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An
Open Letter to the Eagle Tribune
Mark Sullivan
(06/05/07)
My name is Mark Sullivan.
For purpose of background, I am Mayor Michael Sullivan’s
brother. I, along with my other brother Tom Sullivan, own
and run T.A. Sullivan Insurance & Real Estate in
Lawrence and Methuen. I do a great deal of work for the
city of Lawrence as an advisor to the mayor.
When I read last month’s Eagle Tribune editorial,
titled, “Everyone has dirty hands in this case,”
I sat for over an hour in stunned disbelief.
I simply can no longer justify subscribing to your paper
or advertising any further in your publication. Between
real estate and insurance, my company spends about
$60,000 a year with the Eagle~Tribune.
This revenue may not seem substantial to a large
corporation, but I feel it’s at least a small
representation of how unfairly that I feel you are
treating the mayor and how incredibly wrong you are on
almost every aspect of what is and has been going on in
the city of Lawrence.
In the past, I attributed most of the inaccuracies in the
paper to unskilled reporting. However, I now conclude
that you, or whoever is driving the news portion of the
paper, have a callous indifference to the city of
Lawrence and most likely a personal dislike for the
mayor. Each of these attitudes are, of course, completely
within your right. However, I believe that it is a
tremendous mistake to underestimate the interest in
Lawrence by the surrounding cities and towns, because
most of their residents originate from Lawrence.
Whether you have a dislike of the mayor or not, there is
not much anyone can do about that. I had hoped your
newspaper would report stories accurately and fully. I
had hoped the paper’s editorial stance would not be
hypocritical in such views as calling for the mayor to be
more “hands on” with management of city
departments, yet criticizing him when misspending or
unethical practices are found. Of course, there’s
not a whole lot I can do about it except make sure my
subscription and my business go elsewhere.
I was in the mayor’s office during the time when the
Lawrence Councilor Marie Gosselin disclosure was brought
up by DPW Supervisor Joseph Viel, and I must say that
your editorial is not only viciously unfair to the mayor,
but it is downright irresponsible. It is either
uninformed or ill-willed journalism at its worst. Viel’s
motives, as he said at the time, stem from the fact that
Councilor Gosselin was extremely critical of the city’s
snow plowing. Councilor Gosselin and Mr. Viel were
previously very good friends. Mr. Viel came to the mayor’s
office and spoke with me that day; the mayor was not in.
Viel had with him three signed statements from workers
indicating that they had been sent to Gosselin’s
home to do personal work for the counselor. Mr. Viel
never spoke to the mayor prior to the ethics complaint
being filed. In fact, the mayor did not know about this
story until it came out in The Valley Patriot newspaper.
I told Mr. Viel that if he had verifiable complaints
about something of this nature, he had a duty to report
it no matter who was involved. The rest was up to Viel.
Almost all of my time spent in the mayor’s office is
spent working on budget issues. No one is sitting around
trying to sabotage a city councilor. However, when ethics
or illegality concerns are raised or discovered there is
a responsibility to act on them. If the Eagle~Tribune had
competent reporting, all of this would already be old
news to you. In fact, Mr. Viel stated publicly at the
City Council meeting a full two weeks before this story
came out that he had many violations of ethical conduct
instances on certain councilors and that he was going to
report them. Your reporter was standing right beside him
at that time, yet strangely did not think to ask Viel any
follow up questions. I understand many accusations are
made at open meetings; however, this is the number three
person at the DPW.
My family and I have helped Counselor Marie Gosselin in
every campaign she has ever run. Prior to this incident,
Gosselin would often drop by the mayor’s home. The
idea that the mayor was sitting up in his office scheming
to get her or anyone else is preposterous and really
shows how little the Tribune actually knows about what is
happening in the city of Lawrence, or why.
The Eagle~Tribune loses all its credibility, in my
opinion, when it tries to blame the mayor for the fact
that the DPW has been “buying” city counselors
with favors to protect themselves and then they got
caught. The insinuation of your editorial is akin to
assigning blame to a police officer for discovering a
crime is being committed. How exactly is the mayor and
his office supposed to respond when the DPW director and
his girlfriend are on the Channel 5 news admitting that
they have gone on trips and stayed at the vacation home
of a vender that the city and the DPW do business with?
How is the mayor supposed to respond when the DPW spends
over $800,000 to pave the City Council president’s
street when it was budgeted for $400,000?
When Mr. McCann was meeting with the editorial board, did
anyone ask why exactly he needed to bring a lawyer with
him? McCann’s explanation for the High St. paving
project is that he thought the amount was authorized.
Even if you take such an incredulous explanation as
representing what he truly thought, did anyone at the
paper think to ask him why a DPW director that had just
over $1 million in funds total to pave city streets for
the entire year would want to spend over $800,000 on one
street? Or why was McCann’s girlfriend, Andrea
Traficanti, emailing the council president who lives on
that street with frequent updates during the course of
the project?
Responding to misconduct is simply not the same as trying
to “get” political foes. Indeed, the mayor or
any public official for that matter would be derelict in
his duty to look the other way. Your editorial is
irresponsible, completely incorrect and patently unfair.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The June 2007 Edition of
the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 13,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford, Amesbury, Newburyport
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Merrimack, Hampton &
Salisbury Beach, and Lowell.
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