>>Valley Patriot>> |
Sure, there is new activity going on around us –a new high school almost fully funded by the state; a state-of-the art publicly-owned water treatment facility which the mayor initially op-posed; big ticket investors taking advantage of the relatively low market rates for real estate to pursue capital projects; a new train station built by the state to replace a parking lot in use to-day. However, as the mayor takes credit for all these projects, he either was in opposition or had a minimal, if any, role in bringing them to completion. When one does look at the basic issues affecting all our everyday lives in the city – economic de-velopment, jobs, education, and quality of life – the mayor has taken our city backward, not for-ward. Our streets and sidewalks are dirty and bro-ken. The concept of a street sweeper is foreign to many parts of this city. Our schools are in crisis. They rank at the bottom of state testing used to measure their effectiveness. Less than 10% of our residents have a college education, well below the average for cities and the entire state. There is a lack of leadership and focus in the school com-mittee and consequently the superintendent’s office. Our economy has worsened in four years. We have double-digit unemployment that is the highest of all cities in this state. We have unqualified people staffing key economic jobs. The federal government has frozen millions of dollars in money earmarked for our economic development because of incompetent management in City Hall. Commercial buildings throughout downtown and elsewhere sit vacant with no effort from this mayor to revitalize them. Fiscally, the mayor keeps telling us that his budget is balanced with no new taxes. However, according to his own budget director, the mayor has created a $10 million budget deficit for which he has no concrete plan to close, and taxes will be going up. Let me repeat that – the mayor’s own budget director told the city council that taxes will be going up as a result of this deficit. The mayor insists on misleading us about the facts, hoping that the truth will not catch up to him until after the election. As the mayor has spent down our free cash account from $15 million when he took office to almost nothing today, it is clear as a city, we can no longer afford this mayor. But when one strives for public office, one cannot just be a critic. One must offer legitimate proposals to address these serious problems. As a city councilor, teacher, small businessman, and parent, I have always striven to work with all communities to fix our city – be they Anglo or Latino, North or South. In the Devers Plan I have focused on three key ingredients to move us forward, creating One City with One Vision. The first part of my plan is to have a sustainable economic development plan. We first need to create a master plan by which development can be directed downtown and to every corner of our city. I will hire fully qualified professionals to implement the programs needed to bring jobs and businesses to our city. I will fully utilize all available resources such as the Renewal Community Initiative to make sure that we are doing everything in our power to improve our economy. Part two of my vision is a real and workable plan to improve education in our city. As a teacher and a parent, I know what is needed, that education is the key to success. We must establish a partnership with parents, teachers, and administrators to address our serious educational crisis. This starts from the top. The mayor is the chairman of our school committee, but he has demonstrated no leadership in this role. He has handed over all his authority to the superintendent. As a result, the focus is not about our children. We must have our children assume they will attend college and obtain a degree or technical certificate. Our children will not take a back seat under a Devers administration. The third leg of my vision for our city is to improve our quality of life. The condition of our streets, sidewalks, parks, and building stock is unacceptable. Within six months, I will complete a comprehensive review of each of the over 700 city blocks of our city to determine the condition of our neighborhoods and to see what is needed and what is working. Your hard-earned taxes need to go for improving the quality of life that should be a priority for any mayor. I will build the police station that the mayor only promised four years ago but never delivered. As our police force is strained with crime going up, they need a new headquarters that can effectively help them do the job they need to do everyday. Finally, we need to change the image of the city and the mindset people have about our city, even amongst our own residents. This all starts at the top in the mayor’s office. Just look at the city’s web site. It contains wrong information about our election process. There is inaccurate information about our public officials. The site lacks the basic information our citizens and potential businesses need. I put the mayor’s proposed budget on my web site because he could not bother to make it available to the public. If this administration cannot do the small things right, how can we expect it to do the big things right? We can only do all this working together. I want to create a public-private-nonprofit partnership, utilizing the forces of the city government, small and large private investors, and our active community service entities, to work as a unified team to improve the condition of our city. We cannot continue to go off in different directions with no cohesive force binding us all together. For our plan to work, we need each leg to succeed; should one leg not work, the plan will tumble. With your vote on Tuesday, September 27th, we can take the first step to rebuilding the city we love. Marcos Devers is a member of the Lawrence City Council and is a past president. He is the former acting mayor and a member of the Lawrence City Democrat Committee. *Send your questions
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Six months ago I formally began my
campaign to be the next mayor of Lawrence. I decided to
run for mayor because I, like many of our residents, do
not like the direction our city is going under the
Sullivan administration. The current condition of our
city demands a change at the top in City Hall.