A Sun Staff report
THIS WEEKEND Lowell city councilors are studiously and laboriously evaluating the resumes, applications and references of the 10 applicants for city manager, including the package from state Sen. Eileen Donoghue.
Councilors will meet Tuesday to determine who (besides Donoghue, of course) should be interviewed and when. City Manager Kevin Murphy retires April 1.
Perhaps, councilors should instead discuss the prospect of just offering the job to Donoghue ASAP, considering the dearth of municipal experience among applications.
Here are primers on each candidate:
* A fire chief from Michigan
* A research/development director from a private, Boston-area university
* An Essex County court administrator
* Another research/development director from an association of county governments of a southern state
* A substitute teacher from a Greater Lowell area school district
* A case manager from an Essex County elder services agency
* A city manager from Washington state
* A town manager from Rhode Island
* An administrator from a Boston private college.
Murphy took the reigns of city government from Bernie Lynch four years ago. Twenty-nine people applied then. Murphy made the final cut for an interview, along with five other hopefuls with significant municipal management experience.
Donoghue was a councilor and two-term mayor before winning election to the Senate. Her council support is so strong that the vote to hire her could be unanimous on the first ballot.
The one question mark is how Councilor Rita Mercier will vote. She could hold out on the first ballot, but will likely vote for Donoghue on the second ballot.
ALL APPLICANTS were required to submit three references. Vouching for Donoghue are:
* Sen. Harriett Chandler. Chander is the chamber’s current president whose job Donoghue once coveted, along with several other senators.
* Jay Ash, the former Chelsea city manager who is now the state’s secretary of housing and economic development.
* Michael Gallagher, the Lowell lawyer who has had a long-standing relationship with Donoghue.
THE SYNERGY between Murphy and Donoghue Thursday night during the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Dinner at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center was warm and fuzzy.
Hunger pangs, however, were the norm for dozens of pols, business leaders and others in the audience. The supply of corned beef ran out, leaving folks to chew on bland potatoes, cabbage and carrots. Trays of corned beef returned in the evening though Bill Martin, the former city councilor, was left to eat a pork chop.
A current city councilor said Murphy was livid, noting that renting the facility isn’t cheap. Murphy downplayed any alleged angst, but noted he is evaluating the city’s next move.
ICC food services are managed for the university by Aramark, a national food services company that has as clients, besides universities, in business, health care, corrections and leisure.
The company is based in Philadephia.
On Friday, Jirair Derkrikorian, the ICC’s general manager, issued the following statement: “The ICC has been proud to host the St. Patrick’s Day celebration since 2010. The Aramark culinary team relied on past production records for 400-plus guest events, but unfortunately the portions began to run low toward the end of the meal. Our chef quickly served alternate selections and prepared more corned beef for the 40 people who had yet to be served. We apologize for any inconvenience, have offered credits for any missed portions and have initiated plans to better monitor portion size in the future.”
IF THERE was ever the quintessential local public official, it was Dennis Ready.
In his hometown of Chelmsford, he was the political guru. He chaired the Board of Selectmen for a number of years and served with political legends like Brad Emerson, Rhodes Johnson and Bonita Towle. Ready was also an elected Town Meeting representative while serving on many advisory boards and commissions.
The first move of any Chelmsford aspiring politician was to pick Ready’s brain. And it was there for the picking. Ready relished prepping someone for a run. For years he ran a non-partisan seminar on running for local office, a requirement for anyone who took an election race seriously.
Ready suffered a fatal heart attack late Thursday/early Friday morning. He was 75.
Chelmsford officials had the wisdom to name the Board of Selectmen meeting room at the Town Offices after Ready in 2014, when Ready was able to enjoy it.
The Column, and all its contributors over the years who’ve covered Chelmsford, send heartfelt condolences to the Ready family.
THE CHELMSFORD Democratic Town Committee is usually the last group in town to hold its debate each year, but became first thanks to the snowstorm that canceled the Chelmsford Business Association’s Candidates Night last week.
Still, the Thursday debate was town’s best kept-secret until Wednesday when word finally got out about it.
School Committee candidates Donna Newcomb and Jamie Outland-Brown participated, but Emily Antul was the only Board of Selectmen candidate in attendance. Incumbents George Dixon and Laura Merrill were both apparently feeling under the weather.
Dixon had missed a selectmen meeting on Monday due to a medical issue; Merrill had the flu, which moderator Sam Poulten thanked her for “keeping to herself.”
Poulten read opening and closing statements provided by Dixon, and almost forgot to let Antul provide her closer before ending the Board of Selectmen portion.
“How easy is it for a moderator to only moderate one candidate? Not easy enough for this moderator, obviously,” Poulten said.
Of course, Ready attended that event.
THE LOWELL political/business grapevine has been buzzing lately that former Sun publisher Mark O’Neil landed a new job at Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union.
