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Some Thoughts on Our Outgoing Elected Officials

Now that the elections are over I thought it would be a good time to reminisce about some of the outgoing elected officials. They have either lost an election or simply didn’t seek another term. First, there is Ralph Carrero. I have always liked Ralph, (although whether he likes you depend on whether you agree with him or not) he is personable and a pretty decent guy when he is outside the political arena. As a former probation officer, a family man, an educator and a 12 year veteran of the Lawrence School Committee Ralph leaves the committee with few accomplishments to brag about.

Carrero followed the road most traveled in Lawrence politics, say as little as possible in an off year election, don’t take on any controversial issues no matter how good they are for the city and always play the nice guy. His strategy worked too, for 12 years he has been serving as an elected official. As politics goes, he played everything safe and protected his political capital by lack of action. Unfortunately for Carrero, the same strategy that got him where he is also prevented him from moving further up the political food chain. Carrero does have a lot to contribute, that is if he chooses to. The problem is that he has rarely chosen to contribute in any substantive manner. He was anything but proactive. Carrero may be looking at an appointment to the Sullivan administration and that could be a good thing for the city!

It seems he doesn’t produce results in a legislative or policy setting role, maybe his expertise is geared more towards administrative functions. He is very well liked as an administrator at the Technical School and from the people I talk to he is very good at what he does. Hey nobody is good at everything they do right? It just might be that Carrero is now going to find a role in this community where he can be effective. I’m hoping this is the case.

Then there is Carol Bannon. She has been on the school committee for 16 years. In that time she has not shied away from controversy, at least not in her earlier years. She was feisty and stubborn but she often championed a cause based on who was making the proposal rather than the substance of the issue. As time went on for Carol, who ran as an outsider with children in the system, she became the consummate insider. She was hired by Mary Claire Kennedy to work in the Assessors office and later promoted to a position in inspectional services. Rarely if ever did she disagree with her boss the mayor from that point forward. Bannon lost to Amy McGovern and will be an elected official no more come January. This is a good thing, for us and for Carol.

Sometimes people stay in elected office long after they stop being effective advocates for the tax payers and become advocates for other politicians. One of the best thing that can happen to a long term elected official is to leave the arena for a while and get a different perspective. I believe that if Bannon stays out of the election process for a few years and doesn’t get consumed with city hall politics she very well could come back and successfully run for office again. That is, if she distances herself from the good old boys and gets back in touch with the common man on the street.

Martha Previte is leaving the school committee after three years. I have to admit I am going to miss watching her on television every other Thursday. Previte was never cut out for this type of public service anyway. She is nice, soft spoken, goes along to get along and never really brought any new initiatives to the table. She was elected because she had almost no competition and a good family name. But as for a political future, Previte would be better off taking the bar exam and putting all those books smarts to good use.

President of the City Council Frank Kivell is probably one of the nicest guys when he is not chairing a meeting. Frank has a long history of public service here in Lawrence. As the former licensing commissioner he was on the receiving end of a few political attacks. Frank hung in there and restored his good name when he was elected to the council six years ago. Kivell has certainly been controversial and most often not up to the task of running an effective meeting. Too often he spouted the agenda of the Dowling administration while using every trick in the book to stop others from getting needed work done. Despite his flaws as a city councilor however, I think Kivell will still go down as one of the most liked politicians of our time. While he has been a complete tyrant at meetings, most people do not follow the inner workings of elected boards and judge people based on what they see out in the community. Frank’s political days may be over but he can hold his head high (despite the last few years) knowing that he has contributed more to Lawrence in his lifetime than most people around.

There is no doubt in my mind that Marc LaPlante will be a political force to be reckoned with in the future. He produces very little, cowers at the sight of controversy, and only addresses issues that he absolutely has no choice about. In Massachusetts that is good politics (though it doesn‘t result in good government.) LaPlante got a little vocal in his last few months on the council concerning CDBG block grant allocations and the AT&T cable contract. But that was because he was not running for reelection and didn’t have to worry about how many votes it was going to cost him. It was a stark contrast to the Marc LaPlante we saw in years prior. Like Carrero, LaPlante is extremely bright and has an excellent ability to understand a complex situation with clarity. I believe he really wanted to do the right thing100% of the time on the council but his fear of controversy and allergic reaction to losing even one vote caused him to sit on the sidelines many times when Lawrence needed a gutsy leader to take the bull by the horns and do something unpopular.

I am hoping, with his prospects for the future that he will hear these words as constructive criticism, to be a better leader someday instead of dismissing it as an attack. If Marc LaPlante had performed and spoken out for his entire term the way he did in the last six months there is no doubt in mind he would already be mayor. Like Ralph however, they are both great guys, they are both caring and intelligent, but they are both afraid of the good old boys. Just think of what could have been accomplished if LaPlante or Carrero had lived up to their capabilities in their terms of office. I guess that’s why I have been harder on these two than anyone else. I know they get it. I know they see what I see and I know they are more than capable of making a huge difference.

You know, if any one of these outgoing elected officials had looked inside themselves and approached their positions as an important job with work to be done ,Lawrence could be well on its way to financial recovery. Sure, they voted on important issues, defended their own little pet projects and responded to the public when an issue was so overwhelming that they had to take notice. For the most part, I sincerely hope that our outgoing elected officials have learned something during their time in office. I hope they have come away with an experience that has taught them a little more about life and maybe with their return to the private sector they will also learn to see things from the perspective of the average outsider instead of the consummate insider. They are all good people. No one has ever said differently. In their own way they have contributed to the community and even if there is no major accomplishment to hang their hat on at least they stepped forward and when others did not.

Through my years of disagreements and constructive criticism of each outgoing official I have always respected the fact that they were in the arena making a contribution. As a city, we owe Martha Previte, Frank Kivell, Ralph Carrero, Carrol Bannon and Marc LaPlante a debt of gratitude for whatever ideas they brought to the table, whatever changes they were involved in and whatever issue they protected. Lawrence is moving on and I hope each of these individuals will stay involved in the community, attend neighborhood meetings and make their presence felt when we are facing an important issue. The true leaders in the community are those who continue to be involved even when they are not looking for votes. I have hopes that each of them will.