Hanna Interviews Mayoral
Candidate Carlos Matos
Hanna, Valley Patriot Ace Reporter
Why
are you running for mayor?
I’m running for mayor because there are a lot of
issues that haven't been addressed and a lot of problems
with the way the city has been run. We have high
unemployment. We have lack of economic development,
especially in small businesses. We haven’t
provided any opportunities for our youth and I want to
address those issues.
What
do you do for work?
I am the former Director of Northern Essex Community
College, but right now I am taking time off to run my
campaign.
Why
do you think you are qualified to be mayor?
For one, I have a lot of political experience. I’ve
worked with the legislature, the Lieutenant Governor and
the city council. I have also been a manager, unlike the
other candidates for mayor. And unlike the previous three
mayors, I have a lot of experience in those three areas.
What
are your goals as mayor?
I have one main goal and that's to make a
resident-focused government. A lot of the development and
a lot of the issues that are occurring in the city are
benefiting more people outside the city. My four goals
are: to reduce the unemployment rate, provide
opportunities for youth, efficiency in government, and
economic development.
What
do you plan to change as mayor?
The fiscal
state of the city. A lot of people have ignored the
budget. The budget is a plan expressed in monetary terms.
Our budget for as long as I can remember has not
expressed any specific plan. We need to make sure that it
deals with the issues im-portant to city residents. For
example, we need to make sure that the city streets are
paved. We need to make sure that we prioritize which
streets need to be paved so we are getting the emergency
streets done for the hospitals and the school bus routes
so that we can improve the quality of life in our
neighborhoods. We also need to make sure when people come
into the city that they are dealt with in a polite and
professional manner, that we are not losing their
records, that they are not frustrated with us and that we
are adequately assisting them. We also need to provide
oppor-tunities for the youth because we have a lot of
young people dropping out of school.
We need to
make sure that when projects come here - like a 1/2
billion dollars for school construction - that local
businesses and entrepreneurs have access to that money
and that it provides jobs and contracts for people inside
the city.
Does
Willie Lantigua’s endorsement help you?
I think it helps me, but it also has its draw-backs.
It’s a net thing. You see, a lot of people like me
and some don’t  like me, so I am focusing on the
net gain, which means that after you add up the number of
people who like me and those who don’t like me, that
there are more people who like me than not. The same
thing applies with State Rep-resentative Willie Lantigua.
By and large, his endorsement does help. He's a very well
known figure. He has been involved in politics for a long
time and I think he cares about the community just like I
do.
What
is your favorite book?
Well, one is an essay by Albert Camus called the Myth of
Sisyphus. I just finished a book called The Wicked, which
was a fascinating account of the retelling of the wizard
of Oz. I like it because it makes you think about how,
sometimes, things are not what they appear.
If
you lose in the primary, who will you endorse?
At this point I'm not focusing on that at all. I am just
concentrating on running for mayor.
Did you decide to run for mayor on your own, or were you
asked to run?
I decided to run for mayor on my own. I love this city
very much and I have seen the city mis-managed for too
long. You have to step in and try to do as much as you
possibly can because you can’t go and ask somebody
else to fix the problems unless you have tried to fix
them yourself.
What
makes a good mayor?
A good mayor is someone that brings to the table some
management skills, that is hands-on with the departments,
that cares deeply about the residents of the city and
focuses on the issues that are really problematic for
them. He should find ways to help them succeed in
whatever it might be that they are trying to do. A good
mayor should be a zealot for the city and the people, and
yet have the knowledge to be a good manager.
 How are you
different from the other mayoral candidates?
I have a lot more experience than they do. I have the
focus. The way I make my de-cisions is not based on
political posi-tioning, rather, it is determined by what
is the best purposes and intentions as to what will most
benefit the city. My other two opponents have made a lot
of decisions based on how people will continue to like
them. I’m not focused on being the one who can get
the most hugs and kisses or who can be liked the most.
I’m focused on who can do the better job, who can
bring the most benefits to the city, who can improve the
lives of residents the most; and I know I am that
candidate. Both Mike (Sullivan) and Marcos (Devers) have
done nothing in six years in terms of leadership. Now
they 're trying to convince people that they are
leaders… they're not. They have not led in any
capacity that they have been in. I have.
What
is the first thing you would do as mayor?
Have a staff meeting and set the tone as far as
leadership in the city departments.
How
will you be different as chairman of the School
Committee?
One: I have been a teacher before, so I understand
education better than the current chair. Two: my focus
will be on education. One of the things I have done as a
coun-cilor is that I have always asked the superintendent
when he brings his budget to us: How is this ad-dressing
the goals that we want to achieve? So I want to have a
list of goals that we wish to achieve. I don’t just
want to report on drop-out rates being 12 percent; I
don’t want to just produce a report that the MCAS
passing rate was 60 percent; I don’t want to just
report on those things. What I want to know is: If it was
12 percent last year, what is the goal to reduce it
another 2 percent or 5 percent this year and what do we
do to meet that goal? That's going to be the difference
between what we have now and what it will be like when I
am mayor. If we fall short of our goals, we need to find
out why, who is responsible, and then hold people
accountable for educating our kids.