It was confirmed in a Friday morning JDCU press release. O’Neil officially signed on March 12 as senior vice president and chief administrative officer.
The release addressed O’Neil’s time at The Sun and highlighted his new responsibilities, including human resources, member contact, collections, employee development and the executive administration areas.
The credit union also announced the promotion of Michael Dubuque to senior vice president and chief market development officer.
Dubuque joined the credit union in 2012 as vice president of loan origination. Since joining the credit union, Dubuque has focused on several areas including, mortgage lending and market development.
Both men live in Westford with their families.
THE CITY’S search for a public works director has ended, with some turbulence.
Soon after Thomas Bellegarde announced his resignation earlier this year following decades of service, the position was advertised in the appropriate publications and websites. Murphy was not impressed with the caliber of the applicants. That forced Bellegarde to say on longer than he planned on an interim basis.
A second search ended with Weare, N.H.’s DPW chief, James Donison, doing and saying all the right things during his interview.
Murphy told Donison he’d have to move to Lowell.
Donison said, never mind.
Murphy pulled the job offer.
Donison thought it over and agreed to move. He starts Monday at an annual salary of nearly $125,000.
Besides knowing streets, catch basins and how to fill a pothole, Donison brings to the table facilities management. With that attribute, Murphy felt it was key to bring him on ASAP to address nagging heating issues at Lowell High School and maintenance issues at other schools, rather than leave the position unfilled for the next manager.
BILLERICA SUPERINTENDENT Tim Piwowar made it clear that the high-school walkout last week was a student-led initiative — and that the school district was staying out of the political issue.
The walkout, postponed a day because of snow, commemorated the one-month anniversary of the school shooting in Florida, where 17 people died.
From the start, Piwowar and administrators stressed that any action would have to be student-led. The school system does not plan such activities, especially when it involves legislation and gun control.
Police officers protected students participating in the walkout, and some staff members also supervised.
Piwowar emphasized that the staff members did not participate.
Not everyone was happy the teachers left the school during the walkout. Selectman George Simolaris became embroiled in the situation on Facebook, where he wrote that teachers leaving the school was a “divisive move towards other teachers and the student body.”
“What does it say to the students who are not going to walk out and the teachers who don’t volunteer?” he told The Sun. “I’m all for the kids going, but this with the teachers puts people in an uncomfortable position.”
Piwowar said some teachers remained in the building with those students.
Simolaris also wrote on Facebook that the “adults and administration want to orchestrate the affair,” a comment that drew criticism from residents.
April Laskey, director of school nutrition for the district, responded: “Be informed before you speak — maybe take a lesson from our BMHS students that are planning their walkout.”
HERE ARE the endorsements announced last week in the 3rd Congressional District race:
* The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35, a 4,000-member union, backed Dan Koh.
* United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445, a labor union with more than 13,000 members, endorsed Barbara L’Italien.
* Holly Ryan, an LGBTQ activist who helped introduce the state’s first transgender civil rights bill 12 years ago, supported Alexandra Chandler.
* United Food and Commercial Workers Local 791, a union representing more than 4,000 employees, endorsed Lori Trahan.
THE FORMAL signature and release of the teachers’ contract in Westford, finally agreed upon six months after the last contract ended, has not been helped out by the weather.
District officials announced on Feb. 22 that they had achieved agreement with the Westford Education Association. But almost a month later, the contract has not been fully signed by both parties — and, as a result, has not been released to the press.
School Committee members signed the final document Monday night. The union is sure to follow soon.
Since the CBA was announced, three storms have hit and caused delays and cancellations across the region. Westford lost four days of school in the last two weeks alone.
The delays further drag out a process that has already taken a long time. After Town Meeting and town elections approved an override to increase teacher salaries, negotiations between the district and union were unsuccessful, and no new contract was in place when the existing one expired last fall.
THE CANDIDATES list in Wilmington is set for the annual town election this spring. The newest resident to pull papers is Kevin MacDonald, who will run against incumbent Robert Peterson Jr. for town moderator.
MacDonald has run for selectman several times. He also has been escorted out of Town Meeting multiple times on orders of the moderator — for the last three years, Peterson.
In other contested races:
* For Board of Selectmen, two candidates are running for a single seat: Jonathan Eaton and Robert Fasulo. As of Thursday, Joseph Mastrangelo’s signatures had not been certified.
* For School Committee, there are three candidates for two seats: incumbent MJ Byrnes, Jesse Fennelly and David Ragsdale.
James Gillis is running for re-election to the Shawsheen Tech School Committee and Robert DiPasquale is running for re-election to the Housing Authority.
Contributing to The Column this week: Rick Sobey in Lowell and Billerica, Kori Tuitt in Wilmington, Alana Melanson in Chelmsford, Chris Lisinski in Westford and on the 3rd Congressional District campaign trail.