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Tom Duggan's Notebook
Tom Duggan
Teachers
Buying Their Own Copy Paper
Here’s a bad joke if I’ve ever heard one: With
all the money being wasted by the School Committee in
North Andover, teachers across the  system now have to buy their own
paper for the copy machines. Can you imagine? The North
Andover School Committee gave Harry Harutunian a $10,000
bonus this school year, then negotiated his buy-out at a
cost of $187,000 after Harutunian gave his
girlfriend/secretary a 28% raise, and yet teachers are
spending their own money to buy copy paper! And you
thought Lawrence had problems?
Big Dan Back on the Job?
If you are one of those people who think that former
Chairman of the North Andover School Committee Dan Murphy
isn’t running the show in the N.A. Schools any more,
it’s time to reevaluate. His pal and successor Al
Perry is now doing everything he can to make sure Murphy
is still calling the shots. Even though Murphy
didn’t run for reelection this past spring, new
chairman Al Perry has now appointed him to head the
search committee for a new superintendent.
Given the fact that Murphy and his pal Perry are directly
responsible for the Harutunian scandal (a rolling
contract, $10,000 bonuses and unlimited control without
accountability), one might think that Murphy is the last
person who should be making decisions as to who succeeds
Harutunian as superintendent. But Perry doesn’t seem
to care about what the voters want or how badly this will
reflect on the town. Word among some of the parents in
North Andover is that a recall petition is being
circulated to remove Perry from the committee. All I can
say is... Where do I sign?
Bob Andrew Doesn’t Support Term Limits for Life
Last month I mistakenly reported that Methuen City
Councilor Bob Andrew was spearheading an effort to limit
the number of terms elected officials may serve in any
elected office to three terms in their lifetime. I want
to apologize to Councilor Andrew, as it was another
councilor who had supported the measure.
Next month we will profile Andrew’s candidacy for
state representative.
Councilors Slighted
Usually, when a school or stadium is built, or renovated,
those who were most directly responsible for such a
project are honored with their names on a plaque.
Unfortunately, someone decided that the new plaque for
the dedication of the Veterans Memorial Stadium in
Lawrence will bear the names of the current City Council
members (some of whom were just elected last year and had
nothing to do with the stadium restoration project)
instead of the city councilors who worked hard and took
the crucial vote to bond and approve the restoration
project three years ago.
Intentional or not, it is a slap in the face to former
Council President Marcos Devers, as well as former
councilors Michael Sweeney and Julia Silverio who
actually took part in the painfully long process of
researching and bonding the stadium project. Whoever made
this executive decision did a great disservice to the
community.
Video Cameras and Insurance Points
When the Lawrence City Council held a hearing two months
ago to decide whether or not to allow video cameras at
traffic lights, they were told by Police Chief John
Romero that anyone receiving a ticket in the mail for
running a red light would not have to pay insurance
points, since there is no way to know who is actually
driving the car when the cameras record traffic
violations.
Strangely enough, when the Methuen City Council debated
the very same issue with the very same video company,
they rejected the proposal because they were told that
under state law, insurance points would be added to the
car owner’s insurance when the owner of a car is
cited for such a redlight infraction. So now I am
confused.
We have the same video company making the same proposal
for the same ordinance in two different cities, and yet
two very different stories are told to each community.
Now, I know Lawrence City Council President Patrick
Blanchette runs a very tight ship, so I know that under
his leadership the council will get to the bottom of this
one before the cameras are put up. What still confuses me
is that both stories about Lawrence and Methuen were in
the local daily paper and yet not one of the councilors
in either community has raised the issue. I guess we will
all find out the way we always do, after it is too late.
 Manzi Gets Signatures for Teddy
Kennedy
During the annual Taste of Methuen event at the Tara Mara
last week, Methuen Mayor Bill Manzi was on hand to
politic with constituents and taste as much food as he
could. But in between the food tasting and the
networking, Manzi found himself the butt of some very
funny jokes as he was seen gathering nomination
signatures for none other than ultra left-wing, U.S.
Senator Teddy Kennedy.
It was amusing to watch how excited people were to see
Manzi as he approached each table to talk with them, but
even more entertaining to hear the bursts of laughter
permeating the room as he asked them to support the
senile U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. Manzi took it in
stride though, never one to let such ridicule get to him.
