Mayor Dowling is
approaching the mid point of her term. As with
any Mayor she is embattled in controversy and
criticism. It is important for peoplle to
understand what supporting the Mayor (or opposing
her) really means. Here is a FAIR and objective
evaluation of Mayor Dowling.
Promises
Promises
Patty Dowling promised us little when she ran for
mayor. She chose her words very carefully while
answering questions about public safety,
residency, and education. As someone who worked
on her campaign and originally supported Mayor
Kennedy in 1993 I have been lucky to see both
women in action. I have seen first hand, their
failures and success. Dowling intentionally
committed to very little during the campaign.
Some would say that this is what we got, very
litle. Can you fault her for that? DON’T.
Blame yourself. We were all so drunk with the
idea that we even COULD get rid of Mary Claire
Kennedy that we just weren’t listening
carefully enough to what Patty Dowling was REALLY
saying...and NOT saying. As a result, this is
what has occurred:
Residency
No question this has been the hottest issue in
Lawrence since Emerson College left the city
bankrupt and a ward of the state. In 1993 Mayor
Kennedy promised us “Lawrence jobs for
Lawrence people!” She quickly abandonded her
promise and “refused” to enforce the
law. Dowling on the other hand made no such
promise. She lead us to believe she wanted
residency, but she never made the outright
promise that Kennedy did. Dowling told WCCM and
the Mount Vernon Neighborhood group that she
“would enforce residency” but added
that it needed to be “looked at and modified
first”. Regardless of where you stand on the
residency issue, one thing is clear, Mayor
dowling did NOT lie to the people as so many
councilors and mayors before her did. It was the
City council who promised us they would protect
residency. They were our safety net. We knew
Dowling wanted to change residency and voted for
her with a pro-residency council. It was the best
of both worlds or so we thought. Voters relied on
the council to stop her efforts and THEY failed.
Do NOT blame
mayor dowling for this one. She was honest. Blame
the councilors who broke their promises.
As
for enforcement of residency, every employee
hired after January first of 1996 must be
dismissed if they are in violation. That is a
fact. That is the law. It does’t matter how
many times residency is modified or even if it is
done away with. THOSE employees who signed a
contract containing a residency clause must be
removed. Mayor Dowling touted her law experience
through the 97 campaign saying over and over
“I am a lawyer and I believe we must respect
the law”. It doen’t get any clearer
that that. To date, residency has not been
enforced and the law has NOT been respected.
Consistency
Candidate Dowling criticized Mayor Kennedy for
holding a job at the Cedar Crest while she was
Mayor. Dowling ran ads and distributed fliers
(boy I’m glad I save these things) promising
to be a “FULL TIME” mayor. Dowling may
not have promised us outright that she would step
down from the governors council, but she lead us
to believe that she would. In politics, as with
life, if you purposely lead people to believe
something, no matter how carefully you craft your
words, you are making a promise. Months after
winning her election as Mayor she ran and won
reelection to the governors council. She also
criticized the former mayor for illeagally
driving in a city vehicle (a police car) which is
specifically prohibited by the charter. Today
Mayor Dowling drives a city owned police vehicle
which she uses for city and personal business. Is
it wrong and hypocritical? Of course it is. Is it
a big thing? Is it worth a reacall? Of course
not. People should stop their
whining about both these things and concentrate
on quality of life issues. The Mayor is still
wrong. And it is a clear indication of her
philosophy on governing. But it’s no
watergate. Let’s move on.
THE
GOOD!
Patty has successfully negotiated a contract with
the State department of education to maintain
local control. After Mayor Kennedy made back room
deals to give away local authority, Dowling
stepped in and built a consensus on the school
committee and the department of Ed. (One side
note; the next time you see Marguerite Kane thank
her for standing with me on this issue. Her
efforts on holding out for a better deal, and
standing firm, saved this school system). But it
was Patty Dowling who brough everyone togther and
built a coalition which kept the voters in charge
while giving the state a hand in shaping the
direction (and making them take responsibility)
for our schools. Mayor Kennedy voted to fire Jim
SCully without pay. She violated his contract and
blamed him for misspending after approving almost
every one of his spending proposals. Dowling
however, saved the city millions by settling the
Scully lawsuit out of court and honored our
obligation to pay his contract.