I think
sometimes we try to do too much. I hear the litany of
programs that we are offering scattered throughout the
schools. What needs to be asking is how much real
education is going on if you have all these different
programs? Who is measuring our success in these areas?
We also have
a problem with low expectations, especially in areas like
the math curriculum. I think that's also a major
difference between me and the other candidates. I have
higher expectations as to what we can be as a city. All I
hear on the council is that ”you can’t do
this” and ”you can’t do that”; I
think you clearly can if you have the will to do the job
right. We should shoot for higher expectations and only
then can you achieve more.
Another area
we need to expand in education is adult basic education.
We need to teach ESL.
What
do you think about the new Lawrence High School having
six principals when it is finished?
I think that six principals and six academies can work.
We have to see what programs are being implemented. It
isn’t enough to have six different buildings with
six different principals. We need to make sure, for
example, that building #1 and building #2 are not
different than building #3 and building #4. We have to
focus on what is going on in the classroom.
Do
you support MCAS?
I think MCAS is an important measure, but what I dislike
about MCAS is that I don’t believe any one test can
measure the ability of a student. It has to be a
combination of things. We have to make sure MCAS supports
instruction. We need to get that information from MCAS
into the classroom. When it was first implemented, it was
a huge departure from what was done before. MCAS is more
of a critical thinking test, which I think is good. But
we can do better in preparing students for it. Overall,
however, I believe it is flawed because it doesn’t
help us to improve as much as it signals whether or not a
child is proficient or not proficient.
Is
Wilfredo Laboy a good superintendent?
There are some indicators that say yes … some of the
performances have gone up slightly. For example, the MCAS
passing rate has gone up, the drop-out rate has gone
down, though only slightly, and we have re-gained
accreditation. So there are some positive things that
have been brought about by his administration. He has
been troubled by some things outside the educational
realm and I will make sure we will not focus on things
like that.
Let
me put it another way: If you become mayor, will you fire
him or keep him as superintendent?
I’m going to look at all the department heads and
have a conversation...
You
really aren’t answering my question. Will you keep
him or fire him?
I can’t answer that right now. I don’t think it
would be right for me to say at this point. I’m
going to have to sit down with him and talk about it.
It’s a very serious matter.
Should
good teachers be paid the same as bad teachers?
On the surface it sounds good to say: ”oh yeah,
let’s pay good performers better than bad
performers.” But the problem is how do you determine
that? The problem in life is that a lot of things
aren’t as black and white as you want them to be.
You have to be able to know which ones are the good ones
and which ones aren’t. And how do you do that? There
is a practical system of unions and school organizations
that don’t allow you to do things like this.
Where
did you grow up and where did you go to school?
I grew up in New York and went to school at Cardinal
Hayes High School in the Bronx. I went to Saint Anselm
College in New Hampshire. I went to elementary school at
Holy Name of Jesus in Manhattan.
Ronnie
Ford said on WCCM that you called his show and said Amy
McGovern was a racist? Did you do that?
I am so glad you asked me that question because I am
happy to have an opportunity to clear this up. I think a
lot of people confuse me with Carlos Ramos, so I
don’t know if he called and said that … but I
never did. I never called any show to say Amy McGovern
was a racist. I consider Amy a friend and I would never
do that.
If
you were mayor during this Amy McGovern scandal, what
would you have done about it?
This incident is an accumulation of a lot of tension over
the past few years. I would have stopped it by talking to
both of them a long time ago and making sure that the
issues were resolved when they were small. Now the issues
are pretty large and you have to take more drastic
measures.
I would have
sat down with them both and said: ”if you can’t
be with each other and behave professionally, you should
call me and I will mediate.” If I can’t do it,
I will assign a represen-tative from my office to make
sure that’s the case. But if they can’t sit in
a room together like professionals, then I would have to
be the intermediary between the two of them as
Laboy’s boss.
Do
you think Amy McGovern should keep this issue going?
I think she has the right to follow through with whatever
she needs to do. I’m not sure to what end she is
doing this anymore, but that is up to her at this point.
If
Wilfredo Laboy is found guilty, should he be suspended or
fired?
At minimum we should be looking at suspension. I think
the policy is that anyone convicted should be at least
suspended and the School Committee should vote on it.
In terms of
termination: I would tell both him and Amy, that if they
can’t control themselves and change the way they
deal with each other, I would definitely have to consider
termination.
Each month
our ace-reporter, Hanna, interviews community leaders
about educational issues. Next month Hanna will interview
Methuen City Councilor and mayoral candidate Billy Manzi.
You can read all of Hanna's interviews on line at www.tommyduggan.com/hannaindex.html You can email your comments
or questions to Hanna at ValleyPatriot@aol.com
*Send your questions
comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
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