At one point, he turned to a Valley Patriot reporter and
said, “Hey, this is totally off the record, right? I
don’t want to be reading about this on line.”
Unfortunately for Mr. Manzi, anything an elected official
does in public is officially “on the record.”
I would say that if mayor Manzi doesn’t want to be
made fun of for helping out a traitor like Ted Kennedy,
he shouldn’t be gathering nomination signatures for
him.
 RUMORS! RUMORS!
One of the fiunniest rumors in Lawrence these days is
that the city’s planning director, Michael Sweeney,
is part owner of The Valley Patriot. We got a chuckle out
of that one, wondering who could be so dumb as to spread
such a rumor, and someone would spread a rumor so
innocuous.
Then we found out that it was none other than Lawrence
City Council President Patrick Blanchette. (HUH?)
Apparently, Blanchette (known as the “Duke of
Providence St.”) was trying to put an advanced spin
on a story he thought we would be publish about his
inappropriate lobbying for the low bidder on 3 Providence
St.
But, the Duke’s bad behavior on that story was
already covered by Siglo 21, so we decided to save the
space for something more important (see page 10).
While it is true that Mr. Sweeney was interested in
investing in The Valley Patriot two and a half years ago
, Sweeney decided not to invest in the paper because he
saw it as a conflict of interest with his (then) elected
position on the Lawrence City Council.
“The Duke” on the other hand, (Blanchette)
wanted to invest in the paper using someone else’s
name to conceal his involvement in a conflict of interest
situation.
Eventually, the Duke backed out for lack of funds and we
moved forward without either of them. For the record the
owners of the Valley Patriot are: Dr. Chuck Ormsby, Paula
Porten, Ralph Wilbur and myself. So, the next time
someone like Blanchette tries to put such a silly notion
in the rumor mill of Lawrence to feed some power trip
remind him that he can go to the Secretary of
State’s Web site any time and see for himself who is
and who is not part owner of The Valley Patriot.
Whaaa.. Payano The Victim
When Lawrence High School teacher Pedro Payano sent out
an email to the community encouraging kids to skip school
last month, we reported it on The Valley Patriot
Web site (www.valleypatriot.com).
Within a few days, national radio talk show host Michael
Graham picked up the story, generating a lot of media
attention and embarrassment on the city of Lawrence. So I
called Payano and asked him to come on my radio program
to talk about the issue publicly... like a man.
Payano’s answer? “I’m not a politician. I
don’t do radio.”
Payano, however, did find it appropriate to go on Spanish
Language Radio denying (at first) that he wrote the
email, and then saying that even if he did, there
“was nothing wrong with encouraging kids to take the
day out of school to support Latinos.”
After being confronted by a caller live on the radio,
however, Payano eventually admitted to sending the email
to the press, but then immediately began to spin the
story.
The new spin? Payano started whining that the issue was
really about whether or not he had been sending the email
directly to his students instead of the fact that he was
encouraging kids to take the day out of school. Over and
over he denied a charge that was never made to deflect
the issue. And it worked, too! Because Superintendent
Laboy repeated that argument when he defended Payano at a
School Committee meeting last week.
“Mr. Payano did not send the emails to students as
it was alleged,” Laboy said. As if sending the
emails directly to students was ever alleged. I
just wonder what would have happened if a Lawrence High
teacher was encouraging students to take the day out of
school for a rally opposing illegal aliens and enforcing
the borders and laws of this country? Anyone want
to bet that Payano would be crying racism and demanding
that such a teacher be fired?
As a side note, just so you get a flavor of the hypocrisy
and fraud Payano perpetuates on the Latino people: guess
where Pedro Payano was on May 1st, the day he was
telling everyone to take off? That’s right, kids,
Lawrence High social studies teacher Pedro Payano was in
the classroom ... working!
Our Condolences
Last week one of our good friends and an avid reader of
The Valley Patriot passed away: Lorraine Cassidy, the
wife of Commander Jim Cassidy. Our hearts go out to the
Cassidy family for their loss.
Tom Duggan is the president of Valley
Patriot, Inc., and is a former member of the Lawrence
School Committee. He hosts the Paying Attention Radio
Program on 980AM every saSaturday afternoon from
noon-2pm. You can email comments or questions to him at Tdugjr@aol.com
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The May, 2006 Edition of
the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2006, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 8,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover, Methuen, Haverhill,
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury and Lowell.
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