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*Valley
Patriot Editorial*
Lawrence
Mayor Mike Sullivan Shows Class
(09/05/07)
Thanks to Lawrence Mayor
Michael Sullivan police officers in Lawrence will not be
laid off this year, a firehouse will not close and DPW
workers will be able to continue maintaining Lawrence’s
ball fields, streets and sewer system without political
interference by the Lawrence City Council.
Over the last three months, Sullivan has been called
corrupt, racist, accused of theft and mismanagement, been
the subject of wild conspiracy theories, and the target
of a disinformation campaign by councilors so obsessed
with making political points and grandstanding for the
cameras that the facts fell by the wayside without any of
them noticing ... or caring.
Yet, while most councilors were getting down in the mud,
pandering to the haters and the malcontents, hurling
epithets at the mayor and creating a circus like
atmosphere during council meetings, the one thing they
were not doing was their job.
According to the Lawrence city charter and state law, the
Lawrence city council has a legal obligation to go
through the budget line-by-line at the sub-committee
level and vote on each department’s spending plan
individually. They never did that. They are legally
obligated to make recommendations to the full council.
They never did that. They were legally obligated to
schedule a public hearing within seven days of receiving
the budget. They didn’t do that. They are legally
obligated to pass a budget before July 1st of any given
year. They never did that. And, if the council wishes to
reject a budget, they have a legal obligation to follow
the process outlined in the charter and state law. Not
surprisingly, they didn’t do that either.
In fact, for all the speeches that were made about how
they are “experts on the charter”, “geniuses
when it comes to state law”, and how much they
“care about the taxpayers”, the whole time they
were grandstanding they were violating the charter,
oblivious to state law and ignoring the taxpayers.
Sadly for the people of Lawrence, the city council failed
to perform their legal duties at every single step of
this budget process.
And yet, despite all the unwarranted insults hurled
against him (usually in his absence), Lawrence Mayor
Michael Sullivan refused get down in the dirt with them.
Showing much more class and professionalism than he was
shown, Sullivan walked into city council chambers,
announced that he had received approval for his budget
from the state (without the city council) and then left
the council chambers.
He didn’t give a long speech about how incompetent
the city council is. He didn’t engage in name
calling or respond to the temper tantrums thrown by
councilor members. In fact, Sullivan didn’t make one
disrespectful comment to the council, despite the fact
that they truly deserved it. No, Lawrence Mayor Michael
J. Sullivan showed the city council and the voters of
Lawrence what being a true leader is all about: rising
above the rhetoric, dismissing the personal attacks, and
doing what was necessary to solve the problem.
He and his team (Carroll, Sweeney and Schiavone) proved
with their behavior and hard work that they can get the
job done under the most trying and politically explosive
circumstances.
We would have some sympathy for those trying to hold the
line on tax increases except for the fact that Lawrence
has been sponging off the taxpayers from other
communities for decades. It’s time for Lawrence
taxpayers to start paying more for the costs they incur.
Mayor Sullivan deserves a tremendous amount of credit for
sticking to his guns, defending the need for a $4 a week
tax increase, and showing with his behavior (but not one
disrespectful word) that problems can be solved without
the need for personal attacks.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The September 2007
Edition of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 15,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
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Westford, Acton, and Lowell.
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only)
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