As a new Mayor, Ms. Dowling brought us through
the hiring process of a new cheif, new
superintendent of schools, a new high school
principal, personnel director, and dozens of
other vacant positions. She was still able to run
the city without them until things could be
straightened out. She listened to the public (and
Joe Quartarone) on the trash plant and the
regestry. She brought decorum and civility to the
school committee meetings ( with the exception of
Ms Pischitellos outbursts). Mayor Dowling has a
bilingual aide in her office and settled the
Firemen’s contract. She is holding firm on
the Police contract, fighting harder than any
other mayor to break the unions grip on the city.
Police officer are allowedto take any vacation
time they wnt no matter how short handed we are
and are not required to give enough notice to
cover their shift. They are allowed to pick and
choose extra details and until Patty dowling came
along, cops were getting cash for extra duty from
private businesses. If she stops fooling around
with personal vendettas and gets tough with these
guys some ofthe serious corruption will start to
come to light and the public has NO idea the
iceburg that lays beneath the surface.
THE
BAD
Mayor Kennedy voted for school budgets year after
year without asking quesions or making changes (
like her friend Mr. Carerro). SChool Department
policy mandates that a public hearing be held on
every departement and school withing the system.
They must present their budgets in detail to the
public and justify how they spent last years
money. Then the committee must approve each
school and department budget individually so that
the committe is more responsible for spending.
But Mayor Dowling, chairman of the school
committee has never done this. She also went
against the wishes of the parents and did away
with the uniform policy. She voted to use
thousands of dollars of YOUR tax money to send
teachers and students to the Dominican Republic
for “:cultural appreciation”. The only
students eligible to go on this trip, however,
were students of Dominican decent. Whites were
not allowed to go. Puerto ricans were not allowe
to go, only Dominicans. They mayor knew it, and
supported the trip anyways. Shame on her!
There is no question that her handling of certain
police officers has been heavy handed and unfair.
He obvious role in the ileagal suspensions of
decorated police hero Rafael Rosa and Lt. Bert
Baker are a blemish she will never be able to
walk away from. No matter what spin her office
puts on this story (with the eager help the daily
paper) there is NO evidence tht Rosa broke ANY
policy and Lt. Baker was clearly targeted becuse
he is the husband of Alice Baker (who dared to
challenge Marie Gosselin for city council). This
is where I question the mayor’s ability to
be fair. I have read the police reports, seen the
documents, read the police policies and
suspensions, and I have to tell you this is a
personl vedetta from the word go. Mayor Dowling
is too intelligent and prides herself too much on
fairness to be abusing her office in this manner.
It is something way out of character for the
Patty Dowling I thought I knew.
The public stated loud and clear that they did
not want schools built on parks. The Mayor went
against the will of the people and supported it
anyways. She refused to defend the city against
federal intrusion. That intrusion is forcing us
to change our charter which violates everything
this country stands for.(see last weeks column)
She doesn’t bare the blame on this one
alone, either. The council unanimously crumbled
along with her and refused to stand up for local
control. This could have been fought and won in
the courts. Watch the Mississippi case making
it’s way through the appellet court. This is
a fight we could have won.
Mayor Dowling has also given a job to City
councilor Marie Gosselin’s son Mathew, which
is not against any law, but has the appearance of
imoropriety, especially when you consider Marie
Gosslin’s sudden reversal on her residency
stand. Dowling has given jobs to two school
committee members and taken care of the son and
brother of two city councilors. Again, while
these actions are not ileagal, they are bad
policy. The perception people get from these
actions is that people are being bought off. We
may never know if that was the case. It never
should happen.
Summary
In summary, Paty Dowlings critics seem just as
blinded to her good points as her supporters are
to her bad. She is human. She is not all bad or
good as some might have you believe. She makes
mistakes and is prone to the temptation to abuse
her power as any of us would. Therefor, if you
are an adversary of Mayor Dowling, you have a
duty to this city tostand up publicly and give
her credit when she is doing the right thing.
When you do that, it benefits Lawrence. I
don’t care if that makes her look good! If
she is right she deserves credit. (like Hiring
Larry Lefebvre) . If you are a supporter of the
Mayor you have an obligation to question her
constantly. Your duty for the future of Lawrence
is to criticize her when she is doing somethign
wrong. Let her know. Because she depends on her
supporters, as all mayors do, for feedback on her
actions. You above all should be standing up and
pushing her in the right direction. Why? Because
that is called fairness and it’s the right
thing to do. Forget the hype and the rumors.
Think for yourself and watch the meetnings. As
talk host Jay Severin always says, “We are
all entitiled to our own opinions, but we are NOT
entitled to our own facts!”
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