the greatest practitioner in the history of his sport . . .

Things only got worse from there. Tyson was convicted of rape in 1992, ultimately serving three years of a ten-year prison sentence in Indiana. He regained the world heavyweight title upon his release but this older, softer Tyson was a shadow of his former self. . .

In his apology, Mayor Chau said that at the time, he did not understand the effect making the presentation to Tyson would have, especially on the same day as the White Ribbon event. He said he strives to represent the city in an honorable manner at all times and that he had “learned from this mistake.”

Other Council News

Sustainability Council – The city’s Sustainability Council made a presentation to the city council that reviewed sustainability efforts to date and urged the city council to do more to reduce fossil fuel use in the city. The entire issue was referred to the city council’s transportation subcommittee. This is an extremely important issue that often gets lost amidst the day-to-day crises that confront city government so it’s good that the city council will continue talking about it. I’ll write more extensively about it in a future issue of this newsletter.

Fire Department Overtime – This council has made keeping all fire stations open all the time a priority. The fire chief, Phillip Charron, was present at Tuesday’s meeting and answered council questions about this. The chief explained that the table of organization of the fire department calls for 213 fire fighters but that there are only 203 now. He identified that lack of personnel as the primary cause of so-called “brownouts” (stations closed due to staffing shortages). The short-term solution is to increase funding for overtime which the council has done. The budget for overtime in fiscal year 2022 has almost doubled from the initial appropriation of $1.4 million to the current $2.9 million. The long-term solution according to the chief is to hire more fire fighters but the city is constrained from doing that due to a lack of seats at the state fire academy.

Loan Orders

Proposed loan orders of $2 million for new parking kiosks and for $7.5 million for repairs to the Ayotte and Downes parking garages were referred to public hearings on April 5, 2022.

City Budget

CFO Conor Baldwin gave a brief presentation on the city budget formulation process thus far and predicted that the final budget proposal should be presented to the city council in May. He explained that the biggest challenges this fiscal year come from rising fixed costs for things such as pension assessment (up $1.6 million); health insurance (a 6.2% increase); rising solid waste and recycling costs; an increased assessment for Lowell Vocational High School; new contracts with city employee unions, and an ever-rising mandatory assessment for charter schools, something Councilor John Drinkwater called “a backbreaker.”

Poetry by Tom Sexton

The war in Ukraine has touched us all in some way. Many of us just watch the news more closely; others donate to appropriate charities; but some express their feelings in poems. Such is the case with Lowell-native Tom Sexton who has lived in Alaska for many years. A 1958 graduate of Lowell High who was honored as a Distinguished Alumni in 2006, Sexton is the former Poet Laureate of Alaska, a longtime poetry editor of the Alaska Quarterly Review, and the author of many books of poetry.

Although he can’t see Russia from his house, Tom’s residence is close enough for him to be understandably concerned by the risks of escalation.

Tom has translated his concerns into a new poem which is available today on richardhowe.com.

While you’re at the site, also check out Paul Marion’s new poem on the war in Ukraine.